kingdom,—this kingdom being their country,—and whereas all special and particular uses are excellent in proportion as they more nearly and fully have regard to that common use, therefore all special and particular uses, which are innumerable, are good and heavenly. With every one, therefore, the affection of truth is so perfectly conjoined with the affection of use, that they act as one. Truth is thereby implanted in use, so that the truths which they learn are truths of use. Thus angelic spirits are instructed and prepared for heaven.
The affection of truth suitable to the use which they are to perform, is insinuated by various methods, most of which are unknown in the world, chiefly by representatives of uses, which in the spiritual world are exhibited in a thousand ways, and with such delights and pleasantnesses that they penetrate the spirit from the interiors which belong to his mind to the exteriors which belong to his body, and thus affect the whole of him. Hence the spirit becomes, as it were, his own use. Therefore when he enters his own society, into which he is initiated by instruction, he is in his own life when in his own use.
From these considerations it may be evident that knowledges, which are external truths, do not introduce any one into heaven, but life itself, which is the life of use, implanted by means of knowledges.
There were some spirits, who, from what they had conceived in the world, had persuaded themselves
