TCR 784 - A New Heaven Then a New Church on Earth; TCR 787 - Conjunction with a Visible God

TCR 784

It is according to Divine order
that a new heaven should be formed
before a New Church is established on earth.
For the Church is internal and external,
and the internal Church makes one
with the Church in heaven,
and consequently with heaven;
and the internal must be formed before the external,
and afterwards the external by means of the internal.
That this is so
is well known among the clergy in this world.
Just so far as this new heaven,
which constitutes the internal of the Church in a person,
increases, so far the New Jerusalem,
that is, the New Church,
comes down from that heaven.
Now this cannot take place in a moment
but only as the falsities
of the former Church are removed:
for what is new cannot enter
where falsities have previously been implanted,
unless those falsities are first rooted out.

TCR 787

The New Church is the crown of all the Churches
which have hitherto been on the earth,
because it will worship one visible God,
in whom is the invisible God,
as the soul is in the body.
. . . conjunction with a visible God
is like seeing a man in the air or on the water,
stretching forth his hands
and inviting all to his arms.