evils whilst the punishments of hell were announced to them, yea, while they were seen and likewise felt; but still it was vain, for they hardened their minds, saying, come what will, provided only that we are in the delight and joys of our hearts so long as we are here; we know things present, what is to come we are not concerned about; we shall not suffer more evil than many others; but after a stated time they are cast into hell, where they are compelled by punishments not to do evil; but punishments do not take away the will, the intention, and consequent thought of evil, they only take away the act." A. E. 1165. "The evil remains within, and recurs when the 1164.

fear ceases."

a

(fearful

But note carefully that there must have been a time turning moment - a choice amid all other choices. and momentous consideration it is,) when the first decisive inclination to that evil life—the one which turned the scale, and kept it ever after that way, commenced in that man's history. He did not know it; no mortal, and perhaps no angel knew it; but God saw it, and was working in reference to it. But the man must be held in freedom. Then it was that he made the fatal choice! It determined all other choices, and involved a destiny of unimaginable horror.

Here, then, is the second great period of a man's life. It is when he makes his decision for heaven or for hell.

"Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side: Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, And the choice goes by forever, 'twixt that darkness and that light."

Observe, we are not saying that any man can know when that time is; we only say that such a time there must be; and to doubt that the Divine Providence is most particularly concerned in it-that even the time of our death is wisely ordered in reference to it, would be to doubt one of the most reasonable and evident things in all theology. Religious

writers have often spoken of this time as one of unusual struggle, and of more or less sensible surrender, either to good or evil. And why may we not suppose the angels who watch over a man's destiny, to be particularly active and anxious at such a time? Swedenborg also speaks of the particular leading of the good and evil through this world, and of a similar decision. His language, too, is remarkably discriminative.

"There are in the world men-angels and men-devils. [That is, human beings who will people heaven, and who will people hell.] With a man-angel all the degrees of his life are open even to the Lord; but with a man-devil only the ultimate degree is open, and the superior degrees are closed. A manangel is led of the Lord, both within and without; but a man-devil is led of himself from within, and of the Lord from without. A man-angel is continually withdrawn from evil by the Lord, and led to good; but a man-devil is continually, also, withdrawn by the Lord from evil, but from a more grievous to a less one, for he cannot be led to good. A man-angel is continually withdrawn from hell by the Lord, and is led into heaven more and more interiorly; but a man-devil is continually, also, withdrawn from hell, but from a more grievous to a milder one, for he cannot be led into heaven. A man-angel, because he is led of the Lord, is led by civil law, by moral law, and by spiritual law, on account of the Divine [principle] which is in them; a man-devil is led by the same law, but on account of what is of himself in them. 告 ** A man-angel and a man-devil appear like to each other as to externals, but they are altogether unlike as to internals; wherefore, when external things are laid aside by death, they are manifestly unlike; the one is taken away into heaven, and the other is conveyed down to hell." A. E. 1145.

Again, touching the changes and determinations of life to which we have referred, we find this language in the work on Divine Providence.

"Man [in the world] is not [in hell or heaven] as a spirit who is inscribed in the society, for man is continually in a state of reformation; wherefore, according to his life and its changes, he is transferred by the Lord from one society of hell into

another, if he is evil; but if he suffers himself to be reformed, he is led out of hell, and is led away into heaven, and is also transferred there from one society to another, and this until death; after which he is no longer carried from society to society there; because he is then no longer in a state of reformation, but remains in that in which he is according to life: wherefore, when man dies, he is inscribed in his place." D. P. 307.

From the whole, then, it is evident how much the Divine Providence must have to do with the time of a man's death. However we may settle the eternity of this most sorrowful of all questions, there is enough in the temporary features of it— in the unimaginable ages of sin and its consequences and the awful uncertainty which hangs around the whole theme, to convince one of the infinite importance of the results determined by this great change of worlds.

