AC 3938 - Heavenly Affections

AC 3938 [4, 5, 6, 7]

All affections have their delights;
but such as are the affections,
such are the delights.
The affections of evil and falsity
also have their delights;
and before a person begins to be regenerated,
and to receive from the Lord
the affections of truth and good,
these delights appear to be the only ones;
so much so that people believe
that no other delights exist;
and consequently that if they were deprived of these,
they would utterly perish.
But those who receive from the Lord
the delights of the affections of truth and good,
gradually see and perceive
the nature of the delights of their former life,
which they had believed to be the only delights --
that they are relatively vile, and indeed filthy.
And the further a person advances into
the delight of the affections of truth and good,
the more does he begin to regard
the delights of evil and falsity as vile;
and at last to hold them in aversion.

. . . the delight of charity
is that which fills the universal heaven,
and constitutes the blessedness and happiness there;
and if you will to believe it,
it constitutes the intelligence and wisdom also,
together with their delights;
for into the delights of charity
the Lord inflows
with the light of truth and the flame of good,
and with the derivative intelligence and wisdom.

. . . everyone can be admitted into heaven,
because heaven is denied by the Lord to no one;
. . . the life there is that of love to the Lord
and of love toward the neighbor,
which constitutes all the sphere and happiness
of the life there . . ..

Such is the happiness of being content in God.