Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/107

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TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
103

tual being so called on account of the different loves, which characterize the angels respectively. Love to the Lord being in it's own nature superior to, and more heavenly than, love to the neighbour, is therefore called a celestial love; and the angels, with whom it predominates, are called celestial angels: while those, whose distinguishing characteristic is neighbourly love, are called spiritual angels, because their love is truly spiritual. The celestial kingdom is also called the priesthood and habitation of the Lord; but the spiritual is called his royalty and his throne. In reference to the former, the Lord, while in the world, was called Jesus; and in reference to the latter, Christ.

But besides the above general arrangement, the universal heaven is also distinguished into three distinct heavens; the inmost, highest, or third heaven, properly called celestial; the middle or second heaven, called spiritual; and the lowest or first heaven, called spiritual-natural and celestial-natural, because partaking in a comparatively obscure degree of both a spiritual and celestial quality by influx from the two former. These distinctions are similar to those, which have place in man, and bear a certain relation to the head, trunk, and feet; or to the soul, body, and act; and in reference to the Lord himself, from whom heaven is derived, to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Again, heaven is further distinguished into innumerable societies in each general kingdom, and in each particular heaven, according to the indefinite varieties of the reception of good and truth from the Lord. And although the angelic inhabitants are so arranged into distinct kingdoms, heavens, and societies, yet there is a communication between them all, not indeed by an open and manifest intercourse of