SECTION THIRD.
The Last Judgment, in its Individual as well as General Character.
In the former part of this work, I gave some reasons for believing that the spiritual world is the theatre of the last judgment, and in the last two sections I have presented some views in regard to the nature of the spiritual world, in general, and of those opposite spiritual states, called heaven and hell. It now only remains to describe that state through which the spirit passes after it leaves the natural world, and before it arrives at its permanent abode, either in heaven or in hell.
It is very manifest that most men leave the natural world, before they become fully confirmed in the love either of good or of evil. Even with those men who are so far advanced in regenerate life, that the love of spiritual usefulness, in some form, is their ruling motive of action, yet there are always some external natural affections which have not yet been brought entirely under the dominion of the internal ruling love. Though the deepest and strongest affections, and those which exert a controlling influence over the life and character, rest upon a spiritual basis, there are still other affections, which are natural and selfish, and which ought to be entirely subordinate to the spiritual, but which are seldom or never reduced entirely to that position, while the spirit remains in its earthly tenement. These natural and selfish affections, lead the man to love his wife, his child, or his brother, because they are his own, while heavenly affections lead him to love them as objects of usefulness, for whose temporal and eternal welfare it is his delight to labor; but to seek to bind them to himself, in the strong bonds of spiritual sympathy, only so far as he sees in them those things which are good and true. With these opposite affections,—the spiritual, ruling and predominant, the natural, still struggling to regain its lost power, but losing strength every hour, in the unequal contest,—the man enters the spiritual world. On the other hand, the man whose inmost and ruling affections are selfish, and who is voluntarily and continually descending towards the regions of death and woe, also leaves the natural world before he becomes fully confirmed in the love of evil. The voice of conscience, seeking to arrest him in his downward course, though every day becoming fainter and feebler, has not yet been hushed in the stillness of spiritual death. His evil affections are sometimes arrested, at least for a moment, when those who love him, surround him with the influences of goodness and truth, and seek to draw him into the path which leads to heaven. And though he cares nothing for spiritual things, in their more internal forms, yet there are some remains of external affections for the civil and moral virtues. For the evil affection, which rules within, has not yet fully consummated the work of spiritual desolation and ruin. And in this state he, also, casts off the natural body and enters the spiritual world.
Now here are two classes of men, who, when entering the spiritual world, are rapidly verging towards opposite spiritual states. But neither have yet reached their eternal abode. Those who are in the love of goodness and truth, have not yet ceased to be disturbed by the opposing influences of evil and falsity; while those who are habitually ruled by the love of self, have not entirely ceased to feel the occasional influence of better motives. And as most men, when leaving the natural world, belong to one or the other of these classes, it becomes a matter of importance, to trace the spirit's upward or downward progress to its eternal abode. Nothing could be more absurd that to suppose that death, by some magic power, suddenly divests the good spirit of all remaining evil or imperfection, and converts him into an angel of heaven. If the spiritual evil which adheres to the good man dies with his natural body, must not the evil that appertains to the wicked man, be destroyed in the same way? But with the man who is confirmed in wickedness, the love of evil constitutes his life; if this were to perish there would be a destruction of what may be called his spiritual-natural life; he would cease to exist; or if there were still a spiritual form it would be the subject of no love, and hence no thought, no life. But this absurd supposition would require another, in which the absurdity would be still more apparent. If spiritual evil dies with the natural body, it must belong to the body and not to the spirit. But this is opposed to the reason and consciousness of every man. Spiritual evil is but another name for the love of that which is evil and false. It belongs therefore to the mind and its affections, to the spirit itself; it goes wherever the spirit goes. Its continuance is quite independent of anything that death can do.
Let us, then, direct our attention again to the spirit, just having entered the unseen world,—the man just now divested of his mortal body. He has taken with him the same loves and affections, for these constitute his life. It is true his external, natural form, has been exchanged for a spiritual one, but internally and really he is the same man still. He has a ruling love, either good or evil, which is seeking to bring all other things into subjection to itself—And yet he is as free as ever, for freedom is essential to his life. Every step he takes, towards heaven or towards hell, is a voluntary step. His progress, either upward or downward, must continue to be gradual there, as it has been here. If his ruling motive is heavenly, he must continue to search out and voluntarily put away from him, those evil affections and habits which are in any way opposed to his ruling love. The associations which were commenced in the natural world,and which will be continued into the spiritual, must also be gradually reduced to a spiritual basis.—These associations were at first formed on the basis of natural affection, which, before regeneration, is essentially selfish and evil. But as heavenly love becomes developed and confirmed, the natural affection, which once bound the man or the spirit to the father, the son, the brother, or the companion, gradually becomes subordinate, until at length the natural relationship, is lost sight of, and a spiritual one is substituted. Those are brothers, and those are companions, who love the same or similar forms of goodness and truth. Such, manifestly, must be the spiritual state of those who dwell in heaven. But, it is equally manifest, that in order that such a state may be arrived at, even the best of men must experience many important changes in their affections and social relations, after they shall have left the natural world. Many a long cherished attachment, even for those who were nearly related by the ties of kindred and friendship, must be broken off, when it is discovered that the bond of sympathy was only external and natural, not internal and spiritual. And though these and other changes necessary to the perfection of the spirit, will, no doubt, go on, much more rapidly in the spiritual world than they do in the natural, yet there, as well as here, they must be gradual, or they cannot be voluntary and real.
Similar remarks might be made, in regard to the spirit, whose ruling motive has been the love of evil. He enters the spiritual world and has the same affections still. The change in his external relations, from natural to spiritual, changes not the internal state. The love of evil or falsity, in some form, is still his life; and this infernal fire will continue to increase in strength and fury till the last remnant of goodness and truth shall have been consumed before it—till every virtuous emotion, all regard for honesty, justice and uprightness shall have perished forever. The wicked spirit may also have been surrounded in the natural world by many good men, to whom he was united by the strongest natural affections. These affections cannot suddenly perish. And though the strong current of his evil loves, bears him downwards with a force which seems irresistible, because he has no sincere and earnest desire to resist it, yet before he arrives at his eternal state, he is doomed to suffer many a painful struggle, in breaking loose forever, his affections, from those whom he once loved, but whom he can love no longer. Breaking away from every restraint he goes to his own place—to those who are internally as well as externally, like himself, and there he finds his eternal abode.
Every spirit, whether good or evil, upon entering the spiritual world, is received with kindness and compassionate care. He is surrounded with every attention, that angelic love and wisdom can bestow. This we may safely infer, from what we know of the nature of heavenly love. Even a good man will cheerfully leave all other duties, for the purpose of administering aid and comfort, in a dying hour, to his worst enemy. And are not angels much better than men. If we had no light on this subject, except what reason derives from what is known of the nature of angelic love, we would be fully sustained in the belief, that even the vilest wretch that goes from the natural to the spiritual world, is kindly and tenderly received by angels, whom the Lord has appointed for that purpose. But in addition to this natural inference, we have also the strongest collateral evidence,—the reasonings and testimony of one who well knew the truth of what he wrote. And from all these sources we learn, that all men, without regard to what their lives have been, are thus kindly received into the world of spirits. The internal state of every spirit who enters that world, is carefully examined, and such influences of goodness and truth are applied to him, as will be most likely to develope his good affections, if any exist. Under the guidance of angelic love and wisdom, his ruling affection, if good, is gradually developed and perfected; he is enabled to see and reject what remains of evil and falsity, till at length he finds his eternal home; where all his faculties, unrestrained and unopposed, are exercised in that form of spiritual use, which affords him the greatest delight.
But if, on the other hand, the man's ruling affection, when he leaves the natural world, is infernal, if there is nothing on which the influences of goodness and truth can operate;—if the strongest, the predominant tendency is downwards towards the regions of spiritual death,—then, inasmuch as the divine mercy can operate only through the medium of divine truth, or according to the laws of divine order, there is no power in the universe that can bring him into heaven. His freedom is his own, and divine mercy itself cannot and will not infringe upon it. The influences that are exerted upon him are only those of goodness and truth. No other influences can be used in heaven. There is no such thing there as personal persuasion, or an appeal to the selfish affections. Goodness and truth are presented in every form, as exhibited in the affections, understanding and lives of the angels. But if these heavenly things have no attraction for the spirit, he is still free. He must be permitted to go where he chooses; if hell is the abode for which he has prepared himself, he must go there. If there is any place in the broad circle of the heavens, any form of spiritual use, however comparatively low and external, to which he can be conducted in freedom, thither he is led, and there is his eternal home. But, if no such place can be found for him, he is permitted to withdraw himself farther and farther from all heavenly influences, till at length he plunges himself headlong into some infernal abode, from which he never desires to return. And this voluntary progress, through which every spirit goes, either upwards towards heaven or downwards towards hell, is that last judgment which awaits every man. On this subject our author frequently remarks to the following effect:
And again; he says, in regard to those who have recently entered the spiritual world, that:
By referring to the works from which these quotations are made, it will be found that the views contained in them are very fully confirmed and illustrated by quotations from the Divine Word, clearly and rationally explained, according to its true spiritual meaning. It will be remembered that that Word often teaches that all judgment has been committed unto the Son of Man, and that He will judge all men at the last day. By the Son of Man,—as was briefly shown on a former page, and as is very fully demonstrated in the writings of our author,—is meant the Lord himself, as Divine Truth. To be judged by the Son of Man in the last day, means therefore, that at the close of each spirit's probation for eternity, his internal and real character will be laid open in the light of Divine Truth. As each man really is, in his inmost intentions and desires, so he will appear. "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be known." (Luke, xii, 2.) What Dr. Young says of a "Death Bed Scene," is much more strictly true of the judgment day:
"There tired dissimulation drops her mask,
And real and apparent are the same.',
A writer in the New Jerusalem Magazine (vol. 7, p. 123) has the following remarks, which will illustrate more fully the doctrine here presented.
