One morning, having wakened from sleep, I saw two angels coming down out of heaven, one out of the south of heaven and the other out of the east of heaven, both of them in chariots to which white horses were harnessed. The chariot in which the angel from the south of heaven was carried was shining as if of silver, and the chariot in which the angel from the east of heaven was carried was shining as if of gold. And the reins which they were holding in their hands were gleaming as if from the flame-coloured light of the dawn. Thus were these two angels seen by me from afar off but when they were coming nearer they did not appear in a chariot but in their own angelic form, which is the human form. He who came from the east of heaven was in a shining purple garment, and he who came from the south of heaven was in one of shining blue. When these were in lower [states] below the heavens they were running to meet each other as if they were striving who should be first, and they embraced and kissed each other. I heard that these two angels when they lived in the world had been conjoined by an interior friendship, but now one was in the eastern heaven and the other in the southern heaven. In the eastern heaven are those who are in love from the Lord. In the southern heaven, however, are those who are in wisdom from the Lord. [2] After they had spoken for some time about the magnificent things in their heavens this question came into their conversation, whether heaven in its essence is love or whether it is wisdom. They were in agreement right away that one is of the other, but were discussing of which one the other has its origin. The angel who was from the heaven of wisdom asked the other angel what love is, and he answered that love, having originated from the Lord as the Sun, is the vital heat of angels and men, thus it is their life. He also said that the derivations of love are termed affections, and that by means of them perceptions are produced and thus thoughts. 'From this it follows that wisdom by virtue of its origin is love; consequently that thought in its origin is the affection of that love. And [it follows] that it can be seen from a survey of the derivations in their order that thought is nothing else but the form of affection, and that this is not known because thoughts are in light but affections are in heat, and that therefore one reflects upon thoughts but not upon affections, as is the case with sound and speech. That thought is nothing else but the form of affection can also be illustrated by speech, for this is nothing else but the form of sound. It is also similar because sound corresponds to affection and speech to thought, and therefore affection sounds and thought speaks. This also can become clearly evident when put in this way (dicitur), "If you take sound away from speech, is there anything of speech?" Similarly "If you take affection away from thought, is there anything of thought?" From this it is plain that Love is everything of Wisdom, consequently that the essence of the heavens is Love and that their existence is Wisdom, or what is the same, that the heavens exist out of Divine Love and that they come into existence out of Divine Love by means of Divine Wisdom, and therefore, as was said before, the one is of the other.' [3] At that time there was with me a novitiate spirit who on hearing this asked whether it is similar with charity and faith, because charity is of affection and faith is of thought. And the angel answered, 'It is entirely similar, for faith is nothing else but the form of charity as plainly as speech is the form of sound, for faith is also formed by charity just as speech is formed by sound. We in heaven also know about the mode of the formation, but there is not time to explain that here.' He added, 'By faith I understand spiritual faith in which the spirit and life is derived solely from charity, for charity is spiritual and by means of it faith is. Therefore faith without charity is a merely natural faith, and this faith is a dead faith. It also conjoins itself with the merely natural affection that is nothing else but lust.' The angels were speaking about these things spiritually, and spiritual speech embraces thousands of things that natural speech cannot express, and what is astonishing, that cannot at all fall into the ideas of natural thought. Please remember this, and when you come out of natural light into spiritual light, which is effected after death, ask then what faith is and what charity is, and you will clearly see that faith is charity in form and therefore that charity is everything of faith, consequently that it is the soul, life and essence of faith, precisely as affection is of thought and as sound is of speech. And if you desire it, you will come to see the formation of faith from charity like the formation of speech out of sound, because they correspond. After the angels had spoken of all these things (haec et illa) they departed, and as they retired each to his own heaven stars appeared around their heads, and when they had gone from me to a distance they were seen again in the chariots as before.

