1. SUMMARIA EXPOSITIO DOCTRINAE NOVAE ECCLESIAE, QUAE PER NOVAM HIEROSOLYMAM IN APOCALYPSI INTELLIGITUR.

Postquam aliqua Opera et Opuscula de NOVA HIEROSOLYMA, per quam intelligitur NOVA Ecclesia a Domino instauranda, intra aliquot annos a me promulgata sunt, et postquam Apocalypsis revelata est, in animum induxi Doctrinam illius Ecclesiae in sua plenitudine, ita integram, in lucem edere: sed quia hoc aliquot annorum opus est, consultum duxi aliquam Sciagraphiam ejus emittere, propter causam, ut communis idea de illa Ecclesia et ejus Doctrina primum concipiatur; quoniam dum communia praecedunt, postea omnia et singula in sua latitudine exstantia in luce apparent, haec enim in communia intrant, sicut homogenea in sua receptacula. Attamen Breviarium hoc non subjicitur judiciis ventilandum, sed modo communicatur ad notitiam, quia hujus Contenta in ipso Opere plene demonstrabuntur. Sed praemittenda sunt Doctrinalia hodierna de Justificatione, propter sequentia de Discordantiis dogmatum Ecclesiae hodiernae et Ecclesiae novae.

18. VI. FROM THIS NEW HEAVEN THE LORD JEHOVIH DERIVES AND PRODUCES A NEW CHURCH ON EARTH, WHICH TAKES PLACE BY MEANS OF A REVELATION OF TRUTHS FROM HIS MOUTH, OR FROM HIS WORD, AND BY INSPIRATION. It is written that John:

"Saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband". (Rev. 21:2).

By the holy city, New Jerusalem, is meant the doctrine of the New Church, consequently the Church as to doctrine; and by Jerusalem descending from God out of the new heaven, is meant that the true doctrine of the Church is from no other source. That the doctrine descended, is because a Church is a Church from doctrine and according to it; apart from doctrine, a Church is no more a Church than a man is a man without members, viscera and organs, thus from the mere covering of skin, which only defines his external shape; nor any more than a house is a house without bed-chambers, dining-rooms and articles of use within, thus from the wall and arched roof alone. The case is similar with the Church apart from doctrine. That Jerusalem signifies the Church with respect to doctrine, may be seen proved from the Word in the work itself, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 782). From these things, it is manifest that the Church on earth is derived and produced by the Lord by means of the angelic heaven.