YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

the last judgment.

This Work is printed at the expense of, and published for,
" The Society foe Printing and Publishing the
Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, instituted in
London in the Year 1810."

PRINTED BY WALTON AND MITCHELL, WARDOUR STREET, OXFORD STREET.

AN ACCOUNT

LAST JUDGMENT,

BABYLON DESTROYED:
SHEWING THAT
ALL THE PREDICTIONS IN THE APOCALYPSE ARE AT
THIS DAY FULFILLED:
B£1NG A RB1.AT10N OF THINGS
HEARD AND SEEN.

Frmn the Latin c^
EMANUEL SWEDENB©RG.

LONDON :
JAMES S. HODSON, 112, FLEET STREET;
WILLIAM NEWBERY, CHENIES STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE
EDWARD BAYLIS, MANCHESTER.
1841.

OF
THE LAST JUDGMENT,
AND
THE BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED.

THAT THE DAY OF THE LAST JUDGMENT DOES NOT MEAN THE
DESTRUCTION OF THE WORLD.
1. THEY who have been unacquainted with the spiritual sense
of the Word, have always understood that all things in the visi
ble world will be destroyed in the day of the last judgment ;
for it is said, that heaven and earth are then to perish, and that
God will create a new heaven and a new earth : in which opinion
they have also confirmed themselves because it is said, that all
men are then to rise from their graves, and that the good are
then to be separated from the evil, with more to the same pur
port : but it is thus expressed in the literal sense of the Word,
because this sense of the Word is natural, and in the ultimate
of divine order, of which the whole and every part contains a
spiritual sense within it: for which reason, he who compre
hends the Word only according to the sense of the letter, may
be led into various opinions, as actually is the case in the
Christian world, where so many heresies exist from this ground,
and every one of them is confirmed from the Word. But since
no one has hitherto known, that in the whole, and in every part
of the Word there is a spiritual sense, nor even what a spiritual
sense is, therefore they who have embraced this opinion con
cerning the last judgment, are pardonable. But still they may
now know, that neither the visible heaven nor the habitable
earth will perish, but that both will remain for ever ; and that by
a new heaven and a new earth is to be understood a new church,
both in the heavens and on the earth : it is said a new church
in the heavens, for there is a church in the heavens, as well as
on the earth ; for there also is the Word, and likewise preach
ings, and divine worship like that on the earth ; yet with a dif
ference, that all these things are in a more perfect state, be
cause they are not in the natural world, but in the spiritual ;
hence all who dwell there are spiritual men, and not natural as

4 OF the last judgment, and the
they were in the world. That it is so, may be seen in the work
on Heaven, in a special article, on the conjunction of heaven
with man by the Word. n. 303 to 310; and on divine worship
in heaven, n. 221 to 227.
2. The passages in the Word, in which mention is made of
the destruction of heaven and earth, are the following : " Lift
" up your eyes to heaven, and look upon the land beneath; the
" heavens are about to perish like smoke, and the land shall wax
" old like a garment." Isaiah Ii. 6. " Behold, I am about to
" create new heavens, and a new earth ; neither shall former things
" be remembered." Isai. Ixv. 17, " I will make new heavens and
" a new earth," Isai. Ixvi. 22. " The stars of heaven have fallen
" to the earth, and heaven has departed like a scroll rolled together."
Rev. vi. 13, 14. " I saw a great throne, and one sitting thereon,
"from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and their
"place was not found," Rev. xx. 11. " I saw a new heaven and
"a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
"away." Rev. xxi. 1. In these passages, by a new heaven is
not meant a visible heaven, but the very heaven where the
human race is assembled ; for a heaven was formed from all the
human race, who had lived since the commencement of the
Christian church ; but they who were in it were not angels, but
spirits of various religions ; this heaven is understood by the first
heaven which was to perish : but how this was, shall be specially
declared in what follows ; here is related only so much as serves
to show what is meant by the first heaven which was to perish.
Every one even, who thinks from a somewhat enlightened reason,
may perceive, that it is not the starry heaven, the so immense
firmament of creation, which is here meant, but that it is heaven
in a spiritual sense, where angels and spirits are.
3. That a new earth (or land) means a new church on earth,
has hitherto been unknown, for every one by land in the Word
has understood the land, when yet by land is meant the church ;
in a natural sense, land is the land, but in a spiritual sense it
is the church, because they who are in the spiritual sense, that
is, who are spiritual, as the angels are, when land is named in
the Word, do not understand the land itself, but the nation
which is there, and its Divine worship ; hence it is that by land
is signified the church ; that it is so, may be seen in the Arcana
Ccelestia, as quoted below, (a)
{a) From the Arcana Ccelestia. That by land in the Word is signified
the kingdom of the Lord and the church, n. 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607
2928, 3355, 4447, 4535, 5577, 8011, 9325, 9643. Chiefly for this reason, because
by land is understood the land of Canaan, and the church was there from the
most ancient times; hence also it is, that heaven is called the heavenly Canaan
n. 567, 3686, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 6516, 9325, 9327. And because

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 5
I will here adduce one or two passages from the Word, by which
in some measure it may be comprehended, that the land signifies
the church. " The cataracts from on high were opened, and the
"foundations of the land were shaken ; in breaking, the land is
" broken ; in agitating, the land is agitated; in reeling, the land
"reels like a drunkard; it moves to and fro like a cottage; and
"heavy upon it is the transgression thereof," Isai. xxiv. 18, 19,
" 20. " / will cause a man to be more rare than pure gold ;
" therefore I will remove the heaven, and the land shall be re-
" moved out of her place, in the day of the fierce anger of Je-
" hovah" Isai. xiii. 12, 13. " The land was agitated before
"him, the heavens have trembled, the sun and the moon are become
" black, and the stars have withdrawn their splendor," Joel ii. 10.
" The land was shaken and agitated, and the foundations of the
" mountains trembled and were shaken," Psalm xviii. 7, 8 ; and
in many other places.
4. Creating, moreover, in the spiritual sense of the Word,
signifies to form, to establish, and to regenerate ; so that creat
ing a new heaven and a new earth signifies to establish a New
Church in heaven and on earth ; as may appear from the fol
lowing passages : " The people who shall be created shall praise
" Jah," Psalm cii. 18. " Thou sendest forth the spirit, they are
"created; and thou renewest the faces of the land." Psalm civ.
30. " Thus said Jehovah, thy creator O Jacob, thy former O
" Israel, for I have redeemed thee, and I have called thee bi/ thy
" name, thou art mine ; every one called by my name, and for my
"glory I have created, I have formed him, yea 1 have made him,"
Isaiah xliii. 1,7; and in other places : hence it is, that the new
creation of man is his reformation, since he is made anew, that
is, from natural he is made spiritual ; and hence it is that a
new creature is a reformed man. (b)
in a spiritual sense by land is understood the nation which is there, and its
worship, n. 1262. That hence the land signifies various things pertaining to
the church, n. 620, 636, 1067, 2571, 3368, 3379, 3404, 8732. That the people
of the land are they who belong to the spiritual church, n. 2928. That an
earthquake is a change of the state of the church, n. 3355. That a new heaven
and a new earth signify a church, n. 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 3355, 4535, 10373.
That the most ancient church, which was before the flood, and the ancient
church which was after the flood, were in the land of Canaan, n. 567, 3686,
4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136, 6516, 9327. That thence all the places there
became representative of such things as are in the Lord's kingdom and in the
church, n. 1505. 3686, 4447, 5136. That therefore Abraham was commanded
to go thither, since among his posterity from Jacob, a representative church
was to be instituted, and a Word written, whose ultimate sense should consist
of the representatives and significatives which were there, n. 3686, 4447, 5136,
6516. Hence it is that by land and by the land of Canaan is signified the church,
n. 3038, 3481, 3705, 4447, 4517, 5757, 10658.
(b) That to create is to create anew, or to reform and regenerate, n. 16, 88,
10373, 10634. That to create a new heaven and a new earth, is to institute »

6 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
5 Concerning the spiritual sense of the Word, the small
work on the White Hoese, mentioned in the Apocalypse may
be consulted.

THAT THE PROCREATIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE ON THE EARTH
WILL NEVER CEASE.
6. THEY who have adopted as their belief concerning the last
judgment, that all things in the heavens and on the earth are
then to perish, and that a new heaven and a new earth will
become extant in their place, believe, because it follows of con
sequence, that the generations and procreations of the human
race are thenceforth to cease ; for they think that all things will
be then accomplished, and that man's future state will be quite
different from his former one : but since the day of the last
judgment does not mean the destruction of the world, as was
shewn in the preceding article, it also follows that the human
race will continue, and that procreations will never cease.
7. That the procreations of the human race will continue to
eternity, is plain from many considerations, of which some are
adduced in the work on Heaven, and of which the following
are the principal : —
I. That the human race is the basis on which heaven is
founded. II. That the human race is the seminary of heaven.
III. That the extension of heaven, which is for angels, is so
immense, that it cannot be filled to eternity.
IV. That they are but few respectively, of whom heaven at
present is formed.
V. That the perfection of heaven increases according to
plurality. VI. And that every Divine work has respect to Infinity and
Eternity. 9. That the human race is the basis on which heaven is
founded, is because man was last created, and that which is
last created is the basis of all that precedes. Creation com
menced from the supreme or inmost, because from the Divine ;
and proceeded to ultimates or extremes, and then first sub
sisted. The ultimate of creation is the natural world, in-
cliiding the terraqueous globe, with all things on it. When
these were finished, then man was created, and into him were
new church, n. 10373. That by the creation of heaven and earth in the be
ginning of Genesis, in the internal sense, is described the institution of the
celestial, which was the most ancient church, n, 8891, 9942, 10545.

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 7
collated all things of Divine order from first to last ; into his in
most were collated those things of that order which are primary ;
and into his ultimates those which are ultimate ; so that man
was made Divine order in form : hence it is that all things in
man and with man, are both from heaven and from the world,
those of his mind from heaven, and those of his body from the
world ; for the things of heaven inflow into his thoughts and
affections, and dispose them according to reception by his spirit,
and the things of the world inflow into his sensations and
pleasures, and dispose them according to reception in his body,
but still in accommodation to their agreement with the thoughts
and affections of his spirit. That it is so, may be seen in se
veral articles in the work on Heaven and Hell, especially in
the following : That the universal heaven, in one complex, has
reference to one man. n. 59 to 67. That every society in heaven
has the like. n. 68 to 72. That hence every angel is in a perfect
human form. n. 73 to 77. And that this is from the Divine
Human of the Lord. n. 78 to 86. And moreover under the article
of the correspondence of all things of heaven with all of man. n.
87 to 112. Of the correspondence of heaven with all things on
earth, n. 103 to 1 16. And of the form of heaven, n. 200 to 212.
From the above order of creation it may appear, that such is the
binding chain of connection from first to last, that all things
together make one, in which the prior cannot be separated from
the posterior (just as a cause cannot be separated from its effect):
and that thus the spiritual world cannot be separated from the
natural, nor the natural world from the spiritual : nor the angelic
heaven from the human race, nor the human race from the an
gelic heaven ; wherefore it is provided by the Lord, that each
shall afford a mutual assistance to the other, that is the angelic
heaven to the human race, and the human race to the angelic
heaven. Hence it is, that the angelic mansions are indeed in
heaveuj and to appearance separate from the mansion of men,
and yet are with man in his affections of good and truth ; their
presentation to sight, as separate, is but an appearance ; as may
be seen in an article in the work on Heaven and Hell, where
space in heaven is treated of. n. 191 to 199. That the mansions
of angels are with men in their affections of good and truth, is
understood by these words of the Lord, " He who loveth me,
" keepeth my words, and my Father will love him, and we will
" come unto him, and make our mansion with him." John xiv. 23 ;
by the Father and the Lord in the above passage is also signified
heaven, for- where the Lord is, there is heaven, since the Divine
Proceeding from the Lord makes heaven, as may be seen in the
work on Heaven and Hell. n. 7 to 12; and n. 116 to 125.

8 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
And likewise by these words of the Lord, " The Comforter the
" Spirit of Truth abideth with you, and is in you." John xiv. 1 7 ;
the Comforter is Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord, for
which reason he is also called the Spirit of Truth, and Divine
Truth makes heaven, and also angels, because they are recipient
of it ; that the Divine Proceeding from the Lord is Divine Truth,
and that the angelic heaven is from It, may be seen in the work
on Heaven and Hell. n. 126 to 140. The like is also under
stood by these words of the Lord, " The kingdom of God is
" within you." Luke xvii. 21 ; the kingdom of God is Divine
Good and Truth, in which the angels are. That angels and
spirits are with man, and in his affections, has been given me
to see a thousand times, from their presence and abode with me ;
but angels and spirits do not know the men with whom they are,
neither do men know the angels and spirits they cohabit with,
for the Lord alone knows and disposes this. In a word, there
is an extension into heaven of all the affections of good and truth,
and communication and conjunction with those who are in the
like afff 3tions there ; and there is an extension into hell of all
the affections of evil and the false, and a communication and
conjunction with those who are in the like affections there. The
extension of the affections into the spiritual world, is almost like
that of sight into the natural world ; communications in both are
nearly similar; yet with this difference, that in the natural world
there are objects, but in the spiritual world angelic societies.
Hence it appears, that the connection of the angelic heaven with
the human race is such, that the one subsists from the other, and
that the angelic heaven without mankind would be like a house
without a foundation, for heaven closes into mankind and rests
upon them. The case in this is the same as with each parti
cular man ; his spiritual things, which pertain to his thought
and will, inflow into his natural things, which pertain to his
sensations and actions, and in these they terminate and subsist ;
if man were not in possession of them, that is, if he were with
out these boundings and ultimates, his spiritual things, which
pertain to the thoughts and affections of his spirit, would dis
solve away, like things unbounded, or like those which have no
foundation: and it happens, moreover, when a man passes from
the natural into the spiritual world, which takes place when he
dies, that then, since he is a spirit, he no longer subsists on his
own basis, but upon the common basis, which is mankind. He
who knows not the mysteries of heaven, may believe, that angels
subsist without men, and men without angels ; but I can as
severate from all my experience of heaven, and from all my dis
course with the angels, that no angel or spirit subsists apart

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 9
from man, and no man apart from spirits and angels, but that
there is a, mutual and reciprocal conjunction. From this, it may
now be seen that mankind and the aiigelic heaven make one,
and subsist mutually from, and interchangeably with each other,
and thus that the one cannot be removed from the other.
10. That mankind is the Seminary of heaven, will appear from
a subsequent article, in which it will be shewn, that heaven and
hell are from mankind, and that therefore mankind is the se
minary of heaven. It must however, first be mentioned, that
as heaven has been formed of the human race, from the first
creation until now, so it will be formed and enlarged from the
same source hereafter. It is indeed possible that the human race
on one earth may perish, which comes to pass when they separate
themselves entirely from the Divine, for then man no longer has
spiritual life, but only natural, like that of beasts ; and when
man is such, no society can be formed, and held bound by laws,
since without the influx of heaven, and thus without the divine
government, men would become insane, and rush unchecked
into every wickedness, the one against the other. But although
mankind, by separation from the Divine, were to perish on one
earth, which however is provided against by the Lord, yet still
they would continue on other earths; for that there are earths
in the universe to some hundreds of thousands, may be seen in
the little work, " Of the Earths in our Solar System called Planets,
and of the Earths in the Starry Heaven." It was declared to
me from heaven, that the human race on this earth would have
perished, so that not one man would have existed on it at this
day, if the Lord had not come into the world, and on this earth
assumed the Human, and made it Divine ; and also, unless the
Lord had given to this earth such a Word as might serve for a
basis to the angelic heaven, and for its conjunction with man
kind; that the conjunction of heaven with man is by the Word,
may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 303 to 310.
But that such is the case can be comprehended only by those
who think spiritually, that is, by those who through the ac
knowledgment of the Lord's Divinity are conjoined with heaven,
for they alone are able to think spiritually.
11. That the extension of heaven, which is for angels, is so
immense, that it cannot be filled to eternity, appears from what
has been said in the work on Heaven and Hell, On the im
mensity of heaven, n. 415 to 420 : and That they are but few
respectively of whom heaven is at present formed, in the little work
on the Earths in the Universe, n. 126.
That the perfection of heaven increases according to plurality,
results from its form, according to which its associations- are
disposed in order, and its communications flow, for it is of all

