875. To the above I will add these Relations. Awaking one morning from sleep, I saw two angels descending out of heaven, one from the southern quarter of heaven and the other from the eastern quarter of heaven, both in chariots to which white horses were harnessed. The chariot in which the angel from the southern quarter of heaven was conveyed, shone like silver, and the chariot in which the angel from the eastern quarter of heaven was conveyed, shone like gold; and the reins which they held in their hands were refulgent as from the flamy light of the dawn. Thus these two angels were seen by me at a distance; but when they came nearer, they did not appear in a chariot, but in their angelic form which is human. He who came from the eastern quarter of heaven, was clad in a bright purple garment, and he who came from the southern quarter of heaven in a garment of hyacinthine blue. When they were below under the heavens, they ran to meet each other, as if they strove which should be first, and mutually embraced and kissed each other. I heard that these two angels, when they lived on earth, had been conjoined in interior friendship; but now one was in the eastern heaven and the other in the southern heaven. In the eastern heaven are they who are in love from the Lord; but in the southern heaven are they who are in wisdom from the Lord. [2] When they had spoken some time about the magnificence of their heavens, this came up in their discourse, whether heaven in its essence is love, or whether it is wisdom. They immediately agreed that one is of the other, but discussed which was the original. The angel who was from the heaven of wisdom asked the other, what love is; to which he replied, "That love, originating from the Lord as a sun, is the vital heat of angels and men, thus their life: that the derivations of love are called affections; and that by these are produced perceptions and thus thoughts, whence it follows that wisdom in its origin is love; consequently that thought in its origin is the affection of that love; and it is evident from the derivations viewed in their order, that thought is nothing else but the form of affection; and that this is not known, because the thoughts are in the light, but the affections in heat, and that therefore one reflects upon the thoughts, but not on the affections, in the same manner as takes place with sound and with speech. That thought is nothing else but the form of affection, may also be illustrated by speech, which is nothing else but the form of sound; it is also similar, because sound corresponds to affection, and speech to thought, wherefore affection sounds, and thought speaks. This may also be made clear by this, that if you take away sound from speech, nothing of speech remains, and, in like manner, if you take away affection from thought, nothing of thought remains. Hence then it is plain, that love is the all of wisdom, consequently the essence of the heavens is love, and their existence is wisdom, or what is the same thing, the heavens are from the Divine love, and they exist from the Divine love by the Divine wisdom, wherefore, as was said above, the one is of the other." [3] There was with me at that time a novitiate spirit, who on hearing this, asked, whether it is the same with charity and faith, since charity is of affection, and faith is of thought. The angel replied, "It is altogether the same; for faith is nothing else but the form of charity, just as speech is the form of sound;* faith is also formed by charity as speech is formed by sound; the mode of its formation we also know in heaven, but there is no leisure to explain it here." "By faith, however," he added, "I mean spiritual faith, the spirit and life of which is derived solely from charity, for charity is spiritual, and by charity, faith; wherefore faith without charity is a merely natural faith, which is dead, which also conjoins itself with merely natural affection, which is nothing else but lust." The angels spake of these things spiritually, and spiritual speech embraces thousands of things which natural speech cannot express, and what is wonderful, which cannot even fall within the ideas of natural thought. Remember this, I pray, and when you come out of natural light into spiritual light, which is done after death, inquire what faith is and what charity is, and you will clearly see that faith is charity in form, and therefore that charity is the all of faith, consequently that it is the soul, life, and essence of faith, just as the affection is of thought, and as the sound is of speech; and if you desire it, you will see the formation of faith from charity like the formation of speech from sound, because they correspond. After discoursing together for some time on these and such like subjects, the angels departed, and as they retired each to his own heaven, their heads appeared encompassed with stars: and when they were some distance from me, they again seemed to be borne in chariots as before. [4] After these two angels were gone out of my sight, I saw a certain garden on my right hand, in which were olive trees, vines, fig trees, laurels, and palm trees, planted in order, according to correspondence. I looked into the garden, and saw angels and spirits walking and conversing together among the trees; and then a certain angelic spirit observed me. They are called angelic spirits, who in the world of spirits are prepared for heaven, and afterwards become angels. That spirit came out of the garden towards me, and said, "Will you come 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 thence in the light of wisdom. Here also is a building which we call the TEMPLE OF WISDOM; but no one sees it who believes himself very wise, much less he who believes himself wise enough, and still less he who believes himself wise from himself; the reason is, because such persons are not in the reception of the light of heaven from the affection of genuine wisdom. Genuine wisdom consists in a man's seeing from the light of heaven, that the things which he knows, understands, and is wise in, are so little respectively to what he does not know, understand, and is wise in, as a drop to the ocean, consequently scarcely anything. Everyone who is in this paradisal garden, and acknowledges in himself