Heaven and Hell: The Portable New Century Edition

(Romina) #1

74 HEAVEN and HELL §133


h. There are two sources of warmth and also two sources of light, our world’s sun and heaven’s
sun: 3338 , 5215 , 7324. Warmth from the Lord as the sun is affection, which is a matter of love:
3636 , 3643. So in its essence, spiritual warmth is love: 2146 , 3338 , 3339 , 6314.
i. There is warmth in the hells, but it is unclean: 1773 , 2757 , 3340 ; and the smell that comes from
there is like the smell of manure and excrement in our world—in the worst hells, like the smell of
corpses: 814 , 815 [ 819 ], 817 [ 820 ], 943 , 944 , 5394.
j. [Swedenborg’s note at this point refers the reader back to the second note in § 118 above.]

which is divine love for the Lord and from the Lord, as has been
explained in the preceding chapter. We can therefore see that heaven’s
warmth is just as spiritual as its light, because they come from the same
source.h
There are two things that emanate from the Lord as the sun, divine
truth and divine good. Divine truth comes out in heaven as light and
divine good as warmth. However, divine truth and divine good are so
united that they are not two, but one. For angels, though, they are sepa-
rated. There are angels who accept divine good more readily than divine
truth, and there are angels who accept divine truth more readily than
divine good. The ones who are more open to divine good are in the
Lord’s heavenly kingdom; the ones who are more open to divine truth
are in the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. The most perfect angels are the ones
who are equally open to both.

134 Heaven’s warmth, like heaven’s light, is different in different places.
It has one nature in the heavenly kingdom and another in the spiritual
kingdom. It also differs in each community, not only in intensity but in
quality. It is more intense and pure in the Lord’s heavenly kingdom
because the angels there accept more divine good. It is less intense and
pure in the Lord’s spiritual kingdom because the angels there accept
more divine truth. In each community, it varies depending on people’s
receptivity. There is also warmth in the hells, but it is unclean.i
The warmth in heaven is meant by sacred and heavenly fi re, and the
warmth of hell by profane fi re and hellfi re. Both refer to love: heavenly
fi re to love for the Lord and love for one’s neighbor, and hellfi re to love
for oneself and love of the world and all the craving that is associated
with these loves.j
The fact that love is warmth of a spiritual origin can be seen from the
way we grow warm in proportion to our love, even becoming infl amed
and heated in proportion to its intensity and quality, with its full heat evi-
dent when we are attacked. This is why it is usual to talk about infl aming,

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