A remark ought to be made in this connection in regard to that portion of the spiritual world which constitutes the immediate receptacle of the departed. In the language of the New Church, this is called "The World of Spirits," to distinguish it from heaven and hell, the former of which is inhabited by those who having become confirmed in the love of goodness and truth, are called angels, while the latter is the abode of those who being fully confirmed in evil and falsity are called devils or satans. In appearance the world of spirits is between heaven and hell. For the reader will have observed from the views presented in a former section, that different spiritual states give the appearance of separate places in the spiritual world, more or less distant from each other, according to the states of those who dwell there. It is only on this principle,—as a transition state,—that the world of spirits is distinct from heaven and hell. It still forms a part of the spiritual world in general, and exists in accordance with the same laws.
I must here remark, that being under the necessity of bringing this work to a close immediately, for the purpose of attending to other duties, I have determined to fill up the remainder of this section, for the most part, from a chapter on this subject, contained in a work entitled "Noble's Appeal." I take this method of lightening my labors, with less regret, from a conviction, that the reader will derive much more benefit from the extracts that will be introduced, than he would from anything that I could write. And even those who have read the book referred to, will find it difficult to spend a few moments more profitably, than in perusing again the few pages that are given below.
I will first remark, however, that in the views just presented, a brief description has been given of the nature of the last judgment, considered in reference to each individual. But it is important also to observe, that, according to the doctrines of the New Church, a Last or General Judgment has several times been executed upon immense societies of spirits at the same time. The reason of this will be readily seen when it is remembered how intimately connected is the destiny of every spirit, with that of the church or dispensation, under which he has begun his existence. It is true, that under every dispensation, the man who was far advanced in regenerate life, would pass rapidly through the world of spirits, and would soon arrive at his eternal home in heaven, while he who was confirmed in evil would rush as rapidly to his abode in hell. But there would still be an immense number of those who were internally good, as well as of those who were internally evil, but whose external affections and life, would appear to be so nearly on the same plan, that they would continue to associate together in the world of spirits, as they had previously done in the natural world. And this association would continue, till the power of Divine Truth, breaking through and dispelling the clouds of spiritual darkness, would form a New Heaven in the spiritual world, and a New Church in the natural,—thus rescuing the good in the world of spirits, and raising them up into heaven, and at the same time permitting the wicked to go to their own place.
But I will introduce a few paragraphs from the work referred to above, in which the doctrine of the New Church on this subject will be more clearly and fully presented. After having shown very clearly that the Last or General Judgment predicted in the New Testament, was not to take place at the end of the natural world, but at the end of the age or dispensation, the author says that:—
"As it is certain that there have been, since the beginning of the world, several such ages and dispensations, it will be reasonable to conclude, that the end of each of the former of them, like the end of the last, was attended with a General Judgment upon those who lived under it. Accordingly, the Scripture clearly teaches, how much soever its testimony upon this subject may generally have been overlooked, that such is the fact. As it prophetically announces that were the last age and dispensation ever to come to its end or consummation, it would then be attended with a General Judgment, so does it historically record, that each of the former of such ages and dispensations was attended at its end by a General Judgment. Its testimony to this effect, therefore, we will briefly notice.
That, from the beginning of the world, the specific connexion of its inhabitants with their Divine Parent has been regulated by four different dispensations, and they have been bound to him by four distinct covenants, the human subjects of which may be regarded as composing four general churches, is universally known. Adam and his posterity to the flood, lived under one dispensation: God then "established his covenant with Noah and his seed after him,"— (Gen. ix. 9.[[Bible (King James)/Genesis#9:9|]]) Another, covenant was made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants, (Gen. xvii. 7, 19.) of which the laws were given by Moses; and finally, "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John i. 18.) It is also known, that the three first of these dispensations were entirely corrupted, and the covenants broken, by those to whom they were given, among whom the churches thus formed in consequence perished: and that the case would be the same with the fourth dispensation and covenant, is predicted through a great part of the Apocalypse, and by the Lord in person, in Matt. xxiv., and summarily, in that question of his which supposes a negative answer, "Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke xviii. 8.)
The language in which the judgment upon the three former of these churches is described, being of the same symbolical kind as that in which the judgment upon the last is predicted, it has not been generally understood to relate to any transaction in the spiritual world, but has been confined to the calamities with which, in the natural world, the apostate members of those churches were at length overtaken; and yet, that the descriptions refer to judgments in the spiritual world also, may easily be inferred. Thus, as has already been seen, the passing away of heaven and earth, and convulsions in the heavenly bodies equivalent thereto, are constantly predicted in reference to the Last Judgment, and to the coming of the Lord for its performance: and these are predicted, not only in reference to the judgment which the Christian world is still expecting, but to the judgments on each of the former churches."The author here refers to the judgment which took place at the end of the Adamic or most Ancient Church, and which is described in the literal sense by a flood of waters: and also to subsequent judgments upon the Noetic Church, and which were also manifested in the natural world by the destruction of Sodom by fire from heaven, and other calamities. He then proceeds:—
"But, not to dwell upon the judgments of those more ancient churches; it will be sufficient for our present argument if it can be shown, that the Lord himself performed a Judgment, while in the world, of the same nature as the Last Judgment, which he then also prophetically declared that he would, at his Second Coming, accomplish. To such a judgment, many of the prophets of the Old Testament clearly refer. Their predictions respecting the Coming of the Lord into the world, are frequently connected with the announcement of a judgment then to be performed by him.—They even represent the execution of such a judgment as inseparable from that work of redemption which all acknowledge that he came to accomplish; for without the removal thereby of evil spirits from the immediate influence which they then exercised upon the world, there could have been no salvation for the human race. Not to make an important assertion without proving it, I offer the following as a few samples of the predictions, in the Old Testament, of a judgment to be performed by the Lord at his advent in the flesh.
To what else can these words of Isaiah be worthily refer reffered? "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger." (Isa. xiii. 9–13.) Now though this, in its literal sense, refers to the destruction of Babylon, who can doubt that it refers also to the destruction, at the judgment to be performed by the Lord at his coming into the world, of those who are spiritually meant by Babylon throughout the Word of God,—that is, of those who profane religion by applying its sanctities to the purpose of self-exaltation? Hence it is said of Babylon personified under the name of Lucifer, in the next chapter, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cast down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" words which, as the whole context shows, are not spoken of any casting down of Lucifer then past, but of an event then to come, and of which the ruin of the Babylonian empire, which also did not happen till two hundred years after the delivery of this prophecy, was a type. "Behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you," (Ch. xxxv. 4.)—Here the judgment to be performed by the Lord, when in the world, is spoken of, as necessary to the salvation of the human race. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord hath sent me to preach good tidings unto the meek, &c. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." (Ch. lii. 1, 2.) In these words, the day of salvation is announced as accompanied by the day of judgment: and of this prophecy the Lord himself said while in the world, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." (Luke iv. 21.), "For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help, and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation to me, and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury; and I will bring down their strength to the earth." (Ch. lxiii. 4, 5, 6.) Here again is the salvation to be wrought by the Lord's coming into the world connected with a judgment to be performed at the same time. "Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he-goats." (Ezek. xxxiv. 17.) This whole chapter treats of the salvation to be procured by the Lord when he should appear in the world in the character of the good shepherd; and the judgment then to be performed is in these words briefly described under the same image of separating between the sheep and the goats, as is so beautifully amplified in the description of the Last Judgment in Matt. xxv. "Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured by the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." (Zeph. iii. 8.) Here is a plain prediction of a General Judgment, described with the symbolic accompaniment of the burning of the earth, as immediately to precede the establishment of the Christian religion. "I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come." (Joel ii. 30, 31.) Here is a description of the day of judgment with the usual adjuncts; and this prophecy is declared by Peter (Acts ii. 16) to have been at that time fulfilled. "But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap. And I will come near to you to judgment. For behold they day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it leave them neither root nor branch. Behold I send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." (Mal. iii. 2-5; iv. 1-5.) Here is a sufficiently plain announcement of a day of judgment, in predictions applied by the evangelists, and by the Lord Jesus Christ, to himself while in the world. "For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth. Clouds and darkness are round about him; righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne: his lightnings enlightened the world; the earth saw and trembled: the hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth: the heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory. For he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity." (Ps. xcvi. 13; xcvii. 2–6; xcviii. 9.) A work of judgment is here clearly announced, and depicted with abundance of the appropriate figures; and these three Psalms plainly treat of the Lord's coming into the world, and of the salvation which, by his works of judgment, he would procure for mankind.
