Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/66

man loves them and acts from them, he loves and acts from the Lord; and the Lord removes from him things insincere and unjust, even as to the very intentions and will."—A. E, n. 973.

Again:

"By loving the Lord is not meant to love Him as a person; for by this love alone man is not conjoined with heaven, but by a love of the divine good and truth which are the Lord in heaven; and these two are not loved by knowing, thinking, understanding, and speaking them, but by willing and doing them because they are commanded by the Lord, and therefore are of use. Nothing is full until it is done, and what is done is the end for the sake of which the love is cherished."—Ibid, n. 1099.

We thus see what is meant by loving the Lord supremely, and how entirely this teaching, which is so often repeated by Swedenborg, agrees with the Lord's own. For He says: "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." (John xiv. 21.) "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." (Ibid, xv. 14.) "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you " (v. 12). And to love others as the Lord loves us, is not merely to refrain from doing them evil, but to intend and do them good, and seek to promote their highest welfare.

Such is the nature of the love that dwells in the bosom of the angels. The Lord's own love constitutes their breath of life. In the atmosphere of this love, which seeketh not its own but always the good of others, they live and move and have their being. From it they think and speak, and by it all their actions are prompted and controlled. It is the very essence and life of heaven.