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.

564. XI. A person who has never repented, or looked into himself and examined himself, ends up not knowing what is the evil that damns him and what the good that saves him,

Since so few people in the world of the Reformed Christians repent, it is necessary to add this point, that anyone who has not looked into or examined himself ends up not knowing what is the evil that damns him and the good that saves him. For he has no religious belief by which he can know this. The evil which a person does not see, recognise and acknowledge, lasts; and what lasts grows deeper and deeper roots until it blocks the interiors of his mind. This makes a person first natural, then sensual and finally bodily. In neither of these last two states does he recognise any damning evil or saving good. He becomes like a tree growing on hard rock, spreading its roots among the cracks in it, which ends up by withering for lack of moisture.

[2] Everyone who has been properly brought up is rational and moral. But there are two routes to rationality, one from the world, the other from heaven. A person who has followed the world's route to rationality and morality, and not that from heaven too, is only rational and moral in speech and behaviour; inwardly he is an animal, or rather, a wild beast, because he acts as one with the inhabitants of hell, where all are of this nature. However, a person who has also followed heaven's route to rationality and morality is truly rational and moral, because he is this at the same time in spirit, speech and body. Speech and body have the spiritual like a soul within them, and this activates the natural, sensual and bodily functions. He also acts as one with the inhabitants of heaven. There are therefore people who are rational and moral in a spiritual way, and also people who are rational and moral in a purely natural way. These cannot be told apart in the world, especially if a person is steeped in hypocrisy as the result of practising it. But the angels in heaven can tell them apart as plainly as doves from owls, or as sheep from tigers.

[3] A purely natural person can see evils and good qualities in others, and can also criticise others. But because he has not looked into and examined himself, he sees no evil in himself; and if any evil is uncovered by someone else, he employs his rational faculty to conceal it, like a snake hiding its head and plunging into the dust, or a hornet into dung. This is caused by the joy of evil, and this surrounds him, like mist over a marsh, absorbing and attenuating the rays of light. The joy of hell is nothing but this. From hell it exhales and flows into everyone, but into the soles of the feet, the back and the rear of the head. However, should it be received by the fore part of the head, or by the chest in the body, that person becomes a slave of hell. The reason is that the human cerebrum is assigned to the understanding and to its wisdom, the cerebellum to the will and its love. That is why the brain has two parts. But the only thing which can cure, reform and turn upside down that hellish joy is spiritual rationality and morality.

538. IX. Confession ought to be made before the Lord God the Saviour, and then prayer should be offered for help and the power to resist evils.

The Lord God the Saviour ought to be approached, because He is the God of heaven and earth, the Redeemer and Saviour, whose attributes are omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, mercy itself together with righteousness; also because man is His creation, and the church is His sheep-fold. The New Testament contains in many places His command that man should approach, worship and adore Him. He instructed us to approach Him alone in this passage of John:

In truth I tell you, anyone who does not go into the sheep-fold through the gate, but climbs up another way, is a thief and a robber. But he who goes in through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. I am the gate, anyone who goes in through me will be saved and will find pasture. A thief only comes to steal, slaughter and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and plenty. I am the good shepherd, John 10:1-2, 9-11.

The reason one ought not to climb up another way is so as not to approach God the Father, as He is invisible, and therefore unapproachable and incapable of being linked to man. That is why He came into the world, and made Himself visible, approachable and capable of being linked to. This was exclusively so that man could be saved. For unless in approaching God we think about Him as a man, all ideas about God are vain; they collapse like the power of sight directed towards the universe, that is, into empty space, or towards nature, or the objects inside nature that stand in the way.

[2] God Himself, who from eternity is one, came into the world, as is perfectly plain from the way the Lord the Saviour was born: He was conceived by the power of the Most High through the Holy Spirit, and as a result His Human was born of the Virgin Mary. From this it follows that His soul was the Divine itself, which is called the Father, since God is indivisible; and that the Human so born is the Human of God the Father, which is called the Son of God (Luke 1:32, 34-35). Again, it follows from these facts that when the Lord God the Saviour is approached, God the Father is also approached. That is why when Philip begged Him to show him the Father, He replied:

He who sees me, sees the Father. How is it then you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? Believe me, I am in the Father and the Father is in me, John 14:6-11.

More on this subject will be found in the chapters on God, the Lord, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity.