neighbor, and thinks nothing but good respecting him, and actually does him good when it is in his power, then he is among angelic spirits, and also becomes an angel himself in the other life.
"This is the criterion. Let every one examine himself by it. It matters not that a person does not do evil when he either cannot or dare not, nor that he does good from some selfish consideration; such abstinence from the one and performance of the other, have their origin only in the man's externals; and these are removed in the other life, where he is such as his thoughts and intentions make him."—Arcana Cœlestia n. 1680.
Again he says:
"A man's end is his very life; for that which belongs to his life, or what is the same thing, to his love, he regards as an end. When the good of the neighbor, the general good, the good of the church and of the Lord's kingdom is the end regarded, then the man as to his soul is in the Lord's kingdom; for His kingdom is none other than a kingdom of ends and uses having respect to the good of the human race. The angels themselves attendant on man, are in nothing else [or have regard to nothing else] but his ends. As far as a man's end is the same as that aimed at by the Lord's kingdom, so far the angels are delighted with him and unite themselves to him as to a brother; but in proportion as he is actuated by a selfish end, the angels recede, and evil spirits from