[4] After these two angels had gone out of my sight I saw on the right a certain garden where there were olive trees, vines, fig trees, laurels and palm trees planted in order according to correspondence. I had a look at it, and among the trees I saw angels and spirits walking and talking. And then one of them, an angelic spirit, looked back at me. They are called angelic spirits who are being prepared for heaven in the world of spirits and afterwards become angels. That spirit came to me from the garden and said, 'Will you go with me into our paradise, and you shall hear and see wonderful things?' And I went with him, and then he said to me, 'Those whom you see (for there were many) are all in the affection of truth and consequently in the light of wisdom. Here also is the building that we call THE TEMPLE OF WISDOM; but no one who thinks himself to be very wise sees it, even less any one who thinks himself wise enough, and still less one who thinks that he is wise from himself. This is because such persons are not in the reception of the light of heaven out of the affection of genuine wisdom. It is genuine wisdom for a man to see out of the light of heaven that the things that he knows, understands and is wise in are so little in respect to what he does not know, understand and have wisdom in as a drop to the ocean, consequently scarcely anything. Everyone who is in this paradisial garden and by virtue of a perception and sight in himself acknowledges that he is comparatively so little wise sees that temple of wisdom, for interior light enables him to see it, but not exterior light without that.' [5] And because I have often thought, and as the result of knowledge and then of perception and at length of sight out of interior light have acknowledged, that a man is so little wise, behold, it was given me to see that temple. Its form it was wonderful. It was raised above the ground, quadrangular, with walls of crystal, the roof of transparent jasper elegantly arched, and a foundation of various precious stones. The steps leading up to it were of polished alabaster. At the sides of the steps as it were lions with their whelps were visible. And then I asked whether it was allowed to enter, and it was said that it was. I therefore went up and when I entered saw as it were cherubs flying under the roof but presently vanishing. The floor on which one walked was of cedar, and by reason of the transparency of the roof and walls the whole temple was almost the form of light. [6] The angelic spirit entered with me and I told him what I heard from the two angels concerning love and wisdom, as also concerning charity and faith. And he said then, 'Did they not also speak of a third?' 'What third?' I said. He replied, 'It is USE. Love and wisdom without use are not anything. They are only ideal entities, and they do not become real before they are in use. For there are love, wisdom and use, the three of them, which cannot be separated. If they are separated, none of them is anything. Love is not anything without wisdom, but in wisdom it is formed for something. This something for which it is formed is use, and therefore when love by means of wisdom is in use then it is something, in fact it then first comes into existence. They are altogether as end, cause and effect. An end is not anything unless by means of a cause it is in an effect. If one is loosed out of those three, then everything is loosed and it comes to naught. [7] It is similar with charity, faith and works. Charity without faith is not anything, neither is faith without charity, nor charity and faith without deeds; but in deeds they become something, the quality of which is determined by the use of the deeds. It is similar with affection, thought and operation; and it is similar with will, understanding and action. That it is so can be clearly seen in this temple, because the light in which we are here is a light enlightening the interior things of the mind. Geometry also teaches that there is not given a complete and perfect thing unless it is a trine; for a line is not anything unless it becomes an area, nor is an area anything unless it becomes a body, and therefore the one must be directed into the other that they may have existence, and they exist together in the third. Just as it is in this instance, so also it is in all created things collectively and separately, which are fixed in their third. It is in consequence of this now that THREE in the Word spiritually understood signifies complete and altogether. This being the case I have not been able to avoid marvelling that some profess faith alone, some charity alone, and some works alone; when yet the first without the second, and the first and second together without the third, is not anything.' [8] But then I asked, 'Cannot a man have charity and faith and still not have deeds? Cannot a man be in affection and thought concerning some matter and yet not be in the performance of it?' The angelic spirit said to me, 'He cannot except only ideally but not really. He must still be in the endeavour or will to perform, and the will or endeavour is action in itself, because there is a continuous striving for action, and when determination is present it becomes an outward act. Effort and will as an inward act is therefore accepted by every wise man, because it is accepted by God, altogether as an outward act, provided it does not fail when the opportunity is given.'

