179. There are levels of love and wisdom, consequent levels of warmth and light, and also levels of atmosphere. Without a knowledge that there are levels, what they are and what they are like, what is to follow will be incomprehensible, since there are levels in everything that has been created; therefore they exist in every form. Consequently, I need to discuss levels in this part of Angelic Wisdom.

We can tell clearly from the angels of the three heavens that there are levels of love and wisdom. Angels of the third heaven so surpass angels of the second heaven in love and wisdom, and these in turn so surpass angels of the farthest heaven, that they cannot live in the same place. Their levels of love and wisdom mark them off and separate them. This is why angels of the lower heavens cannot climb up to angels of the higher heavens, and why if they are allowed to climb up they do not see anyone or anything around them. The reason they do not see anyone is that the love and wisdom of the higher angels is on a higher level, a level beyond their perception. Every angel actually is her or his love and wisdom; and love together with wisdom is human in form because God, who is love itself and wisdom itself, is human.

Occasionally I have been allowed to see angels of the farthest heaven go up to angels of the third heaven. When they managed to get there, I heard them complain that they could not see anyone; and yet they were surrounded by angels. They were afterwards told that these angels had been invisible to them because they could not perceive their love and wisdom, and it is love and wisdom that give angels their human appearance.

319. That the gentiles equally with Christians are saved, anyone can see who knows what it is that makes heaven in man; for heaven is within a man, and those who have heaven within them come into heaven. Heaven in a man is acknowledging the Divine and being led by the Divine. The first and chief thing of every religion is to acknowledge the Divine. A religion that does not acknowledge the Divine is not a religion. The precepts of every religion look to worship, thus to the way in which the Divine is to be worshipped that the worship may be acceptable to Him; and when this has been settled in one's mind, that is, so far as one wills this or so far as he loves it, to that extent he is led by the Lord. Everyone knows that the gentiles as well as Christians live a moral life, and many of them a better life than Christians. Moral life may be lived either for the sake of the Divine or for the sake of men in the world; and a moral life that is lived for the sake of the Divine is a spiritual life. In outward form the two appear alike, but in inward form they are entirely different; the one saves a man, the other does not. For he who lives a moral life for the sake of the Divine is led by the Divine; while he who leads a moral life for the sake of men in the world is led by himself.

[2] But this may be illustrated by an example. He who refrains from doing evil to his neighbour because it is contrary to religion, that is, contrary to the Divine, refrains from doing evil from a spiritual motive; but he who refrains from doing evil to another merely from fear of the law, or the loss of reputation, of honour, or gain, that is, for the sake of self and the world, refrains from doing evil from a natural motive, and is led by himself. The life of the latter is natural, that of the former is spiritual. A man whose moral life is spiritual has heaven within himself, but he whose moral life is merely natural does not have heaven within himself; and for the reason that heaven flows in from above and opens man's interiors, and through his interiors flows into his exteriors; while the world flows in from beneath and opens the exteriors but not the interiors. For there can be no flowing in from the natural world into the spiritual, but only from the spiritual world into the natural; therefore if heaven is not received at the same time, the interiors remain closed. From these things it can be seen who those are who receive heaven within them, and who do not.

[3] And yet heaven is not the same in one as in another. It differs in each one in accordance with his affection for good and thence for truth. Those who are in an affection for good for the sake of the Divine, love Divine Truth, since good and truth love each other and desire to be conjoined. ¹ This explains why the heathen, although they are not in genuine truths in the world, yet from love receive truths in the other life.

脚注:

4301. 'As he passed over Penuel' means a state of truth within good. This is clear from the meaning of 'Penuel' as a state of truth within good. It was the Jabbok that Jacob passed over first when he entered the land of Canaan, by which the first instillation of the affections for truth is meant, see 4270, 4271, whereas it is Penuel which he passes over now. Hence 'Penuel' means a state of truth that has been instilled into good. The subject is also the joining of the one kind of good to the other; but good is not good unless it has truth within it, for good derives its specific nature as well as its form from truth' so much so that good cannot with anyone be called good unless truth is present within it. But truth acquires its essence and consequently its life from good. This being so and the joining of the one kind of good to the other being the subject, the state of truth within good is dealt with too.

[2] As for the state of truth within good, this can indeed be described but no one can grasp what it is except those who have celestial perception. People who do not have this perception cannot even have any concept of the joining of truth to good, since for them truth lies in obscurity. Indeed they call the truth that which they have learned from matters of doctrine, and they call good that which is done in accordance with that truth. But those who do have perception have an understanding or mental sight that dwells in heavenly light, and they take delight in truths which are joined to good, just as the eye or physical sight takes delight in flowers growing in gardens and meadows in springtime. And people who have interior perception take delight so to speak in the lovely scent coming from them. Such is the angelic state, and therefore those angels perceive all the differences and all the variations that go with the instillation of truth into good and the joining together of them one within the other. So they perceive immeasurably more than man does, for man does not even know of any such instillation and joining together and that it is in this way that man becomes spiritual.

[3] But so that people may have some concept of this matter a brief statement must be made about it. There are two things which constitute the internal man - understanding and will. To the understanding truths belong and to the will goods, for that which a person knows and understands to be true he calls the truth, and that which he does from the will, and so that which he wills, he calls good. These two abilities must constitute a single unit. This may be illustrated by comparison with the sight of the eye and with the pleasure and delight which is experienced through the use of this sight. When the eye beholds objects it takes pleasure and delight in their form and colour and the resulting beauty which these bring to the objects as a whole and to the individual parts; in short it takes delight in the order or patterns in these. That pleasure and delight does not belong to the eye but to the mind (animus) and its affection. And insofar as a person has any affection for them he beholds them and retains them in his memory. But things which the eye beholds without any affection for them slip away and are not sown in the memory and so made part of it.

[4] From this it is evident that the objects of external sight are implanted insofar as there exists the pleasure and delight that go with affections for them, and that those objects are present in that pleasure and delight. For whenever much the same pleasure or delight occurs such objects return with them; and likewise whenever much the same objects are seen again such pleasure and delight returns with them, though with variations that depend on the states involved. A similar situation exists with the understanding, which is internal sight. The objects of that sight am spiritual and are called truths, for the field in which those objects are active is the memory, and the pleasure and delight associated with that sight is good. So it is good in which truths are sown and implanted. From this one may gain some idea of what the instillation of truth into good is and the joining together of them one within the other, also some idea of what that good is which is the subject here, a kind of good about which angels perceive countless things, whereas man perceives scarcely anything.