1. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Containing THE UNIVERSAL THEOLOGY OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH

THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH

This faith is presented at the outset in its general and in its particular form. It is so presented that it may serve as a preface to the whole work which follows, as a gateway, as it were, by which entrance is made to a temple, and as an epitome in which the subsequent details are duly summarized. It is said to be "The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church" because heaven, where angels are, and the Church, in which men are, act as one like the internal and the external with man. Hence it is that the member of the Church, who is in the good of love from the truths of faith, and in the truths of faith from the good of love, is an angel of heaven as to the interiors of his mind. Thus he enters into heaven after death, and there enjoys happiness according to the degree in which those principles are united in him. It should therefore be known that this faith in its summary form is the index and gateway of the new heaven now being formed by the Lord.

587. V. THE FIRST ACT OF THE NEW BIRTH, WHICH IS AN ACT OF THE UNDERSTANDING, IS CALLED REFORMATION; AND THE SECOND, WHICH IS AN ACT OF THE WILL AND THENCE OF THE UNDERSTANDING IS CALLED REGENERATION.

Since reformation and regeneration are treated of here and in the following articles, reformation being ascribed to the understanding and regeneration to the will, it is necessary that the distinctions between the understanding and the will should be known. As these have been described above in 397, it is advisable that it should be read over before the contents of this article. It was shown in that number that the evils into which man is born are implanted in the will of the natural man, and that the will induces the understanding to favor it by thinking in agreement with it. Therefore, that man may be regenerated, it is necessary that it be done by means of the understanding, as by a mediate cause; and this is effected by the instruction which the understanding receives, first from teachers and parents, and afterwards from reading the Word, from sermons, books and conversation. What the understanding thus receives are called truths, so that it is the same whether it is said that reformation is effected by means of the understanding or by means of the truths which it receives. For truths instruct a man in whom and in what he ought to believe, and also what he ought to do, as whatever a man does, he does from the will according to the understanding. Since, then, the will of man itself is by birth evil, and the understanding teaches what is evil and what is good, and he has the power to will, or not to will, either the one or the other, it follows that he must be reformed by means of the understanding. So long as he sees and acknowledges in his own mind that evil is evil, and that good is good, and thinks that good ought to be chosen, that state is called reformation; but when he determines to shun evil and do good, then commences the state of regeneration.

209. (8) SOME WONDERFUL THINGS CONCERNING THE WORD FROM ITS SPIRITUAL SENSE.

In the natural world wonderful appearances do not proceed from the Word because the spiritual sense is not manifest there; nor is it interiorly received by man, as it is in itself. In the spiritual world, however, wonderful things do appear from the Word, for there all men are spiritual, and spiritual things affect the spiritual man just as natural things affect the natural man. I will now mention a few of the many wonderful things that arise in the spiritual world from the Word. The Word itself placed in the shrines of the temples there, shines before the eyes of the angels like a great star, and sometimes like a sun, and from the bright radiance which surrounds it there also appear as it were beautiful rainbows. This happens whenever a shrine is opened.

[2] I was also able to observe, that all the individual truths of the Word cast a radiance, from this fact that when any verse from the Word is written upon a piece of paper, and the paper is thrown into the air, the paper shines with a radiance in the form in which it has been cut; so that spirits by means of the Word can produce various shining forms, including those of birds and fish. But what is still more wonderful, if any person rubs his face, his hands, or the clothes he is wearing, against the open Word, so as to touch the writing with them, his face, hands and clothes shine as though he were standing in a star, encompassed with its light. This I have often seen to my great wonder; and it was thus evident to me why the face of Moses shone, when he brought down the Tables of the Covenant from Mount Sinai.

[3] Besides those wonderful things that appear in the spiritual world arising from the Word, there are many others of a different nature. For instance, if any one who is principled in falsities looks upon the Word as it lies in its sacred place, darkness rises up before his eyes, and the Word appears to him black, and at times as if covered with soot; while if he touches the Word, a loud explosion follows, and he is thrown into a corner of the room, where he lies for a time as if dead. Again, if a passage from the Word is written upon a piece of paper by a person who is in falsities, and the paper is thrown up towards heaven, then a similar explosion follows in the air between his eye and heaven; the paper is torn into shreds and disappears. The same thing happens if the paper is thrown towards an angel ¹ standing near by, as I have often witnessed.

[4] In this way it has become clear to me that those who are in falsities of doctrine have no communication with heaven by means of the Word, but that their reading of it is dissipated on the way, and vanishes like gunpowder enclosed in paper, when ignited and thrown into the air. The reverse happens with those who are in truths of doctrine from the Lord through the Word. Their reading of the Word penetrates even into heaven and effects conjunction with the angels there. The angels themselves, when they descend from heaven to discharge any duty below, appear surrounded with little stars, particularly about the head, for this is a sign that they are principled in Divine truths from the Word.

[5] Moreover, in the spiritual world there are things similar to those on earth; but all things there have a spiritual origin. Thus there are gold and silver, and precious stones of all kinds; and the spiritual origin of these is the sense of the Letter of the Word. This is why, in the Revelation, the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem are described as twelve precious stones, for the foundations of its wall signify the doctrines of the New Church derived from the sense of the Letter of the Word. For the same reason also, in Aaron's ephod there were twelve precious stones, called Urim and Thummim, and by means of these stones responses were given from heaven. Besides these, there are many more wonderful things arising from the Word, which have relation to the power of its indwelling truth. This power is so great that a description of it would surpass all belief. It is such that in the spiritual world it overturns mountains and hills, removes them to a distance and casts them into the sea. Many are the other wonders it performs, for in short, the power of the Lord by virtue of the Word is infinite.

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