Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #23
23. PROPOSITION THE SECOND
The Adamic, or Most Ancient Church of this Earth
The world has hitherto believed that by "the creation of heaven and earth," in the first chapter of Genesis, is meant the creation of the universe, according to the letter; and by Adam, the first man of this globe. Seeing that the spiritual or internal sense of the Word has not been disclosed till now, the world could not believe otherwise; nor, consequently, that by "creating heaven and earth" is meant to collect and found an angelic heaven from those who have finished with life in the world, and by this means to derive and produce a Church on earth (as above, n. 18-20); and that by the names of persons, nations, territories and cities, are meant such things as are of heaven, and at the same time of the Church: in like manner, therefore, by "Adam." That by "Adam," and by all those things which are related of him and his posterity in the first chapters of Genesis, are described the successive states of the Most Ancient Church-which are: its rise, or morning, its progression into light, or day; its decline, or evening; its end, or night; and after this the Last Judgment upon those composing it, and thereafter a new angelic heaven from the faithful, and a new hell from the unfaithful, according to the series of the progressions laid down in the preceding Proposition-has been explained, unfolded and demonstrated in detail in the ARCANA CAELESTIA on Genesis and Exodus, the labour of eight years, published in London; which work being extant in the world, nothing further is necessary than to recapitulate therefrom the universals respecting this Most Ancient Church, which will be cited in the present volume. At the outset, however, some passages shall be adduced from the Word, by which it is proved that by "creating" is there signified to produce and form anew, and, properly, to regenerate; on which account it is that regeneration is called a "new creation," by which the universal heaven of angels and the universal Church of men, exist, consist and subsist. That "creating" signifies this, is plainly manifest from these passages in the Word:
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a steadfast spirit in the midst of me (Psalm 51:10).
Thou openest the hand, they are filled with good; Thou sendest forth the Spirit, they are created (Psalm 104:28, 30).
The people that shall be created shall praise Jah (Psalm 102:18).
Thus said Jehovah, thy creator, O Jacob; thy former, O Israel: Every one that is called by My Name, I have created for My glory (Isa. 43:1, 7).
That they may see, know, consider and understand, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it (Isa. 41:20).
In the day that thou wast created, they were prepared; thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, until perversity was found in thee (Ezek. 28:13, 15):
these things are concerning the king of Tyre.
Jehovah that createth the heavens, that spreadeth abroad the earth, that giveth breath unto the people upon it (Isa. 42:5; 45:12, 18).
Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; be ye glad to eternity in that which I create: behold I will create Jerusalem a rejoicing (Isa. 65:17-18).
As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall stand before Me (Isa. 66:22).
I saw a new heaven and a new earth: the former heaven and the former earth are passed away (Rev. 21:1).
We, according to promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).
From these passages it is now manifest what is spiritually meant in the first chapter of Genesis, by the verses,
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was waste and empty (Gen. 1:1-2).
The earth's being said to be "waste and empty," signifies that there was no longer any good of life or truth of doctrine with its inhabitants. That "wasteness" and "emptiness" signify the lack of those two essentials of the Church, will be established in Proposition IV of this volume, respecting the Israelitish Church, by a thousand passages from the Word: at present let the following in Jeremiah serve for some illustration:
I saw the earth, when, behold, it was vacant and empty; and [I looked] towards the heavens, when their light was not. Thus said Jehovah, The whole earth shall be wasteness; for this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above shall be made black (Jer. 4:23, 27-28).
Heaven and Hell #73
73. Therefore Every Angel Is in Perfect Human Form
It has been explained in the two preceding chapters that heaven as a whole reflects a single individual and that the same holds true for each community in heaven. From the chain of causes presented there, it follows that each single angel reflects the same as well. As heaven is a person in greatest form and a community of heaven is a person in lesser form, so an angel is a person in least form; for in the most perfect form, like the form of heaven, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole. The reason for this is that heaven is a commonwealth. In fact, it shares everything it has with each individual, and individuals receive everything they have from the commonwealth. An angel is a recipient and therefore a heaven in least form, as has been explained in the relevant chapter above.
To the extent that they accept heaven, people here too are receptacles and heavens, and are angels (see 57 above).
This is described in the Book of Revelation as follows: "The wall of the holy Jerusalem was measured, a hundred and forty-four cubits, the measure of an individual, that is, of the angel" (Revelation 21:17). "Jerusalem" in this passage is the Lord's church, and in a more elevated sense, heaven. 1 The wall is the truth that protects it from the assault of false and evil things. 2 "A hundred and forty-four" refers to all good and true things as a whole. 3 "Measure" refers to its quality. 4 The human being is where all these things are found, in general and in specific, and therefore where heaven is found; and since an angel is a person as well because of these characteristics, it says "the measure of an individual, that is, of the angel." This is the spiritual meaning of these words. Apart from this meaning, who would understand that the measure of the wall of the holy Jerusalem would be the measure of an individual, which was the measure of the angel? 5
Footnotes:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] "Jerusalem" is the church: 402, 3654, 9166.
2. [Swedenborg's footnote] A wall is truth protecting from the assault of false and evil things: 6419.
3. [Swedenborg's footnote] Twelve refers to all true and good things taken together: 577, 2089, 2129-2130, 3272, 3858, 3913. The same holds for seventy-two and for a hundred and forty-four, because a hundred and forty-four is twelve multiplied by itself: 7973. All the numbers in the Word mean something: 482, 487, 647-648, 755, 813, 1963, 1988, 2075, 2252, 3252, 4264, 4495, 5265. Multiples have the same meaning as the simple numbers that produce them: 5291, 5335, 5708, 7973.
4. [Swedenborg's footnote] Measurement in the Word means the quality of an entity in regard to truth and good: 3104, 9603.
5 On the spiritual or inner meaning of the Word, see the expository work The White Horse Mentioned in the Book of Revelation, and the appendix to The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine.