10 OP the last judgment, and the
forms the most perfect ; and in proportion to the increase of
numbers in that most perfect form, there is given a direction
and consent of more and more to unity, and therefore a closer
and a more unanimous conjunction ; the consent and the con
junction derived from it increase by plurality, for every thing
is there inserted as a mediate relation between two or more, and
what is inserted confirms and conjoins. The form of heaven is
like the form of the human mind, the perfection of which in
creases according to the increase of truth and good, from whence
are its intelligence and wisdom. The form of the human mind,
which is in heavenly wisdom and intelligence, is like the form
of heaven, because the mind is the least image of that form ;
hence it is, that on all sides there is a communication of the
thoughts and affections of good and truth in such men, and in
angels, with surrounding societies of heaven ; and an extension
according to the increase of wisdom, and thus according to the
plurality of the knowledges of truth implanted in the intellect
and according to the abundance of the affections of good im
planted in the will; and therefore in the mind, for the mind
consists of the intellect and the will. The human and angelic
mind is such, that it may be enlarged to eternity, and as it is
enlarged, so it is perfected ; and this is especially the case,
when nian is led by the Lord, for he is then introduced into
genuine truths, which are implanted in his intellect, and into
genuine goods, which are implanted in his will ; for the Lord
then disposes all things of such a mind into the form of heaven,
until at length it is a heaven in the least form. From this
comparison, which is a true parallel, it is evident, that the plu
rality of the angels perfects heaven. Moreover, every form
consists of various parts ; a form which does not consist of the
various, is not a form, for it has no quality, and no changes of
state ; the quality of every form results from the arrangement of
various things within it, from their mutual respectiveness, and
from their consent to unity, by virtue of which every form is
considered as one thing ; such a form, in proportion to the multi
tude of the various things arranged within it, is the more perfect,
for every one of them, as before observed, confirms, corroborates,
conjoins, and so produces perfection. But this is still more
plain from what has been shewn in the work on Heaven and
Hell, especially where it treats on the following subject. That
every society of heaven is a heaven in a lesser form, and every
angel a heaven in the least form. n. 51 to 58 ; and also in the
article. Of the form of heaven, according to which associations
and communications have place there, n. 200 to 212 ; and On
the wisdom of the angels of heaven, n. 265 to 276.
13 That every Divine work has respect to Infinity and Eternity ,

BABYLON which HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 11
is evident from many things which exist both in heaven and in
the world : in neither of them is there ever given any one thing
exactly similar to, or the same as, any other: no two faces are
either alike or identical, nor will be to eternity; in like manner
the disposition of one is never altogether like that of another ;
wherefore there are as many faces and as many dispositions, as
there are men and angels; there never exists in any one man [in
whom yet there are innumerable parts which constitute his body,
and innumerable affections which constitute his disposition], any
one thing quite alike to, or identical with any one thing in another
man; hence it is that every one leads a life distinct from the life of
another. The same order exists in the whole and in every part
of nature : that such infinite variety is in each, and in all, is be
cause they all originate from the Divine, Who is Infinite ; hence
there is a certain image of Infinity every where, to the end, that
the Divine may regard all things as his own work, and at the
same time that all things, as his work, may have respect to the
Divine. A familiar instance may serve to illustrate the manner
in which every thing in nature has respect to Infinity and Eter
nity ; any seed, be it the produce of a tree, or of corn, or of a
flower, is so created, that it may be multiplied to Infinity, and
endure to Eternity ; for from one seed are produced many, five
ten, twenty, to a hundred, and from each of these again as many
more ; such fructification from one seed continuing but for a cen
tury, would cover the surface not only of one, but of myriads of
earths ; the same seeds are so created, that their durations may
be eternal ; hence it is evident, that the idea of Infinity and
Eternity is contained in them ; and the like is true in all other
cases. The angelic heaven is the end for which all things in the
universe were created, for it is the end on account of which
mankind exists, and mankind is the end regarded in the crea
tion of the visible heaven, and the earths included in it ; where
fore that Divine work, namely, the angelic heaven, primarily
has respect to Infinity and Eternity, and therefore to its multipli
cation without end, for the Divine Himself dwells within it.
Hence also it is clear, that the human race will never cease, for
were it to cease, the Divine work would be limited to a certain
number, and thus its respectiveness to Infinity would perish.

THAT HEAVEN AND HELL ARE FROM MANKIND.
14. IT is altogether unknown in the christian world, that heaven
and hell are from mankind ; for it is believed that angels were
created at the beginning, and that heaven was formed of

12 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
them; and, that the devil or satan was an angel of light, who
becoming rebellious, was cast down with his crew> and that
this was the origin of hell. The angels are greatly astonished
at such a faith in the christian world, and still more, that
nothing at all is there known of heaven, when yet it is a pri
mary subject of doctrine in the church; and since such igno
rance prevails, they are rejoiced in heart that it has now pleased
the Lord to reveal to men many things concerning heaven, and
also concerning hell, and by this means, as far as possible, to
dissipate the darkness which daily increases, because the church
has come to its end : wherefore they wish me to declare from
them, that there is no one in the universal heaven, who was
created an angel from the first, nor any devil in hell who was
created an angel of light, and then cast down, but that all both
in heaven and in hell are from the human race ; in heaven those
who had lived in the world in heavenly love and faith, and in
hell those who had lived in hellish love and faith; and that it
is hell in the whole complex, which is called the devil and sa
tan; that the hell behind, which is the abode of evil genii, is the
Devil, and the hell in front, which is the abode of evil spirits,
is Satan, (c) What the one hell is, and what the other, may be
seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, towards the end. The
angels said, that the christian world have conceived such a
belief about those in heaven and hell, from certain passages in
the Word no otherwise understood than according to the sense
of the letter, and not illustrated and explained by genuine
doctrine from the Word ; when yet the sense of the letter 6f
the Word, if the genuine doctrine of the church does not shine
before it, divides the mind into various opinions ; whence
come ignorance, heresies, and errors, (d)
15. Another cause of such a belief in the man of the church
is, that he believes that no one can go to heaven or to hell be
fore the time of the last judgment, of which he has conceived
this opinion that the visible world is then to perish, and to be-
(c) That the hells, or the inferuals, taken collectively, are called the deVil
and satan, n. 694. That they who have been devils in the world, become devils
after death, n. 968.
(d) That the doctrine of the church must be from the Word, u. 3464 5402
6832, 10763, 10765. That the Word cannot be understood without doctrine, n!
9021, 9409, 9424, 9430, 10324, 10431, 10582. That true doctrine is a lamp
to those who read the Word, n. 10401. That genuine doctrine must come from
those who are in illustration from the Lord. n. 2510, 2516, 2519, 9424 10105.
That they who dwell in the literal sense of the Word without doctrine can
arrive at no understanding of divine truths, n. 9409, 9410, 10585. And' that
they are led into many errors, n. 40431. The difi'erence between those who
teach and learn from the doctrine of the church derived from the Word and
those (who teach and learn) only from the literal sense of the Word. a. 9025.

Babylon which has been destroyed. 13
come extant anew, and that then the soul will return into its
body, and that their conjunction will again enable man to live
as man. This belief involves another about the angels, that
they were created from the beginning ; for it is impossible to
believe that heaven and hell are from mankind, when it is be
lieved that no man goes to either till the end of the world.
But in order that man may be convinced that it is not so, it has
been granted me to have fellowship with angels, and also to
speak with those who are in hell, and this now for many years,
sometimes continuously from morning till evening, and thus to
be instructed concerning heaven and hell ; to the end that the
man of the church may no longer remain in his erroneous belief,
about a resurrection at the day of judgment, about a state of
the soul in the interval, as well as about angels, and about a
devil ; which belief, since it is a belief of the false, induces dark
ness ; and with those who think of such things from self-intel
ligence, brings on doubt, and at length denial ; for they say in
heart, how can so vast a heaven, and so many stars, with sun
and moon, be destroyed and dissipated? and how can the stars
fall from heaven upon the earth, which yet are larger than the
earth ? or how can bodies, eaten up by worms, consumed by
putrefaction, and scattered to all the winds, be re-collected for
their souls ? in the mean time, where is the soul, and what is it
without the senses which it had in the body? with such like
sayings on matters, which being incomprehensible, fall not
within belief, and destroy in many the faith in man's eternal life,
in a heaven and a hell, and with them, in all the remaining' tenets
of the faith of the church. That they have wrought this destruc
tion is evident from those who say, Who ever came from heaven
to tell us that it does exist? What is hell? Is it anything at
all ? What is the meaning of man's being tormented with
eternal fire ? What is this day of judgment ? Has it not
been expected for ages in vain ? Questions such as these imply
complete denial. Lest, therefore, they who think thus (as do
many who, from their knowledge in worldly matters, are reputed
skilful and learned), should any longer disturb and seduce the
simple in faith and heart, and induce infernal darkness concern
ing God, heaven, eternal life, and other subjects dependant upon
these, the interiors of my spirit have been opened by the Lord,
and thus it has been granted me to speak with all those of the
dead whom I ever knew in the life of the body, with some for
days, with some for months, and with some for a year, and also
with so many others, that I should come short if I reckoned
them at an hundred thousand, of whom many were in the
heavens, and many in the hells. I have also spoken with some.

14 OF THE last judgment, AND THE
two days after their decease, and told them that solemn prepa
rations were then making for their funerals ; to which they said,
that it was well to reject that which had served them for a body
and its functions in the world : and they desired me to declare
that they are not dead, but alive and equally men as before,
and that they had only passed out of one world into another,
and did not know that they had lost anything, since they are
in a body and possessed of senses as before, and in intellect
and will as before, and have like thoughts and like affections,
like sensations, pleasures, and desires, as when they were living
in the world. Most of those who were newly deceased, when
they saw that they were living men as before, and in a similar
state (for after death the state of every one's life is at first si
milar to what it was in the world, but is successively changed
with each either into heaven or into hell), were affected with
new joy at being alive, and said that they had believed nothing
of this ; but greatly wondered that they could have been so ig
norant and so blind, concerning the state of their own lives
after death; and more especially, that the men of the church
should be so, when yet they of all men in the world, have the
greatest opportunities of light afforded them, (e) Then for the
firs.t time they saw the cause of this blindness and ignorance
which is, that external things, such as relate to the world
and the body had occupied and filled their minds to such an
extent, that they could not be elevated into the light of
heaven, and behold the things of the church, which are beyond
its doctrinals; for mere darkness inflows from corporeal and
worldly things (if they are so much loved as they are at the
present day), whenever man wishes to think of the things of
heaven, beyond the dictate of the doctrine of faith which be
longs to his church.
16. Very many of the learned from the christian world, are
bewildered when they find themselves after death in a body in
garments, and in houses as they were in the world ; and when
Ce) That at this day few in Christendom believe, that man rises asain immp
diately after death, Pref. to chap. xvi. of Gen. n. 4622 107M R„?!,f fi, ?"
of the last judgment when the visible world is to perish n lO'SQ* Tli;!-!"^!
of such belief, n. 10594, 10758. That nevertheless man dn»=,t„ {'^^."^^^^
diately after death, and that then he is a man in the general »nri LP" "°T"
cular n. 4527, 5006, 7078 8939, 8991 10594, 10758^ Thl'tlrso ?,XchTve;
after death, is man's spirit, which is the real man in the man anri w1.;m. i ¦
the other life is in a perfect human form, n. 322, 1880 mi' 3633 4fi99 i?-,'.;"
5883, 6054, 6605, 6626, 7021, 10594. The same homeTcLUL ' aJ^.'' ^^^^'
8939.' An'd from the Vord.' n. 10597. WhTt is rdeXod bv ih; f "^'f-"^'
seen in the holy city, Matt, xxvii. 53. is explained n 922Q H ^"^ ''""^
from the dead; by experience, n. 168 to 189. Of 'his ^il/„ fff"^ "^" '^ "^^^^^^
n. 317, 318, 319, 2119, 5070, 10596. False opinionrabout the /o,T."Tf?"''°-
surrection, n. 444, 445, 4527, 4622, 4658, ®°"^ ^"^ "^e re-

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 15
they recall to memory, what they had thought of the life after
death, of the soul, of spirits, of heaven and of hell, they are
affected with shame, declare that they have thought like fools,
and that the simple in faith are much wiser than they are. The
learned were explored, who had confirmed themselves in such
errors, and who had attributed all things to nature, and it was
found, that the interiors of their minds were closed, and the
exteriors opened, so that they had not looked to heaven, but to
the world, and hence also to hell ; for in so far as the interiors
of the mind are opened, so far man looks to heaven, but in so
far as the interiors are closed, and the exteriors opened, in so
far he looks to hell ; for the interiors of man are formed for the
reception of the all of heaven, and his exteriors for the reception
of the all of the world, and they who receive the world, and
not at the same time heaven, receive hell, (f)
17. That the spirit of man, after its release from the body,
is a man, and in a human form, has been attested to me by the
daily experience of many years ; for I have seen, heard, and
conversed with spirits a thousand times; and even on this very
subject; that men in the world do not believe them to be men,
and that they who do believe it, are accounted simpletons by
the learned. The spirits were grieved in heart, that such igno
rance should still prevail in the world, and most of all in the
church; but this, they said, proceeded principally from the
learned, whose thoughts of the soul have been sensual-corpo
real ; wherefore they have conceived no other idea of it, than
such as they have of mere thought ; which, when it is regarded
without any subject in which it may be, and from which it may
proceed, [in quo et ex quo] is like some volatile form of pure
ether, which is necessarily dispersed when the body dies ; but
since the church derives a belief in the immortality of the soul
from the Word, they were obliged to ascribe to it some vitality,
such as they assign to thought, though not the sensitivity which
man enjoys, till it is again united to its body. On this opinion
is founded the doctrine of a resurrection at the time of the last
judgment, and a belief in a conjunction (of the soul and the
body then) ; for when this hypothesis about the soul, is coupled
with the church-belief in man's eternal life, no other conclusion
can be come to : hence it is, that when any one thinks of the
soul, from the doctrine and hypothesis together, he quite fails
to perceive that it is a spirit, and that this spirit is in a human
form. Add to this, that scarcely any one at this day knows
(/) That in man the spiritual and the natural worlds are conjoined, n. 6057.
That man's internal is formed in the image of heaven, but his external in the
image of the world, n, 3628, 4523, 4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10156, 10472,
B

16 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
what the spiritual is, and still less that they who are spiritual,
as all spirits and angels are, have any thing of the human form.
Hence it is, that almost all who come from the world are in the
greatest amazement that they are alive, and equally men as
before, with no difference whatever; but when they cease to be
amazed at themselves, they then wonder that the church should
know nothing of this state of men after death, when yet all who
have ever lived in the world, are in the other life, and live as
men ; and because they have also wondered, why this was not
disclosed to man by visions, it was told them from heaven, that
this could be done, for nothing is easier, when the Lord pleases,
but that still they who had confirmed themselves in falses
against it, would not believe, even though themselves were to
see it; and moreover, that it is perilous to manifest any thing
from heaven to those who are in worldly and corporeal loves, for
in this case they would first believe and afterwards deny, and
thus profane an essential truth; for to believe and afterwards to
deny, is to profane; and they who profane, are thrust down
into the lowest and most grievous of all the hells. It is this
peril which is understood by these words of the Lord, " He hath
" blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, lest they should see
" with the eyes and understand with the heart, and convert
" themselves, and I should heal them," John xii. 40 ; and that
they who are in worldly and corporeal loves, still would not be
lieve, is understood by these words, " Abraham said to the rich
" man in hell. They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear
" them; but he said. Nay, father Abraham, but if one from
" the dead come to them, they -will be converted; but Abraham
" said to him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
" will they believe even if one rose from the dead." Luke xvi.
29, 30, 31.
18. That heaven is from mankind, is evident from this, that
angelic and human minds are similar; both enjoying the fa
culty of understanding, of perceiving, and of willing ; both
being formed for receiving heaven ; for the human mind pos
sesses wisdom as well as the angelic ; but it is not so wise in the
world, because it is in a terrestrial body, in which its spiritual
mind thinks naturally, for its spiritual thought, which it has in
common with an angel, then flows down into natural ideas cor
respondent with spiritual, and is thus perceived in them ; but it
is otherwise when the mind of man is freed from its connexion
with the body ; then it no longer thinks naturally but spirit
ually ; and when spiritually, it has thoughts incomprehensible
and ineffable to the natural man, as an angel has. Hence it is
evident, that man's internal, which is called his spirit in its

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 17
own essence is an angel, (g) That an angel is in a perfect hu
man form, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n.
73 to 77 : but when man's internal is not opened above, but
only below, then still, after its removal from the body, it is in
a human form, but a direful and diabolical one, for it cannot
look upwards to heaven, but only downwards to hell.
19. That heaven and hell are from mankind, the church
moreover might have known from the Word, and made part of
its own doctrine, had it been admissive of illustration from
heaven, and attended to the Lord's words to the thief, that
" to day he should be with Him in paradise," Luke xxiii. 43 ; or
to those which the Lord spake concerning Dives and Lazarus,
that, " the one went to hell, and thence spoke with A braham, and
" that the other went to heaven," Luke xvi. 19 to 31 ; or to what
the Lord told the Sadducees respecting the resurrection, that
" God is not the God of the dead, but of the living," Matt. xxii.
32 : and furthermore the church might have known it from the
common faith of all who live well, especially from their faith in
the hour of death, when they are no longer in worldly and cor
poreal states, in that they believe they shall go to heaven, as
soon as the life of their body ceases ; this faith prevails with all,
so long as they do not think, from the doctrine of the church,
of a resurrection at the time of the last judgment. Inquire into
the subject and you will be confirmed that it is so.
20. He who has been instructed on Divine order, may
moreover understand, that man was created to become an an
gel, because in him is the ultimate of order, [see n. 9] in which
ultimate, whatever belongs to celestial and angelic wisdom may
be formed, renewed, and multiplied : Divine order never sub
sists in the mediate, so as to form anything there without an
ultimate, for it is not in its own fulness and perfection there;
but it proceeds to an ultimate : and when it is in its own ulti
mate, it then forms, and also by mediates there collated, re
news and produces itself farther, which is brought about by
procreations : wherefore the seminary of heaven is in the ulti
mate. This also is the meaning of the things related of man,
and of his creation in the first chapter of Genesis, v. 26, 27,
28. " God said. We will make man into our image, according
" to our likeness ; and God created mart into the image of Him-
(g) That there are as many degrees of life in n>an, as there are heavens, and
that they are opened after death according to his life, u. 3747, 9594, That
heaven is in man, n. 3884. That the men, who are living a life of love and
charity, have angelic wisdom in them, but that it is then latent, and that they
come into it after death, n. 2494. That in the Word, the man who receives the
good of love and of faith from the Lord, is called an angel, n. 10528.