Many similar passages might be adduced; but these may suffice to show, that, according to the prophecies of the Old Testament, the advent of the Lord in the flesh was to be accompanied with the performance of a General Judgment.—But do we find in the New Testament, any plain intimation that such a judgment was performed accordingly? This question may be most decidedly answered in the affirmative. The New Testament repeatedly notices, as just remarked, the fulfilment of predictions in which the coming of the Lord to redeem mankind is connected with the execution of a judgment: and it presents, besides, other independent testimonies to the same truth. Thus when John the Baptist announces that he was the forerunner of one who was greater than himself, he speaks also of him whom he preceded as coming in the character of a Judge: "He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matt. iii. 11, 12.) What plainer description of a General Judgment can there be than this? It is in fact described under nearly the same images as the Lord uses, in several of his parables, for delineating the last Judgment generally looked for by Christians. Thus, he concludes the parable of the wheat and the tares with this declaration: "In the time of the harvest, I will say unto the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." (Ch. xiii. 30.) This the Divine Speaker himself explains to be a figurative description of the Last Judgment still generally expected: "The good seed," he says, "are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one:—the harvest is the consummation of the age:—as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the consummation of the age. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Ver. 38–43.) Now the only difference between this parable and the saying above quoted of John, is, that in the parable, the wicked are compared to tares, and by the Baptist to chaff: in other respects, the figures used are the same. In both, the good are compared to wheat; in both, the taking of the good into heaven is called the gathering of the wheat into the Lord's garner or barn: in both, the casting of the wicked into hell is called burning the chaff, or tares, with fire. Jesus says that this work should be performed at the consummation of the age, or at the close of the dispensation of divine things then commencing; accordingly, all allow that the parable relates to the Last Judgment: but John says that Jesus, of whom he was speaking, had his fan in his hand, to make the requisite separation then: Is it not then demonstrably evident, that such a judgment as the scripture predicts at what is commonly called the end of the world, or at the consummation of the dispensation then commencing, is affirmed by the Scripture to have been actually wrought while the Lord was in the world;—that time being also the end of the world or the consummation of the age, to the Jewish Church, and to the whole remains of the Noetic Church likewise? If the Scripture affirms that a General Judgment was to be performed by the Lord at his second coming in the spirit, it affirms, with equal positiveness, that a General Judgment was performed at his first coming in the flesh. The one rests upon the same authority as the other; and if we deny one, we must deny both.
But not only does John the Baptist announce, that He, before whom he was sent, was coming to perform a work of judgment, but the Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly declares the same thing; "The Father," saith he, "judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son;—and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." (John v. 22-27.) Is this supposed only to mean, that a sort of judgment was then to be passed upon the Jews in this world, the destruction of whom, as a nation, did speedily follow? This interpretation of the words is guarded against by its being added, "Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." (Ver. 28, 29.) These words relate not to any resurrection of the body, (as has been shown above,) but to certain operations, attendant upon the Judgment, in the spiritual world, which he was then about to perform, while, as to his natural body he was yet in the natural world: hence he speaks of it as being just about to take place—"the hour is coming;"—and to prevent any from imagining, nevertheless, that it was a distant judgment of which he was speaking, he makes the declaration more explicit still two or three verses previously: for he there says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God." (Ver. 25.) Plainly enough, then, the whole passage relates to a judgment he was then about performing; and it is here described, in such figures as are often used when this subject is treated of, as a resurrection of the good to life eternal, and of the wicked to damnation.
But if we were to dwell particularly on all the passages in which the Lord himself speaks of the judgment which he was engaged in performing, in the spiritual world, at the same time that, as to his natural humanity, he appeared in the world of nature, this discussion would be protracted to a great length; I will therefore only mention, very briefly, one or two more. We find him, then, in another place saying, "For judgment am I come into this world." (Ch. ix. 30.) And again, most explicitly, "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out." (Ch. xii. 31.) It is acknowledged by all, that by the prince of this world is in Scripture meant the devil. Now it is very remarkable, that a casting out of Satan is elsewhere spoken of when the subject is respecting a General Judgment.—Thus, in reference to this very judgment performed by the Lord while in the world, the prophet speaks of the falling of Lucifer from heaven. (Isa. xiv. 12.) To the same effect, in reference to the Last Judgment generally believed to be yet future, John the Revelator declares, that he saw a great dragon cast out of heaven, and he explains this dragon to be that old serpent, called the devil and Satan. (Rev. xii. 9.) Just in the same manner the Lord says in Luke, when the disciples returned and told him that even the devils were subject unto them through his name, "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." (Luke x. 18.) Evidently then, the circumstance described as the falling of Satan from heaven, is a thing essentially belonging to the performance of a General Judgment. Then put these facts together. John the Revelator says that such an occurrence would take place at the last judgment of all. Isaiah announced that it would take place at the judgment to be performed by the Lord while in the world: and Jesus himself twice declares, that it did then actually happen; how then is it possible to retain any doubt, that the Lord Jesus Christ was actually engaged in performing a judgment in the spiritual world, while, as to his assumed human nature, he was personally present in this."*******
"If the Last Judgment announced in the New Testament be not the only General Judgment ever accomplished on the natives of this earth, but, on the contrary, there have been two or three such before; then, doubtless, this would be executed in the same manner as those. It is certain that at former judgments, particularly at the most indisputable of them, that performed by the Lord while in the world, there was no gathering together, in this world, of all who had previously died, no appearing of the Judge in the clouds, and no destruction of the globe and of the visible universe: consequently, neither were such events to occur at the Last Judgment of all. All former General Judgments were executed in the spiritual world: consequently, that world must be the scene of the Last Judgment also."In the above paragraphs are presented some strong, and as it is believed, unanswerable reasons for believing, that a General Judgment did take place in the spiritual world, especially at the time when the Jewish Church came to an end, and the Christian Church began. But if it can be clearly shown from the Divine Word, that there was a General Judgment in the world of spirits, at the end of the Jewish Dispensation, and if the language in which that Judgment is described is very similar to the language which foretells Last Judgment which would close the Apostolic or first Christian Dispensation;–if these points be made clear, as we believe they are in the paragraphs quoted above,—then we ought to be prepared to examine candidly and impartially, the question whether that Last Judgment has also taken place in the spiritual world. Has any light been thrown upon this exceedingly important question? Does any one know when that judgment took place, or what were the attending circumstances? These are questions which demand and deserve the investigation of every candid and intelligent mind.
Even independent of the declarations of Swedenborg, there are strong reasons for believing that the Last General Judgment took place in the spiritual world nearly one hundred years since.
In a former section I endeavored to show that the natural world is only a world of effects, that the spiritual world is the world of causes. This principle being admitted, it will be seen that all movements or changes, either great or small, which take place in the natural world, must be the effects of corresponding changes in the spiritual world. There is in fact, a very general, although vague and indefinite impression of this truth. The extraordinary revolutions that are now taking place in the political and social relations of the human family, as well as those discoveries and improvements which are continually and very rapidly advancing our natural comforts and enjoyments, are constantly spoken of as the "signs of the times;" and are regarded as portending some much greater revolution, about to break forth from the spiritual world. And yet every reflecting man ought to know that signs are always effects. The truth of this principle is constantly recognized by every intelligent man, except in regard to spiritual things;—the reason of which, as we suppose, is, that while men are wise in regard to those natural things which they love, they do not earnestly seek for true wisdom in regard to those spiritual things which they do not love. When the physician discovers certain signs or symptoms which constitute the diagnosis of any disease, he regards those signs as the effects of a disease already in existence, and treats the patient accordingly. So it is also in other things. And if men felt the same deep interest in discovering and tracing the connection between cause and effect in spiritual things, they could not fail to regard that new order of things which is now being instituted in the natural world, as the effect of a corresponding new order of things in that portion of the spiritual world, with which the men of this world are more immediately connected.
