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.

9488. 'And a cubit and a half its breadth' means what is complete so far as truth is concerned. This is clear from the meaning of 'one and a half' as what is complete, the reason why this number means what is complete being that 'three' has this meaning (for the half of a number is similar in meaning to the whole number, because a number that results from multiplication keeps the same meaning as a simple number of which it is the product through multiplication, 5291, 5335. Regarding 'three', that it means what is complete, see 2788, 7715, 9198; and that all numbers in the Word mean spiritual realities, 482, 487, 575, 647, 648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 4670, 5265, 5291, 5335, 5708, 6175, 7973); and from the meaning of 'breadth' as truth, dealt with immediately above in 9487.

114. The truth of faith was also meant and represented in the Word precious stones, for example, those in the breast plate of judgement, and upon the shoulder-pieces of Aaron's ephod. in the breastplate, the gold, blue, purple, double-dyed scarlet, and fine-twined linen represented matters of love, while the precious stones represented matters of faith deriving from love, as did the two stones of remembrance on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod which were made from shoham encompassed with settings of gold, Exodus 28:9-22. The same point, that the truth of faith is meant and represented by precious stones, is plainly stated in Ezekiel when the subject is the person who possesses the heavenly riches of wisdom and intelligence,

Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering ruby, topaz, diamond, tarshish, shoham, and jasper, sapphire, chrysoprase, and emerald. And gold, the work of your drums and of your pipes, was within you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created. Ezekiel 28:12-13, 15.

Anyone may see that celestial and spiritual things of faith, and not just stones, are meant. Indeed each stone represented a particular essential element of faith.