heaven, insomuch that whether we speak of heaven or of God it is the same thing; the Divine (principles or things) which make the angels, of whom heaven consists, to be angels, taken together, are God; and hence it is, that thought concerning God is the first and primary of all thoughts which open heaven to man, for it is the head and sun of all truths and loves celestial and spiritual. But there is given the thought of light and there is given the thought of love, the thought of light alone being the knowledge that God is, which appears as acknowledgment, but still is not so. By the thought of light man has presence in heaven, but not conjunction with heaven: for the light of thought, alone, does not conjoin, but exhibits man present to the Lord and to the angels, inasmuch as that light is like winter-light, in which man sees with equal clearness as in summer-light, but which nevertheless does not conjoin itself to the earth, nor to any tree, shrub, flower, or grass: every man, also, has implanted in him the faculty of thinking about God, and, likewise, of understanding those things which are of God, by virtue of the light of heaven, but the thought alone of that light, which is intellectual thought, merely constitutes his presence before the Lord and before the angels, as was said above. When man is in intellectual thought alone concerning God and concerning those things which are of God, he

then appears to the angels from afar as an image of ivory or of marble, which can walk and utter sounds, but in the face and sound of which there is as yet no life; and so, likewise, he appears to the angels, comparatively, as a tree in time of winter, with naked branches without leaves, of which, nevertheless, some hope is cherished, that it will be covered with leaves, and afterwards with fruits, when the heat adjoins itself to light, as is the case in time of spring. As thought concerning God primarily opens heaven, so thought against God primarily closes heaven.

6. Thought concerning one God opens heaven to man, because there is but one God: on the other hand, thought concerning several Gods closes heaven, since the idea of several Gods destroys the idea of one God. Thought concerning the true God opens heaven, for heaven and all that belongs to it is from the true God on the other hand, thought concerning a false God closes heaven, for no other God but the true God is acknowledged in heaven. Thought concerning God, Creator, Redeemer, and Illustrator, opens heaven, for this trinity is of the one true God; also, thought concerning God infinite, eternal, uncreate, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, opens heaven, for these are attributes of the essence of the one and true God: on the other hand, thought concerning a living man as a God, of a

dead man as a God, and of an idol as a God, closes heaven, because they are not omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, uncreate, eternal, and infinite, neither from them was creation and redemption, nor from them is illustration. Thought concerning God as a man, in whom is a Divine trinity, viz. what is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, opens heaven: on the other hand, thought concerning God as not a man, which thought is apparently presented as a little cloud, or as nature in her smallest principles, closes heaven: for God is a man, as the universal angelic heaven in its complex is a man, and every angel and every spirit is thence a man therefore, thought concerning the Lord, as being the God of the universe, opens heaven for the Lord says, 'The Father hath given all things into the hand of the Son,' John iii. 35. The Father hath given to the Son power over all flesh,' John xvii. 2. 'All things are delivered to me by the Father,' Matt. xi. 27. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth,' Matt. xxviii. 18. From these considerations it is evident, that man without the idea of God, such as it is in heaven, cannot be saved: the idea of God in heaven is the Lord; for the angels of heaven are in the Lord, and the Lord in them; wherefore, to think of any other God than the Lord, is to them impossible; see John xiv. 20, 21. Allow me to add, that the idea of God as a

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man, is ingrafted from heaven in every nation throughout the universal terrestrial globe, but, what I lament, is destroyed in christendom: the causes will be shewn below.

7. The thought, alone, that God is, and that the Lord is the God of heaven, opens, indeed, heaven, and exhibits man present there, yet so lightly, that he is almost unseen, appearing afar off as in the shade; but in proportion as his thought becomes more full, more true, and more just, concerning God, in the same proportion he appears in light the thought is rendered more full by the knowledges of truth, which are of faith, and of good, which are of love, derived from the Word; for all things which are from the Word are divine, and divine things taken together are God. The man who only thinks that God is, and thinks nothing about his quality, is as one who thinks that the Word is, and that it is holy, yet knows nothing of its contents; or who thinks that the law is, and knows nothing of what is contained in the law; when yet the thought of what God is, is so large, that it fills heaven, and constitutes all the wisdom in which the angels are principled, which is ineffable, for in itself it is infinite, because God is infinite. The thought that God is, derived from his quality, is what is meant in the Word by the name of God.

8. It was said, that man has thought from

light, and that he has thought from love, and that thought from light makes the presence of man in heaven, but thought from love makes the conjunction of man with heaven: the reason is, because love is spiritual conjunction: hence it is, that when the thought of the light of man becomes the thought of his love, man is introduced into heaven, as to a marriage, and so far as love in the thought of light is the primary agent, or leads the thought, so far man enters heaven as a bride the bridechamber, and is married; for in the Word the Lord is called the bridegroom and husband, and heaven and the church the bride and wife; by being married is meant to be conjoined to heaven in some society thereof, and he is so far conjoined to it, as he has procured to himself, in the world, intelligence and wisdom from the Lord, by the Word, thus so far as by Divine truths he has learned to think that God is, and that the Lord is that God; but he who thinks from few truths, thus from little intelligence, whilst he thinks from love, is conjoined indeed with heaven, but in its more ultimate principles. By love is meant love to the Lord, and by loving the Lord is not meant to love the Lord as a person, since by this love alone, man is not conjoined with heaven, but by the love of the Divine good and Divine truth, which are the Lord in heaven and in the church; and those two principles are not loved