ne can
see who knows what it is that makes heaven in man; for heaven is
within man, and those that have heaven within them come into heaven.
Heaven with man is acknowledging the Divine and being led by the
Divine. The first and chief thing of every religion is to acknowledge
the Divine. A religion that does not acknowledge the Divine is no
religion. The precepts of every religion look to worship; thus to the
way in which the Divine is to be worshiped that the worship may be
acceptable to Him; and when this has been settled in one's mind, that
is, so far as one wills this or so far as he loves it, he is led by
the Lord. Everyone knows that the heathen as well as Christians live
a moral life, and many of them a better life than Christians. Moral
life may be lived either out of regard to the Divine or out of regard
to men in the world; and a moral life that is lived out of regard to
the Divine is a spiritual life. In outward form the two appear alike,
but in inward form they are wholly different; the one saves man, the
other does not. For he who lives a moral life out of regard to the
Divine 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 accordan