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.

497. IX. A person's will and understanding enjoy this free will; but wrong doing in both the spiritual and natural worlds is curbed by laws, since otherwise society in either world would cease to exist.

Simply by observing one's own thought process it is possible to know that everyone enjoys free will in spiritual matters. Is there anyone who is not free to think about God, the Trinity, charity and the neighbour, faith and how it works, the Word and everything to be learned from it, and after studying theology about its details? Everyone can think, or rather form a conclusion, teach and write either in favour of these things or against them. If a person were deprived for one instant of this freedom, would not his thinking come to a halt, his tongue fall silent, and his hand be paralysed? So, my friend, you can if you like, simply by observing your own thought process, reject and abominate that absurd and damaging heresy, which at the present time has throughout Christendom cast a pall of lethargy over heaven's teaching about charity and faith, leading to salvation and everlasting life.

[2] The reasons why this free will is located in a person's will and understanding are as follows:

(1) Those two faculties must first be taught and reformed, and by their means the two faculties of the external man which enable him to speak and act.

(2) Those two faculties of the internal man constitute his spirit, which lives on after death, and is subject only to Divine law; and it is the leading principle of this that a person should have the law in mind, keep it, and obey it of his own accord, yet by the Lord's guidance.

[3] (3) Man as far as his spirit is concerned is midway between heaven and hell, and so between good and evil, so as to be in equilibrium. This is the source of his free will in spiritual matters; on this equilibrium see 475ff above. But so long as he lives in the world, he is as far as his spirit is concerned in equilibrium between heaven and the world. A person is then almost completely unaware that to the extent that he retreats from heaven and approaches the world, he also approaches hell. He is unaware of this and yet is not unaware, in order that in this respect too he should enjoy freedom and be reformed.

[4] (4) These two faculties, the will and the understanding, are designed to receive the Lord; the will receives love and charity, the understanding wisdom and faith. The Lord performs each of these acts while giving the person full freedom, so that their linking should be mutual and reciprocal, and the means to salvation.

(5) Any judgment to which a person is submitted after death is in accordance with the way he has used his free will in spiritual matters.