[9] After this I went down the steps out of the temple of wisdom and walked in the garden, and I saw some [spirits] sitting under a certain laurel eating figs. I turned aside to them and asked them for figs, and they gave me some. And behold, the figs became grapes in my hand. When I marvelled at this the angelic spirit who was still with me, said to me, 'The figs have become grapes in your hand because by correspondence figs signify the goods of charity and of faith therefrom in the natural or external man, but grapes signify the goods of charity and faith in the spiritual or internal man; and because you love spiritual things it has therefore so happened to you. For in our world all things are produced and come into existence and also are changed in accordance with correspondences.' And then there came over me the desire to know how a man can do good from God and yet as from himself and I therefore inquired of the fig-eaters how they comprehended this. They said that they could not comprehend it otherwise than that 'God operates it inwardly in the man, and through the man when he does not know it; since if the man should be conscious of it and thus do it as from himself, which is also to do it from himself, he would not do good but evil. For everything that proceeds from the man so as to be from himself proceeds from his proprium, and the man's proprium is evil from birth. How then can the good from God and the evil from the man be conjoined and proceed thus conjointly into act? A man's proprium also in matters of salvation continually breathes merit and in so far as it does this it detracts from the Lord His merit, which is the height of injustice and impiety. In a word, if the good that God operates in a man by means of the Holy Spirit should inflow into the man's willing and consequent doing, that good would be entirely defiled and also profaned; which, however, God never permits. A man can indeed think that the good that he does is from God and call it the good of God [done] through himself and as from himself, but still we do not comprehend this.' [10] But then I opened my mind and said, 'You do not comprehend because you are thinking from an appearance, and thought from a confirmed appearance is a fallacy. An appearance and the consequent fallacy is with you because you believe that all the things that a man wills and thinks and thence does and speaks are in him, and consequently derived from himself, when yet there is in him nothing of them except the state of receiving what inflows. A man is not life in himself but is an organ receiving life. The Lord Only is Life in Himself as He Himself says in John:-

Just as the Father has Life in Himself, so also does He give to the Son to have Life in Himself John v 26;

besides elsewhere, as John xi 25; xiv 6, 19. [11] There are two things that make life, love and wisdom, or what is the same, the good of love and the truth of wisdom. These inflow from God and are received by a man and are felt in the man as if in him, and because they are felt by the man as if in him they also proceed as if from him. Their being so felt by the man has been given by the Lord so that what inflows affects him and thus is received and remains. But because all evil also inflows, not from God but from hell, and this is received with delight because the man has been born such an organ, therefore no more of good is received from God than the amount of evil removed by the man as if by himself. This is done by repentance and at the same time by faith in the Lord. [12] That love and wisdom, charity and faith, or speaking more generally, the good of love and charity and the truth of wisdom and faith, inflow, and that the things that inflow appear in the man as if in him and consequently as if from him, can be clearly seen from sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. All the things that are felt in the organs of those senses inflow from without and are felt in them. It is similar in the organs of the internal senses, the only difference being that into the latter inflow spiritual things that are not visible, but into the former natural things inflow that are visible. In a word, the man is an organ recipient of life from God. Consequently he is a recipient of good to the extent that he desists from evil. The Lord gives to every man the ability to desist from evil because He gives him to will and understand as if from himself; and whatever the man does out of the will as his own in accordance with the understanding as his own or, what is the same, whatever he does out of the freedom that is of the will in accordance with the reason that is of the understanding, this remains. By this means the Lord leads the man into a state of conjunction with Himself and in it reforms, regenerates and saves him. [13] The life that inflows is the life proceeding from the Lord, which is also called the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit in the Word, of which it is said also that it enlightens and enlivens, indeed that it operates in the man. This life, however, is varied and modified in accordance with the organization induced on the man by his love and point of view (aspectus). That all the good of love and charity and all the truth of wisdom and faith inflow, and are not in the man, you can know also from the fact that he who thinks that such [good and truth] is inherent in the man from creation cannot think