of the church that is drawn from the Word and yet
unless man in respect to his interiors which belong
to his mind is in heaven spiritual good and truth
cannot flow into his life; and man is in heaven when
he both acknowledges the Divine and acts justly and
honestly for the reason that he ought so to act because
it is commanded in the Word. This is living justly
and honestly for the sake of the Divine, and not for
the sake of self and the world, as ends. [3] But no
one can so act until he has been taught, for example,
that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a
hell, that there is a life after death, that God ought
to be loved supremely, and the neighbor as oneself,
and that what is taught in the Word, ought to be believed
because the Word is Divine. Without a knowledge
and acknowledgment of these things man is unable to
think spiritually; and if he has no thought about
them he does not will them; for what a man does not
know he cannot think, and what he does not think he
cannot will. So it is when man wills these things
that heaven flows into his life, that is, the Lord
through heaven, for the Lord flows into the will and
through the will into the thought, and through both
into the life, and the whole life of man is from these.
All this makes clear that spiritual good and truth
are learned not from the world but from heaven, and
that one can be prepared for heaven only by means
of instruction. [4] Moreover, so far as the Lord flows
into the life of any one He instructs him, for so far
He kindles the will with the love of knowing truths
and enlightens the thought to know them; and so far
as this is done the interiors of man are opened and
heaven is implanted in them; and furthermore, what
is Divine and heavenly flows into the honest things
pertaining to moral life and into the just things
pertaining to civil life in man, and makes them spiritual,
since man then does these things from the Divine,
which is doing them for the sake of the Divine.
For the things honest and just pertaining to moral
and civil life which a man does from that source are
the essential effects of spiritual life; and the effect
derives its all from the effecting cause, since such
as the cause is such is the effect.
513. Instruction is given by the angels of many
societies, especially those in the northern and southern
quarters, because those angelic societies are in intelligence
and wisdom from a knowledge of good and truth.
The places of instruction are towards the north and
are various, arranged and distinguished according
to the kinds and varieties of heavenly goods, that
all and each may be instructed there according to
their disposition and ability to receive; the places
extending round about to a great distance. The
good spirits who are to be instructed are brought
by the Lord to these places when they have completed
their second state in the world of spirits, and yet
not all; for there are some that have been instructed
in the world, and have been prepared there by the