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.

806. The British ¹ in the spiritual world.

Human beings have two modes of thinking, external and internal. In the natural world they use the external mode, in the spiritual world the internal. These two modes act as one in the case of the good, but not in the case of the wicked. It is rarely possible in the natural world to see what a person's interior is like, since he has learned from childhood to behave well and rationally, and he likes to seem to be so. But in the spiritual world everyone's nature is plain to see, for then he is a spirit, and the spirit is the internal man. Now because I have been allowed to be in that world and see there what internal men from different kingdoms are like, it is my duty, because of its importance, to make this generally known.

Footnotes:

41. (iv) LOVE AND WISDOM ARE ONE IN GOD.

Every wise man who belongs to the church knows that all the good of love and charity come from God, and likewise all the truth of wisdom and faith. Human reason can see that this is so, so long as it knows that the source of love and wisdom is the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God, or, what is the same thing, they come from Jehovah God through the sun which surrounds Him. For the heat radiated by that sun is in its essence love, and the light from it is in its essence wisdom. So it is as plain as daylight that in their source love and wisdom are one; consequently in God too, since He is the source of that sun. The sun of the natural world can serve to demonstrate this: it is pure fire, its fiery property producing heat and the brilliance of its fire producing light; so these two are one at their source.

[2] But in their radiation heat and light become separated, as is shown by the things on which they act, some of which receive more heat and some more light. This is particularly true of people, for in this case the light of life, which is intelligence, is separated from the heat of life, which is love. This is because a person needs to be reformed and regenerated, which is impossible unless the light of life, which is intelligence, shows what ought to be willed and loved. It should, however, be known that God is constantly working to link love with wisdom in a person, though he, unless he looks to God and believes in Him, is constantly working to separate them. Therefore in so far as these two, the good of love or charity and the truth of wisdom or faith, are linked in a person, so far does he become an image of God, and is raised towards and into the heaven where angels live. In the contrary case, in so far as these two are separated in a person, so far does he become an image of Lucifer and the Dragon, and is cast down from heaven to earth, and then into hell beneath the earth. The result of these two being linked is that a person's state becomes like that of a tree in springtime, when heat is evenly combined with light, which produces budding, flowering and fruiting. In the contrary case, when these are separated, his state is like that of a tree in winter, when light loses its heat, and the tree is laid bare and stripped of all its leaves and greenery.

[3] When spiritual heat, which is love, is separated from spiritual light, which is wisdom, or, in other words, charity is separated from faith, a person becomes like rank or rotting soil, in which maggots thrive; and if it produces shrubs, their leaves are full of grubs which eat them up. For the enticements of the love of evil, which are in themselves longings, burst forth, untamed and unrestrained by intelligence, but rather fostered, pampered and nourished by it. In short, the separation of love and wisdom, or charity and faith, the two things God constantly strives to link, is, to use a comparison, like depriving a face of redness, so producing a pallor as of death; or taking the whiteness away from redness, which makes the face like a blazing torch. It is also like destroying the bond of marriage between a couple, so that the wife becomes a prostitute and the husband an adulterer. For love or charity resembles a husband, wisdom or faith a wife. Their separation brings about spiritual prostitution and fornication, which are the falsification of truth and the adulteration of good.