127. Men's desire to probe into mysteries of faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge was not only the cause of the downfall of the Most Ancient Church, that is to say, of its descendants - to be dealt with in the next chapter; it is also the cause of the downfall of every Church. For that desire leads not only to falsities but also to evils of life.

6617. The fact that one idea holds countless details within itself has also been proved to me by the consideration that angels perceive in an instant the life led by a spirit or a man; they perceive it when they merely listen to him speaking or when they examine his thought. This is something the angels of a lower heaven are able to see; and the angels of a higher heaven can see still more. Some good spirit was taken up to the first heaven and spoke to me from there. He said that he saw an infinite number of things in what I was reading in the Word at that time; yet to me my thought on the subject lacked any such complexity. After this he was taken up to a more internal heaven, from which he said that he now saw still more, so much more that in comparison with it what he had seen previously seemed gross to him. After this he was therefore taken up to a yet more internal heaven, where the celestial angels are, and from there he said that what he had seen previously was hardly anything compared with what he saw now. While all this lasted, various things flowed in, and the various ones which were from there stirred me with affection.