Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/227

is the life of unselfish love, and perceive and acknowledge that it is the Lord's life and not their own, they are blessed; for they are all images and likenesses of Him, though in different degrees according to reception. No one can enter heaven, or remain there, unless he has something of heaven in himself; for the essence of heaven is within the soul. (See Luke xvii. 21.) Those in the highest states (for the states of the angels are infinitely various) love others even better than themselves; and their wisdom is equal to their love, being so superior to the wisdom of men, as scarcely to admit of comparison. They take the highest delight in communicating to each other all the good things they receive from the Lord, for such is the nature of true love; and the more they give, the more are their souls opened to the influx of like things from the Lord, and the greater their delight. Swedenborg says:

"Heaven is a communion of all good things, because heavenly love wills that what is its own should be another's. Consequently no one in heaven perceives his own good in himself as good, unless it be also in another. Thence also is the happiness of heaven. The angels derive from the Lord this disposition to communicate; for such is the nature of Divine Love. That there is such communication in the heavens, has also been given me to know by experience." (H. H. 268.)

They are in genuine innocence—the innocence