Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
The angels taken collectively are called heaven, because they constitute heaven, but yet it is the Divine proceeding from the Lord which inflows with the angels and is received by them, that makes heaven in general and in part. The Divine proceeding from the Lord is the good of love and the truth of faith. To the extent, therefore, that they receive good and truth from the Lord, in that measure they are angels and in that measure they are heaven.Everyone in the heavens knows, believes and even perceives that he wills and does nothing good from himself; and that he thinks and believes nothing of truth from himself; but from the Divine, thus from the Lord, and that the good and truth which are from himself are not good and truth because they have no life from the Divine in them. The angels of the inmost heaven also clearly perceive and feel the influx, and the more of it they receive, the more they seem to themselves to be in heaven, because the more are they in love and faith and in the light of intelligence and wisdom and in heavenly joy therefrom. Since all those [states] proceed from the Divine of the Lord and in these the angels have their heaven, it is clear that it is the Divine of the Lord that makes heaven, and not the angels from anything of their proprium.* This is the reason heaven in the Word is termed the "dwelling-place" of the Lord and "His throne" and why those who are there are said to be in the Lord. The manner in which the Divine proceeds from the Lord and fills heaven will be told in what follows.
Angels, from their wisdom, go still further. They say that not only everything good and true is from the Lord but everything of life as well. They confirm it by this, that nothing can come into existence from itself; but from something prior to itself. Therefore, all things come into existence from a First, which they call the very Being (Esse) of the life of all. Similarly, all things continue in existence, for continuing in existence is a perpetual coming into existence and what is not held continually by intermediates in connection with a First disappears there and then and is entirely dissipated. They say, further, that there is but one fountain of life and that man's life is a stream therefrom, which, if it did not unceasingly come into existence from its fountain, would immediately flow away.
Again, they say that from that one fountain of life, which is the Lord, nothing proceeds except Divine Good and Divine Truth which affect each one in accordance with the reception. Those who receive them in faith and life find heaven in them, but those who reject and suffocate them turn them into hell, for they turn good into evil and truth into falsity, thus life into death. The fact also that everything of life is from the Lord they confirm by this, that all things in the universe have reference to good and truth;
The life of a man's will, which is the life of his love, relating to good, and the life of a man's understanding, which is the life of his faith, relating to truth. Therefore, since everything good and true comes from above, it follows that so does everything of life. This being the belief of the angels, they refuse all thanks for the good that they do and are indignant and withdraw if anyone attributes good to them.They are astonished that anyone believes that he is wise from himself or does good from himself. Doing good for one's own sake they do not call good because it is from self; but doing good for the sake of good, they call good from the Divine, and they say it is this good that makes heaven because this Good is the Lord.
Such spirits as have confirmed themselves during their life in the world in the belief that the good that they do and the truth that they believe are from themselves or are appropriated to them as their own - which is the belief of all who attach merit to good actions and claim righteousness to themselves - are not received into heaven. The angels avoid them, regarding them as stupid and as thieves, stupid because they continually have themselves in view and not the Divine, thieves because they would take away from the Lord that which is His. These are opposed to the faith of heaven that the Divine of the Lord present with the angels makes heaven.
The Lord also teaches that those who are in heaven and in the Church are in the Lord and the Lord is in them, when He says:
Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me, ye can do nothing. (John 15: 4, 5).From these things it can now be established that the Lord dwells with the angels of heaven in what is His own, and thus that the Lord is the All in all things of heaven. The reason for this is that Good from the Lord is the Lord with the angels, for that which is from Him is Himself. Similarly it is plain that it is Good from the Lord which is heaven for the angels, and not anything of their proprium.
(Heaven and Hell 7-12)
* The Latin word proprium means "what is one's own". Swedenborg uses it in a special sense involving "what is of the self".