117. THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH, IN ITS PARTICULAR FORM, is this: That Jehovah God is love itself and wisdom itself, or that He is good itself and truth itself; and that as to the Divine truth itself, which is the Word, and which was God with God, He came down and assumed the Human, for the purpose of restoring to order all things which were in heaven, and all things which were in hell, and all things which were in the church; inasmuch as at that time, the power of the devil, that is, of hell, prevailed over the power of heaven, and on earth the power of evil over the power of good; and thence a total damnation stood before the door and threatened. This impending damnation Jehovah God removed by His Human, which was the Divine truth, and thus He redeemed both angels and men; and afterwards He united in His Human the Divine truth to the Divine good, and thus He returned into His Divine, in which He was from eternity, together with His glorified Human. This is signified by these words in John:
The Word was with God, and God was the Word; and the Word became flesh (John 1:1, 14). And by this in the same:
I went forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father (John 16:28). Hence it appears, that without the coming of the Lord into the world, no one could have been saved. The case is similar at this day; wherefore, unless the Lord come again into the world in Divine truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved. The particulars of faith on the part of man are these:-I. That God is one, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ. II. That saving faith is to believe in Him. III. That evils ought to be shunned, because they are of the devil and from the devil. IV. That goods ought to be done, because they are of God and from God. V. And that they should be done by man as of himself, but that he must believe that they are from the Lord with him and through him. The first two have relation to faith; the next two to charity; and the fifth respects the conjunction of charity and faith, and thereby of the Lord and man: see also what has been said above on these subjects (n. 44).
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