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 accordance with his affection for good and its truth. Those
that are in an affection for good out of regard to the Divine, love
Divine truth, since good and truth love each other and desire to be
conjoined.{1} This explains why the heathen, although they are not in
genuine truths in the world, yet because of their love receive truths
in the other life.
{Footnote 1} Between good and truth there is a kind of marriage
(n. 1904, 2173, 2508). Good and truth are in a perpetual
endeavor to be conjoined, and good longs for truth and for
conjunction with it (n. 9206, 9207, 9495). How the conjunction
of good and truth takes place, and in whom (n. 3834, 3843,
4096, 4097, 4301, 4345, 4353, 4364, 4368, 5365, 7623-7627,
9258).
320. A certain spirit from among the heathen who had lived in the
world in good of charity in accordance with his religion, hearing
Christian spirits reasoning about what must be believed, (for spirits
reason with each other far more thoroughly and acutely than men,
especially about what is good and true,) wondered at such
contentions, and said that he did not care to listen to them, for
they reasoned from appearances and fallacies; and he gave them this
instruction: "If I am good I can know from the good itself what is
true; and what I do not know I can receive.
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