that they should go to heaven and be received before others, because they were learned, and knew many things from the Word, and from the doctrines of their churches,—imagining that they were therefore wise, and that they were meant by those of whom it is said, that they should shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars, Dan. xii. 3.
But they were examined, to ascertain whether their knowledges resided in the memory, or in the life. They who were in the genuine affection of truth,—which is the love of it for the sake of uses unconnected with corporeal and worldly ends, which uses in themselves are spiritual,—after they had been instructed, were also received into heaven; and it was then given them to know what it is that shines in heaven, namely, that it is the divine truth, which is there the light of heaven, embodied in use. For use is the plane that receives the rays of that light, and turns them into manifold splendors.
But they with whom knowledges resided only in the memory, and who had thence acquired the faculty of reasoning about truths, and of confirming whatever notions they assumed as principles, which, although false, after confirmation appeared to them as truths,—these were in no light of heaven; and yet they believed, from the pride which usually accompanies such intelligence, that they were more learned than others, and should therefore go to heaven and be served by the angels.