We have here also the strong testimony of the world's past experience. As Mr. Noble remarks, in the work from which the above quotations were made:—
"As far as the annals of mankind enable us to determine, there never was a judgment performed in the spiritual world, but corresponding effects resulted in the natural World also."******
"We find our most unequivocal example in the judgments that fell upon the Jews. We have seen that a judgment was certainly executed by the Lord in the spiritual world while he abode personally here; and we know that, some time afterwards, the most dreadful calamities overtook the whole Jewish nation; indeed, the whole face of the world was soon afterwards entirely changed. We may conclude the judgment in the spiritual world to have been finished at the Lord's ascension: and thirty years after this event, the troubles broke out in Judea, which issued in the destruction of Jerusalem, the desolation of the whole country, and the end of the national existence of the Jews."The limits which I am obliged to observe, render it impossible for me to give more than a small portion of the author's remarks in this connection. Having shown that judgments in the world of spirits, have in former ages, been followed by corresponding revolutions in the natural world, he then adds that;—
Have then any visitations that may probably be supposed, by their magnitude and extraordinary character, to have had such an origin, been experienced, within the last half century, by the nations of Christendom? for to them, more particularly, as forming the professing church, must such judgments belong. Do not the recollections of every person who has lived so long immediately rush forward with an affirmative answer? In the wars, and other dreadful calamities, which began with, and rose out of the French revolution, has not every serious observer of passing events noted features very different from those which attended the wars and convulsions of former times,—of all times later than the first full establishment of Christianity? Will he not allow them to have been such as are fully commensurate with the ideas suggested by the "distress of nations and perplexity, causing men's hearts to fail them for fear," announced by the Lord as among the signs of his Second Coming? which coming, we have seen, in the natural world, is a consequence of the judgment performed in the spiritual. There was one feature in those contests so entirely peculiar, that it well deserves to be particularly noted; and that is, that the war at last raged in every nation on the whole face of the globe that bears the Christian name; a circumstance which never occurred before since Christianity began."
"Never before since the Christian religion was vouchsafed from heaven to be a blessing to mankind, was the whole mass of its professors thus raised by a simultaneous impulse and arrayed against one another; as if they had all agreed as one man, while disagreeing in every thing else, to disown the empire of the Prince of Peace: never indeed before, since the world began, was any war excited, which deluged the surface of the globe with such wide-spread desolation."
"There have, it is true, been wars in all former ages; and if the late tremendous series of conflicts had been of a common description, I should not think of urging them as an argument on this occasion: but if all must allow them to be of a totally unprecedented character, my readers cannot think that I press them too far, in calling upon them to refer such events to an adequate interior cause. What adequate cause of such wonders can be assigned, but some great convulsion in the moral and spiritual world, displaying itself in corresponding events in the world of nature? what, in fact, but the performance of a judgment there, whence flow, as a necessary consequence, natural judgments here."
"And if the war was of so astonishing a character, what have been its effects upon the states of Christendom? During its continuance, repeatedly, several were swept from the map of Europe in a single campaign: and though the most considerable were restored at the peace, it was with such great alterations, both in their internal polity and external relations, that it is strictly correct to say, that the entire face of the European, yea, of the whole Christian comonwealth, has been completely changed. To apply the prophetic phrase in the sense which commentators usually assign to it;—the former heaven and earth of every state of Christendom have passed away; and they have been, with scarce an exception, so entirely new-modelled, that they have received, politically, a new heaven and earth in their place.
Now it may be observed, as at least a remarkable coincidence, that the troubles which have had so extraordinary a career and termination, broke out at exactly the same distance of time after the date assigned by Swedenborg for the performance of the Last Judgment in the spiritual world, and of which he published his account in the year 1758, as that which intervened between the conclusion of the judgment performed by the Lord while in the world, and the troubles which led to the destruction of Jerusalem.
But if the political changes experienced by Christendom have been so great, how has it fared with her ecclesiastical constitutions? Are we not here particularly struck with the change which has been effected, almost before our eyes, in the state of the Papal Power, once so terrific and irresistible? It is a fact acknowledged by the Protestant interpreters of Scripture (and indeed the features of the portrait are so plain, that nothing but strong prejudice can close the mental eye against a recognition of the original,) that the great harlot, whose name is mystical Babylon (Rev. xvii.) is a personification of the Roman Catholic religion: consequently, the judgment denounced upon her (chaps. xvii.-xviii.) must denote, primarily, according to our view of the nature of the Last Judgment, the removal from the intermediate region of the spiritual world, to the regions of despair, of those who were confirmed in the evils of that religion: that is, of those who made religion a pretext for establishing their own dominion over the minds and bodies of men. Now the consequence of such a judgment in the spiritual world, must be, the diminution of the power of such persons in this world, and the loosening of the influence of that religion over men's minds. Do we not then behold manifest proofs, which multiply around us continually, that Babylon, even in this world, has received her judgment; and, consequently, the Last Judgment in the spiritual world, which is the cause from which the other is an effect, has been performed? The Roman Catholic religion, so far as it consists in the holding of certain doctrines and practicing certain forms of worship, may probably continue for ages; just as the Jewish religion, though the Jewish church has long since undergone its judgment, both in the spiritual and the natural worlds, continues to this day; but the Romish religion as to that essential part of it which procures for it in the divine Word the name of Babylon;—that is, considered as a system for tyrannizing over men's minds by the prostitution of sacred things for that purpose, has received its final judgment, and never can become formidable any more."
"We have seen the Pope himself dragged from his throne and degraded into a mere tool of the ambition of Napoleon: and though he was afterwards restored by the allied sovereigns from motives of policy, yet is he shorn of his beams; his influence is annihilated; and he now sits in St. Peter's Chair (as they call it) more as a puppet than a prince. His desires may perhaps be as capricious as ever; and to promote their aims he has restored the order of the Jesuits, formerly the right hand of the papal power; but never can he restore the causes from which that order derived its efficacy. The spirit and soul of Jesuitism are gone, in the removal from their immediate connexion with the human race of those who constituted Babylon in the spiritual world; and hence, however good may be the will of the Pope's new myrmidons, being no longer supported by the same influence from the world of causes, they never can revive much more of the old Jesuits than the name."
"Evident tokens are every where springing up, evincing, that the pretension on the part of any fallible man to the power of opening and shutting heaven at pleasure, which has been the grand engine by the use of which the Roman pontiffs attained such extraordinary influence, will soon be scouted as ridiculous through every country of Christendom, and that men will soon every where wonder by what strange infatuation their fathers could have submitted to such palpable arrogance and blasphemy. The cause of that infatuation, according to our views, was, that multitudes of those who, in this world, had promoted the Romish eclesiastical corruptions,—of priests and monks and their adherents, had established themselves in the intermediate region of the spiritual world, acting as clouds by which the light that is ever in the effort of flowing from heaven into the human mind was in great part intercepted, and instead of it were substituted such influences as tended to uphold the domination which such spirits, and their like in this world, affect; and the reason why such infatuation prevails no longer, is, as we are convinced, because, by the Last Judgment, those spirits are removed, and light from heaven, thus gaining new access to the minds of men, exposes, as one of its first effects, the absurdity of such pretensions. Can any one look at the wonderful change, in this respect, which is every where experienced, and not acknowledge the cause which we assign for it to be the most worthy, yea, the only adequate one that can be conceived? Can any one, on its being suggested to him, fail to recognize, in these surprising events, plain signs that the Last Judgment is accomplished?"It ought to be observed that the book from which these quotations are made, was written about twenty five years since. The argument which is here presented would be very greatly strengthened by comparing the present condition of the Romish Church, with what it was even at that time. While that Church has lost little or nothing simply in numerical strength, its doctrines and religious forms being admirably adapted to the affections and tastes of unregenerate men, and possessing very peculiar facilities for adapting itself to all states of society, and all grades of civilization,—yet as a system of spiritual tyranny, securing the allegiance and obedience of the multitude by arbitrary edicts, in this sense it has almost ceased to exist. The Pope, at whose commands, millions once trembled, has now very little more than a nominal existence. In the political revolutions of the last few months, we have seen him tossed like a bubble upon the stormy ocean, totally divested of all civil power, even in Italy itself, and obliged to call for foreign aid to protect his own person.
The Romish Church being thus deprived of all power to enforce obedience to its mandates, a civil freedom, or freedom of external action, is introduced, which will inevitably be soon followed by a more internal freedom, among all those who are seeking for the light of spiritual truth. Already has that Church ceased to be the terror of whose who are struggling for the political and civil freedom of the world; and ere long it will cease to oppose any serious impediment to the spiritual freedom of the human mind. The influence of hereditary tendencies, and of long established habits, may retain its doctrines and forms for many ages to come; but a spiritual force from the world of causes is operating upon the universal mind of man, filling it with new life, energy and strength, and preparing it to break the fetters of spiritual tyranny. The day is coming,—has already dawned,—when men must be addressed as rational beings. The voice of arburary human authority, whether coming from the Romish or any other Church, will be unheeded and uncared for.
