1. THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH

A statement of faith, set out in both universal and particular terms, is placed at the beginning to serve as a preface to the book which follows, to be like a doorway leading into a church, and a summary presenting in a short compass what follows at more length. It is called the faith of the new heaven and the new church, because heaven, where the angels are, and the church among men form a single unit, just as the internal and external sides of the personality make up a single individual. This is why a member of the church who possesses the good of love which arises from the truths of faith, and possesses the truths of faith which arise from the good of love, is, so far as the interiors of his mind are concerned, an angel of heaven. Therefore too after dying he comes into heaven, and there enjoys happiness depending upon how far the good and truth are linked. It should be known that in the new heaven, which is at the present time being established by the Lord, this statement of faith serves as its preface, doorway and summary.

75. THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

Since the subject of this first chapter is God the Creator, it needs also to deal with His creation of the universe, just as the following chapter on the Lord the Redeemer needs also to deal with redemption. But no one can form a correct idea of the creation of the universe, unless some universal ideas are first suggested to bring the understanding into a perceptive state; these will be the following.

(i) There are two worlds, a spiritual world containing angels and spirits, and a natural world containing human beings.

[2] (ii) Each of these worlds has a sun. The sun of the spiritual world is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in its midst. From this sun emanate heat and light, the heat from it being in its essence love, and the light from it being in its essence wisdom. These two forces operate on the will and understanding of man, the heat on his will, and the light on his understanding. But the sun of the natural world is pure fire, so that the heat from it is lifeless, and so is its light. These serve as clothing and support to enable the spiritual heat and light to be transmitted to human beings.

[3] (iii) Those two forces emanating from the sun of the spiritual world, and consequently everything produced by them there, are substantial ¹ and are termed spiritual. The two similar forces emanating from the sun of the natural world, and consequently everything produced by them here, are material and are termed natural.

[4] (iv) In each world there are three degrees, termed degrees of altitude, and consequently three regions. The three heavens of the angels are arranged in this pattern, and so are human minds, which thus correspond to those three heavens of the angels. There is a like correspondence between all other things there and here.

[5] (v) There is a correspondence between things in the spiritual world and those in the natural world.

[6] (vi) There is an order to conform with which everything in each world was created.

[7] (vii) Some idea of these matters must first be grasped, for, if not, the human mind, such is its utter ignorance of these matters, can easily fall into thinking of the creation of the universe as the work of nature, merely relying on ecclesiastical authority to declare that nature was created by God. But through ignorance of how this was done, the mind upon a thoroughgoing investigation of the subject may slip headlong into a nature-worship that denies the existence of God. However, since to expound and prove these propositions one by one would require a large volume, and this is moreover not a chief part or subject of the theological system to which this book is devoted, I should like simply to present a few accounts of experiences, which will allow some idea of God's creation of the universe to be conceived, so that some offspring bearing its representation may be born of that conception.

Footnotes: