Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/116



MONG the first questions which people are naturally inclined to ask about the heaven of angels, are such as the following: Have they light and heat there, as we have here? If so, what is their nature and origin? Do they come from a sun, like the light and heat of this world? If the answer be, Yes, then what is the nature of that sun, and how does it differ from our own? Swedenborg ought to be able to answer these questions, if his claim to have enjoyed long and open intercourse with the angels be well-founded. And he has answered them with all the fullness that we might expect. Let us see what his answers are, and then subject them to a careful examination. He says:

"The sun of this world does not appear in heaven, nor anything which exists from this sun, because all that is natural. For nature commences from this sun, and whatsoever is produced by it is called natural. But the spiritual in which heaven is, is above nature, and entirely distinct from the natural; nor do they communicate with each other except by correspondences.

"But although the sun of the world does not appear in heaven, nor anything which exists from this sun, still there is a sun there, and light and heat and all things which are in the world and a great many more, but not from a similar origin; for the things which exist in heaven are spiritual, and those which exist in the world are natural. The sun of heaven is the Lord; the light there is divine truth, and the heat is divine good, both of which proceed from the Lord as a sun. From that origin are all things which exist and appear in heaven."