affection and
thought of angels extends itself, and that so far as the angels are
in that form they are in intelligence and wisdom. That this form of
heaven is from the Divine Human of the Lord can be seen above (n.
78-86). All this has been said to make clear also that the heavenly
form is such that even as to its generals it can never be completely
known, thus that it is incomprehensible even to the angels, as has
been said above.

213. XXIV. GOVERNMENTS IN HEAVEN.

As heaven is divided into societies, and the larger societies consist
of some hundreds of thousands of angels (n. 50), and all within a
society, although in like good, are not in like wisdom (n. 43), it
must needs follow that governments exist there, since order must be
observed, and all things of order must be guarded. But the
governments in the heavens differ; they are of one sort in societies
that constitute the Lord's celestial kingdom, and of another sort in
the societies that constitute His spiritual kingdom; they differ also
in accordance with the functions of the several societies.
Nevertheless, no other government than the government of mutual love
is possible in the heavens, and the government of mutual love is
heavenly government.

214. Government in the Lord's celestial kingdom is called
righteousness because all in that kingdom are in the good of love to
the Lord from the Lord, and whatever is from that good is called
righteous. Government there belongs to the Lord alone. He leads them
and teaches them in the affairs of life. The truths that are called
truths of judgment are written on their hearts; everyone knows them,
perceives them, and sees them;{1} and in consequence matters of
judgment there never come into question, but only matters of
righteousness, which belong to the life. About these matters the less
wise consult the more wise, and these consult the Lord and receive
answers. Their heaven, that is, their inmost joy, is to live rightly
from the Lord.

{Footnote 1} The celestial angels do not think and speak from
truths, as the spiritual angels do, because they have from the
Lord a perception of all things of truth (n. 202, 597, 607,
784, 1121, 1384, 1398, 1442, 1919, 7680, 7877, 8780, 9277,
10336). In respect to truths the celestial angels say, Yea,
yea, or Nay, nay; but the spiritual angels reason about them
whether they are true or not (n. 2715, 3246, 4448, 9166, 10786,
where the Lord's words, Let your s