one went to hell, and thence spoke with Abraham, and that the other went to heaven.-Luke 16. 19-31; and what the Lord told the Pharisees respecting the resurrection, that "God is not the God of the dead but of the living." And then we see how inconsistent men are with themselves on these subjects. A worthy church-member who is a firm believer in the burning up of the world, and the resurrection of the dead at the Last Judgment, comes to his death-bed, and straightway all his doctrine passes into forgetfulness, and he talks of going home to glory in heaven, and being within a few hours of the angels. He dies, and his friends, as orthodox as himself, think of him as happy in heaven, and yet profess to believe in the resurrection of his corrupt and diseased body. What strange inconsistency is this! But it is one of the marks of error, that it is always inconsistent with itself. The leading fact in Swedenborg's doctrine of the Last Judgment, is, that it takes place in the spiritual world, where all men congregate after death. A judgment takes place in the world of spirits whenever a church comes to its end, that is, when its charity, and consequently its faith is dead, and all that remain are mere empty forms of life. A judgment took place at the time of the end of the Jewish church. For proof of this, we need only turn to the Gospel of John 12. 31, where Jesus said, " now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." We all know there was at that time no visible judgment in the natural world. Everything went on as before; yet at that time we learn, from the Lord's own lips, that there was a judgment effected.

It is a great mistake, and one which even the best of men labour under, to suppose that the soul of man exists alone, and independent of any influences but those that are external to him, and of which he is conscious. We would ask who ever saw a grain of matter independent of the law of gravitation, that cause which binds it to kindred matter with a bond as indestructible as its own existence ? It is the same with men's souls. No man lives independent of spiritual association. Place a man in the middle of some distant and desolate island; yet he is not alone. Around his soul are the spirits of those who have left the world before him, who love as he loves, and think as he thinks. The minds of men and spirits are most closely and intimately conjoined, for in the universe of mind, as in the universe of matter, there is no such thing as isolation and independency. And what can be more philosophical than such a doctrine? The laws of matter represent the laws of spirit; in every particular there exists a perfect correspondence. As matter is everywhere bound to matter, and compacted in firm communion, so likewise are the minds of men to be regarded as a universe of atoms, communised by loves and affections. In meditating on this subject, we must remember that spirit knows nothing of material space.

The church had been declining from the days of the Apostles. Men had forsaken the pure spirit of the gospel, and had sought to hide their evils of life by doctrines and creeds formed from their own darkened understandings. The popedom had arisen; and in the black night of the dark ages, had established its fearful assumptions, and blasphemously invoked the name of the Highest to sanctify its crimes. The Reformation, the last flicker of an expiring candle, had indeed established free thought, but it failed in its highest aims; and in the erroneous doctrine of justification by faith alone, had deadened the consciences of men, and extinguished all aspirations to high spiritual life. Last and worst of all, Atheism reared its horrid front, and openly manifested itself; yet what of it was open and confessed, was as nothing to what lay concealed even under the vestments of the church. Towards the middle of the last century, Christendom had reached its lowest point of degradation; and anyone who is anxious to test this affirmation of Swedenborg's, need only turn to the history and literature of that time, and observe the selfishness, the negation and ridicule of everything at all pure and spiritual, the gross ignorance, the licentiousness and intemperance, and in fact the reduction of humanity to its lowest and most bestial condition. He will then understand the cry of the good, at that time, in the world of spirits, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"

It is to be noted that from the time of the Lord's advent, when he effected the Judgment upon the Jewish church, the earth had been pouring into the world of spirits, in countless myriads, the souls of those who were thus full of evils and falsities, and who, collecting around terrestrial humanity, lay as thick clouds between it and heaven. Forming themselves into societies by spiritual affinities, the reformed churches were in the middle, the Romanists around them, the Mahommedans in a still outer ring, and the various gentile nations constituted a vast circumference, while beyond all lay the appearance of a sea as the boundary. Of the states of those associations, we have a most graphic picture in Swedenborg's treatise, and no where else out of the Apocalypse, do we find a more thorough exposure of the internal atheism of the priests of Rome, their blasphemies and subtlety. But the time of the end had come; the world groaned to be delivered; and the eyes of Swedenborg were favoured to behold the process of the great redemption.

The vast concourse of these spirits, formed into societies, is what is meant in the Revelation by the first heaven and the first earth which passed away. The manner in which these societies were dissolved, Swedenborg describes as follows:-"Visitation was made by angels, and admonition given, and the good were singled out and separated by the heavenly ministers, agreeably to the Lord's

words, 'He shall send his angels, and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other;' and again, all nations shall be gathered together before the Son of Man; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, and he shall set the sheep on the right hand, and the goats on the left."" Then followed destruction. There were great earthquakes, and a vehement wind, which swept all before it. Then gulfs yawned, and seas appeared, into which the wicked threw themselves, and were drawn to their place in hell. "Then," says Swedenborg, "I saw angelic spirits in great numbers rising from below, and received into heaven. They were the sheep who had been kept and guarded by the Lord, and who are understood in the Word by the bodies of saints which arose from their sepulchres and went into the holy city; and by the souls of those slain for the testimony of Jesus, and who were watching; and by those who were of the first resurrection.

"After this, there was joy in heaven, and light in the world of spirits, such as was not before; and the interposing clouds between heaven and mankind being removed, a similar light also then arose on men in the world, giving them new enlightenment."