18 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
" self, into the image of God He created him ; male and female
" He created them; and God blessed them, and God stiid unto
" them, be ye fruitful and multiply ;" to create into the image of
God, and into the likeness of God, is to confer upon man all
things of Divine order from first to last, and thus to make him
an angel, as regards the interiors of his mind.
21. That the Lord rose again not only as to the Spirit, but
also as to the Body, is because the Lord, when He was in the
world, glorified His whole Human, that is, made it Divine :
for the Soul, which He had from the Father, of Itself was the
Essential Divine, and the body was made a similitude of the
Soul, that is of the Father, and therefore also Divine : hence
it is that He Himself, [unlike any other man], rose again as re
garded both (h) ; which He also disclosed to His disciples, who
believed they saw a spirit when they beheld Him ; for He said,
" behold my hands and my feet, that it is I Myself: handle Me
" and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have,"
Luke xxiv. 36, 37, 38 ; by which words He pointed out that
He was not only a Man as to the Spirit, but also as to the
Body. 22. Moreover that heaven and hell are from mankind, has
been shewn in many articles in the work on Heaven and Hell ;
as for instance in these following. Of the nations and people in
heaven who are not within the Church, n. 318 to 328. Of in
fants in heaven, n. 329 to 346. Of the wise and the simple in
heaven, n. 346 to 356. Of the rich and the poor in heaven, n.
367 to 365. That every man is a spirit, as regards his own in
teriors, n. 432 to 444. That man after death is in a perfect
human form, n. 453 to 460. That man after death is in posses
sion of all the sense, memory, thought, and affection, which
he had in the world, and leaves nothing but his terrestrial body,
n. 461 to 469. Of the first state of man after death, n. 491 to
498. Of the second state of man after death, n. 499 to 611,
Of his third state, n. 512 to 617. See moreover what is said
of the hells, n. 636 to 588. From all these articles it may be
seen to result, that heaven does not consist of any angels
created in the beginning, nor hell of any devil and his crew,
but solely of those who have been born men.
(h) That man rises again as to the spirit only, n. 10593, 10594 That the
Lord alone rose as to the body also, n. 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825.

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED, 19
THAT ALL WHO HAVE EVER BEEN BORN MEN FROM THE BE
GINNING OF CREATION, AND ARE DECEASED, ARE EITHER
IN HEAVEN OR IN HELL,
23. I. THIS is a consequence of what was declared and shewn
in the preceding article, namely, that heaven and hell are from
mankind. II, And of this, that every man after the life in the world,
lives to eternity. '
III. That thus all who have ever been born men from the
creation of the world, and are deceased, are either in heaven
or in hell.
IV. That since all who are to be born hereafter, must also go
into the spiritual world, that world is so vast, and such a world,
that the natural world, the abode of men on earth, cannot be
compared with it.
But in order that all these things may be the more dis
tinctly perceived, and the more evident, I wish to expound and
describe them one by one.
24. 'That it is a consequence of what was declared and
shewn in the preceding article, [namely, 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, is clear without explication. It has been the com
mon belief hitherto, that men are not to go to heaven or to hell
before the day of the last judgment, when souls are to return
into their own bodies, and thus to realize such conditions, as are
believed to be the properties of the body : the simple have been
led into this belief by men professing wisdom, who have made
the interior state of man the subject of their enquiry. These men,
having never entertained any thought of the spiritual world,
but only of the natural world, nor therefore of the spiritual
man, knew not that the spiritual man which is in every natural
man, is in the human form, as well as the natural man ; and
hence it never entered their minds that the natural man draws
his own human form from his spiritual man ; although they
might have seen that the spiritual man acts at will upon the
whole, and upon every part of the natural man, and that
the natural man of himself does absolutely nothing. It is the
spiritual man who thinks and wills, for this the natural man of
himself cannot do, and thought and will are the all in all of
the natural man, for he is put in action as the spiritual man
v/ills, and speaks as the spiritual thinks, and that so entirely,
that action is nothing without will, and speech is nothing with
out thought, for on the removal of thought and will, speech

20 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
and action cease in a moment. From this it is evident that the
spiritual man is indeed a man, and that he is in ttie wnoie,
and in every part of the natural man, and that therefore then-
effigies are alike, for the part or particle of the natioral man, in
which the spiritual does not act, has no life m it. But the spi
ritual man cannot appear to the eyes of the natural man, for,
although it is according to order, that the spiritual should see
the natural, it is contrary to order, that the natural should see the
spiritual ; since there is*given an influx, and therefore also a sight,
of the spiritual into the natural, (for sight too is influx;, but
not the reverse. It is the spiritual man who is called the spirit
of man, and who appears in the spiritual world in a perfect hu
man form, and lives after death. Because they who are intel
ligent have hitherto known nothing of the spiritual world, and
therefore nothing of the spirit of man, [as was said above],
they have conceived a notion, that man cannot live as man
after death, before his soul returns into the body, and again
puts on the senses : hence have arisen their so trifling ideas
about man's resurrection, to wit, that corpses, though eaten up
by worms and fish, or quite gone to dust, are to be re-collected
by Divine Omnipotence, and re-united to souls ; and that this
is not to happen till the end of the world, when the visible uni
verse is to perish ; with many more such notions, which are
every one of them inconceivable, and at the first glance of the
mind, strike it as impossibilities, and contrary to Divine Order,
tending thus to weaken the faith of many ; for those who think
wisely, cannot believe what they do not in some measure com
prehend ; no belief in impossibilities can exist, that is, no be
lief in such things as man thinks to be impossible : hence also
those, who disbelieve the life after death, derive an argument in
support of their denial. But that man rises again immediately
after death, and that then he is in a perfect human form, may
be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, in many of its
articles. These things have been said, that it may be still more
confirmed that heaven and hell are from mankind, from which
it follows, that all who were ever born men from the beginning
of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell,
25. That every man after the life in the world lives to eternity,
results from this, that man is then spiritual, and no longer na
tural, and that the spiritual man, separated from the natural,
maintains his quality to eternity, for man's state cannot be
changed after death. Moreover, the spiritual of every man is
in conjunction with the Divine, since it has the power of
thinking of the Divine, and also of loving the Divine, and of
being affected with all things which are from the Divine [such

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED, 21
as those which the church teaches], and therefore of being con
joined to the Divine by thought and will, which are the two
faculties of the spiritual man, and constitute his life ; and that
which can thus be conjoined to the Divine, can never die, for
the Divine is with it, and conjoins it to Himself. Furthermore,
as regards his spirit, man is created to the form of heaven, and
the form of heaven is from the Divine Himself, as may be seen
in the work on Heaven and Hell, where it has been shewn,
That the Divine of the Lord makes and forms heaven, n. 7 to
12, and n. 78 to 86. That man is created to be a heaven in
the least effigy, n. 57. That heaven, in the whole complex, has
reference to one man, n. 69 to 66. That hence an angel is in
a perfect human form, n. 73 to 77 ; an angel is a man regarded
as to his spiritual. On this subject moreover, I have often
conversed with the angels, who wondered vastly, that of those
who are called intelligent in the christian world, and who even
have credit given them for intelligence by others, there are
very many who utterly reject the belief of their own im
mortality, believing that the soul of a man is dissipated at death,
just as the soul of a beast is ; not perceiving the distinction
between the life of a man and the life of a beast ; that man has
the power of thinking above himself, of God, of heaven, of love,
of faith, of good, spiritual and moral, of truths, and the like,
and that thus he may be elevated to the Divine Himself, and
be conjoined by all those things to Him; but that beasts cannot
be elevated above their own natural, to think of such things,
and of consequence that their spiritual, at death, cannot be
separated from their natural, (i) so as to live by itself, as
man's spiritual can : whence also it is, that the life of a beast
ceases, on the dissipation of its natural life. The reason why
many of the so-called intelligent in the christian world, have
no faith in the immortality of their own lives, the angels de
clared to be this, that in heart they deny the Divine, and ac
knowledge nature instead of the Divine, and they who think
from such principles, are not able to think of any eternity by
conjunction with the Divine, nor consequently, of the state of
man as dissimilar to that of beasts, for in rejecting the Divine
from thought, they also reject eternity. The angels declared
moreover, that with every man there is an inmost or supreme
degree of life, oran inmost or supreme somewhat (quoddam) into
(i) That there is also an infiux from the spiritual world into the lives of
beasts, but that it is common, and not special as with man, n, 1633, 3646.
That the distinction between men and beasts is this, that men may be elevated
above themselves to the Lord, may think of the Divine, may love Him, and may
thus be conjoined to the Lord, whence they have eternal life ; but it is other
wise with beasts, which cannot be elevated to such things, n. 4525, 6323, 9231.

22 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
which the Divine of the Lord primarily or proximately inflows,
and from which He disposes all the remaining interiors belonging
to the spiritual and natural man, which are successive in both
according to gradations of order : this inmost or supreme they
called the Lord's entrance into man, and His veriest dwelling
place with him ; and they said, that by this inmost or supreme,
man is man, and is distinguished from brute animals which have
it not ; and that hence it is, that men, as regards the interiors
which belong to their minds, rational and natural, unlike animals,
may be elevated by the Lord to himself, may have faith in Him,
may be affected by love to him, may receive intelligence and
wisdom, and speak from reason. When I asked them concern
ing those who deny the Divine, and the Divine truths, by which
the conjunction of the life of man with the Divine Himself is
effected, and who live to eternity, notwithstanding their denial,
they replied, that these also have the faculty of thinking and of
willing, and therefore of believing and loving the things which
are from the Divine, as well as those who acknowledge the
Divine, and that by virtue of this faculty, they too live to
eternity ; and they added, that this faculty is from that inmost
or supreme which is in every man, [of which mention was made
above] : (that it is possesssd even by those who are in hell, and
that they derive from it a power of reasoning and speaking
against Divine truths, has been shewn in many places) : hence
it is, that every man lives to eternity, be he what he may. Be
cause every man after death lives to eternity, no angel or spirit
ever thinks of death ; nay they are utterly ignorant of what it
is to die ; wherefore, when death is mentioned in the Word, the
angels understand by it either damnation, which is death in the
spiritual sense, or continuation of life and resurrection, (k)
These things have been said in confirmation that all the men
who have ever been born, and have died, from the beginning of
creation, are alive, some in heaven, and some in hell.
26, In order that I might know that all who have ever been born
men from the beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either
in heaven or in hell, it has been granted me to speak with some
who lived before the deluge ; and also with some who lived after
the deluge ; and with certain of the Jewish nation, who are
made known to us by the Word of the Old Testament ; with
(k) That when death is mentioned in the Word, and spoken of the wicked,
'° ^!or«,fn onnf'^T .^u^^^"""' '^^^'"^ '" spiritual death), and also hell,
n 5407 61 19, 9008, That they who are in goods and truths are called living, hut
they who are in evils and falses, dead, n, 81, 290, 7494, That by death, when
spoken of the good who die, resurrection and continuation of life are understood
in heaven for at death man rises again, continues his own life and advances in
It to eternity, n, 3498, 3505, 4618, 4621, 6036, 6222, aavances m

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 23
some who lived in the Lord's time ; with many who lived in the
ages succeeding, even down to the present day ; and moreover
with all those of the dead, whom I had been acquainted with
during their lives in the body ; and likewise with infants, and
with many of the Gentiles. From this experience I have been
fully convinced, that there is not one, who was ever born a
man, from the first creation of this earth, who is not in heaven
or in hell.
27. That since all, who are to be borii hereafter, must also go
into the spiritual world, that world is so vast and such a world,
that the natural world, the abode of men on earth, cannot be
compared with it, is evident, from the immense multitude of
men, who have passed into the spiritual world since the first
creation, and who are together there; as well as from the
continual increase which the spiritual world will receive from
liiaiikind hereafter, for from mankind it will receive accessions,
and that without end, in conformity with what has been shewn
above, in an article for the purpose, [n, 6 to 13] namely, that
the procreations of the human race on the earth will never
cease. When my eyes have been opened for me, it has some
times been granted me to see, how immense, even now, is the mul
titude of men who are there; it is so great that it can scarcely
be numbered, — such myriads are there — and that only in one
place, towards one quarter ; what then must the numbers be in
the other quarters ? For all are there collected into societies,
and the societies exist in vast numbers, and each society, in its
own place, forms three heavens, and three hells under them ;
wherefore there are some spirits who are on high, some who are
in the middle, and some who are below them, and underneath,
there are those who are in the lowest places, or in the hells ;
and those who are above, dwell among themselves as men
dwell, in cities, in which hundreds of thousands are together :
whence it is evident, that the natural world, the abode of men
on earth, cannot be compared with that world, as regards the
multitude of the human race ; so that when man passes from
the natural world into the spiritual, it is like going from a
village into a mighty city. That neither can the natural world
be compared with the spiritual world in kind, may appear from
this, that not only have all the things which are in the natural
world an existence there, but innumerable others besides, which
never were seen in this world, nor can be presented to the sight,
for spiritual things are there effigied by natural-seeming appear
ances which fully represent them, each several thing with an
infinite variety ; for the spiritual so far exceeds the natural in
excellence, that the things are few which can be produced to

24 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
the natural sense ; the natural sense not receiving one for
thousands which the spiritual mind receives ; and all things
which belong to the spiritual mind, are presented, even m forms
to the sight of spirits, and this is the reason why it is impossible
to describe what the spiritual world is, as regards its own mag
nificent and stupendous things. These moreover increase in
proportion to the multiplication of the human race in the heavens,
for all things are there presented in forms which correspond
to the state of each spirit as to love and faith, and thence as to
wisdom and intelligence; and thus with a variety which in
creases continually, as the multitude increases ; whence it has
been said by those who were elevated into heaven, that they saw
and heard things there, which no eye has ever seen, and no ear
has ever heard. Frem these observations it may appear, that
the spiritual world is such, that the natural world cannot be
compared with it. Moreover, what it is, may be seen in the
work on Heaven and Hell, where it treats, of the two king
doms of heaven, n. 20 to 28. Of the societies of heaven, n.
41 to 60. Of representatives and appearances in heaven, n.
170 to 176. Of the wisdom of the angels of heaven, n. 265
to 275. The things there described however are very few.