from perception and sight that his own wisdom is so little comparatively, sees that temple of wisdom, for interior light enables him to see it, but not exterior light without it." [5] And because I had often thought this, both from science, and then from perception, and lastly from seeing it from interior light, and had acknowledged that man had so little wisdom, behold, it was given me to see that temple. As to form it was wonderful. It was elevated above the ground, quadrangular, with walls of crystal, its roof of translucent jasper elegantly arched; the foundation consisted of precious stones of various kinds. The steps leading up to it were of polished alabaster. At the sides of the steps appeared figures of lions with their whelps. And I then asked whether it was allowed to enter; and it was said that it was allowed; therefore I ascended, and when I entered, I saw, as it were, cherubs flying beneath the roof, and presently vanishing out of sight; the floor upon which we walked was of cedar, and the whole temple, from the pellucidity of its roof and walls, seemed in the form of light. [6] The angelic spirit entered with me, to whom I related what I heard from the two angels concerning love and wisdom, as also concerning charity and faith. And he then said, "Did they not speak of a third also?" I said, "What third?" He replied, "It is Use: love and wisdom without use are not anything: they are only ideal entities; nor do they become real before they are in use: for love, wisdom, and use, are three things which cannot be separated. If they are separated, neither 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. Therefore, when love through wisdom is in use, it is then something; yea, it then first exists. They are altogether as the end, the cause, and the effect. The end is not anything, unless through the cause it is in the effect. If one of the three is loosed, the whole is loosed, and becomes as nothing. It is similar with charity, faith, and works. [7] Charity without faith is not anything; nor faith without charity; nor charity and faith without works; but in works they become something, of a quality according to the use of the works. It is similar with affection, thought, and operation; and it is similar with will, understanding, and action. That it is so may be seen clearly in this temple, because the light in which we are here is light that enlightens the interiors of the mind. That there is not given a complete and perfect thing unless it is a trine, geometry also teaches; for a line is not anything, unless it becomes an area; and an area is not anything, unless it becomes a solid; therefore the one must be produced into the other, that they may exist; and they co-exist in the third. As it is in this, so it is in each and every created thing; they are terminated in their third. Hence now it is, that three in the Word, spiritually understood, signifies complete and altogether. Since it is so, I could not but wonder, that some profess faith alone, some charity alone, some works alone; when yet the first without the second, and the first and second without the third, are not anything." [8] But I then asked, "Cannot a man have charity and faith, and still not works? Cannot a man be in affection and thought about anything, and yet not 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 endeavor or the will to operate; and the will or the endeavor is in itself the act, because it is in the continual effort to act; which becomes an outward act when determination is present. On which account the endeavor and will, as an interior act, is accepted by every wise man, because it is by God, altogether as an exterior act, provided it does not fail when opportunity is given." [9] After this I descended by the steps from the temple of wisdom, and walked in the garden, and saw some sitting under a certain laurel eating figs. I turned aside to them, and asked them for some figs; which they gave me: and, behold, the figs became grapes in my hand. When I wondered at this, the angelic spirit, who was still with me, said to me, "The figs have become grapes in your hand, because figs, from correspondence, signify the goods of charity and thence of faith in the natural or external man, but grapes the goods of charity and faith in the spiritual or internal man; and because you love spiritual things, therefore it so happened to you: for in our world all things come to pass and exist, and also are changed, according to correspondences." And then there came over me the desire of knowing how man can do good from God, and yet as of himself; therefore I asked them that were eating the figs how they comprehended it. They said that they "could not comprehend it otherwise than that God operates it within in man and through man, when he does not know it; since if man were conscious of it, and thus should do it as of himself, which is also to do it of himself, he would not do good, but evil. For all that proceeds from man, as from himself, proceeds from his proprium; and the proprium of man is evil from birth. How then can good from God and evil from man be conjoined, and so proceed conjointly into act? The proprium of man also, in the things of salvation, continually breathes forth merit; and as far as it does this, it takes away from the Lord His merit; which is the highest injustice and impiety. In a word, if the good which God operates in a man by the Holy Spirit should flow in into man's willing and thence his doing, that good would be altogether defiled and also profaned; which, however, God never permits. A man can indeed think that the good which he does is from God, and call it God's good through himself, and as if from himself; but still we do not comprehend this." [10] But I then opened my mind, and said, "You do not comprehend, because you think from the appearance, and the thought from confirmed appearance is a fallacy. You are in the appearance and the fallacy from it, because you believe that all the things which a man wills and thinks, and thence does and speaks, are in him, and consequently from him; when yet nothing of them is in him except the state of receiving what flows in. Man is not life in himself, but is an organ receiving life. The Lord alone is life in Himself, as He also says in John: