But the heavenly doctrine of true charity, or love to our neighbor, as also the real nature of true love to the Lord, is expressed much more perfectly in the following quotations, than it can possibly be done by me.
"There are two distinct loves in heaven, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; in the inmost or third heaven is love to the Lord, and in the second or middle heaven is love towards the neighbor: each proceeds from the Lord, and each makes heaven. How the two loves distinguish themselves, and how they conjoin themselves, appears in clear light in heaven, but only obscurely in the world. In heaven, by loving the Lord is not meant to love Him as to person, but to love the good which is from Him; and to love good is to will and do good from love; and by loving the neighbor is not meant to love a companion as to person, but to love the truth which is from the Word; and to love truth is to will and do truth. Thence it is manifest, that those two loves distinguish themselves, as good and truth, and that they conjoin themselves, as good with truth."—H. & H. n. 15.
"All who love the Lord above all things, and the neighbor as themselves, do what is good and true for the sake of what is good and true; for good and truth are the Lord Himself, as was said above; wherefore when they love good and truth, that is, when they will and do them from love, they love the Lord; this is the case also with those who love the neighbor as themselves, since the neighbor in the universal sense is good and truth; for the neighbor is a fellow-citizen, is a society, is a man's country, is the Church, and is the Lord's Kingdom; and to love the neighbor is to will well to those, or to will their good; wherefore it is their good which is to be loved; and when this is loved, the Lord is loved, because this good is from him. Hence it is evident that love towards the neighbor, which is called charity, hath in it love to the Lord. If this love be not in it, then a fellow-citizen, a society, a man's country, the Church, and the Lord's kingdom, are loved for the sake of self, and thus are not loved from good but from evil; for whatsoever is from man, for the sake of himself as an end, is from evil; to love the neighbor for the sake of self is to love him for the sake of gain and honor as ends; the end is what determines whether it be from good or from evil, for the end is the love, since what a man loves, this he hegards as an end; the end also is the will, for what a man wills, this he loves, hence the end regarded, or the intention, is the man himself; for man is such as his will is, and as his love is."—Ar. Cel., n. 10336,