otherwise than that God has infused Himself into the man, and thus that men would in part be gods. Nevertheless those who think this from faith become devils and stink like corpses. [14] Besides, what is a man's action if it is not the mind (mens) acting, for that which the mind wills and thinks, it performs by means of its organ the body; and therefore when the mind is led by the Lord the action is also led, and the mind and the action therefrom are led by the Lord when it believes in Him. Unless it were so, say if you can why the Lord in thousands and thousands of places in the Word has commanded that a man must love his neighbour, carry out the good works of charity, bear fruit like a tree and keep the commandments, and all this in order to be saved. Also why He has said that a man will be judged according to his deeds or works, he who has done good deeds to heaven and life and he who has done evil deeds to hell and death. How could the Lord have spoken such things if everything that proceeds from a man were merit-seeking and therefore evil? Know therefore that if a mind is charity the action also is charity, but if a mind is faith alone, which also is faith separated from spiritual charity, the action also is that faith, and such faith is merit-seeking because its charity is natural and not spiritual. It is otherwise with the faith of charity, because charity does not want to have merit, an d consequently neither does its faith.' [15] Having heard these things those sitting under the laurel said, 'We comprehend that you have spoken justly, but still we do not comprehend.' To which I replied, 'That I have spoken justly, you comprehend from the common perception that a man has from the light out of heaven when he hears anything true, but you do not comprehend from the personal perception (ex propria perceptione) that a man has from the light of the world. Those two perceptions, namely internal and external, or spiritual and natural, make one with the wise. You also can make them one if you look to the Lord and put away evils.' Because they understood these things also I selected some boughs from the laurel under which we sat and held them out and said, 'Do you believe that this is from me or from the Lord?' And they said that they believed it to be 'by means of me as if from me'. And behold, those boughs in their hands were beginning to blossom forth. But when I departed I saw a table of cedar-wood with a book on it, under a greets olive-tree around the trunk of which a vine was entwined. I looked, and behold it was the book written by means of me called ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, and also concerning DIVINE PROVIDENCE; and I said that in that book it has been fully shown that a mats is an organ recipient of life, and is not life.

[16] After these occurrences I went away home out of the garden exhilarated, and the angelic spirit was with me. On the way he said to me, 'You want to see clearly what faith is, and charity, and what faith separated from charity is, and what faith conjoined to charity, and I will show this before your very eye'. I replied, 'Do so.' And he said, 'Instead of faith and charity, think of light and heat, and you will see clearly; for faith in its essence is the truth (veritas) that is of wisdom, and charity in its essence is the affection that is of love, and the truth (veritas) of wisdom in heaven is light and the affection of love in heaven is heat. The light and heat in which the angels are nothing else. By reason of this you can clearly see what faith separated from charity is, and what faith conjoined with charity is. Faith separated from charity is like a winter light, whereas faith conjoined to charity is like the light in spring. The light in winter, which is a light separated from heat, for it is conjoined to cold, strips the trees quite bare of leaves, hardens the land and kills off the grass, and also freezes the waters. But the light in spring, which is a light conjoined to heat, makes the trees grow, first into leaves, then into flowers and at length into fruits. It opens and softens the land that it may produce grasses, herbage, flowers and fruits, and also melts the ice so that waters may flow out of springs. [17] It is entirely similar with faith and charity. Faith separated from charity deadens all things and faith conjoined to charity enlivens all things. The enlivening and the deadening can be seen in living reality in our spiritual world, because here faith is light and charity is heat. For where there is faith conjoined to charity there are paradisial gardens, flower beds and lawns in their own pleasantness in accordance with the conjunction. But where there is faith separated from charity there is not even grass, and where it is green it is from thorns, brambles and nettles. The heat and light proceeding from the Lord as the Sun effect this in angels and spirits, and consequently outside of them.' There were then not far from us some of the clergy, whom the angelic spirit called justifiers and sanctifiers of men by faith alone, and also arcanists. We said these same things to them and gave a demonstration of them until they could see that it was so. And when we asked whether it was not so, they turned away and said, 'We did not hear.' But we shouted to them, saying, 'Hear this time, then!' Then putting both hands over their ears they yelled, 'We are not willing to hear.'