2. Before treating of the New Jerusalem and its doctrine, something shall be said of the New Heaven and the New Earth. In the small work on The Last Judgment and the Destruction of Babylon it was shown what is meant by the "first heaven and the first earth" which had passed away. After they had passed away, and thus after the Last Judgment had been accomplished, the new heaven was created, that is, formed by the Lord. This heaven was formed of all those who after the Lord's advent even to the present time, had lived a life of faith and charity; since they alone were forms of heaven. For the form of heaven, according to which all consociations and communications are there effected, is the form of Divine Truth from the Divine Good which proceeds from the Lord; and this form a man puts on as to his spirit by a life according to Divine Truth.

That the form of heaven is from this source, may be seen in the work Heaven and Hell 200-212; and that all angels are forms of heaven, in Heaven and Hell 51-58, 73-77. From this it may be known, of whom the new heaven was composed, and hence also what its quality is; namely, that it is altogether of one mind; for he, who lives a life of faith and charity, loves another as himself, and through love conjoins him to himself, and thus reciprocally and mutually, because love in the spiritual world is conjunction. When, therefore, all act alike, then from many, yea, from countless numbers consociated according to the form of heaven, there arises one mind, and there results, as it were, a one; for there is nothing which separates and divides, but everything conjoins and unites.

9428. Verses 16-18 And the glory of Jehovah lay over Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and He called to Moses on the seventh day from the middle of the cloud. And the sight of Jehovah's glory was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into ¹ the mountain; and Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights.

'And the glory of Jehovah lay over Mount Sinai' means the more internal levels of the Lord's Word in heaven. 'And the cloud covered it' means the lowest level of the Word, which is obscure, comparatively so. 'Six days' means when passing through the state of truth. 'And He called to Moses on the seventh day' means the Lord's coming when truth has been joined to good. 'From the middle of the cloud' means from the obscurity which existed before. 'And the sight of Jehovah's glory was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel' means Divine Truth beaming brightly with the good of love in heaven itself, but harmful and ruinous with those restricted to its outward level, separated from the inward. 'And Moses went into the midst of the cloud' means the Word in its outward sense. 'And went up into the mountain' means being raised up to heaven. 'And Moses was in the mountain forty days and forty nights' means the instructions given and influx in their completeness.

Footnotes:

4492. 'All who went out of the gate of his city' means that they departed from the doctrine of the Church among the Ancients. This is clear from the meaning of 'going out' here as departing from, and from the meaning of 'the gate of the city' as doctrine, dealt with in 2943, 4477, here the doctrine of the Church among the Ancients, since it was the gate of 'his', that is, Shechem's, city. For 'Shechem' represents the truth of the Church among the Ancients, 4454, the phrase 'the Church among the Ancients' being used to mean that which descended from the Most Ancient Church, as also stated already. The implications of this will be evident from what follows next.