Now, whichever side a man may decide for, be it heaven or be it hell, it is the state of his life here in the world, the quality of his spirit, and what can be made of him in the spiritual world; nay, it is really what he is making of himself now, and what the Lord is doing for him, both in his own soul and in the world beyond, which decides to a moment the time of his death, which is the third great period in the life of man.

This event is ordered, therefore, with the utmost precision. So is every other event; but this assumes to our minds a greater importance, being so full of eternal consequences. It is alike important to the good and to the evil. In the passage of the Word at the head of this chapter, it is said "I took them away as I saw good." This is said of the evil Sodomites. And it is taught here, even of the wicked, and the most wicked, that the time of their death is ordered with a no less particular reference to the utmost amount of good which can be done for them. If they cannot be regenerated, they may be reformed; and if they cannot be in the highest sense reformed, they are capable of more or less external improvement; at all events, it is seen exactly what and how much can be done for

them, and their life in the world is not permitted a moment longer than, all things considered, is for their best good throughout eternity. Sometimes they are cut off to prevent their wickedness increasing, which would make it still worse for them in the spiritual world. Sometimes they are spared for a length of time, because it is seen that they will reform and improve their condition before leaving this world. Sometimes it is seen that they will not do it here, and it is better that they should be removed, and come under the instruction and discipline of angels. In many ways, and by many secret conneetions, is the exactitude of Providence accomplished with them, and with the good also; so that this mystery of death, in all its forms, whether premature, as we say of it, or occurring at a ripe old age, or sudden, or accidental, with a lingering sickness or without it, is performed at the best possible time, and solely with reference to the soul's condition in eternity. "I took them away as I saw good." It is the divine announcement for the whole method of the Lord's working, "with whom is the fountain of life," and to whom also "belong the issues from death." That there is "a time to die,”. that this, in fact, may be considered in the light of exact truth, that no accidents can interfere with it, but must be subordinated to it, so that all apparent accident shall be merged into the great system of a connected and universal providence, may be seen from the Lord's own life upon the earth. It is, in fact, a fundamental characteristie of the true theology, that every point of correct faith may be seen in the great central doctrine of the incarnation, glorification, resurrection and ascension of the Lord. They ray out from this Centre, as distinct beams from the great orb of day. Thus, regeneration is best illustrated by the Lord's glorification; the infinite personality by his finite personality; the infinite love by his love; the sight, the hearing, the intimate relationship, and all the divinely human attributes and qualities which endear and attach us to the infinite Father, by this exhibition of Himself in a finite form. So, also, the varied experience of

man is best known as to its character and tendency by the Lord's experience when he dwelt among men as one of them. It is one of the great excellencies of this doctrine of the Lord, as unfolded by Swedenborg, that it accommodates every truth, which otherwise would lose itself in the vagueness of the infinite, to the receptive capacity of the creature. And so also this truth of the time of a man's departure from the natural world.

To borrow the language of a Christian brother, “Christ always spake as if He had an appointed time to remain on earth, a fixed work to accomplish, during the progress of which He must continue incarnate; and until 'His hour was come,' the Jews had no power over His physical life. Twice He was delivered out of their hands in a mysterious way. But when 'He knew that His hour had come,' and that the Father had delivered all things into His hands,' He was given up unresistingly to the malice of His enemies. It was not that some blind fate had fixed the time of His death; not that He had accomplished every thing possible in gaining converts, or in imparting truth to His disciples. His converts were very few, and His disciples, at the moment of His death, understood very little as to who and what He was. He might have lived on half a century more, under the Divine protection, teaching the truth, and gaining followers, and exhibiting to the world the charms and graces of His character; and then He would only have lived through the common period of human existence. But the time came, at thirty years of age, when He could say, 'It is finished,' since the work for which He came into the world was done. What was it? Evidently the very thing we have been describing. It was His glorification. It was when the material had served its end as the basis of the spiritual, and within its continents the divine organism was completed whose processions of power were to come in Pentecostal gales, and sweep down our human nature till they woke from it new