HH 64 - Uses Working Together

HH 64

So many different things in a person act as a one,
because there is no least thing in him
that does not do something for the general welfare
and perform some use.
The general performs a use for its parts,
and the parts for the general,
for the general is composed of the parts
and the parts constitute the general;
therefore they provide for each other,
have regard for each other,
and are joined together in such a form
that each thing and all things have reference to
the general and its good;
so it is that they act as one.

In the heavens there are like affiliations.
Those there are conjoined according to uses
in a like form;
and consequently those who do not
perform uses for the common good
are cast out of heaven as something heterogeneous.
To perform use is to will well to others
for the sake of the common good;
but to will well to others
not for the sake of the common good
but for the sake of self is not to perform use.
These latter are such as love themselves supremely,
while the former are such as love the Lord supremely.
So it is that those who are in heaven act as a one;
and this they do from the Lord,
not from themselves,
for they look to Him as the Only One,
the source of all things,
and they regard His kingdom as the general,
the good of which is to be sought.
This is what is meant by the Lord's words,

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all things shall be added unto you.
(Matthew 6:33)

"To seek His righteousness" means to seek His good.

Those who in the world love their country's good
more than their own,
and their neighbor's good as their own,
are those who in the other life love
and seek the Lord's kingdom;
for there the Lord's kingdom takes the place of country;
and those who love doing good to others,
not with self as an end
but with good as an end,
love the neighbor;
for in heaven good is the neighbor.
All such are in the Greatest Man, that is, heaven.