AE 831 - spiritual angels

AE 831 [2-6, portions of]
Spiritual love is the love of truth,
and in the highest sense
the love of the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord;
thus it is also love to the Lord,
but in a lower degree than that in which the celestial angels are.
The celestial angels are in love to the Lord
from the reception of Divine good from Him,
while the spiritual angels are in love to the Lord
from the reception of Divine truth from Him.
. . . As spiritual love is love of truth,
and spiritual angels in respect to their life are affections of truth,
they speak about the holy things of heaven and the church,
unlike the angels of the third heaven . . ..

. . . spiritual angels admit truths first into the memory,
and from that into the understanding,
which is thus formed by these truths;
and then they are perfected so far
as they are spiritually affected by Divine truths . . ..

. . . with spiritual angels intellectual sight is spiritual sight.
These angels are perfected in understanding
so far as they are in the love of truth for the sake of life and its genuine uses;
and in the same measure
truths are implanted in their life and they become affections of truth.
For as truths derive all their essence and all their life from good,
so the understanding derives
all its essence and life from the will and its activity;
for the understanding is the receptacle of truth,
and the will the receptacle of good,
and their activity fills and establishes them.
. . . For the will has no existence unless it becomes active;
and when there is no will the understanding perishes,
and there remains merely the faculty to understand.

. . . all in the spiritual heaven love uses,
and are intent on works,
by which their thoughts are kept as it were at home,
and withheld from idleness, which is,
as it is also called the devil's pillow.

In the spiritual heaven there are magnificent palaces,
in which all things within shine with precious stones
and decorations in such forms as cannot be equaled
by any painting in the world, nor expressed in words.
For art there, especially that of architecture, is in its own art.
From that heaven many arts in the world derive their laws and harmonies,
from which come their forms of beauty.
. . . The spiritual angels are clothed in garments of fine linen and silk,
generally in shining garments.
And as the spiritual heavens correspond to the eyes,
there are paradisiacal scenes,
as also in many places rainbow colored appearances
and these also are of ineffable beauty.
They know nothing there about the sense of the letter of the Word,
but only about its spiritual sense,
for they have the Word in that sense,
which is read by everyone.
In that heaven, justice, integrity, verity, chastity,
and the other praiseworthy virtues of moral life reign.
These heavens constitute the royalty of the Lord,
while the higher heavens, where the celestial angels are,
constitute the priesthood of the Lord;
for His royalty is Divine truth,
and His priesthood is Divine good.