THAT THE LAST JUDGMENT MUST BE WHERE ALL ARE TOGETHER,
AND THEREFORE IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, AND NOT UPON
EARTH.
28. CONCERNING the last judgment, it is believed that the
Lord will then appear in the clouds of heaven with the angels
in glory, and awaken from the sepulchres all who have ever
lived since the beginning of creation, clothing their souls with
bodies ; and when they are thus summoned together, that he
will judge them, those who have done well, to eternal hfe or
heaven, those who have done ill, to eternal death or hell. The
churches derive this belief from the sense of the letter of the
Word, nor could it be removed, so long as men did not know
that there is a spiritual sense within every thing which is related
in the literal sense of the Word, and that that sense is the
Essential Word, to which the sense of the letter sei-ves for a
foundation and a basis, and that without such a letter as it has,
the Word could not have been Divine, or have served in heaven,
as in the world, for the doctrine of life and faith, and for
conjunction. He therefore who is acquainted with the spi
ritual things to which the natural expressions of the Word
correspond, has the power of knowing that by the Lord's

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 25
advent in the clouds of heaven, is not to be understood
that He will thus appear, but that He will appear in the
Word ; for the Lord is the Word, because He is the Divine
Truth ; the clouds of heaven in which He is to come, are the
sense of the letter of the Word, and the Glory is its spi
ritual sense ; the angels are the heaven, from which He will
appear, and moreover they are the Lord as to Divine Truths. (/)
Hence the meaning of these words is now evident, namely,
that when the end of the church is, the Lord will reveal the
spiritual sense of the Word, and thus the Divine Truth, such as
It is in Itself; therefore that this is the sign that the last judg
ment is at hand. That there is a spiritual sense within each
thing and expression in the Word, and what it is, may be seen
in the Arcana Ccelestia, in which all the contents of Genesis
and Exodus are explained according to that sense ; and a col
lection of passages extracted from it, on the Word and its
spiritual sense, may be seen in the little work, on the White
Horse, mentioned in the Apocalypse.
29. That the last judgment must be in the spiritual world, and
not in the natural world, or on the earth, is evident from the two
preceding articles, and will be seen further in what is to follow.
In the previous articles it has been shewn, that heaven and hell
are from mankind, and that all who were ever born men since
the beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven
or in hell, and that therefore they are all assembled in the spi
ritual world [ibi] : but in the articles which follow it comes to
be shewn that the last judgment has already been accomplished.
30. And moreover, no one is judged from the natural man,
or therefore during the life in the natural world, for man is
then in a natural body : but every one is judged in the spiritual
man, and therefore when he comes into the spiritual world, for
man is then in a spiritual body. It is the spiritual in man which
is judged, but not the natural, for no blame or criminality
Cl) From the Arcana Ccelestia. That the Lord is the Word, because He
is the Divine Truth in heaven, n. 2533, 2818, 2859, 2894, 3393, 3712, That
the Lord is the Word, also because it is from Him, and treats of Him, u. 2859;
And because it treats of the Lord alone, and primarily of the Glorification of
His Human in its inmost sense, so that the Lord Himself is in it, n, 1873,
9357, That the coming of the Lord is His Presence in the Word, and reve
lation, n. 3900, 4060. That clouds in the Word signify the Word in the let
ter, or its literal sense, n. 4060, 4391, 5922, 6343, 6752, 3106, 8781, 9430,
10551, 10574. That Glory in the M^ord signifies Divine Truth, such as It is
in heaven, and such as It is in the spiritual sense, n. 4809, 5292, 8267,
8427, 9429, 10574. That angels in the Word signify Divine Truths from the
Lord, since angels are receptions of them, and do not speak them from them
selves, but from the Lord, n. 1925, 2821, 3039, 4085, 4295, 4402, 6280, 8192,
8301. That trumpets or cornets, which the angels then have, signify Divine
Truths in heaven, and revealed from heaven, n. 8815, 8823, 8915.

26 OF the last judgment, and the
can be imputed to it, since it does not live of its^^f'/^J^t ^^ ™ly
the servant, and passive instrument of the spiritual man. [See
n. 24,1 Hence also it is, that judgment is effected upon men
when they have put off their natural, and put on their spiritual
bodies. In the spiritual body moreover, man appears such as
he is with respect to love and faith, for every one in the spi
ritual world is the effigy of his own love, not only as regards
the face and the body, but even as regards the speech and the
actions. [See the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 481.] Hence
it is, that the true qualities of all are known, and their instanta
neous separation effected, whenever the Lord pleases. From
what has been said it is plain, that judgment is effected in the
spiritual world, but not in the natural world, or on the earth.
31. That the natural life in man has no efficiency, but his
spiritual life in the natural, since what is natural, of itself is void
of life ; and that the life which appears in it, is from the hfe of
the spiritual man, and that therefore it is the spiritual man who
is judged ; and moreover that being judged according to deeds,
means that man's spiritual is judged, may be seen in the
work on Heaven and Hell, in the article headed, That
man after death is such as his life in the world has been, n.
470 to 484.
32. I am here desirous of adducing a certain heavenly ar
canum, which is indeed mentioned in the work on Heaven and
Hell, but has never yet been described. Every one after death
is bound to some society, even when first he comes into the
spiritual world, [see that work, n. 427 to 497], but a spirit in his
first state is ignorant of it, for he is then in externals and not
yet in internals. When he is in this state, he goes hither and
thither, wherever the desires of his animus impel him, but still
actually, he is where his love is, that is, in a society composed
of those who are in a love like his own. When a spirit is in
such a state he then appears in many other places, in all of
them also present as it were with the body, but this is only
an appearance ; wherefore as soon as he is led (perducitur)
by the Lord into his own ruling love, he vanishes instantly
from the eyes of others, and is among his own, in the society
to which he was bound. This peculiarity exists in the spiritual
world, and is a wonder to those who are ignorant of its cause.
Hence it is then, that as soon as ever spirits are congregated
together, and separated, they are also judged, and every one is
presently in his own place, the good in heaven, and in a society
there among their own, and the wicked in hell, and in a society
there among their own. From these things it is moreover evi
dent, that the last judgment can exist nowhere but in the spi-

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 27
ritual world, both because every one there is in the likeness of
his own life, and because he is with those who are in similar
life, and is thus in society with his own. But in the natural
world it is not so ; the good and the evil may dwell together
there, the one ignorant of what the other is, and the life's love ,
of each producing no separation between them. Indeed it is
impossible for any one in the natural body, to be either in
heaven or in hell ; wherefore in order that man may go to one
of them, it is necessary that he put off the natural, and be
judged in the spiritual body. Hence it is, as was said above,
that the spiritual man is judged, and not the natural.

THAT THE LAST JUDGMENT EXISTS, WHEN THE END OF THE
CHURCH IS : AND THAT THE END OF THE CHURCH IS, WHEN
FAITH IS NOT, BECAUSE CHARITY IS NOT.
33. THERE are manyreasonswhythelastjudgmentexists, when
the end of the church is ; the principal is, that then, the equi
librium between heaven and hell, and man's essential liberty
along with it, begin to perish ; and when man's liberty perishes,
he can no longer be saved, for he cannot then be led to heaven
in freedom, but is hurried into hell apart from freedom ; for no
man can be reformed without free-will, and all man's free-will
is the result of the equilibrium between heaven and hell. That
it is so, may appear from two articles in the work on Heaven
AND Hell, where it treats. Of the equilibrium between heaven
and hell, n, 589 to 596 : and shews. That man is in freedom by
means of that equilibrium ; n. 597 to 603 ; and further. That no
man can be reformed except in freedom.
34. That the equilibrium between heaven and hell begins to
perish at the end of the church, may appear from this, that
heaven and hell are from mankind, [as shewn above in its pro
per article], and that when many go to hell, and few to hea
ven, evil on the one part, increases over good on the other ; for
evil increases in proportion as hell increases, and all evil is
derived to man from hell, and all good from heaven. Now since
evil increases over good at the end of the church, all are then
judged by the Lord, the evil are separated from the good, all
things are reduced into order, and a new heaven is established,
with a new church upon earth, and thus the equilibrium is
restored. It is this then which is called the last judgment, of
which more will be said in the following articles.

IS

OF THE L.^ST judgment, AND THE
36. It is known from the Word, that the end of the church
, when faith no longer exists withm ^t, but it is not yet known
that faith is not, if charity is not; therefore somethmg shall
now be said upon this sub ect. It is foreshewn by the Lord
that there is no faith at the end of the church ;; When the Son
"of Man comes shall He find faith upon the earth Luke xvm. 8.
and, moreover, that there is no charity then, " In the comum-
" motion of the age iniquity will be multiplied, the ctiantu of
" many will grow cold, and this gospel will be preached in all the
" luorld, and then shall the end come." Matthew xxiv. 12, 14.
The consummation of the age, is the last time of the church :
the state of the church successively decreasing in regard to love
and faith, is described by the Lord in this chapter, but it is
described by mere correspondences, and therefore the things *;
therein predicted by the Lord cannot be understood, without a j
knowledge of the correspondent spiritual sense in each expres
sion ; on which account it has been granted me by the Lord to
explain in the Arcana Ccelestia the whole of that chapter and a
part of the next, both of them treating of the consummation of
the age, of His advent, of the successive vastation of the church,
and of the last judgment. See the Arcana Ccelestia, n. 3353
to 3356, 3486 to 3489, 3650 to 3656, 3761 to 3759, 3897 to
3901, 4056 to 4060, 4229 to 4231, 4332 to 4335, 4422 to 4424,
4635 to 4638, 4661 to 4664, 4807 to 4810, 4954 to 4959, 5063
to 6071. 36. Something shall now be said on this point, that there is
no faith, if there is no charity. It is supposed that faith exists,
so long as the doctrinals of the church are believed ; or that
they who believe, have faith; and yet mere believing is not faith,
but willing and doing what is believed, is faith. When the
doctrinals of the church are merely believed, they are not m
man's life, but only in his memory, and thence in the thought
of his outer man ; nor do they enter into his life, before they
enter into his will, and thence into his actions : then for the
first time does faith exist in man's spirit; for man's spirit, the
life of which is his essential life, is formed from his will, and
from so much of his thought, as proceeds from his will ; the
memory of man, and the thought derived from it, being only the
court-yard, by which introduction is effected. Whether you say
the will, or the love, it is the same, since every one wills what
he loves, and loves what he wills, and the will is the receptacle
of love, and the intellect, whose province it is to think, is the
receptacle of faith. A man may know, think, and understand
many things, but those which do not accord with his will or
love, he rejects from him when he is left to himself, to medi-

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED, 29
tate from his own will or love, and therefore he also rejects them
after the life of the body, when he lives in the spirit ; for that
alone remains in man's spirit which has entered into his will or
love, [as was said above] ; other things after death being viewed
as foreign, which he turns out of doors, and regards with aver
sion, because they are not properties of his love. But it is
another thing when man not merely believes those doctrinals of
the church which are derived from the Word, but wills them,
and does them too ; then faith is effected (fit) ; for faith is the
affection of truth from the act of willing truth, because it is
truth ; the act of willing truth for its own sake being the spi
ritual essence of a man, and divested of the natural, which
consists in willing truth, not for truth's sake, but for the sake
of self-glory, fame and gain. Truth regarded apart from such
things is spiritual, because in its own essence, it is Divine ;
wherefore, to will truth because it is truth, is also to acknow
ledge, and to love the Divine. These two are perfectly conjoined,
and moreover are regarded as one in heaven, for that the Di
vine which proceeds from the Lord in heaven is Divine Truth,
may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell; n. 128 to 132 :
and they are angels in the heavens, who receive it, and make it
constituent of their lives. These things are said, in order that
it may be known, that faith does not consist in bare believing,
but in willing and in doing, and that therefore there is no faith
if there is no charity. Charity or love is to will and to do.
37. That within the church at this day, faith is so rare,
that it can scarcely be said to exist at all, was made evident,
from many of the learned and many of the simple, whose
spirits were explored after death, as to what their faith had
been in the world, and it was found, that every one of them
supposed faith to be bare believing, and persuading themselves
that it was so ; and that the more learned of them placed it
entirely in believing, with trust or confidence, that they are
saved by the Lord's passion, and His intercession, and that
hardly one among them knew that there is no faith, if there is
no charity, or love ; nay, that they did not know what charity
to the neighbour is, nor the difference between thinking and
willing. For the most part they turned their backs upon charity,
saying that charity does nothing, but that faith is alone effective.
When it was replied to them, that charity and faith are one, as
the will and the intellect are one, and that charity has its seat
in the will, and faith in the intellect, and that to separate the
one from the other, is, as it were, to separate the will from the
intellect, this they did not understand : whence it was made
evident to me that scarcely any faith exists at the present

30 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
day. This also was shewn them to the life : they who were in
the persuasion that they had faith, were led to an angehc so
ciety, where genuine faith existed, and when they were made
to communicate with it, they clearly perceived that they had
no faith, which afterwards moreover, they confessed m the pre
sence of many. The same thing was also made appaj-ent by
other means to those who had made a profession of faith, and
had thought they believed, without having lived the life of
faith, which is charity ; and they all confessed that they had
no faith, because they had nothing of it in the life of their
spirits, but only in some thought extrinsic to it, whilst they
lived in the natural world.
38. Such is the state of the church at this day, namely, that
in it there is no faith, because there is no charity ; and where
there is no charity, there is no spiritual good, for that good
exists from charity alone. It was declared from heaven that
there is still good with some, but that it cannot be called spi
ritual, but natural good, because Essential Divine Truths are
in obscurity, and Divine Truths introduce to charity, for they
teach it, and regard it as their end and aim; whence no other
charity can exist than such as accords with the truths which
form it. The Divine Truths from which the doctrines of the
churches are derived, respect faith alone, on which account
they are called the doctrines of faith, and have no respect to
life; but truths which regard faith alone and not life, cannot
make man spiritual, for so long as they are external to the life
they are only natural, being merely known and thought of
like common things : hence it is that spiritual good is not giveu
at the present day, but only natural good with some. More
over every church in the commencement is spiritual, for it
begins from charity, but in the course of time it turns aside
from charity to faith, and then from being an internal church
it becomes an external one, and when it becomes external its
end is, since it then places every thing in knowledge, and little
or nothing in life. Thus also in proportion as man from being
internal becomes external, spiritual light is darkened within
him, until he no longer sees Divine Truth from Truth Itself,
that is from the light of heaven, for Divine Truth is the light
of heaven, but only from natural light, which is of such a
nature, that when it is alone, and not illustrated by spiritual
light, it sees Divine Truth as it were in night, and recognizes
it as truth for no other reason, than that it is so called by the
heads, and received as such by the commonalty of the church.
Hence it is, that the intellectual /acu/ij/ of persons in this stale
cannot be illustrated by the Lord, for in as far as natural light

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED, 31
shines in the intellectuaiyacM/(y, in so far is spiritual light ob
scured ; (natural light shines in the intellectual faculty, when
the mundane, the corporeal, and the earthy, are loved in pre
ference to the spiritual, the celestial, and the Divine) ; in so
far also is man external.
39. But since it is not known in the christian world that
there is no faith if there is no charity, nor what charity to the
neighbour is, nor even that the will constitutes the real [ipsum]
man, and the thought only in as far as it proceeds from the
will, therefore, in order that these subjects may come into the
light of the intellect, I am desirous of adjoining a collection
of passages concerning them from the Arcana Ccelestia, which
may serve for illustration.

EXTRACTS FROM THE ARCANA CCELESTIA.
OF FAITH. That they who know not that all things in the
universe refer themselves to Truth and Good, and to the con
junction of both, in order to the production of any thing, know
not that all things of the church refer themselves to Faith and
Love, and to the conjunction of both, n. 7752 to 7762, 9186,
9224. That all things in the universe refer themselves to truth
and good, and to their conjunction, n. 2461, 3166, 4390, 4409,
6232, 7266, 10122, 10665. That truths belong to faith, and
goods to love, n. 4353, 4997, 7178, 10367.
That they who know not that the whole, and all the parts in
man, have relation to the Intellect and the Will, and to the
conjunction of both, in order that man may be man, also know
not that all things of the church have relation to Faith and
Love, and to their conjunction, in order that the church may
be in man, n. 2231, 7762, 7753, 7754, 9224, 9995, 10122. That
man has two faculties, one of which is called the intellect, and
the other the will, n! 641, 803, 3623, 3939. That the intellect
is dedicated to the reception of truths, or of those things which
belong to faith ; and the will to the reception of goods, or of
those things which belong to love, n. 9300, 9930, 10064. That
hence it follows, that love or charity makes the church, and not
faith alone, or faith separated from love or charity, n. 809, 916,
1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 4766, 5826.
That faith separated from charity is no faith, n. 654, 724,
1162, 1176, 2049, 2116, 2340, 2349, 2419, 3849, 3868, 6348,
7039, 7842, 9782. That such faith perishes in another life, n.