Such was the Last Judgment. Its centenary draws nigh; and how fruitful in good to mankind has been that century which is now drawing to a close! It is unnecessary to repeat the hackneyed phrases which tell of the progress of the world during the last hundred years; every newspaper speaks of it; everybody with open eyes observes it. It has become the universal opinion that the world is moving onwards and upwards, yet how few take time to think why the world is so moving. Men have yet to learn that effects can no more take place without adequate causes, in the universe of mind than in the universe of matter. Nowhere out of Swedenborg can we find a description of those spiritual causes which are changing society and revolutionising the whole world. We who live in the dawn of the new era, can form, even in our highest states, but a faint conception of its coming glory. Yet we see in the wonderful movements of our age, in its growing benevolence, in its increasing intelligence and thoughtfulness, and in the prodigious advances that are making in every department of science and art, so many indubitable signs that the former things have passed away, and that the Lord is making all things new.

Everyone knows that in the Scriptures, the second coming of the Lord is described as simultaneous with the Last Judgment. We will hereafter endeavour to prove that the Lord has indeed come, and will describe the manner of his coming.

The acceptation of the doctrine of the Last Judgment involves not a few difficulties, because the comprehension of it demands the understanding of many principles and spiritual laws unknown to the world

at large, yet most worthy of any amount of labour requisite to master them. The remembrance of this fact will serve as an apology for any appearance of unfounded assumption in the outline of the doctrine we have given.

CHAPTER 13.

Heaven and Hell.

The treatise on Heaven and Hell is, perhaps, the most charming of Swedenborg's writings. Its subjects possess a universal attraction; for, what believer in the immortality of man has not, at times, longed to penetrate the awful mysteries of the unseen world? And there is nothing unreasonable in the desire. True it is, that until Swedenborg came, any but the most general knowledge of the nature of the future life had been withdrawn from mankind since the days of primeval innocence; yet not from anything hurtful in the knowledge itself, but simply because the sublime facts of the future state transcended the apprehension of men inmersed in worldly loves and cares, and denying and ridiculing every idea which was not an object of sensual perception. For this reason the Lord said to his disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now."-John 16. 12. We frequently see this inability to "bear" things spiritual and divine, manifested in our own experience. We offer Swedenborg's treatise, for perusal, to some man of science, full of self-confidence, with the laws and facts of the universe at his finger's ends; or to some deeply-read theologian. The title page is read,—“ Heaven and its Wonders, the World of Spirits, and Hell; being a relation of things heard and seen." It is enough. "What nonsense! What foolish

How

ness! The lunatic! What could he know of heaven or hell? could he get there? The impostor! None but a fool could write such a book!" and so on. The title page settles the whole question. Now what can be said in reply to these railers, of whom the world is ful? How can one argue with, and combat, such inveterate prejudice. Yet these people are professing Christians. They profess to believe there is a heaven and a hell. But, does not their unrelenting condemnation of Swedenborg betray a lurking infidelity in their hearts? If they really possessed a living faith in the existence of heaven and hell, it could not appear to them so utterly preposterous that some account of their nature might in these times have been revealed, through the kind mercy of the Lord.

But the world now contains many willing to receive, and able to understand, the truths of the future life. The Lord, who never allows his children to lack any good thing, has, in due season, given them,

through Swedenborg, this precious and delightful volume. briefly enumerate its leading facts.

Let us

The spiritual world divides itself into three great regions,—Heaven the World of Spirits, and Hell.

Heaven is formed of all who have loved the Lord on earth by living a life in accordance with his laws. The laws of spiritual life are known, more or less perfectly, in all nations, even among the heathen. The lowest of the Gentiles have some faint rays of the light of spiritual truth, and if they live in obedience thereto, regeneration, and consequently, heaven, is attainable by them. Yet heaven has its degrees of bliss. Good persons of every variety of character pass into it. But the promiscuous association of these different kinds of character would not be orderly, and could not be blissful. By the law of spiritual gravitation, (from which the law of natural gravitation is but a derivation, and of which it is a type and image,) all who possess similar affections and intelligence are drawn together, and co-ordinated in the most blissful harmony. The infinite variety of heaven thus arranges itself, in general, into two kingdoms; specifically into three heavens; and in particular, into innumerable societies. The two kingdoms are respectively called celestial and spiritual. The angels forming the celestial kingdom are characterized by their exceeding love of the Lord and of goodness, and the angels who form the spiritual kingdom are distinguished by their exceeding love of their neighbour and of truth. The celestial angels are immensely wiser than the spiritual, and their blessedness is ineffable. Specifically there are three heavens, perfectly distinct, called the first heaven, the second or middle heaven, and the third or highest heaven; or they may be called external, internal, and inmost; or natural, spiritual, and celestial. Of these three heavens the highest or third, together with the internal of the first or lowest heaven, forms the celestial kingdom; and the middle or second, together with the external of the first or lowest heaven, forms the spiritual kingdom. These three heavens and two kingdoms, arising out of the varieties of the human mind, are not arbitrary distinctions. The external, first, or natural heaven, is formed of those who, from a principle of obedience and duty, live in accordance with the Divine will. The second, spiritual, or middle heaven, is formed of such as love truth, delight in things intellectual, and at the same time are in disinterested love to the neighbour. The inmost, third, or celestial heaven, is formed of those who, full of love to the Lord, are in innocence. These celestial angels, gifted with the highest wisdom and peace, yet full of humility, indefinitely exceed all beneath them in beauty and wisdom. The existence and order of the three heavens was represented by the courts of the Jewish temple. The celebrated Oberlin, a diligent reader of Swedenborg, had a plan of the courts of the temple