ness to, or conjunction with, the Lord; and "conjunction with the Lord," we are repeatedly told, "is effected by means of the truths of the Word, and a life according to them." (A. R, n. 883.)
Every individual has some ruling love—a love that continually acts as an impelling force within him, even without his being conscious of its presence. This love is his life. It shapes his thoughts and words, and directs all his activities. The quality of his life, therefore, is that of his ruling love. Oftentimes this love lies deeply concealed, and does not reveal itself to others here on earth. But in the Hereafter all disguises are thrown off, and the interiors are laid open; and whatever had been assumed for the sake of appearance or credit among men, is rejected, and the ruling love is made manifest by being acted out. The individual then becomes the very image of his love—goes where his love leads him, does what his love prompts, secks what his love craves, and is just what his love is, good or bad, according to its quality. If heaven, therefore, be a certain quality of life, then as surely as a man preserves his identity in the Hereafter, or carries his own life (and nothing else) with him into the other world, so surely must he carry his heaven with him if he hopes for an abode among the blessed.
But Swedenborg not only teaches that heaven is a state, but he has clearly revealed the nature of that state, or the kind of life that constitutes heaven. He tells us that love of the Lord and the neighbor is the ruling love of all the angels, and that this love flows into their hearts from the Lord, and is similar, therefore,