But we will introduce some further quotations, in which other reasons are given for believing that the Last General Judgment is now past. The author says that:—
"Not only do the effects in the natural world of the accomplishment of the judgment in the spiritual display themselves in the way of visitations, but also in direct dispensations of mercy; for the sake of which, indeed, all divine judgments are performed. The calamities with which they are accompanied, are only designed to remove obstructions out of the way, and to make room for the reception of the benefits which the Divine Judge ever has in view. If the wicked who occupied the intermediate region of the spiritual world, were, by the judgment there, cast into hell, it was that the good who were mixed with them, or reserved in the lower parts of the spiritual world on account of them, might be raised into heaven; and also, that the divine efflux of spiritual life and light, which they intercepted in its passage to men on earth, might have free course; in like manner, if Christendom has been visited with tremendous troubles, as a first consequence of the performance of the judgment in the spiritual world, it is that a second consequence may follow, and that the divine outpouring of spiritual life and light may produce the blessings for which it is bestowed. If then we see, in the world around us, marks, in this way, of the activity of this divine efflux, they are sure signs that the judgment in the spiritual world has been performed.—In what we have already noticed, even, such marks are palpable. But how evident is the change, and that a change for the better, which, in many other respects likewise, has passed upon the state of mankind:—a change so obvious to all, that we can scarcely take up a magazine, or newspaper, or any new publication whatever, without finding it adverted to with admiration!"
"The improvements everywhere springing up, are continually calling forth, from every quarter, exclamations of surprise, and expanding every bosom with the hope, that the opening of a new and happier day than the world has ever before seen, is now dawning on mankind."
"The most unthinking, as well as the most prejudiced," says a well-informed writer, "must be struck with the fact, that the period in which we live is extraordinary and momentous. Amongst the great body of the people an unparallelled revolution is at work; they have awoke from that ignorance in which they had slept for ages, and have sprung up in their new character of thinking beings, qualified to inquire and to discuss; and despising both the despotism and the bigotry that would prohibit or impede their improvement. The intellectual spirit is moving upon the chaos of minds, which ignorance and necessity have thrown into collision and confusion; and the result will be, a new creation. Nature (to use the nervous language of an old writer) 'will be melted down and re-coined;' and all will be bright and beautiful." It is thus that every attentive observer is impressed by the character of the present times.—Consider then, my reflecting readers, whether so great an effect can be without a cause! And to what cause can it, with any degree of reason, be assigned, but to that mighty change in the interior sphere of human minds effected by the performance of the Last Judgment in the spiritual world, and to the pouring thence of new energies from heaven into the awakening faculties of man?"
"Let us here ask, how might such a pouring of energies from heaven, and of light thence, into the minds of men in general, be expected, in the first instance, to operate? What the writer of the above quotation calls "the intellectual spirit moving upon the chaos of minds," is what the Scripture calls "the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters." The ultimate object of the divine movement is, that man may be made in the image and likeness of God; in other words, that man should rise to the full dignity of his nature, as the recipient, without perverting them, of love and wisdom from God; for it is only such a being as this,—a being in whom the spiritual faculties as well as the natural endowments belonging to human nature are properly developed,—that the Word of God emphatically denominates a man.— Nevertheless, though it is as a spiritual being that man is last perfected, it is as a natural being that he first comes in to existence; and his natural faculties, from the lowest to the highest of them, are successively unfolded, before his spiritual ones are opened. Hence the operations of the Divine Spirit, in Genesis, consisted in calling into birth all the lower parts of the creation, beginning from the lowest of all and advancing to the higher, before man himself was produced; all which inferior objects are exact images of the various faculties that belong to the natural part of the human constitution; while that which is called man,—the image and likeness of God, is man considered as to his spiritual part,—a receptacle of love and wisdom from God;—to which it is given to reign over the lower powers. Such was the order in which the Divine Spirit proceeded at first: such then is the order in which the new out-pouring of divine influences might be expected to operate now; and accordingly, such is the order in which it is now working its wonders anew among mankind.
"Hence, then it is that we see, in every direction, such astonishing improvements in whatever has for its object the well-being of man as to the natural part of his constitution. Look at the extraordinary manner in which the science and practice of agriculture have, during the last thirty or forty years, been advanced; which has been such, that although the population of the globe, especially of the Christian part of it, has increased in a ratio beyond all that was ever known before (a circumstance which itself is a most striking result of the increased energy with which life, from the first Source of life, is flowing into nature,) the earth has not proved incapable of supplying food for the increasing multitude, but has poured forth her productions with corresponding profusion; proclaiming the fact, that the divine command requiring her to bring forth her increase,—in other words, the divine energy producing it,—has gone forth anew. Behold, again, the wonderful manner, in which manufacturing skill and power have been augmented;—the astonishing perfection given to machinery; which is such, that wood and metal appear to be informed with human intelligence, whilst they are actuated by a force imparted by inanimate agents immensely beyond any that could be yielded by animal strength. Hereby every production of human ingenuity required for the necessities, comforts, or convenience of man, has been multiplied to an extent which not long since would have been deemed impossible; and so reduced at the same time in price as to be made attainable by all; in which again, we behold a new out-pouring of divine energies, rendering, in an unprecedented manner, the hands of men productive."
"But if we proceed to a slight view of some of the moral phenomena of the times, greater wonders, if possible, will demand our admiration. Observe, then, the surprising advance, on the one hand, of science; and, on the other, the universal increase of the desire for knowledge, combined with the extraordinary multiplication of the means for its diffusion. Since the time at which we believe the Last Judgment, in the spiritual world to have taken place, every branch of science has been improved to a most unexpected extent, whilst many new ones have been added, and others have assumed a form which makes them virtually new; thus Geology, whose discoveries are so highly interesting, whose conclusions are so momentous, and whose practical uses are so eminent, is entirely the offspring of modern times; whilst chemistry, which is so continually astonishing us with fresh wonders, has undergone, in our times, a change equivalent to a new creation. Nor is the progress that has been made by elegant literature of all kinds less rapid and extraordinary; whilst, of late, particularly, a great proportion of the new works which appear have a moral aim in view, and are adapted to assist in promoting the best interests of mankind. Whence can such an increase of natural light result, but from a new out-pouring of light from heaven, of which, when received in the natural faculties of the human mind, improvements in science are the natural offspring? And while every kind of mental food is thus provided in such abundance, the appetite for its appropriation is not less remarkable; and institutions which have for their object to produce this appetite, and to supply it with the means of obtaining satisfaction, are every where springing up."
"The following strong statement is from the Quarterly Theological Review: "It is now too late to press objections, be they strong or weak, against universal education, against that (if we may speak chemically) hyperoxygenated passion for imparting knowledge, which is so prevalent in our times. We are not left to argue and debate upon what might have been better or worse; we must act upon what we find in operation. The fountains of the great deep have been broken up, and a deluge of information—theological, scientific, and civil—is carrying all before it, filling up the valleys, and scaling the mountain-tops. A spirit of inquiry has gone forth, and sits brooding on the mind of man. The effect may be good, or it may be bad; much will depend on right regulation and direction."
"Can anything stronger than this half-reluctant but most decided testimony to the truths we are advocating, be conceived? They who view the event with trembling, nevertheless acknowledge, that "the fountains of the great deep have been broken up!"—who can doubt, that it has been effected by a similar divine interference to that which was exerted in the days of Noah?—It was, we may also add, exactly in the spirit of these remarks, that the Bishop of London, in his famous Charge, some years since warned his clergy, that if they wish, in these days of rapidly increasing knowledge, to retain the consideration they enjoyed in former times, they must allow the current, since it cannot be resisted, to carry them along with it, and be careful, by their increased attainments, still to keep in advance of the general knowledge of the age. This is excellent advice: but it will not be sufficient, unless the clergy allow the improvements to be extended to their Articles and Liturgy. The advancing intelligence of the age must renovate the doctrines they preach as well as embellish their mode of preaching them: must permit the energies which are now operating from heaven for the enlightening of the human mind, to enlighten it in the most important points of all: and then they will retain their ancient consideration unimpaired, and will be respected by all as the heaven-commissioned ministers of heaven-born truths. Thus only will they be qualified "to ride that whirlwind, and direct the storm."Here occur some interesting remarks, which for want of room I am compelled to omit, in regard to the distribution of the Word of the Lord, among all the nations of the earth.—This, and other benevolent enterprises, which so peculiarly characterize the present age, are regarded by many as indications that a new and more perfect dispensation is about to commence. The error of such persons consists in not seeing that the sign is an effect, and hence that that new dispensaiion has already commenced.
I have only room in this connection for the author's closing remarks in reference to the external evidences of the Last Judgment.
