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.

793. A person is just as much a person after death, although he is then invisible to the eyes of the material body. This can be established from the cases of the angels seen by Abraham, Hagar, Gideon, Daniel and some of the prophets, from the angels seen in the Lord's tomb, And afterwards on many occasions by John, as he describes in Revelation. Above all, this is proved by the Lord Himself, who showed by touch and by eating that He was a human being, although He vanished from their sight. Can anyone be so crazy as not to acknowledge that, although invisible, He was just as much a human being? The reason they saw Him was that the eyes of their spirit were opened; and when these are opened things in the spiritual world appear just as plain as things in the natural world. The difference between people in the natural world and those in the spiritual world is that those in the spiritual world are clothed with a substantial body, but those in the natural world are clothed with a material body. This, however, has the substantial body within it, and a substantial person can see another one just as clearly as a material person can see another one. But a substantial person cannot see a material one, nor a material person a substantial one, on account of the difference between the material and the substantial. This is capable of being described, but not briefly.