Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 40
7
Each Society Is a Heaven
in a Smaller Form,
and Each Angel
in the Smallest Form
51. Each society is a heaven in a smaller form, and each angel
in the smallest form, because it is the good of love and of faith
that makes heaven, and this good is in each society of heaven
and in each angel of a society. It does not matter that this good
everywhere differs and varies, it is still the good of heaven; and
there is no difference except that heaven has one quality here
and another there. So when anyone is raised up into any
society of heaven he is said to come into heaven; and those
who are there are said to be in heaven, and each one in his
own. This is known to all in the other life; consequently those
standing outside of or beneath heaven, when they see at a
distance companies of angels, say that heaven is in this or that
place. It is comparatively like civil and military officers and
attendants in a royal palace or castle, who, although dwelling
apart in their own quarters or chambers above and below, are
yet in the same palace or castle, each in his own position in the
royal service. This makes evident the meaning of the Lord’s
words, that:
In his Father’s house are many abiding places (John 14:2);
also what is meant by the dwelling places of heaven, and the
heavens of heavens, in the prophets.