32 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
2228, 5820. That doctrinals concerning faith alone, destroy
charity, n. 6353, 8094. That they who separate faith from
charity are represented in the Word by Cain, by Ham, by Reu
ben, by the first-born of the Egyptians, and by the Philistines,
n. 3325, 7097, 7317, 8093. That in as far as charity departs, in
so far prevails a religion respecting faith alone, n. 2231. That
the church in process of time turns aside from charity to faith,
and at length to faith alone, n. 4683, 8094. That in the last
time of the church there is no faith, because there is no charity,
n. 1843, 3489, 4649. That they who make faith alone salvific,
excuse a life of evil ; and that they who are in a life of evil,
lave no faith, because thev have no charity, n. 3866, 7766,
'778, 7790, 7950, 8094. that they are inwardly in the falses
of their own evil, although they are not aware of it, n. 7790,
7950. That therefore good cannot be conjoined to them, n,
8981, 8983. That also in another life they are opposed to good,
and to those who are in good, n. 7097, 7127, 7317, 7502,
7945, 8096, 8313. That the simple in heart know better than
the learned what the good of life is, and thus what charity is,
but not what separated faith is, n. 4741, 4754.
That good is the esse, and truth the existere derived from
it, and that thus the truth of faith has its own esse of hfe
from the good of charity, n. 3049, 3180, 4674, 5002, 9144.
Hence, that the truth of faith lives from the good of charity,
or that charity is the hfe of faith, n. 1689, 1947, 1997, 2579,
4070, 4096, 4097, 4736, 4757, 4884, 5147, 5928, 9164,9667,
9841, 10729. That faith is not alive in man, when he only
knows and thinks over the things of faith, but when he wills
them, and from the act of willing, does them, n. 9224. That
the conjunction of the Lord with man is not by faith, but by
the hfe of faith, which is charity, n, 9380, 10143, 10153,
10578, 10645, 10648, That worship from the good of charity
is true worship, but worship from the truth of faith, without
the good of charity, is merely an external act, n. 7724.
That faith alone, or faith separated from charity, is as the
light of winter, in which all terrestrial growths are torpid, and
nothing is produced ; but that faith in union with charity is
as the light of spring and of summer, in which they all bloom
and are made productive, n. 2231, 3146, 3412, 3413. That
the wintry light, which is that of separated faith, in another
life is turned into dense darkness, when the light of heaven
inflows; and that they who are in that faith, are then overtaken
by blindness and stupidity, n. 3412, 3413. That they who
separate faith from charity, are in darkness, and thus in ign -
ranee of truth, and thence in falses, for falses are darkness,

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 33
n, 9186. That they cast themselves into falses, and thence into
evils, n. 3325. 8094. The errors and falses into which they
cast themselves, n. 4721, 4730, 4776, 4783, 4925, 7779, 8313,
8765, 9224. That the Word is closed against them, n. 3773,
4783, 8780. That they do not see and attend to all the things
which the Lord so often spake concerning love and charity,
which see, n. 1017, 3416. That they neither know what good
is, what heavenly love is, nor what charity is, n. 2507, 3603,
4136, 9995.
That charity makes the church, and not faith separated
from charity, n. 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844. How
much of good would exist in the church, if charity were re
garded as primary, n. 6269, 6272. That the church would be
one, and not divided into many, if charity were its essential ;
and that then it would be unimportant if men did differ on the
doctrines of faith and the rites of external worship, n. 1285, 1316,
2386, 2853, 2982, 3267, 3446, 3451, 3462. That all in hea
ven are regarded from charity, and none from faith without it,
n. 1258, 1394, 2364, 4802.
That the twelve disciples of the Lord represented the church,
as to the all of faith and charity, in one complex, as in like
manner did the twelve tribes of Israel, n. 2129, 3354, 3488,
3858, 6397. That Peter, James, and John, represented faith,
charity, and the goods of charity, in their order, n. 3750.
That Peter represented faith, n, 4738, 6000, 6073,6344, 10087,
10580. And John the goods of charity ; Pref: to c. xviii. and
xxii. of Genesis. That in the last times, there would be no
faith in the Lord, because no charity, was represented by
Peter's denying the Lord three times, before the cock crew
thrice ; for Peter there in a representative sense is faith, n.
6000, 6073. That cock-crowing, as well as twilight, signifies
in the Word the last time of the church, n. 10134. And that
three, or thrice, signify completion to the end, n. 2788, 4495,
5169, 5198, 10127. The like is signified by what the Lord
said to Peter, when Peter saw John following the Lord ; " What
" is it to thee, Peter 1 Do thou follow Me, John;" for Peter
said of John, " What is hel" John xxi. 21, 22, n, 10087.
That John rested on the breast of the Lord, because he repre
sented the goods of charity, n, 3934, 10081. That all the
names of persons and places in the Word signify things ab
stracted from them, n. 768, 1888, 4310, 4442, 10329.
Of Charity. That heaven is distinguished into two king
doms, one of which is called the celestial kingdom, and the
other the spiritual ; love in the celestial kingdom is love to the
Lord, and is called celestial love ; and love in the spiritual

34 OF the last JUDGMENT, AND THE
kinodom is charity towards the neighbour, and is called spi
ritual love, n. 3325, 3653, 7257, 9002, 9833, 9961. That
heaven is distinguished into those two kingdoms, may be seen
in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 20 to 28. And that
the Divine of the Lord in the heavens is love to Him, and
charity towards the neighbour, n. 13 to 19, in the same work.
That it is not known what good and truth are, unless it be
known what love to the Lord and charity to the neighbour are,
because all good is of love and charity, and all truth is of good,
n. 7255, 7366. That to know truths, to will truths, and to he
affected by truths for truth's sake, that is, because they are
truths, is charity, n. 3876, 3877. That charity consists in an
internal affection of doing truth, and not in an external affec
tion without it, n. 2430, 2442, 3776, 4899, 4956, 8033. That
therefore charity consists in performing uses for the sake of uses,
and that its kind is according to the uses, n. 7038, 8253. That
charity is man's spiritual life, n. 7081. That the whole Word
is the doctrine of love and charity, n. 6632, 7262. That men
at this day do not know what charity is, n. 2417, 3398, 4776,
6632. That still it may be known from the light of reason,
that love and charity constitute man, n. 3957, 6273. Also
that good and truth accord, that the one belongs to the other;
therefore that charity and faith do the like, n. 7627.
That in the supreme sense the Lord is the Neighbour, be
cause He is to be loved above all things ; hence that every thing
proceeding from Him, which contains Him (quod ab Ipso est
in quo Ipse) is the neighbour ; therefore that good and truth
are, n. 2425, 3419, 6706, 6819, 6823, 8124. That the dis
tinction of neighbour is according to the kind of good ; thus
according to the Presence of the Lord, n. 6707, 6708, 6709,
6710. That every man, and every society, also our country,
.and the church, and in a universal sense the kingdom of the
Lord, are the neighbour ; and that to do well by them, from
the good of love, according to their several states, is to love
the neighbour ; thus that the neighbour is that good of theirs,
which we ought to consult, n. 6818 to 6824, 8123. That civil
good, which is justice, and moral good, which is the good of
life in society, are also the neighbour, n. 2915, 4730, 8120,
8121, 8122, That to love the neighbour is not to love the
person, but that in him which makes him the neighbour, that
is, good and truth, n. 5025, 10336. That they who love the
person, and not that which makes the neighbour in him, love
evil as well as good, n. 3820. And that they do service to the
wicked as well as to the good, when yet to serve the wicked is
to injure the good, and this is not to love the neighbour, n.

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 35
3820, 6703, 8120. That the judge who punishes the wicked
to amend them, and lest they should corrupt the good, loves
the neighbour, n. 3820, 8120, 8121.
That to love the neighbour is to do what is good, just, and
upright in every work, and in every function, n. 8120, 8121,
8122. Hence, that charity towards the neighbour extends
itself, both in general and in particular, to all that a man thinks,
wills, and does, n. 8124. That to do good and truth for the
sake of good and truth, is to love the neighbour, n. 10310,
10336. That they who do this, love the Lord, Who in the
supreme sense, is the Neighbour, n. 9212. That a life of charity
is a life according to the Lord's precepts ; so that to live ac
cording to Divine Truths, is to love the Lord, n. 10143, 10163,
10310, 10578, 10648.
That genuine charity does not appropriate merit, n. 2340,
2373, 2400, 3887, 6388 to 6393. Because it is from an internal
affection, thus from joy in doing good, n. 2373, 2400, 3887,
6388, 6393. That they who separate faith from charity, in the
other life make a merit of faith, and of the good works they
did, as matters of external form, n. 2373.
That the doctrine of the ancient church was the doctrine of
life, which is the doctrine of charity, n. 2385, 2487, 3419,
3420, 4844, 6628. That the ancients, who belonged to the
church, arranged the goods of charity in order, and distinguished
them into classes, giving names to each, and that this was the
source of their wisdom, n. 2417, 6629, 7259 to 7262. That
wisdom and intelligence increase immensely in the other life,
with those who have lived a life of charity in the world, n, 1941,
5859. That the Lord inflows with Divine Truth into charity,
because into the very life of man, n, 2363. That man is as a
garden, when charity and faith are conjoined in him, but as a
desert when they are not conjoined, n. 7626. That man recedes
from wisdom, in proportion as he recedes from charity, n. 6630.
That they who are not in charity, are in ignorance of Divine
Truths, howsoever wise they may think themselves, n. 2416,
2435. That the angelic life consists in performing the goods of
charity, which are uses, n. 454. That the spiritual angels are
forms of charity, n. 553, 3804, 4735.
Of the Will and the Intellect, That man has two fa
culties, one of which is called the intellect, and the other the will,
n. 35, 641, 3939, 10122. That those two faculties make the
man himself, n. 10076, 10109, 10110, 10264, 10284. That
the man is such, as those two faculties, are in him, n. 7342,
8885, 9282, 10264, 10284. That by them also man is dis
tinguished from the beasts, because the intellect of man may

36 OF the last judgment, and the
be elevated by the Lord, and see Divine Truths, and his will
may be elevated equally, and perceive Divine Goods ; and thus
man may be conjoined to the Lord by those two faculties, which
make him man ; but that it is not so with beasts, n. 4525,
6302, 5114, 6323, 9232. And since man, in that power, is
above the beasts, that he cannot die as to his own interiors,
which belong to his spirit, but that he lives for ever, n. 5302.
That all things in the universe refer themselves to good and
truth ; thus in man to the will and the intellect, n. 803, 10122.
For the intellect is the recipient of truth, and the will the' reci
pient of good, n. 3332, 3623, 5332, 6066, 6125, 7503, 9300,
9930. It amounts to the same whether you say truth, or faith,
for faith is of truth, and truth is of faith ; and also whether you
say good, or love, for love is of good, and good is of love ; for
what a man believes, he calls truth ; and what he loves, he
calls good, n. 4353, 4997, 7178, 10122, 10367. Hence it
follows, that the intellect is the recipient of faith, and that the
will is the recipient of love, n. 7178, 10122, 10367. And since
man's intellect may be receptive of faith towards God, and his
will of love towards God, that he may be conjoined to God by
faith and love, and whoso can be conjoined to God by faith aud
love, can never die, n. 4525, 6323, 9231.
That the will of man is the very esse of his life, since it is
the receptacle of love or good, and that the intellect is the ex
istere of his life derived from it, since it is the receptacle of
faith or truth, n. 3619, 5002, 9282. Thus that the life of the
will is the principal life of man, and that the life of the intellect
proceeds from it, n. 686, 690, 3619, 7342, 8886, 9282, 10076,
10109, 10110. Just as light proceeds from fire or flame, n.
6032, 6314. That the things which enter the intellect and the
will at the same time, are appropriated to man, but not those
which enter the intellect alone, n. 9009, 9069, 9071, 9129,
9182, 9386, 9393, 10076, 10109, 10110. That those things
become properties of man's life, which are received by the
will, n. 3161, 9386, 9393. Hence it follows, that man is man
from the will, and from its derivative intellect, n. 8911, 9069,
9071, 10076, 10109, 10110. Every man moreover is loved and
esteemed by others, according to the good of his will and its
derivative intellect; for he who wills well, and understands
well, is loved and esteemed, but he who understands well, and
does not will well, is rejected and despised, n. 8911, 10076.
That man also after death remains as his will, and its derivative
intellect are, n. 9069, 9071, 9386, 10153. And that those
things vvhich belong to the intellect, and not at the same time
to the will, then vanish away, because they are not in man, n.

BABYLON which HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 37
9282. Or, what amounts to the same, that man remains after
death as his love, and its derivative faith are, or as his good
and its derivative truth are ; and that the things which belong
to faith, and not at the same time to love, or the things which
belong to truth, and not at the same time to good, then vanish
away, because they are not in man, and thus not of man, n.
553, 2364, 10153. That man may receive in the intellect what
he does not do from the will, or that he may understand what
he cannot will, because it is against his love, n. 3539. The
reason why man scarcely knows the distinction between think
ing and willing, n. 9991.
How perverted is the state of those, whose intellect and
will do not act in unity, n. 9075. That. such is the state of
hypocrites, of deceivers, of flatterers, and of dissemblers, n.
4326, 3573, 4799, 8250.
That all the will of good, and all the derivative understand
ing of truth, are from the Lord ; not so the understanding of
truth, separated from the will of good, n. 1831, 3514, 5483,
5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10163. That it is the intellect which
is enlightened by the Lord, n. 6222, 6608, 10659. That the
intellect is enlightened in as far as man receives truth in the
will, that is, in as far as he wills to do according to it, n. 3619.
That the intellect has light from heaven, as the sight has light
from the world, n. 1624, 6114, 6608, 9128. That the intellect
is such, as are the truths from good, of which it is formed, n.
10064. That that is the intellect, which is from truths derived
from good, but not that which is from falses derived from evil,
n. 10675. That the intellect is the seeing, from matters of ex
perience and science, truths, the causes of things, connections,
and consequences, in series, n. 6126. That the intellect is the
seeing and perceiving whether a thing be truth, before it is
confirmed, but not the being able to confirm every thing, n.
4741, 7012, 7680, 7960, 8521, 8780. That the seeing and
perceiving whether a thing be truth before confirmation, is only
given to those who are affected with truth for the sake of truth,
and are thus in spiritual light, n. 8521. That the light of con
firmation is natural light, communicable even to the wicked, n.
8780. That all dogmas, even false ones, may be confirmed,
until they appear like truths, n. 2482, 2490, 5033, 6866, 7950.

38 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE

THAT ALL THE THINGS, WHICH ARE PREDICTED IN THE APO
CALYPSE, ARE AT THIS DAY FULFILLED.
40. NO one can know what all the things which are contained
in the Apocalypse signify and involve, unless he knows the in
ternal or spiritual sense of the Word ; for every thing there is
written in a style, similar to that of the prophecies of the Old
Testament, in which each word signifies some spiritual thing,
which is not apparent in the sense of the letter. Besides, the
contents of the Apocalypse cannot be explained as to their spi
ritual sense, except by one, who also knows how it went with
the church even down to its end, which can only be known in
heaven, and is the thing contained in the Apocalypse : for the
spiritual sense of the Word treats every where of the spiritual
world, that is of the state of the church in the heavens, as well
as in the countries of the earth ; hence the Word is Spiritual
and Divine. It is this state which is there expounded in its own
order. Hence it may appear, that the things contained in the
Apocalypse can never be explained by any one but him, to
whom a revelation has been made concerning the successive
states of the church in the heavens : for there is a church in the
heavens as well as on the earth, of which something shall be
said in the following articles.
41. The quality of the Lord's church in the countries of the
earth, cannot be seen by any man, so long as he lives in the
world, — still less how the church in process of time has turned
aside from good to evil. The reason is, that man whilst he is
living in the world, is in externals, and only sees those things
which are palpable to his natural man ; but the quality of the
church as to spiritual things, which are its internals, does not
appear in the world ; yet it does appear in heaven as in clear
day, for the angels are in spiritual thought, and also in spiritual
sight, and hence see none other than spiritual things. Further
more, all the men who have been born in this world firom the
beginning of creation are together in the spiritual world, (as
shewn above) and are all there distinguished into societies ac
cording to the goods of love and faith, (as may be seen in the
work on Heaven and Hell, n. 41 to 60) whence it is that the
state of the church, and its progressions, are manifest in heaven
before the angels. Now since the state of the church as to love
and faith is described in the spiritual sense of the Apocalypse,
therefore no one can know what all the things in its series in
volve, but he to whom it has been revealed from heaven, and to
whom at the same time has been imparted a knowledge of the

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 39
internal or spiritual sense of the Word. This I can asseverate,
that each thing there, nay, that every word, contains within it
a spiritual sense, and that the all of the church, as to its spiritual
state flrom the beginning to the end, is fully described in that
sense ; and because every word there signifies some spiritual
thing, therefore not a word can be wanting without the series
of things in the internal sense thereby suffering a change; on
which account, at the end of that Book, it is said, " If any one
" shall take away from the toords of the book of this prophecy, God
" will take away his part from the Book of Life, and from that
" holy city, and from those "^things which are written in that Book."
Rev. xxii. 19. It is the same with the books of the Old Testa
ment ; in them also every thing, and every word, contains an
internal or spiritual sense, wherefore not one word can be taken
away from them either. Hence it is that, of the Lord's Divine
Providence, those books have been preserved entire to an iota
since the time in which they were written, and that by the care
of many who have enumerated their minutest particulars ; this
was provided by the Lord on account of the sanctity which is
within each iota, letter, word, and thing they contain.
42. Since in like manner there is an internal or spiritual sense
in every word in the Apocalypse, and since that sense contains
the arcana of the state of the church in the heavens, and on
the earth ; and since those arcana can be revealed to no one,
. but to him who knows that sense, and to whom at the same
time it has been granted to have consort with the angels, and
to speak spiritually with them, therefore, lest the things which
are therein written should be hidden to men, and should here
after be disregarded, because they are not understood, its con
tents have been disclosed to me ; but they are too numerous
to be described in this little work ; on which account I am
desirous of explaining the whole book from beginning to end,
and of unveiling the arcana which are within it : and the ex
plication shall be published in less than two years, together
with certain things in Daniel, which have hitherto lain hidden,
because their spiritual sense was unknown.
43. He who knows not the internal or spiritual sense, never
can divine what is meant in the Apocalypse by the dragon, and
by the battle of Michael and his angels with it ; what by the
tail with which the dragon drew down the third part of the
stars from heaven ; what by the woman who brought forth the
man-child which was caught up to God, and whom the dragon
persecuted ; what by the beast ascending from the sea, and the
beast ascending from the earth, which had so many horns ; what
by the whore, with whom the kings of the earth committed

40 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
whoredom ; what by the first and second resurrection, and by
the thousand years; what by the lake of sulphur and of fire,
into which the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet were
cast ; what by the white horse; also what by the former heaven,
and the former earth which passed away; and what by the
new heaven and the new earth, in the place of the former ; and
by the sea, which was no more ; or what by the city New Je
rusalem descending from heaven, and by its measures, wall,
gates, and foundation of precious stones ; what by the various
numbers ; besides other things, which are the veriest mysteries
(arcanissima) to those who know nothing of the spiritual sense
of the Word. But the meaning of all these things shall be
unfolded in the promised explication on that book.
44. It has been remarked before, that all the things which
are contained in that book, in the heavenly sense, are now ful
filled : in this little work I will deliver son^ general account of
the last judgment, the Babylon destroyed, the first heaven and
the first earth which passed away, the new heaven, the new
earth, and the New Jerusalem ; in order that it may he known,
that all its predictions are now accomplished. But the details
can only be delivered, where all these things are explained ac
cording to the description of them in the Book of Revelation.

