lusts. By the wicked being cast into this lake, as is sometimes said, is signified that men cast themselves into such an infernal state of mind as is denoted by it, through a voluntary rejection and disobedience of the truth. The reason why they are said to be cast into this lake, as if it were done by the Lord in an arbitrary manner, is, because it is effected through the operation of a law of divine order. For it is an eternal law of order, that those who reject and disobey the truth, shall fall into such a state of mind as is denoted by the "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone."

Such is the burning lake in which all the wicked will have their part-into which are cast “the beast and the false prophet," and all who "have received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image." And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever;" that is, evil concupisences and the pride of selfderived intelligence, which is darkness when compared with heavenly light, continually proceed from the tormenting love of self, in which those are who are denoted by the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, as natural smoke proceeds from the fire.

I have thus presented the doctrine of the New Church concerning the resurrection, together with a brief view of that world which every man enters immediately after death. Of the truth and reasonableness of the views here offered, the reader must judge for himself. But before he allows himself to pronounce an unfavorable verdict, I earnestly entreat him to procure and read with attention, the entire work by Swedenborg on Heaven and Hell, from which most of the above extracts are taken.

Then look at the New doctrine of the resurrection in a practical point of view, and contrast it with the Old one in this respect. It brings the spiritual world and the day of judgment very near to us all. It teaches us that the spirit of man is the man himself, endowed with sensations far more acute than any that can be imparted to flesh and blood; and that his state of final happiness or misery is not to be deferred to some indefinite, and perhaps very remote period, but that, immediately on quitting the natural world, he rises a real man, and enters at once upon his reward in the spiritual world. And when, in connection with this, we reflect that there is nothing arbitrary either in the rewards or punishments of the other life-that we carry with us our own heaven, or our own hell-that the quality of life which we have procured, each one

for himself, in this world, or the nature of the love which we have permitted to rule in us, will remain with us to eternity-what a powerful motive is here presented to induce men to cease from evil and learn to do well!-to induce them to observe all things whatsoever the Lord hath commanded.

Verily, it is difficult to conceive how the practice of virtue and the discouragement of vice, can be enforced by stronger sanctions than those furnished by the New doctrines which we have just been considering.

LECTURE XI.

SWEDENBORG'S INTROMISSION INTO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD-ITS POSSIBILITY PROVED FROM THE SCRIPTURE.

"I will come to Visions and Revelations."-2 Cor. xii. 1. "

WRITING upon the subject of Swedenborg's modes of perception, the pious, learned, and philosophic Richer says:

"At the word 'Vision,' science is disturbed, faith alarmed; and the mind, without examination, appeals to ridicule and mockery. In this proscribed word, superstition, fanaticism, and deception, meet. One sees in it unequivocal proof of a disordered brain; another, the certain influence of the spirit of darkness; a third, the evidence of gross and ignorant credulity. Memory recalls what one has read, and receives these visions with the same contempt we have been accustomed to feel for those of ancient story. If history has wished to blast the reputation of any religious personage, it has called him a visionary. Is there in a romance a character whose delirious opinions the author would condemn, he makes him a visionary. It is a word which everywhere invites proscription, contempt, ridicule, and hatred. The infant, whose reason is just budding, smiles at the story of a vision; for it is told him along with the fairy tales, to which no one is expected to listen seriously. And while uttering this word, the man of letters smiles; for if he spoke it seriously, his reputation would suffer.

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'However fearful may appear such a coalition of enemies, it is nevertheless certain, that truth has very often appeared upon the earth under discredited terms. The Gospel had its origin in the midst of a people, who had become the scorn of all others. Let us venture then to approach, without prejudice, the phenomena of visions. We shall find, perhaps, even here, materials for true science, which should dread no investigation. We shall undoubtedly be convinced, that enlightened religion has nothing to fear from the results of this study; we shall at last acquire the proof that the frivolity which jests with it, as with an arbitrary thing, attacks a fact which demands to be observed, comprehended, and appreciated. Our conscience will then put us in a condition to pass a definite judgment upon this subject, instead of repeating, like servile echoes, the pleasantries of people who have never been

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able to think for themselves, or who have not had light or strength enough to struggle against an error which had become dominant.

