the doctrines which he, in common with the world genererally, regards as orthodox. Their greatest use will be to show the absurdity of those doctrines out of which they have grown.
But I may still be reminded that the views which have just been presented, in regard to the nature of the spiritual world, will appear equally strange and unintelligible, and even wild and visionary to many persons. How can it be possible, they will again ask, for external objects to have any real existence, unless they be at the same time material?—This difficulty, as before remarked, can be overcome in no other way than by obtaining a knowledge of the connection between these phenomena and their spiritual cause. When this is done, it will be seen that their existence is not more absurd or improbable, than the existence of those material forms which we every day behold. While the one class of phenomena exists from the influence of the natural sun, the other exists from that of the spiritual sun, and in accordance with laws no less certain and invariable.
But even though the manner in which those spiritual objects exist, may not be understood, the fact of their existence ought to be freely admitted as a truth fully revealed in the divine word, and therefore admitting of no controversy. It will be remembered that large portions of the prophetical scriptures are occupied with descriptions of things seen in the spiritual world. The prophets expressly assert that they saw the things which are described by them; that these things were visions, that is, things seen. I will save myself the labor of collecting evidences on this point, by inserting the following somewhat lengthy, but very interesting paragraph from the Apocalypse Revealed, No 36.