THAT THE LAST JUDGMENT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
46. IT was shewn above, in an 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 fi-om 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

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED, 41
restored. It was granted me to see from beginning to end how
the last judgment was accomplished, and also how the Baby
lon 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 under
stood 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 1767, and was fully accomplished at the
end of that year.
46. But it ought to be known that the last judgment was
effected upon those who had lived from the Lord's time to this
day, but not upon those who had lived before : for a last judg
ment had twice before existed on this earth. Of these two
judgments, the one is described in the Word by the flood, the
other was effected by the Lord Himself when He was in the
world, which moreover is understood by the Lord's words,
" Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this
" world cast out," John xii, 31 ; and by His words, " These
" things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye may have peace ;
" be of' good cheer, I have overcome the world." John xvi, 33 ;
and also by these words in Isaiah, " Who is this that eometh
"from Edom, walking in the multitude of his strength, great to
" save ? / have trodden the wine press alone, therefore I have
" trodden them in my anger ; whence their victory is sprinkled
" upon my garments, for the day of vengeance is in my heart,
" and the year of my redeemed has come ; therefore He became a
" Saviour :" Isaiah Ixiii. 1 to 8 : and in many other places.
A last judgment has twice before existed on this earth, because
every judgment exists at the end of a church, [as shewn above
in an article for the purpose,] and there have beeri two churches
on this earth, one before the flood, and one after it. The
church before the flood is described in the beginning of Genesis
by the new creation of the heaven and the land, and by para
dise ; its end, by the eating of the tree of science, and the
subsequent particulars ; and its last judgment by the flood; the
whole by mere correspondences, according to the style of the
Word ; in the internal or spiritual sense of which, by the crea
tion of the heaven and the land, the institution of a new church
is understood, [see the first article] ; by the paradise in Eden, its
celestial wisdom ; by the tree of science, and by the serpent, the
scientific which destroyed it ; and by the flood, the last judg
ment upon the men of whom it consisted. But the other
church, which was after the flood, is also described in certain
passages in the Word, as in Dent, xxxii. 7 to 14, and elsewhere.

42 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
This church was extended through much of the Asiatic world,
and was continued among the posterity of Jacob. Its ena was,
when the Lord came into the world. A last judgment was then
effected by Him upon all who belonged to that church from its
first institution; and, at the same time, upon the residue of the
first church. The Lord came into the world for that end, to
reduce all things in the heavens into order, and all things in
the countries of the earth, by means of the heavens, and at
the same time to make His Human, Divine ; for if this had
not been done, no man could have been saved. That there
were two churches on this earth before the Lord's advent, is
shewn in various passages in the Arcana Ccelestia, a collection
of which may be seen below (m) ; and that the Lord came into
the world to reduce all things in the heavens into order, and all
things in the countries of the earth by means of the heavens,
and to make His Human Divine, is also shewn there, (n)
(m) That the first and most ancient church on this earth was that which is
described in the first chapters of Genesis, and that it weis a celestial church,
thechiefof all the churches, n. 607,895,920, 1121, 1122, 1123, 1124, 2896,
4493, 8891, 9942, 10545. What they who were of that church are in heaven,
n. 1114 to 1125. That they are in the greatest light there, n, 1117. That there
were various churches after the flood, which are called, in one word, the ancient
church, ii. 1125, 1126, 1127, 1327, 10355. Through what kingdoms of Asia the
ancient church was extended, n. 1238, 2385. What manner of men they of the
ancient church were, n. 609, 895. That the ancient church was a representative
church, n. 519, 521, 2896. What the ancient church was, when it began to de
cline, n. 1128. The distinction between the most ancient and ancient churches,
n. 597, 607, 640, 641, 765, 784, 895, 4493. Of the church that commenced from
Eber, which was called the Hebrew church, n. 1238, 1241, 1343, 4516, 4517,
The distinction between the ancient and the Hebrew churches, n. 1343, 4874,
Of the church instituted among the posterity of Jacob, or children of Israel,
n, 4281, 4288, 4310, 4500, 4899, 4912, 6304, 7048, 9320, 10396, 10526, 10531,
10698, That the statutes, judgments, and laws, which were commanded among
the children of Israel, were in part like those which existed in the ancient
church, n, 4449. In what manner the representative rites of the church which
was instituted among the children of Israel, differed from the representative
rites of the ancient church, n. 4288, 10149. That in the most ancient church
there was immediate revelation from heaven ; in the ancient church revela
tion by correspondences ; in the church among the children of Israel by an
audible voice; and in the christian church by the Word, n. 10355. That the
Lord was the God of the most ancient church, and also of the ancient church,
and was called Jehovah, u. 1343, 6848,
(n) That the Lord, when He was in the world, reduced all things in the
heavens and in the hells into order, u, 4075, 4286, 9937, That the Lord then
freed the spiritual world from the Antediluvians, u. 1266. What manner of
men they were, n. 310, 311, 560, 562, 563, 570, 581, 586, 607, 660, 805, 808,
1034, 1120, 1265 to 1272. That the Lord by temptations and victories subju
gated the hells, and reduced all things into order, and at the same time Glori
fied His Human, n, 4287, 9397. That the Lord effected this by Himself, or by
His Own Power, n. 1692, 9937. That the Lord alone fought, n. 8273. That
hence the Lord alone became Righteousness and Merit, n. 1813, 2025, 2026 2027,
9715, 9809, 10019. That thus the Lord united His Human with the Divine, n.
1725, 1729, 1733, 1737, 3318, 3381, 3382, 4286. That the passion of the cross

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 43
The third church on this earth is the Christian. Upon this
church, and, at the same time, upon all those who had been
in the first heaven since the Lord's time, the last judgment,
of which I now treat, was effected.
47. The manner in which this last judgment was effected
cannot be described in all its details in this little work, for they
are many, but shall be described in the explication on the
Apocalypse. For the judgment was accomplished not only upon
all the men of the Christian church, but also upon all who are
called Mahometans, and, moreover, upon all the Gentiles in the
whole circle of the earth ; and it was effected in this order : —
first upon those of the Papal religion ; then upon the Maho
metans ; afterwards upon the Gentiles ; and lastly upon the
Reformed. The judgment upon the Papists shall be shewn in
the following article, on the Babylon which has been de
stroyed ; the judgment upon the Reformed in the article, on
THE first Heaven which passed away; but something shall
be said in this article, on the judgment upon the Mahometans
and Gentiles,
48. The following was seen to be the arrangement in the
spiritual world of all the nations and people to be judged.
Collected in the middle, appeared those who are called the
Reformed, where they were also distinct according to their coun
tries ; the Germans there towards the north ; the Swedes there
towards the west; the Danes in the west; the Dutch towards the
east and the north ; the English in the centre. Surrounding this
whole mid-region of the Reformed, appeared collected those of
the Papal religion, the greater part of them in the western,
some part in the southern quarter. Beyond them were the Ma
hometans, also distinct according to their countries, who all
appeared in the south-west. Beyond these, the Gentiles were
congregated in vast numbers, constituting the very circum
ference ; and on their outer side an appearance, as of a sea
was the boundary. This arrangement of the nations in the
various quarters, was an arrangement according to each nation's
common faculty of receiving Divine Truths ; for in the spiritual
was the last temptation, and plenary victory, by which He Glorified Him
self, that is, made His Human Divine, and subjugated the hells, n. 2776, 10655,
10659, 10829. That the Lord could not be tempted as to the Essential Divine,
n. 2795, 2803, 2813, 2814. That therefore He assumed a human from the mother,
into which He admitted temptations, n, 1414, 1444, 1573,5041, 5157, 7193, 9315,
That He expelled whatever was hereditary from the mother, and put off the
human He received from her, even until He was her son no longer, and that He
put on the Human Divine, n. 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, 10829. That the Lord
saved mankind by the subjugation of the hells, and the Glorification of His
Human, u. 4180, 10019, 10152, 10655, 10659, 10828.

44 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
world every one is known from the quarter, and the part of it,
in which he dwells ; and, moreover, in a society with many,
he is known from his tarryings being made with a reference to
the quarters; concerning which, see the work on Heaven and
Hell, n. 148, 149. It is the same when he goes from place
to place; all advance to the quarters is then efi'ected according
to the successive states of the thoughts derived from the affec
tions which belong to his proper life [propriae] ; m accordance
with which all those who are spoken of in what follows were
led to their own places. In a word, the ways in which every
one walks in the spiritual world are actual determinations of
the thoughts of the mind ; whence it is, that ways, walkings,
and the like, in the spiritual sense of the Word, signify the
determinations and progressions of spiritual life.
49. In the Word, the four quarters are called the four winds,
and a gathering is called a gathering from the four winds ; as in
Matthew, where the last judgment is the subject treated of,
" He shall send his angels, and they shall gather together the eleci
"from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other:"
xxiv. 31 ; and elsewhere, " All nations shall be gathered together
" before the Son of Man, and He shall separate them one from
" another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and
" He shall set the sheep on the right and the goats on the left,"
Matthew xxv. 31, 32 ; which signifies that the Lord will then
separate those who are in truths and at the same time in good,
from those who are in truths and not in good ; for in the spiritual
sense of the Word, the right signifies good, and the left truth,
and sheep and goats the same. The last judgment was
effected upon these alone ; the evil who were in no truths being
in the hells already ; for all the wicked who have denied the
Divine in their hearts, and have rejected the truths of the church
as incredible, are cast thither when they die, and therefore
before the judgment. The first heaven which passed away, con
sisted of those who were in truths, and not in good, and the
new heaven was formed of those who were in truths, and at the
same time in good.
50. As regards the judgment upon the Mahometans and
Gentiles, which is treated of in this article, it was thus effected.
The Mahometans were led forth from their places, where they
were gathered together in the south-west, by a way round the
Christians, from the west, through the north, to the east, as
far as its southern confine ; and the good were separated from
the evil in the way : the evil being cast into marshes and lakes,
many too being scattered about in a certain far desert. But
the good were led through the east to a land of great extent

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 45
near the south, and habitations were there given them. They
who were led thither had in the world acknowledged the Lord
as the greatest Prophet, and as the Son of God, and had be
lieved that He was sent by the Father to instruct mankind, and
at the same time had lived a life moral-spiritual, in accordance
with their religion [religiosum]. Most of these, when instructed,
receive faith in the Lord, and acknowledge Him to be One with
the Father. Communication is also granted them with the
Christian heaven, by influx from the Lord ; but they are not
commingled with it, because religion separates them. All of
that religion, as soon as they come into the other life among
their own, first seek Mahomet, yet he appears not, but in his
place two others, who call themselves Mahomets, and who have
obtained seats in the middle, under the Christian heaven, towards
the left part of it. These two are in the place of Mahomet,
because all after death, whatever be their religion, are first led
to those they had worshipped in the world, (for every one's re
ligion adheres to him), but secede on perceiving that these can
render them no assistance. They are thus yielded up into their
own religion at first, as the only possible means of effecting
their withdrawal from it. Where Mahomet himself is, and
what he is, and whence come those two who fill his place,
shall be told iii the book in which the Apocalypse is explained.
61. The judgment was effected upon the Gentiles in nearly
the same manner as Upon the Mahometans ; but they were not
led like them in a circuit, but only a short way in the west,
where the evil were separated from the good, the evil being there
cast into two great gulphs, which stretched obliquely into the
deep. But the good were conducted above the middle where
the Christians were, towards the land of the Mahometans in
in the eastern quarter, and dwellings were given them behind
and beyond the Mahometans, to a great extent in the southern
quarter. But those of the Gentiles who in the world had wor
shipped God under a human form, and had led lives of charity
according to their religious principles, were conjoined with
Christians in heaven, for they acknowledge and adore the Lord
more than others ; the most intelligent of them are from Africa.
The multitude of the Gentiles and Mahometans who appeared
was so great, that it could be numbered only by myriads.
The judgment on this vast multitude was effected in a few days,
for every one after being yielded up into his own love and into
his own faith, is immediately destined and carried to his like.
52. From all these particulars appears the truth of the Lord's
prediction concerning the last judgment, that " they shall come
"from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the
" south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God," Luke xiii. 29.

46 OP THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE

OF THE BABYLON AND ITS DESTRUCTION.
53. THAT all the things which are predicted in the Apocalypse
are at this day fulfilled, may be seen above, n. 40 to 44 ; and
that the last judgment has already been accomphshed, may be
seen in the preceding article ; where it is also shewn how the
judgment was effected upon the Mahometans and Gentiles.
Now follows an account of the manner in which it was effected
upon the Papists, who are understood by the Babylon which is
treated of in many parts of the Apocalypse, and whose destruc
tion is the special subject of the 18th chapter, where it is thus
described, " An angel cried vehemently with a great voice,
" Babylon hath fallen, hath fallen, and is become the habitation
" of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every
"unclean and hateful bird." v. 2. But before it is told how that
destruction was effected, I shall premise, —
I. What is understood by the Babylon, and the manner of
thing it is. (et quale ejus.)
II. What manner of men they of the Babylon are in the
other life.
III. Where their habitations have hitherto been.
IV. Why they were there tolerated until the day of the last
judgment. V. The mode in which they were destroyed, and their habi
tations made a desert.
VI. That all those among them who were in the affection of
truth from good were preserved.
VII. Of the state of those hereafter who come thence from
the countries of the earth.
54. What is understood by the Babylon, and the manner of
thing it is. By the Babylon are understood all who will to
rule by religion [per religiosum]. To rule by religion, is to rule
over mens' souls, thus over their very spiritual lives, and to use
the Divine things, which are in their religion, as the means to
rule. All those who have dominion for an end, and religion for
the means, in the general, are Babylon. They are called
Babylon, because such dominion began in ancient times ; but
it was destroyed in its beginning. Its commencement is
described by the city and the tower whose head was to be in
heaven ; and its destruction, by the confusion of lips, whence
its name Babel was derived ; Genesis xi. 1 to 9. What the
particulars there related, mean in the internal or spiritual sense
°^ 1 0!^°""*^' "^^y ^^ ^^^^ explained in the Arcana Ccelestia,
n. 1283 to 1328. Moreover that this dominion began and was
instituted in Babel, appears in Daniel, where it is said of Nebu-

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 47
chadnezzar, that he set up an image, which all were to adore,
(chap, iii.) ; and is understood by Belshazzar and his peers
drinking out of the golden and silvern vessels, which Nebu
chadnezzar had carried away from the temple of Jerusalem, at
the same time that they worshipped gods of gold, silver, copper,
and iron ; wherefore it was written on the wall, " He hath num-
" bered, he hath weighed, he hath divided ;" and on the same
night the king himself was slain (chap. v). The vessels of gold
and silver of the temple of Jerusalem, signify the goods and
truths of the church; drinking out of them, and at the same
time worshipping gods of gold, silver, copper, and iron, signify
profanation ; and the writing upon the wall, and the death of
the king signify visitation, and destruction denounced against
those who make use of Divine Goods and Truths as means.
What manner of men those who are called Babylon are, is also
described continually in the prophets ; as in Isaiah, " Thou
" mayest take up this parable concerning the king of Babylon ;
" Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the
"rulers: thou, Lucifer, hast fallen from heaven; thou art cut
" doivn even to the earth; thou hast said in thy mind, I will ascend
" into heaven ; I will exalt my throne over the stars of God, and
" I will sit on the mountain of the convention, in the sides of
" the north, I will become like the Most High. Nevertheless thou
" shalt be cast down into hell, to the sides of the pit ; I will cut off
" the name and residue of Babylon, and will cause her to become
" an hereditary possession of the bittern," xiv. 4, 12, 13, 14, 15,
23 : and again it is said in the same book, " The lion said,
" Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her
" god are cast down," xxi. 9 ; see moreover the whole of chap.
xlvii. and chap, xlviii. 14 to 20; and Jeremiah, chap. l. 1, 2, 3.
From these passages it is now evident what the Babylon is. It
ought to be known that the church becomes a Babylon when
charity and faith cease, and the love of self begins to rule in
their stead ; for this love, in proportion as it is unchecked, rushes
on, aiming to dominate not merely over all whom it can subject
to itself on earth, but even over heaven ; nor does it rest there,
but it climbs the very throne of God, and transfers to itself His
Divine Power. That it did this, even before the Lord's coming,
appears from the passages of the Word adduced above. But the
Babylon there treated of, was destroyed by the Lord, when He
was in the world, as well by those who composed it being re
duced to mere idolaters, as by a last judgment upon them in
the spiritual world, which is understood by the prophetic say
ings, that " Lucifer," who there is Babylon, " was cast into
" hell," and that " Babylon has fallen ;" and moreover by the
D

