Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/228

222 of wisdom—which consists in a desire to be led and governed by the Lord in all things, and in the constant recognition of Him as the fountain of life, and the immediate giver of all the love and wisdom they possess. "They love everything that is good, and are delighted with everything that is true; for they know that to love what is good, that is, to will and do it, is to love the Lord; and to love what is true, is to love the neighbor."

Such, briefly, is the character of the angels as revealed through Swedenborg—a character that is forever becoming more and more perfect; for they are perpetually receiving fresh increments of intelligence and wisdom from the Lord, so that their progress in the heavenly life is unending.

The angels are not all equally wise and good; consequently they do not all dwell together promiscuously, but are distributed or arranged in an order the most beautiful and perfect. In general there are three heavens, called celestial, spiritual, and natural. These are separated by discrete degrees, like the degrees of the human mind; and like these, also, they communicate by correspondence. They are related to each other like end, cause and effect; or like the three classes of persons connected with every well-arranged