AE 670 - at the end of the old, a preservation for the new

AE 670 [2-4]
A few words shall be said to make known what in particular is involved in
"the going up into heaven of the two witnesses
that were slain and lived again."
(Revelation 11)
At the end of the church,
when there is no faith because there is no charity,
the interior things of the Word
which are to serve the New Church for doctrine and life are disclosed.
This was done by the Lord Himself,
when the end of the Jewish Church was at hand;
for the Lord Himself then came into the world
and opened the interiors of the Word,
especially those relating to Himself,
love to Him and love towards the neighbor, and faith in Him,
which before lay hidden in the interiors of the Word,
since they were in its representatives,
and so in the particular things of the church and of worship.
These truths, therefore,
that were disclosed by the Lord were interior truths,
and in themselves spiritual;
and these afterwards served the New Church for doctrine and life,
as has been said just above.
These truths, however, were not immediately received,
nor until after a considerable lapse of time,
as is well known from ecclesiastical history;
and for the reason that they could not be received
until all things in the spiritual world had been reduced to order;
for as the spiritual world is conjoined to the natural world with people,
so unless that world had been first reduced to order,
people in the natural world could not have understood
or perceived the goods of love and the truths of doctrine;
this is why so long a time intervened before the Christian Church
was universally established in the European world;
for all effects that exist in the natural world
derive their origin from causes in the spiritual world,
especially those that relate to the things of the church . . ..
[3] It was similar when the Most Ancient Church,
which was before the flood, came to its end,
for then the representatives of celestial things,
which existed among the most ancient people,
were gathered up into one body by those who were called "Enoch,"
and were preserved for the use of the New Church after the flood;
and this was called a representative church,
because its laws and statutes, and in general its worship,
consisted of representatives,
or of such things in the natural world as corresponded
to spiritual things in the spiritual world.
The like was done with these, that is,
they were separated from the evil
by being taken into heaven and thus protected,
and this till the old church came to its end,
when a New Church was to be established.
This is described by these words in Genesis:

And Enoch walked with God and he was no more,
for God took him.
(Genesis 5:24)

[4] The like is done at the present day.
This church, which is called Christian,
has at this day come to its end,
therefore the arcana of heaven and the church
have now been revealed by the Lord,
to serve as the doctrine of life and faith for the New Church,
which is meant by "the New Jerusalem" in Revelation.
This doctrine, too, has been taken up into heaven
lest harm be done to it by the evil
before the establishment of the New Church.
Such, therefore, is the signification of this respecting the two witnesses,
that "they went up into heaven;"
also of what follows in the next chapter,
where it treats of "the woman about to bring forth a child,"
before whom stood the dragon . . ..