"Allow me then, ye candid and reflecting, to request your serious attention to the instances which have been adduced, the number of which your own recollections will readily augment. Is not every one of them, taken singly, of sufficient magnitude to excite surprise, and to awaken serious meditation on the subject of its cause? But when such hosts of them press on our notice together, are we not compelled to refer the cause to something of a very extraordinary nature indeed! Here are multitudes of phenomena which every observer sees and owns; and every one who observes them owns likewise, that "the most unthinking, as well as the most prejudiced, must be struck with the fact, that the period in which we live is extraordinary and momentous;" and not only, that "amongst the great body of the people an unparalleled revolution is at work,"—that "the fountains of the great deep have been broken up,"—but that the main "seat of the revolution is in the mental part of man,"—"that the intellectual spirit is moving upon the chaos of minds,"—that "it sits brooding on the mind of man,"—and this with such energy as to authorize the expectation, that "nature will be melted down and re-coined." Where, I repeat, can the cause of such a simultaneous alteration in human minds be looked for, but in the world of minds itself—in other terms, in the spiritual world, with which man, as to his mind, is most intimately connected? And what change could there be adequate to the production of so great a change as we are witnessing here, but the performance of the Last Judgment,—the entirely new state which is thence induced on the intermediate region of the spiritual world, the seat of man's most immediate spiritual association,—and the consequent outpouring from heaven of new streams of light and life into the world of nature? The illustrious Swedenborg, so long ago as the year 1758, declared that by the Last Judgment, then just accomplished, spiritual liberty was restored, and the state of servitude and captivity in which men's minds were previously held, in regard to spiritual subjects, was removed; and in the year 1763 he added that the efflux of divine energies from heaven into the world, which had been in a great degree intercepted by the presence of those called the dragon and his angels in the intermediate part of the spiritual world, was by their ejection restored. These assertions were made, when no remarkable effects of the change had yet begun to manifest themselves in the world, and when, consequently, they could not be corroborated by acknowledged facts; but how wonderfully have they thus been corroborated since, and what striking confirmation of them does every day's experience now bring with it! Am I then doing any more than anticipating the suffrage of many of my readers, when I conclude, that independently of the assertions of Swedenborg, there are various considerations tending to evince, that the Last Judgment has, in the spiritual world, been performed? Will not all acknowledge, that the spiritual cause thus assigned for the astonishing change in the state of mankind is, at least, likely to be the true one and since no other can be conceived that is adequate to the effect, will not the candid admit it to be at least highly probable, that the Last Judgment, so long looked for, and so much misunderstood, has at length, actually been accomplished?"
In the above extracts the reader has been presented with a few of those reasons on which the New Church rests the belief that the Last Judgment has been already accomplished in the world of spirits.
We are taught in the Word of the Lord to expect such a Judgment: a fair and rational interpretation of the Word shows that it must take place in the spiritual world, and all truth, spiritual, rational, and scientific, bears the same testimony. We do not profess to find in the Divine Word any direct testimony in regard to the precise time when the Last Judgment would take place, yet knowing that every change which takes place in the natural world is the effect of some corresponding but more important change in the spiritual world, we are compelled to regard the political, social and moral revolutions, which are now taking place, as very unequivocal evidences that the Judgment foretold in the Divine Word, has been already accomplished.
Such being the case, it would be reasonable to expect that some direct and positive information would be within our reach in regard to the nature and circumstances of so important an event. Such information, as every receiver of the doctrines of the New Church knows, is furnished in the writings of Swedenborg. The following remarks by Mr. Noble on this point, will be found interesting and appropriate.
"If it be true that the long expected Last Judgment has at length been performed,—that the long looked-for time of the Lord's second coming has at last arrived,—in what man pner would it be reasonable to conclude that the important tidings would be conveyed? Are we to behold a multitude of angels in the air, sounding great trumpets, and vocally calling the attention of the world to the crisis which has arrived? In their spiritual, which, as regards this subject, is their only true sense, the prophecies which speak of such an announcement doubtless must be (and we trust have been) accomplished;—from heaven, that is, from the Lord through heaven,—the divine truths of the Holy Word must be [and we trust have been] discovered anew; for of the revelation, or communication of Divine Truth, the sounding of trumpets is, in the Word, the expressive symbol:—but if, as I hope, has been sufficiently proved, the second advent of the Lord was not to be of a personal nature; if the scene of the last judgment was not to be in this lower world, any otherwise than as to its effects: it follows, that it was not by a visible exhibition of angels with trumpets that the annunciation was here to be made. Yet, most unquestionably, some annunciation was necessary. The events which have passed in our times, and which are transacting still, upon the theatre of the globe, are indeed such as proclaim, with a voice of thunder, that some most extraordinary operation from the spiritual world upon the world of nature is in action; they are indeed such as demonstrate, when looked at under the proper aspect, that the last judgment has been performed, and that the second coming of the Lord is taking place; thus when the truth is distinctly proclaimed, they bear witness to it in the most decisive manner: but they require a human announcer to give their loud voice a distinctly speaking tongue. The second coming of the Lord, also, as we have seen, is mainly effected by the re-discovery of the momentous and saving truths contained in his holy Word: among the signs of the times which we have noticed, are the loosening of the hold which erroneous sentiments had taken on the minds of men, a general change in men's modes of thinking, and such an alteration in the state of the human mind as indicates a preparation for the reception of juster views of divine truth than have heretofore prevailed; but still it is obviously requisite that the truth itself should be explicitly announced, and, of consequence, that a human instrument should be raised up for that purpose.
This appears to be the evident dictate both of reason and of necessity; and to these is added the confirming suffrage of experience. Never did a similar crisis in the history of the divine economy occur before, but human agency was employed to make it known. Prior to the flood, the divine purpose was communicated to Noah, who, as tradition reports, warned, though in vain, his abandoned contemporaries; whence he is called by an Apostle "a preacher of righteousness." (2 Pet. ii. 5.) When the time had arrived in which Jehovah proposed to verify to the Israelites the promise made to their fathers of putting them in possession of Canaan, a band of angels was not sent to announce the fact to the whole nation, but God revealed himself to Moses, and commissioned him to bear the tidings to his brethren. Even when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared personally on earth, and when, if ever, it might be supposed that merely human agency might have been dispensed with, he did not show himself to the people, till John the Baptist had announced his approach, and had proclaimed the kingdom of heaven to be at hand. Surely then, at his second coming, which was not to be a personal one, a Human Herald must be altogether indispensable. Had it occurred in the first ages, when Christians were looking daily, though mistakenly, for the second coming of the Lord, and when they had not yet learned to regard such an interposition as impossible, the appearance of such a herald would have been hailed with joy; and it surely ought not now to be scouted as ridiculous, by any but those who, because mankind have lived so long under an economy different from that which prevailed before the introduction of Christianity,—under an economy in which continually repeated missions of divine messengers were not required,—have forgotten that such missions ever existed at all, and that without them, Christianity itself could not have been established. It is however, an unquestionable truth, that how long soever the suspension may have lasted, one more example of them must be afforded; one case more must inevitably arise, in which, without the employment again of one more such messenger, the last great purpose in the divine economy must fail to take effect,—the last great predictions of holy writ must remain unfulfilled for ever."
The writer then gives a very clear and beautiful exposition of the character of Swedenborg, showing from public documents of undoubted authenticity, as well as from the admissions of his adversaries, that he was a man of the very highest intellectual and moral endowments, and in every way most admirably qualified, to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord, for the introduction of a higher and more perfect dispensation of heavenly truth. We have space for only a very small portion of what is said on this subject.—The following general statement in regard to the character and qualifications of our author, is followed by an immense number of specific evidences, of the highest authority.
"In Swedenborg, every requisite gift was centred. Well imbued, first under the tuition of his learned father, and then at the University of Upsal, with all the usual elements of a learned education, he for a time cultivated classical literature with diligence and success. He then applied himself to the most solid and certain of the natural sciences, and not only by domestic study and by correspondence with foreign literati, but by repeated travels in all the scientifically enlightened parts of Europe,—in Germany, Italy, France, and England,—he made himself thoroughly acquainted with all the knowledge of his time, and was admitted, by general consent, to a station among the first philosophers of the age. As, in the midst of the distinctions with which he was honored by his compeers in learning, and by sovereign princes, he never forgot for a moment his original piety and modesty, his scientific writings constantly breathing the humble and devotional spirit of a true Christian philosopher—the acquisitions he made in natural science, must be acknowledged to have formed an admirable preparation, and a most suitable basis, for the apprehension and explication of the spiritual truths which he was to be the instrument for unfolding. Between the book of nature, read by the eye of humble intelligence, and the Word of God, every one intuitively perceives there must be an exact agreement; and spiritual views can never be so little likely to partake of delusion, as when they take for their foundation a copious store of sound natural science. An extensive acquaintance with the knowledge of God in his works, must be the best preparation for a superior perception of the, knowledge of God in his Word; and by the former was Swedenborg eminently distinguished."
