59. Unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. That this signifies, specifically, according to reception, is evident from what follows, where those churches are specifically treated of. It is said, according to reception, because the light of intelligence does not constitute the church in man, but the reception of light in heat, that is, the reception of truth in good. It is said, the reception of light in heat, because spiritual light is Divine truth, and spiritual heat is Divine good; and these two, in the spiritual world, are like light and heat in the natural world, that is, in proportion as the vernal and summer heat is added to the light, in the same proportion all things grow and sprout; but in proportion as that heat is not added to the light, in the same proportion all things become torpid and die off. (That light in the spiritual world is Divine truth, and heat Divine good, and that they are circumstanced like the light and heat in the natural world, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell 126-140.)

126. LIGHT AND HEAT IN HEAVEN

People who think only from nature cannot comprehend that there is light in the heavens. Yet, such is the light in the heavens that it exceeds by many degrees the noonday light of the world. I have often seen that light even during the evening and night. At first, I marvelled when I heard angels saying that the light of the world is little more than a shadow in comparison with the light of heaven, but, having seen it, I can testify that it is so. The brightness and splendour are such as cannot be described. The things that I have seen in the heavens have been seen in that light, thus more clearly and distinctly than things in this world.