Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 392
or cast into hell. The life of those taken up into heaven had
been derived from a heavenly and spiritual love, while the life
of those cast into hell had been derived from a corporeal and
worldly love. Heavenly love consists in loving what is good,
honest, and just, because it is good, honest, and just, and in
doing this from love; and those that have this love have a life of
goodness, honesty, and justice, which is the heavenly life.
Those that love what is good, honest, and just, for its own
sake, and who do this or live it, love the Lord above all things,
because this is from him; they also love the neighbor, because
this is the neighbor who is to be loved. 271
But corporeal love is
loving what is good, honest, and just, not for its own sake but
for the sake of self, because reputation, honor, and gain can
thus be acquired. Such, in what is good, honest, and just, do
not look to the Lord and to the neighbor, but to self and the
world, and find delight in fraud; and the goodness, honesty,
and justice that spring forth from fraud are evil, dishonesty,
and injustice, and these are what are loved by such in their
practice of goodness, honesty, and justice.
271. In the highest sense, the Lord is the neighbor, because he is to be
loved above all things; but loving the Lord is loving what is from him,
because he himself is in every thing that is from Him, thus it is loving what is
good and true (n. 2425, 3419, 6706, 6711, 6819, 6823, 8123).
Loving what is good and true which is from the Lord is living in
accordance with good and truth, and this is loving the Lord (n. 10143,
10153, 10310, 10336, 10578, 10645). Every man and every society, also
one’s country and the church, and in a universal sense the Lord’s kingdom,
are the neighbor, and doing good to these from a love of good in accord with
their state is loving the neighbor; that is, their good that should be consulted
is the neighbor (n. 6818–6824, 8123).
Moral good also, which is honesty, and civil good, which is justice, are
the neighbor; and to act honestly and justly from the love of honesty and
justice is loving the neighbor (n. 2915, 4730, 8120–8123). Thus charity
toward the neighbor extends to all things of the life of man, and loving the
neighbor is doing what is good and just, and acting honestly from the heart,
in every function and in every work (n. 2417, 8121, 8124).
The doctrine in the ancient church was the doctrine of charity, and
from that they had wisdom (n. 2385, 2417, 3419, 3420, 4844, 6628).