its heat being the effluence of His Divine Love, and its light being the effluence of His Divine Wisdom. From its heat, man, as to his soul or spiritual being, mediately derives from God his love or affection, and from its light he mediately derives from God his wisdom or intelligence. The united love and wisdom thus received constitute the spiritual life of his soul, even as the united heat and light proceeding from the natural sun constitute the mediate source of life from God to man's natural body. The spiritual world does not form any part of the material universe; nor is it at some infinite distance from man; his soul or spirit even during his earthly life being intimately connected with it, and, indeed, although unconsciously, in it. The place called heaven is in the spiritual world, and is the permanent abode of angels, who are the "spirits of just men made perfect;" whereas the material world is the temporary abode of men who are created to become angels. The place called hell is also in the spiritual world; it is the abode provided for all those who, by a life of continued and wilful sin, have voluntarily become confirmed in the love of evil, and thus have entirely destroyed Conscience within themselves.[1]
"God is Love," and because it is of the very essence
- ↑ Heaven is not a place of eternal reward for good actions done during this life, nor is hell a place of eternal punishment for sins committed during this life; but, primarily and fundamentally, they are states and conditions of the human mind and character, voluntarily acquired and confirmed—in the former case by the orderly use, and in the latter case by the continued wilful perversion and abuse, of the faculties with which man is endowed by God. The happiness of heaven is inherent in the love of doing good from the unselfish desire to serve others; and the misery of hell is inherent in the confirmed love of doing evil from the unrestrained love of self.
