302. I have talked with angels about the conjunction of heaven with the human race, and I said that, while the man of the Church declares that all good is from God, and that angels are with man, yet few believe that angels are conjoined to man, still less that they are in his thought and affection. To this the angels replied that they know that there is such a belief and even such a mode of speaking in the world, and especially, to their surprise, within the Church, where yet there is the Word to teach men about heaven and its conjunction with man. Nevertheless, there is such a conjunction that man is unable to think the least thing apart from the spirits adjoined to him, and on this his spiritual life depends. They said that the cause of ignorance of this matter is man's belief that he lives from himself, without a connection with the First Being (Esse) of life; and that he does not know that this connection exists by means of the heavens; and yet if that connection were broken man would instantly fall down dead. If man believed, as is really true, that all good is from the Lord and all evil from hell, he would not make the good in him a matter of merit nor would evil be imputed to him; for he would then look to the Lord in all the good he thinks and does, and all the evil that inflows would be cast down to hell whence it comes. But because man does not believe that there is any influx into him either from heaven or from hell, and so supposes that all the things that he thinks and wills are in himself, and therefore from himself, he appropriates the evil to himself, and the inflowing good he defiles with merit.

596. The heavens are differentiated into two kingdoms, the heavenly kingdom and the spiritual kingdom (see above, 20-28). Similarly, the hells are differentiated into two kingdoms, one opposite to the heavenly kingdom and one opposite the spiritual kingdom. The one opposite to the heavenly kingdom is in the western quarter, and the people who live there are called demons; while the one that is opposite to the spiritual kingdom is in the northern and southern quarter, and the people who live there are called spirits.

All the people in the heavenly kingdom are involved in a love for the Lord, and all the people in the hells opposite to that kingdom are involved in love for themselves. All the people who are in the spiritual kingdom are involved in love for their neighbor, and all the people who are in the hells opposite to that kingdom are involved in love of the world. This has enabled me to see that love for the Lord and love for oneself are opposites, as are love for our neighbor and love of the world.

The Lord is constantly taking care that nothing should flow out from the hells opposite to the Lord's heavenly kingdom toward the people who are in the spiritual kingdom. If this were to happen, the spiritual kingdom would be destroyed, for the reasons given in 578-579 above.

These are the two general balances that the Lord is constantly keeping intact.