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THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY.

have their end in self or the world, then his affections are not genuine; but if they have their end in neighborly good, in the good of society, the good of his country, and especially in the good of the church and the Lord's kingdom, then they are genuine...

If any one is desirous to know the ends by which he is influenced, let him attend only to the delight which he perceives in himself as arising from praise and self-glory, and to the delight which he perceives as arising from use separate from self. If he perceives this latter delight, he is then in genuine affection...

When the good of his neighbor, the general good, the good of the Church and of the Lord's kingdom, is the end regarded, then man as to his soul is in the Lord's kingdom; for his kingdom is nothing else but a kingdom of ends and uses respecting the good of the human race. The very angels attendant on man have their abode solely in his ends of life. So far as a man has respect to an end of a like quality with what influences the Lord's kingdom, the angels are delighted with him, and conjoin themselves to him as to a brother: but so far as a man is influenced by selfish ends, the angels recede, and evil spirits from hell draw nigh; for in hell none but selfish ends have rule. (A. C. 3796.)

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