is led by the Divine; while he who leads a moral life out of regard to men in the world is led by himself. [2] But this may be illustrated by an example.  He that refrains from doing evil to his neighbor because it is antagonistic to religion, that is, antagonistic to the Divine, refrains from doing evil from a spiritual motive; but he that refrains from doing evil to another merely from fear of the law, or the loss of reputation, of honor, or gain, that is, from regard to self and the world, refrains from doing evil from a natural motive, and is led by himself.  The life of the latter is natural, that of the former is spiritual.  A man whose moral life is spiritual has heaven within him; but he whose moral life is merely natural does not have heaven within him; and for the reason that heaven flows in from above and opens man’s interiors, and through his interiors flows into his exteriors; while the world flows in from beneath and opens the exteriors but not the interiors.  For there can be no flowing in from the natural world into the spiritual, but only from the spiritual world into the natural; therefore if heaven is not also received, the interiors remain closed.  All this makes clear who those are that receive heaven within them, and who do not. [3] And yet heaven is not the same in one as in another.  It differs in each one in accordance with his affection for good and its truth.  Those that are in an affection for good out of regard to the Divine, love Divine truth, since good and truth love each other and desire to be conjoined.{1} This explains why the heathen, although they are not in genuine truths in the world, yet because of their love receive truths in the other life.

{Footnote 1} Between good and truth there is a kind of marriage (n. 1904, 2173, 2508).  Good and truth are in a perpetual endeavor to be conjoined, and good longs for truth and for conjunction with it (n. 9206, 9207, 9495).  How the conjunction of good and truth takes place, and in whom (n. 3834, 3843, 4096, 4097, 4301, 4345, 4353, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623-7627, 9258).

320.  A certain spirit from among the heathen who had lived in the world in good of charity in accordance with his religion, hearing Christian spirits reasoning about what must be believed, (for spirits reason with each other far more thoroughly and acutely than men, especially about what is good and true,) wondered at such contentions, and said that he did not care to listen to them, for they reasoned from appearances and fallacies; and he gave them this instruction:  “If I am good I can know from the good itself what is true; and what I do not know I can receive.”