In a subsequent section the writer examines and very fully exposes the falsity of the charge of insanity, a charge which even now continues to be repeated in some quarters, notwithstanding it has been a thousand times refuted and shown to be groundless. In this connection it is remarked that:—
"The common cry, re-echoed from mouth to mouth, and retailed from pen to pen, is, that he was mad; an aspersion which, notwithstanding some totally false and merely calumnious tales have from time to time been fabricated to support it, literally rests upon no foundation whatever, but that on which the same imputation was thrown against an infinitely greater character. "He hath a devil and is mad: why hear ye him?" (John x. 20.[[Bible (King James)/John#10:20|]]) Such was the salutation with which the Divine Truth, in person, was assailed, when "he came unto his own, and his own received him not."—The Lord Jesus himself was reproached as insane by the leaders of the professing church of that day; and even his own kindred according to the flesh, had so little conception of his true character, that when he began to display it by mighty words and works, "they said, he is beside himself. And they went forth to lay hold on him," (Mark iii. 21.) for the purpose of putting him under restraint, as a person of disordered mind. So little capable, when in the darkness of its sensual perceptions, is the human mind, of distinguishing the most exalted wisdom from insanity! No wonder then that the proclaimer of genuine truth now should be derided with similar reproaches. "The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord; if they call the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household!" (Matt. x. 24–5.) Such were the prophetic warnings by which the Lord prepared his disciples for the treatment they were to expect: and the experience of distant ages has proved their truth. When the apostle pleaded the cause of Christianity before Agrippa and Festus, the Roman governor replied with the exclamation, "Paul, thou art be side thyself; much learning doth make thee mad;" (Acts xxvi. 24.) and so, in our times, a man who has been favored with a degree of illumination as much superior to that of modern Christians in general as was the divine knowledge of Paul to the darkness which then overspread both Jews and Gentiles, is assailed with the same cry, and, while his attainments in science are admitted, it is pretended that his studies had ruined his faculties. By the candid and reflecting, a sufficient answer to this charge will be found in his writings, which, though a period of twenty-two years intervened between the publication of the first of his theological works and the last, exhibit the most perfect consistency of sentiment throughout, while they are all written with a regard to the most orderly and methodical arrangement, and display in their author the most acute powers of reason and extraordinary strength of memory; which last faculty is evinced by the numerous references to other parts of his works which, abound in them all. These, certainly, are qualities which do not usually attend the ebullitions of insanity. Indeed, it is impossible to pretend to find in the composition and manner of Swedenborg's writings any tokens of derangement: even adversaries admit that they exhibit plain marks of a very superior mind; and they only pronounce him mad, because his works contain such statements as they might naturally be expected to contain, should his claims to acceptance, as a heaven-commissioned teacher, be true."
The objection so commonly urged that "the mission of Swedenborg could not have been genuine because he perform ed no miracles," is also very fully answered in the work from which the above quotations are made, as well as by many other New Church writers. It is in fact an objection which loses all its force, the moment a man begins to receive a correct impression in regard to the true character of the New Church Dispensation. It is a distinguishing peculiarity of these doctrines that they are addressed to the understanding. They ask not for a blind and uningquiring faith; but they come to men as rational beings, and bid them to think, reason, and investigate. Under such a dispensation, and even for the great mass of minds in the present age, miracles could be of no use. They only compel an external assent, but leave the understanding uninformed and unenlightened, in regard to the internal nature of the truth to which they bear testimony.
In the extracts that have just been presented, as well as in the accompanying remarks, reference has been made only to the external evidences of the genuineness of Swedenborg's mission. But it ought to be remarked that there are also internal evidences, which, to those who are prepared to appreciate them, are much more important and convincing. If We refer to the perfect adaptation of his doctrines to the wants of our spiritual nature. I will here again borrow a short paragraph from Noble's Appeal. Mr. N. says:–
"I am indeed satisfied, that a most convincing work might be written on the internal evidence which the writings of Swedenborg bear to their own truth; and this, not only in the great and leading doctrines which they deliver, and which they so scripturally and rationally establish, but in innumerable more minute points, in which they speak to the heart and experience, and best intelligence of man.—There is no subject of which they treat that they do not lay open in a deeper ground than is done by any other author; in particular, they discover so profoundly and distinctly the inward operations, the interior workings of the human heart and mind, and unveil man so fully to himself, that no person of reflection can attentively peruse them, without feeling a monitor in his own breast continually responding to their truth. Will it not follow, that a writer who can thus penetrate into the most secret things, and place them in a light which is at once seen to be the true one, must have been the subject of a superior illumination, and must, as he avows, have been admitted to a conscious perception of the things of that world, in which the essences of things lie open."—Page 193.
Having thus directed our attention for a few moments to the nature of those evidences,by which it is shown that Swedenborg was a divinely appointed medium,for bringing down from heaven to earth the spiritual truths of a new and more perfect dispensation, it will, in the next place, be appropriate and interesting to ask what direct revelations he has made in reference to the nature and circumstances of that Last Judgment about which we have been inquiring.
His testimony on this subject, which is also very fully sustained and corroborated by a variety of arguments drawn from the Word of the Lord, as well as from the laws of man's spiritual nature, may be found in this work entitled "The Last Judgment:" and also in "The Apocalypse Explained." I here transcribe a few passages, which though insufficient to convey any adequate idea of what the author has written on this subject, may nevertheless be of some use in inducing the reader to become acquainted with the works from which the extracts are taken.
In the Apocalypse Explained, No. 1275, our author remarks that:
"From the time of the Lord's being in the world, when He executed a last judgment in person, it was permitted that they who were in civil and moral good, though in no spiritual good, so that in externals they had the appearance of being christians, notwithstanding they were devils in internals, should continue longer than the rest in the world of spirits, which is in the midst between heaven and hell; and at length they were allowed to make there for themselves fixed habitations, and also by the abuse of correspondences, and by means of phantasies, to form as it were heavens to themselves, which they likewise did form in great abundance; but when these were multiplied to such a degree, as to intercept the spiritual light and spiritual heat in their descent from the superior heavens to men upon earth, then the Lord executed the last judgment, and dispersed those imaginary heavens; which was done in such manner, that the externals, by means of which they put on the appearance of being christians, were removed and taken away, and the internals, in which they were devils, were laid open, and then they appeared such as they were in themselves, and they who proved to be devils were cast into hell, every one according to the evils of his life; this was done in the year 1757; but more concerning this universal judgment may be seen in the little work on the Last Judgment, published at London 1758, and in the Continuation of the same, published at Amsterdam 1763."
In the "Last Judgment," to which reference is here made, the author, in the first place, very fully and clearly demonstrates the following propositions; deriving his arguments chiefly from the Divine Word:
"That the day of the Last Judgment does not mean the destruction of the world."
"That the procreation of the human race on the earth will never cease."
"That heaven and hell are from mankind."
"That all who have ever been born men from the beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell."
"That the Last Judgment must be where all are together, and therefore in the spiritual world, and not upon earth."
"That the Last Judgment exists, when the end of the Church is; and that the end of the Church is, when there is no faith because there is no charity."
"That all the things which are predicted in the Apocalypse, are at this day fulfilled."
He then announces that "The last judgment has been accomplished," and goes on to describe the manner of that intensely interesting and important event, as seen by him, when, in the providence of the Lord, his spiritual sight was opened for that purpose. In the first paragraph of this account he says:
"It was shown above, in the article for the purpose, that the last judgment does not exist on the earth, but in the spiritual world, where all who have lived from the beginning of creation are together; and since it is so, it is impossible for any man to know when the last judgment is accomplished, for every one expects it to exist on earth, accompanied by a change of all things in the visible heaven, and in the countries of the earth and in mankind who dwell there.—Lest therefore the man of the church from ignorance should live in such a belief, and lest they who think of a last judgment should expect it for ever, whence at length the belief of those things which are said of it in the literal sense of the Word must perish, and lest haply therefore many should recede from their faith in the Word, it has been granted me to see with my own eyes that the last judgment is now accomplished; that the evil are cast into the hells, and the good elevated into heaven, and thus that all things are reduced into order, the spiritual equilibrium between good and evil, or between heaven and hell being thence restored. It was granted me to see from beginning to end how the last judgment was accomplished, and also how the Babylon was destroyed, how those who are understood by the dragon were cast into the abyss, and how the new heaven was formed, and a new church instituted in the heavens, which is understood by the New Jerusalem. It was granted me to see all these things with my own eyes, in order that I might be able to testify of them. This last judgment was commenced in the beginning of the year 1757, and was fully accomplished at the end of that year."—Last Judgment, n. 45.
