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.

5400. 'And [Jacob] saw' means the things that constitute faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'seeing' as those things that constitute faith, dealt with in 897, 2325, 2807, 3863, 3869, 4403-4421. When it has no link whatsoever with such things as exist in the world, sight - that is, spiritual sight - is nothing else than a perception of truth, that is, of such things as constitute faith. Therefore 'seeing' has no other meaning in the internal sense; for the internal sense emerges when everything of a worldly nature is set aside; for the internal sense concerns itself with the kinds of things that belong to heaven.

[2] The light of heaven which enables one to see there is Divine Truth received from the Lord. This appears before angels' eyes as light a thousand times brighter than the light at midday in the world; and because it holds life within it, that light therefore brings sight to angels' understanding at the same time as it does so to their eyes, imparting a discernment of truth to them which is regulated by the amount and the nature of good present within them. Because this chapter deals in the internal sense with those things that constitute faith, that is, with the truths known to the Church, the verb 'saw' is used at the very beginning of the chapter, 'saw' meaning the things that constitute faith.