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.

399. (iii) LOVE IN GENERAL.

1. A person's life really is his love, and the nature of his love determines the nature of his life, and in fact the whole person. But it is the dominant or ruling love which makes the person. This love has a number of other loves subordinate to it, which are derivatives of it. These look to be different, but are each of them present in the dominant love, and together with it make up a single kingdom. The dominant love is, so to speak, their king and head; it controls them, and by using them as mediate aims keeps in view and pursues its own aim, which is both the primary and ultimate aim of all, and this both directly and indirectly.

[2] 2. It is characteristic of a dominant love that it is loved above all else. What a person loves above all else is constantly present in his thoughts, because it is in his will, and constitutes the very essence of his life. For instance, anyone who loves wealth above all else, whether it be money or possessions, is continually turning over in his mind how to acquire wealth; he experiences the most intense pleasure on acquiring it, the most intense grief on losing it, for his heart is in it. Anyone who loves himself above all else keeps himself in mind at every moment, thinks of himself, talks about himself, acts to his own advantage, for his life is the life of self.

[3] 3. A person's aim is what he loves above all else; that is what he keeps in view in every single thing. It is in his will, like an invisible current in a river, deflecting and carrying him away, even when he is doing something else; for that is what animates him. It is the sort of thing one person looks for in another, and seeing it, uses it either to lead him or to act together with him.

[4] 4. A person is exactly like the dominant feature of his life; this is what distinguishes him from others, and this determines his heaven, if he is good, and his hell, if he is wicked. This is his very will, his self (proprium) and his nature, for it is the very being of his life. After death this cannot be changed, because it is the person himself.

[5] 5. Everyone's sense of pleasure, bliss and happiness comes from his dominant love, and is dependent on this. For a person calls pleasant what he loves, because he feels pleasure in it. Something, however, he thinks about without loving he may also call pleasant, but this is not the pleasure of his life. The pleasure of love is what a person regards as good, and the unpleasant is what he regards as evil.

[6] 6. There are two loves from which all the kinds of good and truth come into being, as from their sources; and there are two loves which are the sources of all evils and falsities. The two loves which are the sources of all the kinds of good and truth are love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. But the two loves which are the sources of all evils and falsities are self-love and the love of the world. When these two latter loves are dominant, they are the exact opposites of the two former loves.

[7] 7. The two loves, being as has been said love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, make heaven exist with a person, since they are dominant in heaven. And because they make heaven, they also make the church exist with him. The two loves which are the sources of all evils and falsities, being as has been said self-love and the love of the world, make hell exist with a person, for they are dominant in hell. Consequently they also destroy the church with him.

[8] 8. The two loves which are the sources of all the kinds of good and truth, being as stated the loves of heaven, open up and form the internal spiritual man, because that is where they dwell. But the two loves which are the sources of all evils and falsities, being as stated the loves of hell, when dominant shut off and destroy the internal spiritual man, causing a person to be natural and sensual in proportion to the extent and nature of their dominion.

23. (iv) THE DIVINE BEING AND COMING-INTO-BEING IN ITSELF CANNOT GIVE RISE TO ANOTHER DIVINE WHICH IS BEING AND COMING-INTO-BEING IN ITSELF. CONSEQUENTLY ANOTHER GOD OF THE SAME ESSENCE IS IMPOSSIBLE.

It has so far been shown that the one God, the Creator of the universe, is Being and Coming-into-Being in itself, thus God in Himself. It follows from this that a God derived from God is impossible, because the very Essential of the Divine, which is Being and Coming-into-Being in itself, cannot exist in that other God. It makes no difference whether you say 'begotten by God', or 'proceeding from God'; both imply being produced by God, and there is little difference between this and being created. Therefore the introduction into the church of the belief that there are three Divine persons, each of whom is severally God and of the same essence, and one born from eternity, and a third proceeding from eternity, has the effect of utterly destroying the idea of the oneness of God, and with this all comprehension of Divinity, thus causing the whole of the spiritual side of the reason to be banished. This makes a human being no longer human, but totally and in all respects natural, in other words no different from an animal but for the power of speech; and it makes him an opponent of all the spiritual values of the church, since the natural man calls these mere ravings. This is the only source of such gross heresies about God as have flooded the world. On account of this the division of the Divine Trinity into persons has plunged the church not merely into darkness but into death.

[2] The idea of three Divine Essences which are the same is an offence to reason, as was made clear to me by angels who said that they cannot so much as utter the words 'three equal Divinities'; and if anyone came to them and wanted to say this he could not help turning his back on them; after saying it he would become like a human trunk and be cast down, subsequently going off to join those in hell who acknowledge no God. The truth is that to put in the mind of a small child or boy the idea of three Divine persons, which inevitably carries with it the idea of three gods, is to take away all spiritual suckling, and then all spiritual nourishment, and finally all spiritual rationality, and to bring about the spiritual death of those who become convinced of it. The distinction is this: those who in faith and in their hearts worship one God, the Creator of the universe, who is at the same time the Redeemer and Regenerator, are like the city of Zion in the time of David and the city of Jerusalem in Solomon's time, after the building of the Temple; but the church that believes in three persons, and in each as an individual God, is like the city of Zion and Jerusalem when they had been destroyed by Vespasian, and the Temple there had been burnt down. To go further, a person who worships one God in whom is the Divine Trinity and so is a single Person, becomes more and more alive and an angelic person; but one who lets a plurality of persons convince him of a plurality of gods becomes by degrees like a puppet with movable limbs, with Satan standing inside and talking through his jointed mouth.