faith are rendered so obvious to the human understanding, as to admit of being illustrated in the rational faculty, in the same manner as truths of a scientific character. Under such a dispensation, men will cast off superstition and its influences, and every attempt at imposition by the influence of dogmatical authority. The presumption of infallibility on the part of the priesthood will be thrown to the winds; and all appearance of external sanctity will be scrutinized to the utmost, especially in all cases in which it exceeds the genuine simplicity which ought to characterize the man and the Christian. Under a dispensation of this nature, education will train the mind against deception, by leading it to test every thing proposed for belief by the proper rules of sound judgement, even matters of religion, as well as of character. When all religious truths may be rationally apprehended, and when they will appear more evident, glorious, convincing and satisfactory, the better they are understood; there will remain no inducement to lull suspicion to sleep, or to seek an extension of religion by forcing unenlightened ignorance to worship at its shrine. In this state of the church, the last judgement, in the world of spirits, will be speedy and universal; so that the spirits inwardly bad, but externally pious, will shortly appear in their true characters; and of themselves they will seek to be separated from good spirits, as soon as they are aware that they are known to them as to their real characters. The good spirits, too, can have no desire for continued immediate intercourse with them, as soon as they are fully assured that they are actuated by wicked motives, and are bent upon the gratification of the worst feelings.

But the churches which have hitherto existed upon this globe have not been of this character. All previous to the Lord's coming were representative churches, and worshiped God as an invisible being. The Christian church, shortly after its commencement, divided the Godhead into three Gods, and made an inscrutable mystery of the Trinity, and of every other principal dogma of the Christian religion: till at last it is required that every dogma of the church should be implicity believed; and that faith alone, without the deeds of the law, meaning the ten commandments, the laws of justice and morality, was sufficient for salvation. In this state of the church, there is no genuine faith, because there is no genuine charity; that is, in the mass of professors of its doctrines; for a remnant there will always be, by which the connexion of the old church with heaven and the Lord is preserved till the new can commence and be in some degree established. Faith can only become genuine as it becomes

filled with pure charity; that is, pure love of the neighbour, springing out of the love of the Lord.

14. That in the execution of the last judgement, the righteous and the wicked are eternally separated from each other; the former being taken into heaven, and the latter cast into hell.

We shall make this our concluding proposition. It has been evidently the ultimatum in the whole of this discussion. We have seen why the good and the wicked are permitted to dwell together in the world of spirits, till the time of separation arrives, which is that of the last judgement; when, like the tares and wheat at the time of harvest, they can be separated without detriment to the wheat.

The Lord, in his infinite mercy, has provided that, as the good and wicked in character are opposites, they shall not always be under the necessity of living in the presence of each other; that, when neither can be further benefited by living in the society of each other; that is, when the good cannot be further purified by trials from the wicked, nor the wicked be led to repentance and amendment, but grow more hardened under the influence of the good; they shall then be separated, and for ever, and be formed into opposite associations, with such provision for the life of each, according to the laws of the spiritual world, as shall be most conducive to the weal of all things, and to the realization of the divine end in creation.

Both heaven and hell are from mankind. Their real and inward states, in their correspondences, constitute the sensible spaces and the sensible objects of the spiritual world. The nature and beauty of these are in proportion to the eminence of the good and use designed, and the wisdom and intelligence in the execution of the purpose. When that good and use, as in the whole heavens, is to the utmost liberal for the benefit of all, without selfishness, then every thing beautiful and lovely appears, in rich abundance, for life and its enjoyment, as the proper possession of those kind spirits in whom such benevolence is the very life's love. On the contrary, the opposite love produces, by correspondence, monstrous and comparatively useless forms; or such as, if useful at all, are only so in a vile sense, and on a scale limited as the selfishness in which they originate. The wicked appear in consequence to live in the midst of burning flames, which correspond to their destructive lusts; in sandy and barren deserts, which correspond to their spiritual destitution of all true wisdom, and to their wild phantasies which they, in their insanity, esteem as their wisdom or intelligence. They are surrounded by things the most filthy and abominable in form, color, and stench, as

correspondences to their most unclean and filthy affections, desires, and thoughts; and any pleasure they may have in such things can only be compared to the pleasure of the filthy swine, when wallowing in the mire. Such, in the spiritual world, are the results of the opposite loves, characteristic of heaven and hell. To each there are places and things thus to correspond; the former appearing above, because eminently superior; and the latter beneath, because exceedingly inferior.

The good, therefore, after judgement or separation, are taken up into heaven; and the wicked are cast into hell, or appear to be cast into it, on account of the impetuosity with which they rush into evil, when they feel no longer any restraint from the opposite kingdom.

