rinth is truly an entrance into heaven; I know the way that leads out of it; and if you will follow me, I will shew it you." No sooner had he uttered those words than they arose from the ground, and, embracing the angel, attended him with his companions. The angel as they went along, instructed them in the true nature of heavenly joy and eternal happiness thence derived. "They do not," said he, "consist in external paradisiacal delights, unless they are also attended with internal. External paradisiacal delights reach only the senses of the body; but internal paradisiacal delights reach the affections of the soul; and the former without the latter are devoid of all heavenly life, because they are devoid of soul; and every delight without its corresponding soul, continually grows more and more languid and dull, and fatigues the mind more than labor. There are in every part of heaven paradisiacal gardens, in which the angels find much joy; and so far as it is attended with a delight of the soul, the joy is real and true." Hereupon they all asked, " What is the delight of the soul, and whence is it derived?" The angel replied, "The delight of the soul is derived from love and wisdom proceeding from the Lord; and as love is operative, and that by means of wisdom, therefore they are both fixed together in the effect of such operation; which effect is use. This delight enters into the soul by influx from the Lord, and descends through the superior and inferior regions of the mind into all the senses of the body, and in them is full and complete; becoming hereby a true joy, and partaking of an eternal nature from the eternal fountain whence it proceeds. You have just now seen a paradisiacal garden; and I can assure you that there is not a single thing therein, even the smallest leaf, which does not exist from the marriage of love and wisdom in use: wherefore if a man be in this marriage, he is in a celestial paradise, and therefore in heaven."
9. After this, the conducting angel returned to the house of assembly, and addressed those who had persuaded themselves that heavenly joy and eternal happiness consist in a perpetual glorification of God, and a continued festival of prayer and praise to eternity; in consequence of a belief they had entertained in the world that they should then see God, and because the life of heaven, originating in the worship of God, is called a perpetual sabbath. "Follow me," said the angel to them, "and I will introduce you to your joy." So he led them into a little city, in the middle of which was a temple, and where all the houses were said to be consecrated chapels. In that city they observed a great concourse of people flocking together from all parts of the neighboring country; and among them a number of priests, who received and saluted them on their arrival, and led them by the hand to the gates of the temple, and from thence into some of the chapels around it, where they initiated them into the per-
