Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/249

XXIII.

STATE OF MANKIND BEFORE AND AFTER THE LAST JUDGMENT.

N order to know anything of the state of the world and the church before and after the last judgment, a thorough knowledge of the following subjects is necessary:

I. What is understood by the former heaven and the former earth which passed away. (Apoc. xxi. 1.)

II. Who and what manner of men those were in the former heaven and the former earth.

III. Before the last judgment was effected upon them, much of the communication between heaven and the world, therefore also between the Lord and the church, was intercepted.

IV. After the last judgment the communication was restored.

V. Hence it is, that after the last judgment and not before, revelations were made for the New Church.

VI. The state of the world and of the church before the last judgment was as evening and night; but after it, as morning and day.

I. The former heaven and the former earth mentioned (Apoc. xxi. 1), neither mean a heaven visible to the eyes of men in the world, and an earth inhabited by men; nor the former heaven which is the