Then follows a clear, truthful and life-like description of those judgment scenes, by which all things in the world of spirits were reduced to order, and a way was opened for the establishment of a new and better order of things in the natural world.
We are thus furnished with an amount of evidence which though very imperfectly presented, on the foregoing pages, is, when fully brought to light, overwhelming and irresistible, except to those who will not see it,—showing that the long-expected judgment has been already accomplished, and that the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, is now descending from God out of Heaven. The New Churchman has at least as much evidence of these facts, and can present to those who are prepared to receive them, as strong reasons for believing them, as can be given for believing in the personal manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the first establishment of the Christian Dispensation. But this evidence will be received only by those whose hearts are filled with a deep and earnest love for the truth, and who are willing to lose, if necessary, the good opinion of men, in order to retain the testimony of a good conscience towards God.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
In the preceding pages the reader has found a brief statement of the New Church doctrine in regard to the Last Judgment. This doctrine, with those collateral doctrines which are immediately connected with it, the writer has endeavored to unfold and explain as fully as he could, within the limits that he was obliged to observe. In the first place it was shown that the final judgment must take place in the spiritual world, because those who are to be the subjects of it, enter that world and remain there forever. Their connection with the natural world terminates, when death divests them of their material bodies; neither reason nor the Word of the Lord affording the least reason for believing that the material particles of those dissolved and dissipated bodies will ever be again re-constructed into human forms, and given back to the spirits to which they once belonged.
In the next place, it was argued on scientific, rational and scriptural grounds, that the natural world is destined for permanent continuance, and hence that the Judgment Day and other important events, which have been expected to happen at the same time with the destruction of the earth, must be looked for in the world of spirits, and that they will be known in the natural world only by their effects.
A somewhat lengthy section was then taken up in endeavoring to unfold and explain the nature of the spiritual world, and to show that while in its essential character, it is entirely unlike the natural world, it is nevertheless even more real and substantial. And as the design of the last judgment must be to bring to light the real internal character of every spirit, and to show whether heaven or hell is his destined abode, a section was occupied in endeavoring to unfold the true nature of these opposite spiritual states. And in the last place our attention has been directed to the nature of the Last Judgment, both in its individual and its general sense.
I must now leave this whole subject with the reader. I do so with the earnest desire and hope that he will give it that patient and faithful examination which its importance demands;—that he will not dismiss it with a hasty or even a careful perusal of this little book, but that he will seek for and thoroughly examine those highly important and interesting works, to which reference has so often been made. I have not endeavored to conceal from the reader, that my chief design in writing these pages, has been to awaken in his mind so much interest in this subject, as would lead him to sources from whence he can obtain much higher, clearer and more perfect views than I could possibly present. The few who have already become familiar with the works of our illuminated author, will have no occasion to read this little work of mine, unless for the purpose of determining whether it is suitable to be put into the hands of others. But it may be safely presumed that the most of those, into whose hands this little book will fall, have hitherto known very little of the works referred to. Those works have probably been heard of only through the prejudiced misrepresentations of those who have themselves examined them very hastily, or, perhaps, not at all; but have given judgment against them, pronouncing them the offspring of insanity and delusion, simply because they have discovered or heard, that the doctrines contained in them are widely at variance from those which they have been taught to believe.
If the reader has hitherto neglected to examine these works, on account of such unfavorable representations, I would most respectfully ask him whether, in continuing to do so, he is making a right use of that reason with which God has endowed him. Even in the little work which he has now been perusing, some good reasons have been given, as I hope, for believing that the doctrines referred to are fairly derived from the Divine Word, and may be very fully confirmed by rational and scientific truth. The fact that these doctrines have been very generally rejected by the religious world, ought to constitute no reasonable presumption against them. For the Word of the Lord has plainly taught us to expect that at the second coming of the Son of Man, no faith would be found on the earth. The Lord would again come unto his own, and his own would receive him not. Divine Truth from heaven would descend into the midst of those who would profess to be earnestly seeking for it; and yet it would appear like darkness to them, from the intensity of its light.
Such is, manifestly, the teaching of the prophetic Word in regard to the second coming of the Lord. In whatever form that coming might take place, it would inevitably meet with a prompt and decided rejection from the great mass of the religious world. The very circumstances which would render it necessary that the internal meaning of the Divine Word should be more fully laid open, that higher and more perfect forms of truth should be revealed from heaven—the same circumstances would ensure the temporary rejection of such truth. For if spiritual darkness had not enveloped the religious world, there could be no reason why the Son of Man should again appear. If the Church were not losing sight of heavenly truth there would be no occasion for a special interposition of Divine Providence for its restoration.—And yet, in a spiritual, as well as in a natural sense, darkness is opposed to light. The Church having substituted error for truth, would at first regard truth itself as error, and contend against it as such.
It will be seen, therefore, that the rejection which these doctrines have encountered from the Church at large, is not even a presumptive evidence that they are not true. If false, they might have been thus rejected, but if true, they must have been. And hence if the reader would be just towards himself, and would make a right use of those rational faculties which the Lord has given him, he ought to examine the doctrines of the New Church candidly and faithfully, unprejudiced and unaffected by the judgment which the religious world has passed upon them. Let him have one Master, Christ. Let the Lord alone, as Divine Truth, be his only authoritative teacher. And relying on his help and strength, let him go forth in search of spiritual truth, firmly resolved to receive nothing as truth, till the evidence of it has been discovered and seen in the light of his own understanding. The Lord will most assuredly defend, protect, and guide those who thus rest upon him and diligently seek for that spiritual food,—the bread of heaven and the water of life,—which is necessary to prepare them for an eternal home in those mansions where angels dwell.
It is in vain to pretend, as some have done, that our only spiritual safety is in quietly receiving and resting upon those doctrines, which have come down to us from our forefathers. Even if the doctrines thus received by tradition were every where alike and consistent with themselves, which is by no means the case, the question would still arise,—what warrant have we for supposing that the Church has not departed from the truth? Is it not undeniable that the uniform testimony of the prophetic Word has authorized us to expect such a departure, and hence has left us no excuse for permitting our religious faith to rest upon such a foundation.
And is it not equally manifest to every observing man, that the wants of the present age are already demanding a purer and more perfect faith, deeper and more rational principles, than can be found in the doctrines which have been handed down to us as orthodox? What connection, for example, has the doctrine of the tri-personality, or that of justification by faith alone, with those principles which are now forming the public mind, and directing its energies. With the various benevolent and charitable enterprizes of the day, those energetic and unparalleled movements of the public mind which are so rapidly advancing not only the physical but also the intellectual and moral condition of mankind,—with these movements, it is notorious that the doctrines referred to, and other similar ones, have scarcely a nominal connection. In many instances, the public teachers of those doctrines have manifested more than an indifference,—a decided hostility towards these efforts for promoting the welfare of society. And though many of the clergy, who nominally adhere to those doctrines, are now foremost in these charitable efforts, yet it is well known that the doctrines contained in their creeds are not the means through which they operate upon the public mind.
We might also refer to the entire want of correspondence between the Theology of the Old Church, and those rational and scientific truths, which are everywhere taught and believed. The teacher of science demonstrates his principles, and all who hear him, see and know them to be truths. The teacher of religion delivers opinions, directly opposed to those demonstrations, and requires you to receive and adopt them as matters of faith; and perhaps intimates to you, very distinctly, that there will be no hope of your salvation, unless you do so.
There is a sure refuge from all these difficulties, a quiet haven where the spirit may rest, in a confident assurance of having received at least the lower and more general forms of that great system of truth, on which the universe rests.—
Here, there are no collisions between the truths of science and those of theology. However far these truths may be removed from each other, yet they are bound together by the principle of correspondence, to which reference has so often been made,—the lower forms of truth thus illustrating and confirming the higher, and serving as mirrors, in which those higher forms can be more perfectly seen. Here also is a system of doctrines which is intimately connected with all those great works of charity and usefulness, which so peculiarly distinguish the present age. They are, in fact, the very life, the soul of these benevolent enterprises. For the essential principle of these heaven-descended doctrines is, the love of usefulness. And though this love may sometimes manifest itself in no higher form than that of removing physical suffering and want, yet even in this form, it is internally connected with those heavenly principles on which the Church of the New Jerusalem is built. Here is a system of doctrines whose truths are everywhere useful. Whether in the halls of legislation, in the courts of justice, in the temples of science, or at the domestic fire-side,—wherever man is called to act or to perform any duty whatever, if he would perform that duty in the best, the most successful and most useful manner, his mind ought to be first informed and filled with these heavenly truths.—My prayer and hope is that both the reader and myself may become better acquainted with these doctrines, that they may henceforth be the delight of our hearts, and the guide of our lives,—may be a means of greatly increasing our usefulness here in the natural world, and of making us much better prepared for an eternal life in heaven.