We will begin, then, consistently with these views, to consider, in this celebrated man, the visionary in good faith.

"In truth, it is as a seer of visions, that Swedenborg asserted his mission, and it may be remarked that no founder of religion has spoken in the name of reason alone; he has spoken as an organ of heaven, with which he has claimed to be in communication. If reason alone had been appealed to in aid of the establishment of forms of worship, there would have been as many, without doubt, as there are individuals; for each man has his own manner of feeling and conceiving the truth. The right of imposing his religious opinions on others, belongs to no one, rationally speaking; but, if not as an imperative right, at least as a demonstrative right, it may in some sort, belong to certain individuals in communication with the divine power.

"What appears, at the first view, a motive for rejecting Swedenborg, appears, on further reflection, rather a guarantee of the mission with which he declares himself charged. If he had claimed to be chosen in order to establish upon the earth a new providential kingdom by the extent of his reason, the excellence of his understanding, the moral superiority of all his faculties, by what right would his intelligence have prevailed over that of others? With a claim so extraordinary, he should necessarily, in order to be received, assert an intercourse equally extraordinary with the Divinity whose agent he is.

"But let it not be thought that I demand here the sacrifice of reason; it seems to me, on the contrary, that it is by the use of this faculty alone, that I can assure myself that anything above it exists. To expel her from a domain which is hers, is not the way to force her to surrender; she will revolt against this tyrannical act, and will never submit to what one would attempt to impose upon her. If you present to her, on the contrary, something inaccessible to our senses, those instruments which have been given us to act within certain limits, she will soon herself acknowledge her insufficiency, and her laying down of her authority will be her own act. In refusing to act, she will exercise all her force, and all her independence.

Now, it is a long time since the reason of enlightened men has declared itself incompetent for the explanation of certain phenomena, which do not enter into the common order of life and of

thought. There is beyond the science of sensation a science of man, scarcely known, it is true, but yet acknowledged; it is that which explains dreams, presentiments, visions, a thousand supernatural effects attested by the most respectable writers in all times."-See New Jerusalem Magazine for Nov., 1841, p. 104.

These remarks are from the pen of an able French writer, who possesses a good heart, extensive learning, and one of the most eminently clear and philosophic minds of modern times. They are cited as an appropriate introduction to the present lecture.

In the commencement of his work entitled "The Delights of Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love," Swedenborg says:

"I FORESEE that many who read the relations immediately following, and those annexed to the chapters, will believe that they are inventions of the imagination; but I assert in truth that they were not invented, but truly done and seen; nor seen in any state of the sleeping mind, but in full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest himself to me, and to send me to teach those things which will belong to the New Church, which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse; for which purpose He has opened the interiors of my mind and spirit; whereby it has been given me to be in the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world with men, and this now for twenty-five years.”

In another of his works, this illumined author says:

"Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in person, as has been shown just above, and yet He has foretold that He would come and establish a New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows, that He is to do it by means of a man, who is able not only to receive the doctrines of this Church with his understanding, but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord has manifested Himself before me, his servant, and sent me on this office, and that, after this, He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus let me into the spiritual world, and gave me to see the heavens and the hells, and also to speak with angels and spirits, and this now continually for many years, I testify in truth; and also that, from the first day of that call, I have not received any thing which pertains to the doctrines of that church from any angel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word.”—T. C. R. n. 779.

Such is the language in which the especial mission, claimed for the Swedish Seer, as a divinely appointed instrument in revealing the truths of the New Dispensation, is asserted by the Seer himself. I well remember how wild and strange these assertions sounded to my ears, before I had satisfied myself, by an impartial,