agined, although I was really at some distance from him and quite out of his reach. There is a spiritual insanity which delights to kill and bury those who are engaged in making known the heavenly truths of the New Jerusalem. But, those whom it thus seeks to destroy, and upon whom it would gladly call down the vengeance of God, still live on, and delight to make known the truths which they love. They are killed and buried, only in the imagination of the men who hate those truths.
But, let us again pursue the question, from whence come the miseries of hell? If not from a direct visitation of wrath from God, do they not come from the torments of a guilty conscience? Let us examine this question for a moment. The torments of conscience are suffered, when a man has done that which he knows or believes to have been wrong. Under the influenece of some selfish passion, he has been led to the commission of an act which his understanding disapproves; and hence, there follows a painful sense of degradation and ill-desert. But, this torment of conscience exists only in proportion as the will and understanding are at variance from each other. This difference is continually diminishing, according as the man becomes confirmed either in good or in evil. The man or the spirit, who is far advanced in regenerate life, loves those heavenly things which his understanding approves and approves the things which he loves. So, also, with him who has become confirmed in evil; the darkness of his understanding is as great as the depravity of his will. An approach towards that unhappy state, in which evil and falsity are equally confirmed, is often manifested, even while men remain in the natural world. This fact has been observed by every one, and is often remarked upon by writers on morals. In proportion as a man becomes confirmed in the love of evil and falsity, the desire for spiritual reformation is lost; and then the motive for discriminating between good and evil, in his own conduct, is also lost. The
