burnt up, drowned or broken to pieces by a comet—if there is an entire want of any rational probability, that it was made to be destroyed almost as soon as it was fully formed, then the fair and reasonable inference is, that it will continue to be retained for the purpose for which it is now used, and for which it was evidently designed. This conclusion is of course entirely incompatible with the supposition of a literal, terrestrial resurrection and judgment. If the principles here advocated are founded in truth, the resurrection will be that of a spiritual body, for which none of the matter of this earth will be needed. And that final judgment which will determine our eternal destiny will take place in that world where spirits dwell,—far above that in which we now live;—a world whose solemn and thrilling scenes are never beheld in such light as flows from our natural sun. Thither will the spirit go when it leaves this natural world. Its entrance into that world will constitute its resurrection. There will it meet its final judgment. There will it find its eternal home.
SECTION FOURTH.
The doctrine of correspondences—Different mediums of spiritual and natural truth—The jewish prophecies not fulfiled in a natural sense—Similar prophecies in the New Testament must be explained in the same way.
I have intentionally avoided any reference to the testimony of the divine word, while discussing the question of the durability of the earth, on rational and scientific grounds. Rational and scientific-truths are of a lower order than spiritual truth, that is they refer to more external things. But all truths, whether read in the word or the works of the Lord, come from the same source, and must therefore perfectly harmonize. There is an exact and most beautiful