In conclusion, let the serious and well disposed Christian, of every sect, weigh dispassionately what we have attempted to introduce to his notice respecting the certainty and manner of the last judgement, as well as the final inevitable consequence of that judgement, to every individual. Whatever he is he will be proved to be; however his real character may now be concealed from the sight of his fellow-beings. There is nothing covered that shall not be made manifest, and what we have designed and desired in the secret purposes of the heart, will be proclaimed as on the house-top (Luke xii. 43). It will be finally useless to associate ourselves with the good from a wicked purpose. If it be to rule over them, because of their simplicity, they are God's elect, and he will finally deliver them from all spiritual tyranny, though he bear long with their oppressors. If it be in hope to escape, in the society of the good, the lot of sinners, it will be in vain; the process of the last judgement will bring to the observation of all, the true character of every one, and reduce him to the necessity of living with his like, and that for ever. The happy lot of the righteous can only be possessed and enjoyed by the righteous. Let then the wicked repent of his wickedness, if, from Christian science, he has been led to desire their happiness.

From what has been so briefly stated upon this important subject, it is hoped no thinking reader will be further disposed to scoff at the idea of the last judgement having been executed in 1757, as testified by Emanuel Swedenborg, in the works before referred to. To us it seems impossible to find any other mode of explaining the subject, or of exhibiting it in a light so accordant with the whole of the Sacred Scriptures, and the nature and reason of things. When these things, as declared in the Scriptures, can be seen to have their accomplishment in a manner perfectly compatible with the nature of things,

and perfectly consistent with the meaning of the terms in which the last judgement is predicted, the Christian should be more rejoiced in the light, by which he makes the discovery, than disposed to scoff and rail at the idea of it, because of its having been newly discovered. In such rejection, there is a similarity to the stupidity evinced in the conduct of the church dignitaries of the day, who compelled Galileo to sign a recantation of the truth of his discoveries in the heavens by his telescope. The antiquity of error entitles it to no respect in the abstract, however tenderly it may be dealt with, on account of the multitude, who have been led to embrace it as truth, because they cannot be quickly and beneficially enlightened. Those too, who are disposed to venerate error on their account, ought to be careful not to be the instruments of keeping them longer in it than is necessary for their good; and the rule in this case, it appears, is, to be on the alert in the adoption of the most prudent means of diffusing universally the light of truth, supported by rational evidence.

Besides, the time is fast advancing, when the multitude will no longer be blinded by the mere influence of authority, unsupported by rational evidence; and the authority-mongers may, if not watchful, find themselves, with respect to the multitude, in the rear of knowledge, rather than in the advance. Cheap tracts will shortly do wonders for the multitude in this respect, and elevate it in knowledge above the select, who may despise the apparent scanty information of small books, because their libraries are well furnished with the most elaborate, but probably unread treatises, upon all species of information. Divine Providence often employs the simplest means for the accomplishment of the mightiest and most important objects; to the astonishment of those, who, like Naaman, are not willing to be cured of a most loathsome malady, except by an apparatus full of intricacy and mystery. The great man's vanity was highly offended at the simple means of dipping himself seven times in Jordan, for the cure of his leprosy, after having traveled so far, loaded with magnificent, but useless presents, for the prophet. He expected him to do some great thing in the way of incantation, no doubt, to remove his leprosy; and his offended vanity would have taken him back to his own land, a monument of foolish obstinacy in his selfderived intelligence, but for the wise counsel of the more discerning, but apparently, inferior personages, in the character of his servants (2 Kings v. 1 to the end).

Those who receive the testimony of Swedenborg, see, in the mighty movements of human society, the improvements in all things beneficial

to the human race at large, to which no bounds can be assigned, that have been succeeding each other since 1757, such demonstrative evidence of the truth of the testimony, that they feel it impossible to doubt its accuracy. They see in these things the preparations of infinite wisdom for a vastly extended reception of divine truth, beyond anything at present known to have before existed in the world. Why should the Word be translated into every language of man, which will speedily be accomplished by the agency of the Bible Society alone, if something had not been done calculated to dispose all nations to the reception of its truth? Who can calculate the results of these embryo proceedings, as they may at present be called, of this one society? It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the final effects it will, under the guidance of a divine hand, accomplish. Its existence is so manifestly a work of God, that the rejecter of the Bible, if any sensibility be left to him, can scarcely help trembling inwardly at the mention of its name.

The second coming of the Lord will be with power and great glory (Matt. xxiv. 30, xxv. 31). This will be exemplified before men, in the greater extent of his church than has ever before taken place; as well as in the revelation to the understandings of its members of the spiritual sense of his Word; in the light of which he will be truly seen in his glory. For the more we are capable of beholding him in his real character, the greater will be the glory and majesty of his appearance: and the more we shall be satisfied that he is perfect in all his attributes. We shall not only be satisfied of his almighty power, but of his infinite goodness; and behold united in him every excellency in an infinite degree.

Upon a better understanding of his Word, the Lord is now about to erect his church, in its true splendor. As a temple for his worship, it will exceed all that has been before it in magnificence, extent, and duration. “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. And the building of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate was of one pearl; and the street of the city pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple in it; for the Lord God and the Lamb are the temple of it. The glory of God did lighten it; and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them that are saved, shall walk in the light of it;

N. S. NO. I.-VOL. I.

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