CL 23. At dawn they heard a proclamation, “Today is the Sabbath.” And they arose, and asked the angel what that was. He answered, “It is for the worship of God, which recurs at stated times and is proclaimed by the priests. It is celebrated in our temples, and continues about two hours. Come with me, therefore, if you like, and I will take you there. And they made ready and went with the angel and entered. And behold! a large temple, capable of containing about three thousand, semi-circular, with benches or seats extending around in a continuous sweep, according to the form of the temple, the rear seats more elevated than those in front. The pulpit before them was a little back from the center. The door was behind the pulpit at the left. The ten newcomers went in with their angel guide, and the angel assigned them the places where they were to sit, saying to them, “Everyone who enters the temple knows his place. He knows it from a something within and cannot sit elsewhere. If he sits in any other place he hears nothing and perceives nothing; and he also disturbs order, and because of this disturbance, the priest is not inspired.”

CL 24. When the congregation was assembled, the priest ascended the pulpit and preached a sermon full of the spirit of wisdom. The sermon was on the holiness of the Sacred Scripture, and on the conjunction of the Lord both with the spiritual world and the natural world by means of it. In the state of enlightenment in which he was, he fully proved that this Holy Book was dictated by Jehovah, the Lord; and that therefore, He is in it, even so that He is the wisdom in it; but that the wisdom, which is Himself in it, lies concealed beneath the sense of the letter, and is only opened to those who are in truths of doctrine and at the same time in goods of life, and so are in the Lord and the Lord in them. To the sermon he added a reverent prayer, and descended. The audience having departed, the angel requested the priest to speak a few words of peace with his ten companions; and he came to them, and they conversed for about half an hour.

He spoke of the Divine Trinity, that it is in Jesus Christ in whom dwells all the fulness of Divinity bodily, according to the declaration of the Apostle Paul. And afterwards he spoke of the union of charity and faith, but he said the union of charity and truth, because faith is truth.

HH 221. Divine Worship in Heaven. Divine worship in the heavens is not unlike Divine worship on the earth in externals, but in internals it is different. In the heavens, as on the earth, there are doctrines, preachings, and church edifices. In essentials the doctrines there are everywhere the same; but in the higher heavens they contain more interior wisdom than in the lower. The preachings are in harmony with the doctrines; and as they have houses and palaces, so they also have church edifices, in which there is preaching.

HH 222. I have talked with angels on this subject and told them that it is believed in the world that Divine worship consists solely in attending church, listening to the preaching, observing the sacrament of the Supper three or four times a year, and performing other acts of worship according to the requirements of the church; also devoting special times to prayers, and at such times, behaving devoutly. The angels said that these are outward acts that ought to be done, but are of no avail unless there is an internal from which they proceed, which is a life in accordance with the precepts that doctrine teaches.

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