Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/144

 perception that goodness is the source and life of that truth which they love, as well as the end for which it exists; but still that love which binds them to heaven, by forming heaven within them, and from the exercise of which all these enjoyments and delights are received, is the love of truth as the form of goodness, rather than the love of goodness as the essence of truth. In the celestial kingdom, the ruling principle is the love of that which gives to heaven its essential nature; in the spiritual kingdom it is the love of that which constitutes the form of heaven. The one kingdom is formed by the love of good which is internal, and belongs to the will and its affections; the other by the love of truth, which is the external form of the same internal good. The celestial angel obeys the laws of heavenly order, because he loves the good from which those laws exist; and he is thus more intimately conjoined to Him, whose inmost and essential nature is the source of that good. The spiritual angel obeys the same laws of heavenly order, because he sees therein the essential principles of that true charity which he loves, and the exercise of which constitutes the delight of his life; and he also loves the same heavenly laws, because he be holds therein the manifested form of Him who has revealed himself to us as the "Word" and the "Truth."

But while the love of goodness and the love of truth, give rise to these more general and obvious distinctions in the heavenly state, there is still an immense number and variety of societies in each of these kingdoms, growing out of the peculiar manner in which goodness and truth are received by each spirit or association of spirits. For it is very plain that in the spiritual world, all societies, or combinations of individual spirits, must result from the free and voluntary union of those who love the same or similar things. This is in fact the only real bond of social union, even in the natural world. For though certain external relations appear to be the basis of society, yet every man who has looked beneath the surface of things, knows very well, that there are