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PREFACE.
vii

To this something shall be added by way of illustration: the christian heaven is below the ancient heavens; into this heaven, from the time of the Lord's abode in the world, were admitted those who worshiped one God under three persons, and who did not at the same time entertain an idea of three Gods; and this, by reason of a trinity of persons being received throughout the whole christian world; but they, who entertained no other idea of the Lord's Humanity, than as of the humanity of another man, could not receive the faith of the New Jerusalem, which is, that the Lord is the only God in whom there is a trinity; these latter, therefore, were separated and removed; it was given me to see their separation and removal after the last judgment. For upon a just idea of God, the universal heaven, and the church universal on earth, are founded, and in general the whole of religion; for by that idea there is conjunction, and by conjunction, light, wisdom, and eternal happiness.

Any one may see that the Apocalypse could no how be explained but by the Lord alone, since every word of it contains arcana, which never could be known without some special illumination, and consequent revelation; wherefore it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit and to teach me. It must not therefore be supposed that I have given any explication of my own, nor that even of any angel, but only what I have had