Heaven is formed of all who have loved the Lord on earth by living a life in accordance with his laws. The laws of spiritual life are known, more or less perfectly, in all nations, even among the heathen. The lowest of the Gentiles have some faint rays of the light of spiritual truth; and if they live in obedience thereto, regeneration, and consequently, heaven, is attainable by them. Yet heaven has its degrees of bliss. Good persons of every variety of character pass into it. But the promiscuous association of these different kinds of character would not be orderly, and could not be blissful. By the law of spiritual gravitation, (from which the law of natural gravitation is but a derivation, and of which it is a type and image,) all who possess similar affections and intelligence are drawn together, and co-ordinated in the most blissful harmony. The infinite variety of heaven thus arranges itself, in general, into two kingdoms; specifically into three heavens; and in particular, into innumerable societies. The two kingdoms are respectively called celestial and spiritual. The angels forming the celestial kingdom are characterized by their exceeding love of the Lord and of goodness; and the angels who form the spiritual kingdom are distinguished by their exceeding love of their neighbor and of truth. The celestial angels are immensely wiser than the spiritual, and their blessedness is ineffable. Specifically there are three heavens, perfectly distinct, called the first heaven, the second or middle heaven, and the third or highest heaven; or they may be called external, internal, and inmost; or natural, spiritual, and celestial. Of these three heavens the highest or third, together with the internal of the first or lowest heaven, forms the celestial kingdom; and the middle or second, together with the external of the first or lowest heaven, forms the spiritual kingdom. These three heavens and two kingdoms, arising out of the varieties of the human mind, are not arbitrary distinctions. The external, first, or natural heaven, is formed of those who, from a principle of obedience and duty, live in accordance with the Divine will. The second, spiritual, or middle heaven, is formed of such as love truth, delight in things intellectual, and at the same time are in disinterested love to the neighbor. The inmost, third, or celestial heaven, is formed of those who, full of love to the Lord, are in innocence. These celestial angels, gifted with the highest wisdom and peace, yet full of humility, indefinitely exceed all beneath them in beauty and wisdom. The existence and order of the three heavens was represented by the courts of the Jewish temple. The celebrated Oberlin, a diligent reader of Swedenborg, had a plan of the courts of the temple hung upon the walls of his church, by which he taught his hearers, that, according to their humility, piety, fidelity, and love of being useful to each other, would be their elevation in the Lord’s kingdom, either to the first, second, or third heaven. We think that no one, in whom reign the heavenly principles of “love” to the Lord and the neighbor; “joy” in duty under all circumstances; “peace” in every change of state; “long-suffering” under all provocations; “gentleness” of behaviour; “goodness” of disposition, ever manifesting itself in good actions; “faith” or truth, believed, loved, and thence trusted in; “meekness” in doing and in suffering; “temperance” both in external and internal delights, Gal. v. 22, would be an unwilling inhabitant of such a heaven as Swedenborg describes. Is not this at least presumptive evidence that he has spoken truly?
The three heavens are further subdivided into innumerable societies, some smaller, and some larger; some consisting of myriads of angels, and some of hundreds. Their association into societies, is a result of similarity of character, which similarity is imaged in their faces; and a general likeness of countenance is observed among the angels who form one society. All who are in similar love know each other, just as men in the world know their kindred, relations, and friends; and thus, as it were, spontaneously associated, they feel at home and in freedom, and thence in the full delight of their life. From this it also follows that angels who differ much are far apart; and few depart out of their own society into another, because to go out from their own society is like going out of themselves, or out of their own life, and passing into another which is not so agreeable. Nevertheless all the societies of heaven are bound together in one perfect form, which is strictly human.
All angels are in the human form, and are just such men and women as they were on earth, except that they have rejected the material body. That we should have to write and enforce such truisms—for such they must appear to a mind really rational,—is owing to the strange and ridiculous fancies that are commonly entertained on this subject. We often hear the departed talked of as shades, and thought of as minds without forms, or mere thinking principles composed of some sort of ethereal vapor; and when artists draw them, we see perhaps an exquisitely beautiful human form, but disfigured with large feathery wings, which, having no adequate muscles, would have no power of motion. None of these vague, shadowy, and erroneous ideas do we find in the Bible. The angels seen by Abraham, Lot, Manoah, the prophets, and the Lord’s disciples, were all seen as men, and talked with as men. Our author writes thus explicitly on this subject. “The angelic form is in every respect human; angels have faces, eyes, ears, breasts, arms, hands, and feet; they see, hear, and converse with each other; and, in a word, no external attribute of man is wanting, except the natural body.”
