Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/241

Rh good shall be the source of good to every individual." And of the governors, he says: "They are in love and wisdom more than others; and they will well to all from love, and from wisdom know how to provide that the good they desire may be realized." And being of this character, "they do not domineer or command imperiously, but minister and serve. . . . Nor do they account themselves greater than others, but less, for they put the good of society and of their neighbor in the first place, but their own good in the last." They live in magnificent palaces and in more elevated situations than others, accepting the honor conferred on them, "not for the sake of themselves but for the sake of obedience; for all in heaven know that honor and glory are from the Lord, and that for this reason they ought to be obeyed." So that the government in heaven is altogether one of mutual love and service. There are also temples for worship in heaven; "for the angels are being continually perfected in wisdom and love," and social worship there as here is one of the divinely appointed means of growth in grace. Swedenborg says that he was several times permitted to enter their temples and listen to the discourses, "which were fraught with such wisdom that none in the world can be compared with them," all the preachers being "in interior light." The doctrines there preached