Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/235
This new Church is the crown of all the churches that have hitherto existed on the earth; because it will worship one visible God in whom is the invisible like the soul in the body. — That it is to endure forever and ever, and thus to be the crown of all the previous churches, Daniel prophesied, ii. 35, 44; vii. 13, 14.
What the character of this church will be, is fully described in the Revelation, where the end of the former church and the beginning of the new are treated of. This New Church is described by the New Jerusalem, by its magnificence, and by its being the future bride and wife of the Lamb, xix. 7; xxi. 2, 9. (T. C. R. 787, '90.)
NOT A NEW CHURCH-ORGANIZATION.
The Church hereafter [that is, from the year 1757] will be unlike what it has been heretofore. It will be similar, indeed, in the outward form, but dissimilar in the inward. Churches will exist, to outward appearance divided as heretofore; their doctrines will be taught as heretofore; and the same religions as now will exist among the Gentiles. But henceforth the man of the Church will be in a more free state of thinking on matters of faith, that is, on spiritual things which relate to heaven, because spiritual liberty has been restored to him.
I have had various converse with the angels concerning the state of the Church hereafter. They said