48 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
writing on the wall, and the death of Belshazzar ; and also by
the stone, hewn from the rock, which destroyed the statue, of
whichNebuchadnezzar dreamed.
55. But the Babylon treated of in the Apocalypse, is the
Babylon of this day, which arose after the Lord's coming, and
is known to be among the Papists. This Babylon is more per
nicious, and more abominable than that which existed before
the Lord's coming, because it profanes the interior goods and
truths of the church, which the Lord revealed to the world,
when He revealed Himself. How pernicious, how inwardly abo
minable it is, may appear from the following summary. They
who belong to it, acknowledge and adore the Lord apart
from all power of saving: they entirely separate His Divine
from His Human, and transfer to themselves His Divine Power,
which belonged to His Human ; (o J for they remit sins ; they
send to heaven ; they cast into hell ; they save whom they will ;
they sell salvation ; thus arrogating things to themselves which
are properties of Divine Power alone : and since they exercise
this Power, it follows that they make gods of themselves, each
one according to his station, by transference from their highest,
whom they call Christ's vicar, down to the lowest of them ; thus
they regard themselves as the Lord, and adore Him, not for His,
but for their sakes. They not only adulterate and falsify the
Word, but even take it away from the people, lest they should
enter into the smallest light of truth ; and not satisfied with
this, they moreover annihilate it, acknowledging a divinity in
the decrees of Rome, superior to the Divine in the Word; so
that they exclude all from the way to heaven; for the acknow
ledgement of the Lord, faith in Him, and love to Him, are the
way to heaven ; and the Word is what teaches the way : whence
it is, that without the Lord, by the medium of the Word, there
is no salvation. They strive with all diligence to extinguish
the light of heaven, which is from Divine Trath, in order
that ignorance may exist in the place of it, and the denser
the ignorance, the more acceptable it is to them. They extin
guish the light of heaven by prohibiting the reading of the
Word, and of books which contain its doctrines ; instituting
worship by masses destitute of Divine Truth, in a language
unintelligible to the common people ; and besides, they fill
their world (orbem suum) with falses, those essential [ipsa]
darknesses, which remove and dissipate the light. They teach,
(o) That the attribution by the church, of two natures to the Lord, and the
consequent separation of His Divine from His Human, was effected in a council,
on the Pope's account, that the Pope might be acknowledged as the Lord's
vicar, discovered from heaven in the Arcana Ccelestia, n, 4738.

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 49
the vulgar moreover, that they have life (eternal) in the faith of
their priests, consequently not in their own, but in that of
other men. [ita in aliena et non in suS..] They also place all
worship in a devout external, apart from the internal, making
the internal into vacuum, for they deprive it of the know
ledges of good and truth ; and yet Divine worship is external,
only in as far as it is internal, since the external proceeds from
the internal. Besides this, they introduce idolatries of various
kinds. They make and multiply saints ; they see and tolerate
the adoration of these saints, and even the prayers put up to
them, almost as to gods ; they expose their idols in all sorts
of places ; boast of their multitudinous miracles ; set them over
cities, temples, and monasteries ; make sacred their bones — their
veriest cast-away bones, which have been taken out of sepul
chres; thus turning the minds of all from the worship of God,
to the worship of men. Moreover, they use much artful pre
caution lest any one should come out of their darkness into
light, and from idolatrous to Divine worship ; for they multi
ply monasteries, from which they send out spies and guards
in all directions ; they extort the confessions of the heart,
which are also confessions of the thoughts and intentions,
and if any one will not confess, they threaten him with in
fernal fire and torments in purgatory ; and those who dare to
speak against the Papal throne, and their dominion, they shut
up in a horrible gaol, which is called the Inquisition. All this
they do for one sole end ; — that they may possess the world and
its treasures, and live in congenial delights, (vivant genio) and
be the mightiest of men, while the rest are their slaves. But
domination such as this, is not that of heaven over hell, but of
hell over heaven, for in as far as the love of ruling prevails in
man, especially in the man of the church, in so far hell
reigns. That this love reigns in hell, and makes hell, may be
seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 561 to 565. From
this summary it may appear that they have no church, but a
Babylon among them. The church is, where the Lord Him
self is worshipped, and where the Word is read.
56. What manlier of men they of the Babylon are in the other
life, can be apparent only to one, who has been allowed by the
Lord to be together with those who are in the spiritual world :
since this has been granted to me, I am able to speak from ex
perience, for I have seen them, I have heard them, and I have
spoken with them. Every man after death is in a lif? similar
to his life in the world ; this cannot be changed, save only as
regards the delights of the love, which are turned into corres
pondent things, as may appear from two articles in the work

60 OF THE L.4.ST JUDGMENT, AND THE
on Heaven and Hell, n. 470 to 484; and n. 486 to 490. The
same holds of the life of those now treated of, which is alto
gether such as it was in the world, with this difference, that the
hidden things of their hearts are there uncovered, for they are
in the spirit, in which reside the interior things of the thoughts
and intentions, which they had concealed in the world, and had
covered over with a devout external. And, since these hidden
things were now laid open, it was perceived that more than half
of those, who had usurped the power of opening and shutting
heaven, were downright atheists ; but since dominion is rooted
in their minds as in the world, and is based on this, that all
power was given by the Father to the Lord Himself, and that
it was transferred to Peter, and by order of succession to the
heads of the church, therefore an oral confession about the Lord
remains adjoined to their atheism ; but even this remains only
so long, as they enjoy some dominion by means of it. But the
rest of them, who are not atheists, are so empty (tam vacui),
as to be entirely ignorant of man's spiritual life, of the means
of salvation, of the Divine Truths which lead to heaven ; and
they know nothing at all of heavenly love and faith, behev-
ing that heaven may be granted of the Pope's grace to any
one, whatever he be. Now since every one is in a life in the
spiritual world, similar to his life in the natural world, without
any difference, so long as he is neither in heaven nor in hell, (as
is shewn, and may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell,
n. 453 to 480), and since the spiritual world, as regards its ex
ternal appearance, is altogether like the natural world, (n. 170
to 176), therefore they also live a similar moral and civil life,
and above all have similar worship, for this is inradicated in,
and inheres to man in his inmost, nor can any after death be
withdrawn from it, except he be in good from truths, and in
truths from good. But it is more difficult to withdraw the na
tion now treated of from its own worship, than other nations,
because it is not in good from truths, and still less in truths
from good ; for its truths are not derived from the Word, with
the exception of some few, which it has falsified by applying
them to dominion; and hence it has none other than spu
rious good, for such as the truths are, such does the good be
come. These things are said, in order that it may be known,
that the worship of this nation, in the spiritual world, is alto
gether similar to its worship in the natural world. Premising
this, I will now relate some particulars of the worship and
life of the Papists in the spiritual world. They have a certain
session, in place of the session or consistory at Rome, in which
their leaders meet, and consult on various matters touching

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED, 51
their religion, especially on the means of holding the vulgar
in blind obedience, and of enlarging their own dominion. This
session is situated in the southern quarter, near the east,
but none who have been Popes or Cardinals in the world dare
to enter it, because the semblance of Divine authority possesses
their minds, from their having in the world arrogated the Lord's
power to themselves ; wherefore, as soon as ever they present
themselves there, they are carried out, and cast to their like in a
desert. But those among them, who have been of sincere mind,
and have not, from belief confirmed, usurped such power,
are in a certain obscure chamber, situate behind this session.
There is another convention in the western quarter, near the
north ; the business there, is the intromission of the credu
lous vulgar into heaven. They there dispose around them a
number of societies which live in various external jollities ; in
some of the societies they play, in some they dance, in some
they compose the face into the various expressions of hilarity
and mirthfulness ; in some they converse, friend-like ; in some
they discuss civil, in others religious matters ; in other so
cieties again, they talk obscenities ; and so on. They admit
their dependents into such one of these societies as each may
desire, and call it heaven ; but all of them, after beii g there
a few hours, are wearied and depart, because those joys are
external, and not internal: in this way, moreover, many are
withdrawn from, a belief in their doctrinal concerning intro
mission into heaven. As regards their worship in particular,
it is almost like their worship in the world ; as in the world,
it consists in masses, not performed in the common language
of spirits, but in one composed of lofty-sounding words, which
induce an external devoutness and awe, and are utterly unin
telligible. In like manner they adore saints, and expose idols
to view ; but their saints are no where to be seen, for all those
who have sought to be worshipped as gods, are in hell ; the rest
who did not seek it, are among common spirits. This their pre
lates know, for they seek and find them, and when found they
despise them; yet conceal it from the people, that the saints
may still be worshipped as tutelar gods, but that the primates
themselves, who rule over the people, may be worshipped as
the lords of heaven. In like manner, moreover, they multiply
churches and monasteries as they did in the world, they scrape
together riches, and accumulate costly things, which they hide
in cellars ; for costly things exist in the spiritual, as well as in
the natural world, and far more abundantly. In hke manner
they send forth monks, to allure the Gentiles to their religion,
in order that they may subject them to their rule They com-

62 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
monly have towers of espial erected in the middle of their as
semblies, from which they are enabled to enjoy an extended
vision into all the surrounding region : and moreover, by va
rious means and arts they establish for themselves coinmunica-
tions with persons far and near, joining in league with them,
and drawing them over to their own party. Such is their state in
general; but as to particulars, many prelates of that religion take
away all power from the Lord, and claim it for themselves, and
doing this, they acknowledge no Divine. They still counter
feit a devoutness in externals ; yet this devoutness in itself is
profane, because in their internals there is no acknowledgement
of the Divine. Hence it is that they communicate with certain
societies of the ultimate heaven by a devout external, and with
the hells by a profane internal, so that they are at once in either
(utrobivis) : on which account, moreover, they allure simple
good spirits, and appoint them habitations near themselves, and
also congregate evil spirits, and dispose them around the so
ciety in all directions, by the simple good conjoining them
selves with heaven, and by the evil with hell. Hence they are
enabled to accomplish abominations, which they perpetrate from
hell. For the simple good who are in the ultimate heavens, look
only to their devotional external, and their very devout adora
tion of the Lord in outward things, but they see not their wick
edness, and therefore they favour them, and this favour from the
good is their greatest protection ; yet in process of time they
all recede from their devout external, and then, being separated
from heaven, they are cast into hell. It may now be known
in some degree, what manner of men they of the Babylon are
in the other life. But I am aware that they who are in this
world, and have no idea of man's state after death, of heaven,
or of hell, but an inane and an empty one, will wonder at the
existence of such things in the spiritual world. But, that man
is equally a man after death, that he lives in fellowships as he
did in the world, that he inhabits houses, hears preaching in
churches, discharges duties, and sees things in that world, si
milar to those in the former world he has left, may appear from
all that has been said and shewn of the things I have heard
and seen, in the work on Heaven and Hell.
57. I have spoken with certain of that nation, concerning
the keys given to Peter ; whether they believed that the power
of the Lord over heaven and earth was transferred to him?
and because this was a fundamental of their religion, they
vehemently insisted on it, saying, that there was no doubt about
it, because it was manifestly said so. But when I asked them
whether they knew that in each expression of the Word there

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. ,53
is a spiritual sense, which is the sense of the Word in heaven,
they said at first, that they did not know it, but afterwards
they said they would inquire ; and on inquiring, they were in
structed that there is a spiritual sense within each expression
of the Word, which difters from the sense of the letter, as
spiritual differs from natural; and they were also instructed
that no person named in the Word is named in heaven, but
that some spiritual thing is there understood in place of him :
finally, they were informed, that instead of Peter in the Word
is understood the truth of the faith of the church, derived from
the good of charity, and that the same is understood by a rock,
which is there named with Peter, for it is said, " Thou art Peter,
" and upon this rock will I build my Church," Matt. xvi. 18 ; by
which is not understood that any power was given to Peter,
but that power is the property of truth derived from good, for
in the heavens, all power is in truth from good, or from good
by means of truth, and since all good, and all truth are from
the Lord, and nothing from man, that all power is from the Lord.
When they heard this, they replied indignantly, that they
wished to be certain whether or no that spiritual sense is con
tained in the words, whereupon the Word which is in heaven was
given them, in which Word there is not the natural sense, but
the spiritual, because it is for the angels, who are spiritual ;
(that there is such a Word in heaven, may be seen in the work
on Heaven and Hell, n. 259 to 261 ;) and when they read it,
they saw manifestly that Peter is not named there, but truth
from good, which proceeds from the Lord, instead of him, (p)
Seeing this, they rejected it with anger, and would have torn it
in pieces with their teeth, had it not instantly been taken away
from them. Hence they were convinced, although unwilling to
(p) From the Arcana Ccelestia. That the twelve disciples of the Lord
represented the church as to the all of truth and good, or of faith and love, as
in like manner did the twelve tribes of Israel, n. 2179, 3354, 3488, 3853, 6397.
That Peter, James, and John, represented faith, charity, and the goods of
charity, c. 3750, That Peter represented faith, n. 4738, 6000, 6073, 6344,
10087, 10580. That the keys of the kingdom of heaven being given to Peter,
signifies that all power is given to truth from good, or to faith from charity, pro
ceeding from the Lord ; thus that all power belongs to the Lord, n, 6344, That
a key signifies the power of opening and shutting, n, 9410, That all power is in
good by truths, or in truths from good, proceeding from the Lord, n. 3091, 3563,
6344,6413,6948,8200, 8304, 9327, 9410, 9639, 9643, 10019, 10182. That a
rock in the Word signifies the Lord as to Divine Truth, n. 8581, 10580. That
all names of persons and places in the Word signify things and states, n. 768,
1888,4310,4442,10329. That their names do not enter heaven, but are turned
into the things they signify, and that they cannot be pronounced in heaven, n.
1878, 5225, 6516, 10216, 10282, The delicate fitness of the internal sense of the
Word, where mere names occur in the letter, illustrated by examples, u, 1224,
,1264, 1888.

54 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
be convinced, that that power is the property of the Lord alone,
and cannot belong to any man because it is a Divine Power.
58. Where their habitations in the spiritual world have hitherto
been. It was said above, n. 48, that all the nations and people
in the spiritual world were seen to be thus arranged ; — collected
in the middle those who are called the Reformed ; around this
middle, those of the Papal reUgion ; the Mahonietans beyond
them ; and the various Gentiles in the outmost circuit. Hence
it may appear that the Papists formed the nearest circum
ference around the Reformed in the centre. The reason of
this was, that they who are in the light of truth from the
Word are in the centre, and they who are in the light of truth
from the Word are also in the light of heaven, for the light of
heaven is from Divine Truth, of which the Word is the conti
nent. That the light of heaven is from Divine Truth, may be
seen in the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 126 to 140, and
That it is Divine Truth, n. 303 to 310. Light, moreover, pro
ceeds from the centre towards the circumferences, and illumi
nates. Hence it is that the Papists proximately surround the
centre, for they have the Word, and it is also read by the rulers
of their church, though not by the people. This is the reason
why the Papal nation in the spiritual world have habitations
around those who are in the light of truth firom the Word. Their
manner of dwelling, before their habitations were utterly de
stroyed, and made into a desert, shall now be told. The
greatest part of them dwelt in the south and in the west ;
only a small part in the north and in the east. In the South
dwelt those, who had been possessed of more powerful abilities
than their fellows in the world, (polluerunt ingenio), and had
more confirmed themselves in their own religion. Great num
bers of the rich and the noble also dwelt there, in habitations
which were not above the earth's surface, but which, from dread
of robbers, were subterranean, and were guarded at the entrances.
In that quarter, moreover, there was a great city, extending
nearly from east to west, and somewhat into the west, situated
very near the centre where the Reformed were. Myriads
of men or spirits tarried in that city. It was full of churches
and monasteries. The ecclesiastics also carried into it all
the treasures which they were enabled by their various arti
fices to scrape together, and they hid them in its cells and
subterranean crypts, which were so curiously formed, that no one
besides themselves could enter them, for they were disposed
around in the form of a labyrinth. On the treasures there
amassed, in the full confidence that they could never be de
stroyed, they had set their hearts. When I saw those crypts