And now comes a doctrine which on a first view may appear very mystical, and yet when pondered over, and understood, commends itself to our belief by a thousand irresistible evidences drawn from analogy, and confirmed by right reason. It is, that every society of heaven is in the human form; and that the universal heaven, viewed collectively, is also in the human form; and is called by Swedenborg the Grand or Greatest [Maximus] Man. Wilkinson well expresses this sublime truth. “Heaven,” he says, “is supremely human—nay more, it is one man. As the members of the body make one person, so before God, all good men make one humanity: every society of the angels is a heavenly man in a lesser form, and every angel in a least. The reason is, that God himself, (the Lord Jesus Christ,) is a Divine Man, and He shapes His heaven into His own image and likeness, even as He made Adam. The oneness of heaven comes from God’s unity: its manhood from His humanity. Heaven has, therefore, all the members, organs, and viscera of a man; its angel inhabitants, every one, are in some province of the Grand Man. Indefinite myriads of us go to a fibre of its humanity. Some are in the province of the brain; some in that of the lungs; some in that of the heart; some in that of the belly; some are in the legs and arms; and all, wherever humanized, that is to say, located in humanity, perform spiritually the offices of that part of the body whereto they correspond. They all work together, however spaced apparently, just as the parts of a single man. Their space is but their palpable liberty, and they touch the human atoms, more closely, by offices which unite them in God, than the contiguous fibres of our flesh.” Every society of heaven also increases in number daily, and as it increases, it becomes more perfect; and from its perfection the universal heaven becomes more perfect, because heaven is composed of societies. Since increasing numbers make heaven more perfect, it is evident how much they are deceived who believe that heaven will be closed when it becomes full. On the contrary, heaven will never be closed, for the greater its fullness, the greater its perfection; and therefore the angels desire nothing more earnestly than to receive new comers.
This part of our subject would require considerable expansion to make it intelligible to minds that have never meditated on these high themes, and whose theological education has perverted all perception of the truth on these matters. The subject is enticing, but our limits command restraint.
It was a remark of a profane wit and epicure that “as to heaven, he had no great longing, as he could not see what great pleasure there could be in sitting on a cloud and singing psalms to eternity.” We have in this expression a thought which we know to be common to many minds, but respect for the externals of religion forbids its expression. The general belief respecting the nature of life in heaven, is so vague, and contains so much of clouds and psalm-singing, that it is not to be wondered at that some free and daring spirits should openly avow their preference for the more substantial realities of this life. And is it not a pity that the divine glories and delights of the heavenly life should become so veiled in mystery as to lose their attraction, and cease to be desirable? With the exception of the church’s ignorance of the humanity, unity, and divinity of its Saviour and Lord, no surer evidence could be adduced of its consummation, than its inability to answer the simplest child’s questions as to the nature of life in heaven. Let us be thankful that man’s utmost wants, in this respect, are satisfied in the writings of that New Church which the Lord is now raising up, and of which Swedenborg was the divinely-appointed herald.
The sun of heaven is the Lord. The light of heaven is the divine truth, and its heat the divine love; both proceeding from the Lord as a sun. The sun of this world is not seen in heaven. Nature commences from the sun of this world, and everything which is produced from it, and subsists by it, is called natural; but the spiritual world in which heaven is, is above nature, and entirely distinct from it, although it is ever to be remembered that nature is a derivation from spirit, and communicates with spirit by correspondences. We shall have more to say on this conjunction yet perfect separation, between nature and spirit, when we come to speak of the doctrine of degrees.
The sun of heaven, or the divine sphere of glory surrounding the Lord, the “light which no man can approach unto,” 1 Tim. vi. 6, appears variously to the angels of heaven according to their states of love and intelligence. To the angels of the third heaven, the sun appears fiery and flaming; to the angels of the second heaven, white and brilliant; while to those of the first heaven its light is more subdued and veiled with clouds, yet at intervals bursting forth and pouring his glorious radiance upon them. Although the Lord is thus seen by the angels as a sun above them, yet at times He appears in their midst, in an angelic form, and with a resplendent countenance. What tongue can describe the rapt adoration and ineffable joy which must thrill angelic bosoms on these occasions!
Heaven has its times and its seasons, but they are not like those of earth. In heaven there is no winter and no night. The times and seasons of heaven are consequences of the variations of the states of angelic minds. While to all appearance they are objective as on earth, they are in reality strictly subjective. The external changes of light and heat correspond to the internal changes of love and wisdom in the angelic mind. Now as the angels are sometimes in a state of intense love, and sometimes in a state of love not so intense, morning, noon, evening, and twilight, exist in heaven as the external emblems of these changes. Without such changes life would lose its zest. Eternal uniformity would be eternal dullness.
Since angels are men, and live together in society like men on earth, therefore they have garments, houses, and other things similar to those which exist on earth, but of course infinitely more beautiful and perfect. The garments of the angels correspond to their intelligence. The garments of some glitter as with flame, and those of others are resplendent as with light; others are of various colors, and some white and opaque. The angels of the inmost heaven are naked because they are in innocence, and nakedness corresponds to innocence. It is because garments represent states of wisdom that they are so much spoken of in the Word, in relation to the church and good men. Thus in Isaiah liii. 1, “Awake, put on strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem.” And in Ezekiel xv. 10, the Lord says of his church: “I girded thee about with fine linen, and covered thee with silk.” And in the Apocalypse iii. 4, 5, it is said: “They who have not defiled their garments, shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment.” What a depth of meaning appears in these passages when we remember the spiritual signification of garments!