454、有些灵人认为天堂在于安逸的生活，被别人伺候。我对他们说，幸福从来不在于直接从无所事事中寻求满足。如果真是这样，那么每个人都想把别人的幸福据为己有；如果人人都想这么做，那么将没有人获得幸福。这样的生活不是积极的，而是懒惰的，会造成惰性，使人变得迟钝。然而，他们本该知道，只有积极的生活才有幸福快乐可言。天使的生活在于功用和仁之良善，因为天使知道，再没有比做这些事更令他们幸福的了，即：给刚从世上来的灵人提供信息，并教导他们；服务世人，控制与他们同在的恶灵，防止他们越界，并以良善激励世人；使死者复活进入永生，如有可能，把灵魂带到天堂。他们在这些活动中感受到无法形容的快乐。他们就这样成为主的形像，也是这样来爱邻胜己的；天堂由此而为天堂。因此，天使的幸福在于功用，来自功用，取决于功用，也就是取决于爱与仁之良善。听到这些话，那些认为天堂的喜乐在于生活安逸、慵懒地呼吸永恒喜乐的灵人得着机会去感受这种生活到底是什么样，好叫他们知耻。他们发现，这是一种最悲哀的生活，毫无快乐可言；不久之后，他们就会厌倦这种生活，甚至感到恶心呕吐。
New Century Edition
Cooper(2008,2013)
[NCE]454. The opinion of some is that a life of leisure and being waited on by others constitutes heaven. To these I said that happiness never consists in seeking satisfaction directly from doing nothing. If it did, we would inevitably want to take others' happiness for our own, and if everyone did, no one would be happy. Such a life would not be active but idle, resulting in sluggishness — when as anyone can see life holds no joy unless it is active.
Angelic life consists in usefulness and acts of neighborly kindness. Nothing makes angels happier than giving information to spirits newly arrived from the world and teaching them; serving people on earth, making sure that the evil spirits present with them do not go too far, and inspiring them with good; and reviving the dead as they enter eternal life, eventually taking them to heaven, if the condition of their souls allows it. Angels find more happiness in these activities than could ever be described. In performing them they become images of the Lord. In performing them they love their neighbor more than themselves. This makes heaven.
Usefulness (that is, the good that comes of love and charity) is accordingly the substance, the source, and the measure of the angels' happiness.
When I had finished saying these things, the spirits who thought heavenly joy consisted in relaxing and idly breathing the air of eternal ecstasy were given the opportunity to perceive what such a life would be like. The idea was to embarrass them out of it. They saw that such a life was utterly depressing and that in short order, when inactivity had destroyed all their joy, they would grow sick and tired of it.
Potts(1905-1910) 454
454. Some think that heaven consists in a life of ease, in which they are served by others; but they are told that there is no possible happiness in being at rest as a means of happiness, for so everyone would wish to have the happiness of others made tributary to his own happiness; and when everyone wished this, no one would have happiness. Such a life would not be an active life, but an idle one, in which they would grow torpid, and yet they might know that there is no happiness except in an active life. Angelic life consists in use, and in the goods of charity; for the angels know no greater happiness than in teaching and instructing the spirits that arrive from the world; in being of service to men, controlling the evil spirits about them lest they pass the proper bounds, and inspiring the men with good; and in raising up, the dead to the life of eternity, and then, if the souls are such as to render it possible, introducing them into heaven. From all this they perceive more happiness than can possibly be described. Thus are they images of the Lord; thus do they love the neighbor more than themselves; and for this reason heaven is heaven. So that angelic happiness is in use, from use, and according to use, that is, it is according to the goods of love and of charity. When those who have the idea that heavenly joy consists in living at ease, idly breathing in eternal joy, have heard these things, they are given to perceive, in order to shame them, what such a life really is, and they perceive that it is a most sad one, that it is destructive of all joy, and that after a short time they would loathe and nauseate it.
Elliott(1983-1999) 454
454. Some spirits think that heaven and heavenly joy consist in a life of ease in which they are waited on by others. But they are told that happiness in no way consists in being inactive and finding happiness in that. This would mean that everybody wished to subordinate other people's happiness to his own, and when everybody wished to do that nobody would have it. Such life would not be an active life but a life of idleness in which they would become listless, even though they may well know that unless one is active there is no happiness in life. Angelic life consists in use, and in good deeds of charity. For angels never feel happier than when they are informing and teaching spirits that stream in from the world, or when they are ministering to men and are preventing the evil spirits with them overstepping the mark, and inspiring men with what is good; also when they are arousing the dead into the life of eternity, and after that introducing such souls into heaven if they are capable of it. The happiness they find in all this is more than can possibly be described. Angels in this way are images of the Lord; they love their neighbour more than themselves; and this is what makes heaven heaven. Consequently angelic happiness consists in use, stems from use, and is proportionate to use, that is, to the good deeds of love and charity. As for those spirits who had adopted the idea that heavenly joy consisted in being idle, and that in idleness they would be experiencing eternal joy, they were allowed - once told all this to make them ashamed of that idea - to perceive what such a life was really like. They perceived that it was an utterly dreary kind of life, and destructive of all joy; and that after a short while they would find it repulsive and nauseating.
Latin(1748-1756) 454
454. Quidam, quod consistat in vita otiosa, in qua serviantur ab aliis; sed iis dictum quod nusquam aliqua felicitas consistat in eo ut quiescant et inde habeant felicitatem; ita quisque vellet habere felicitatem aliorum propter semet, et cum quisque, nullus haberet; talis vita foret non activa sed otiosa, in qua torpescerent, cum tamen notum iis esse posset quod absque vita activa, nulla vitae felicitas; vita angelica consistit in usu, et bonis charitatis; nam nihil felicius percipiunt quam ut spiritus ex mundo alluentes informent et doceant; ut inserviant hominibus, et regant spiritus malos apud eos ne vagentur extra limites, atque illis bonum inspirent; tum ut mortuos in vitam aeternitatis exsuscitent, et dein, si possint, quod animae tales sint, in caelum introducant {1}; ex quibus plus felicitatis percipiunt quam ut usquam describi possit; ita sunt imagines Domini; ita amant proximum plus quam semet; ideo est caelum: quare in usu, et ex usu, et secundum usum, hoc est, secundum bona amoris et charitatis, felicitas angelica. Qui talem ideam habuerant quod gaudium caeleste consisteret in eo ut otiosi essent, respirantes in otio gaudium aeternum, his dictis ut pudefierent, datum erat illis percipere qualis vita talis; et percepta quod tristissima, et quod pereunte sic omni gaudio, post paucum tempus eam fastidirent et nausearent. @ 1 Text appears corrupt. Perhaps it should read si possit quod animae tales sint, ut in caelum introducant.$