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 55
I was amazed at the art displayed in constructing them, and
increasing them without end. The most of those who call them
selves members of the society of Jesus were there, and culti
vated amicable relations with the rich who dwelt in their neigh
bourhood. Towards the east in that quarter was the session
where they consulted on the enlargement of their dominion,
and on the means of keeping the ]5eople in blind obedience.
(see above, n. 56.) Thus much of their habitations in the southern
quarter. In the North, dwelt those who had been possessed
of less powerful abilities, and had less confirmed themselves
in their own religion, because they were in an obscure faculty
of discerning, and thence in blind faith. The multitude was
not so great there as in the south. The chief part of them dwelt
in a great city, extending lengthwise from the angle of the east
to the west, and also some little into the south. It also was
full of churches and monasteries. On its outmost side which
was near the east dwelt many of various religions, and also
some of the Reformed. A few places, moreover, beyond the city
in that quarter, were occupied by the Papists. In the East
dwelt those, who had been in the greatest delight of ruling
in the world, and at the same time in somewhat of natural
lumen ; they appeared there on mountains, but only in the
quarter which faces the north; there were none in the other
part which faces the south. In the angle towards the north,
there was a mountain, on whose summit they had placed a
certain person of unsound mind, whom, by communications of
the thoughts, which are known in the spiritual, but unknown
in the natural world, they were enabled to inspire to command
any thing they chose ; and they gave out that he was the very
god of heaven, appearing under a human form, and thus paid
him divine worship. They did this, because the people were
desirous of seceding from their idolatrous worship, wherefore,
they devised it as a means of keeping them in obedience. That
mountain is understood in Isaiah xiv. 13, by "the mountain
" of convention in the sides of the north," and those on the
mountains are there understood by Lucifer, verse 12 ; for such
of the Babylonish crew as dwelt in the east, were in greater
lumen than others, which lumen also, they had prepared for
themselves by artifice. They once appeared to be building a
tower, whose head should reach to the very heaven where the
angels are, but the appearance was a mere representative of
their machinations ; for machinations are presented in the
spiritual world, before the eyes of those who stand at a dis
tance, by many representatives, which yet do not exist actually
to those who are busied in the machinations : in that world,

66 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
this is a common thing. By this appearance it was given me
to know what the tower whose head should be in heaven, whericet
the place was called Babel, Gen. xi. 1 to 10, signifies. Thus
much for their habitations in the east. In the West, in front,
dwelt those of that religion who had lived in the dark ages,
for the most part under-ground, one progeny beneath another.
The whole anterior tract, which looked to the north, was, as it
were, excavated, and filled with monasteries ; the entrances to
them lay through caverns, closed at top, through which they
went out and in. They rarely spoke with those who lived in
the following ages, being of a different disposition, and not so
craftily wicked, for as, in their times, there was no contention
with the Reformed, there was therefore less of the craft and
malice of hatred and revenge. In the western quarter beyond
that tract, were many mountains, on which dwelt the wickedest
of that nation, who denied the Divine in their hearts, and
yet orally professed their belief in Him, and gesticulated their
adoration of Him more devoutly than others. They who were
there, devised nefarious artifices to keep the vulgar under the
yoke of their sway, and also to force others to submit to that
yoke : these artifices I may not describe, they are so unspeak
ably wicked. In general they are such as are mentioned in
the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 580. The mountains on
which they dwelt, are understood in the Apocalypse by the
seven mountains, and the dwellers themselves are described
by the woman sitting upon the scarlet beast : " / saw a woman
"sitting upon a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, having
" seven heads, and ten horns : she had on theforehead a name writ-
" ten, mystery, Babylon the great, mother of the whoredoms
" and abominations of the land: the seven heads are seven moun-
" tains, on which the woman sitteth." Apoc. xvii. 3, 6, 9. By a
woman in the internal sense, is understood the church ; here in
the opposite sense, a profane religion ; by the purple beast, the
profanation of celestial love ; by the seven mountains, the pro
fane love of ruling. Thus much of their habitations in the
west. The reason why they dwell distinct according to quarters
is, because all in the spiritual world are carried into that quarter,
and into that part of it, which corresponds to their affections and
loves, and no one to any other place; concerning which see
the work on Heaven and Hell, where it treats Of the four
quarters of heaven, n. 141 to 163. In general, all the consulta
tions of the Babylonish race tend to this, that they may
dominate, not only over heaven, but over the whole earth, and
thus that they may possess heaven and earth, obtaining each
by means of the other. To effect this, they continually devise

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED, 67
and hatch new laws, and new doctrinals. They make the
same endeavour also in the other life as they made in the world,
for every one after death is such as he was in the world, most
especially as regards his religion. It was granted me to hear
certain of the primates consulting about a doctrine, which was
to be a law to the people : it consisted of many articles, but
they all tended to one thing ; fraudulent dominion over the
heavens, and the earth, and the ascription of all power to them
selves, and of none to the Lord. These doctrinals were afterwards
read before the bystanders, and thereupon, a voice was heard
from heaven, declaring, that they were dictated from the deepest
hell, though the hearers knew it not ; which was further con
firmed by this ; a crowd of devils from that hell, of the blackest
and direst appearance, ascended, and tore those doctrinals from
them, not with their hands, but with their teeth, and carried them
down to their own hell ; to the amazement of those who saw it.
59. Why they were there tolerated, until the day of the last
judgment. The reason was, because it is of Divine order that all
who can possibly be preserved, shall be preserved, even until
they can no longer remain among the good. All tho'se, there
fore, who can imitate spiritual life in externals, and present it,
to appearance, in a moral life, as if it were really within, what
ever they may be as to love and faith in internals, are preserved ;
as are those also, who have outward, though they have not in
ward, sanctity. Such were many of that nation, for they could
discourse piously with the vulgar, and adore the Lord devo-
tionally with them, could implant religion in their minds, and
lead them to think of heaven and hell, and could uphold them
in doing good (bona), by preaching works. Thus they were
enabled to lead numbers to a life of good, and therefore into
the way to heaven; on which account also, many of that religion
were saved, although few of their leaders ; the leaders being such
as the Lord means by "false prophets, who come in sheep's clothing,
" but inwardly are ravening wolves," Matt. vii. 16. By prophets,
in the internal sense of the Word, are understood those who
teach truth, and lead to good by means of it ; and by false
prophets, those who teach the false, and seduce by means of it.
They are also like the scribes and pharisees, who are described
by the Lord in these words, " They sit in Moses' seat ; all things
"¦ that they bid you observe, observe and do, but do not according
" to their works, for they say and do not ; all their works they do
" to be seen of men ; they shut up the kingdom of heaven against
" men, but go not in themselves : they eat widows' houses, for a
" pretence pouring forth long prayers. Woe unto you, hypocrites,
"ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within

68 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
" they are full of rapine and iniquity ; cleanse first the inside of
" the cup and platter, that the outside may be clean also : ye are
" like whited sepulchres, which appear outwardly beautiful, but
" within are full of the bones of the dead : thus ye outwardly ap-
" pear just before men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and
" iniquity," Matt, xxiii. 1 to 34. Another reason moreover why
they were there tolerated was, because every man after death
retains the religion he has made his own (imbuit) in the world ;
into which therefore, when first he comes into the other life, he
is yielded up. Now with this nation, the religious principle was
implanted by those who gave an oral preference to sanctity, and
feigned holy gestures, and moreover, impressed the people with a
belief in their power of saving ; on which ground also they were
not removed, but were preserved among their own. But the
principal reason was, that all are preserved from one judgment
to another, who live the semblance of a spiritual life in externals,
and imitate, as it were internal piety and sanctity ; all, indeed,
from whom the simple may receive instruction and guidance:
for the simple in faith and heart look no farther than to what is
external, • and apparent before the eyes. Hence all such were
tolerated from the commencement of the Christian church, until
the day of the last judgment. (That a last judgment has existed
twice before, and now exists for the third time, was shewn
above). Of the whole of these the former heaven consisted, and
they are understood in the Apocalypse xx. 6, 6, by " those who
" are not of the first resurrection;" but since they were such as
they are above described, that heaven was destroyed, and they of
the second resurrection were cast out. But it ought to be known
that they only were preserved who suffered themselves to be
held bound by laws both civil and spiritual, they being capable
of living together in society ; howbeit, they who could not
be restrained by those laws were not preserved, but were cast
into hell long before the day of the last judgment : for societies
are continually purified from, and defended against such. Hence,
they who led a wicked life, who enticed the vulgar into the
commission of evils, and entered on abominable arts, such as
exist among spirits in the hells, (see the work on Heaven and
Hell, n. 580), were cast out of societies, and this in their turns.
In like manner also the inwardly good are removed from soci
eties, lest they should be contaminated by the inwardly evil; for
the good perceive the interiors, and therefore pay no regard to the
exteriors, except just so far as they agree with the interiors; they
are sent in their turns, to places of instruction (concerning which
see the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 512 to 620), and are
carried thence into heaven ; for the new heaven is formed of them,

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 59
and they are understood by " those who are of the first resurrec
tion." Thus much is here declared, in order that it may be
known why so many of the Papal religion were tolerated and
preserved until the day of the last judgment ; but more will be
said on the same subject in the following article, where the first
heaven which passed away is to be treated of.
60. The mode in which they were destroyed, and their habita
tions made a desert. This I will here describe in few words ; more
fully in the explication on the Apocalypse. That the Babylon
there treated of has been destroyed, no one but he who saw it
can know, and to me it was given to see how the last judgment
was brought about and thoroughly accomplished upon all, es
pecially upon those of the Babylon. I, therefore, will describe
it. This was granted me, principally in order to reveal to the
world that all the things predicted in the Apocalypse are divinely
inspired, and that the Apocalypse is a prophetic book of the
Word ; for if this, and at the same time the internal sense
which there is in each expression of that book, as in each ex
pression of the Prophets of the Old Testament, were not re
vealed to the world, that book might possibly be rejected, on
account of being not understood; which would further make
men totally incredulous of its contents, nay, of any such thing
as a last judgment to come : in which disbelief those of the
Babylon would confirm themselves more strongly than others.
Lest this should be, it pleased the Lord to make me an eye
witness. But the whole of what I saw of the last judgment
upon those of the Babylon, in other words, of the destruction of
the Babylon, being in itself sufficient to fill a volume, cannot
be here adduced: in this place I shall merely relate certain
general aspects of it, reserving the particulars for the explica
tion on the Apocalypse. Inasmuch as the Babylonish nation
was settled in, and extended over, many tracts in the spiritual
world, and had formed to itself societies in all the quarters, I
will describe in regular succession the mode in which it was
destroyed in each several quEirter.
61. Destruction was effected after visitation, for visitation
always precedes. The act of exploring what the men are, and
moreover the separation of the good from the evil, is visitation ;
and the good are then removed, and the evil are left behind.
This having been done, there were great earthquakes, from which
they perceived that the last judgment was at hand, and
trembling seized them all. Then those in the Southern
Quarter, and especially in the great city there, (see n. 58),
were seen running to and fro, some with the intention of be
taking themselves to flight, some of hiding themselves in the

60 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
crypts, others of hiding in the cellars and caves beside their trea
sures, out of which others again carried any thing they could
lay their hands on. But after the earthquakes there burst up an
ebullition from below, (ab inferiori) which overturned everything
in the city and in the region round it. After this ebuUition came
a vehement wind from the east, which laid bare, shook, and
overthrew every thing to its foundations, upon which all who
were there were led forth, from every part, and from all their
hiding-places, and cast into a sea of black waters : those who
were cast into it, amounted to many myriads. Afterwards, from
that whole region, a smoke ascended, as after a conflagration,
and finally a thick dust, which was borne by the east wind to
the sea, and strewn over it ; for their treasures were turned into
dust, with all those things they had called holy because they
possessed them. This dust was strewn over the sea, because such
dust signifies damnation. In the last place, there was seen, as it
were a blackness flying over that whole region, which, when it
was viewed narrowly, appeared like a dragon ; a sign that the
whole of that vast city and region was become a desert. This
was seen, because dragons signify the falses of such a religion,
and the abode of dragons signifies the desert state which remains
after their overthrow ; as in Jeremiah ix. 11. — x. 22. — xlix. 33. —
Malachi i. 3. Certain persons were also seen to have, as it were
a mill stone around their left arms, which was a representative
of their having confirmed their abominable dogmas from the
Word ; a mill-stone signifying such things : hence it was plain
what these words in the Apocalypse signify, " The angel took
" up a stone, like a great mill-stone, and hurled it into the sea,
" saying, thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown
" down, and shalt no more be found," Apoc. xviii. 21. But they
who were in the session, which also was in that region, but
nearer to the east, and in which they were consulting on the modes
of enlarging their dominion, and of keeping the people in igno
rance, and thence in blind obedience, (see above n. 58) were
not cast into that black sea, but into a gulf which yawned
into length and depth beneath and around them. Such was
the accomplishment of the last judgment upon the Babylonians
in the southern quarter. But the last judgment upon those in
front in the Western QuARTER,and upon those in the Northern
Quarter, where the other great city stood, was thus effected.
After great earthquakes, which rent everything in those quar
ters to the very foundations, (these are the earthquakes which
are understood in the Word, in Matthew xxiv. 7. — Lukexxi.U. —
likewise Apoc. vi. 12, — viii, 6. — xi. 13, — xvi. 18, and in the
prophecies of the Old Testament, and not any earthquakes in

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 61
this world) an east wind went forth by the way of the south,
through the west, into the north, despoiling the whole region,
first that part of it in front in the western quarter, where the
people of the dark ages dwelt underground, and afterwards the
great city, which extended from that quarter, quite through
the north, to the east, and laid it bare so utterly, that all things
were exposed to view. But because there were not such riches
there, no ebullition, and sulphurous treasure-consuming fire,
were seen, but mere overturn and destruction, and at length
exhalation of the whole into smoke ; for the east wind went
forth continually, blowing to and fro ; it overthrew, it destroyed
all things, and blew them clean away. The monks and com
mon people were led forth to the amount of many myriads ;
some were cast into the black sea, on that side of it which
faces the west ; some into the great southern gulf, mentioned
above; some into a western gulf, and some into the hells of
the Gentiles, for a part of those who lived in the dark ages
were idolaters, like the Gentiles. A smoke also was seen to
ascend from that region, and to proceed as far as the sea; over
which it hovered, depositing a black crust there ; for that part
of the sea into which they were cast, was encrusted over with the
dust and smoke, into which their dwellings and their riches had
been reduced ; wherefore that sea has no longer a visible ex
istence, but in its place is seen, as it were a black soil, and
their hell is under it. The last judgment upon those who dwelt
'upon the mountains in the Eastern Quarter (see n, 68), was
thus accomplished. Their mountains were seen to subside into
the deep, and all those who were upon them to be swallowed
up ; and he whom they had placed upon one of the mountains,
and whom they proclaimed to be god, was seen to become first
black, then fiery, and with his worshippers to be cast headlong
, into hell. For the monks of the various orders who dwelt upon
those mountains, declared that he was god and that they were
Christ, and wherever they went, they took with them the
abominable persuasion that themselves were Christ. Finally,
judgment was accomplished upon those who dwelt more re
motely in the Western Quarter, upon the mountains there,
aud who are understood by the woman sitting upon the scarlet
beast, who had seven heads which are seven mountains, of
whom also something is related at n, 68. Their mountains too
were seen, of which some yawned open in the middle, and the
apertures widened into huge spiral gulfs, into which those on
the mountains were cast. Other mountains were torn up by their
foundations, and turned upside down, so that summit and
basis were inverted ; those who were thence in the plains were

62 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
inundated as with a deluge, and covered over, and those who
were among them from other quarters were cast into gulfs.
But the things now related are only a small part of all I saw ;
more will be given in the explication on the Apocalypse.
They were brought about and thoroughly accomplished in the
beginning of the year seventeen hundred and fifty-seven. As
regards the gulfs into which the whole of the Babylonians
were cast, excepting those who were cast into the black sea,
they are many in number. Four of them were discovered to
me; one great gulf in the southern quarter, to the east there;
another in the western quarter, to the south; a third in the
western quarter, to the north there ; • a fourth still further in
the angle between the west and the north : the gulfs and the
sea are their hells. These were seen, but in addition to these
there are many more, which were not seen ; for the hells of the
Babylonish nation are distinct according to the various profana
tions of spiritual things, which belong to the good and the truth
of the church.
62. Thus now was the spiritual world freed from such
spirits, and the angels rejoiced on account of its liberation from
them, because they of the Babylon infested and seduced whom
soever they could, and in that world more than in this, their
cunning being more mischievous there, because they are spirits ;
for it is the spirit of each in which all his wickedness is hidden,
since the spirit of the man is what thinks, wills, intends, and
devises. Many of them were explored, and it was found that
they had no belief in any thing at all, and that the abominable
lust of seducing, the rich for the sake of their riches, and the
poor for the sake of dominion, was rooted in their minds, and
that they kept all men in the densest ignorance in order to ob
tain that end ; thus blocking up the way to light, and therefore
the way to heaven : for the way to light and to heaven is ob
structed, when the knowledges of spiritual things are over
whelmed by idolatries, and when the Word is adulterated, in
validated, and taken away.
63. That such among them as were in the affection of truth from
good were preserved. Those of the Papal religion who lived
piously, and were in good, although not in truths, and still from
affection desired to know truths, were taken and carried into
a certain region, in front in the western'quarter, near the north,
habitations being given them, and societies of them instituted
there, and then priests from the Reformed were sent thither, who
instructed them from the Word, and as they are instructed, they
are accepted into heaven.
64, Of the state of those hereafter who come thence from the

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 63
countries from the earth. Since the last judgment is now accom
plished, and all things are reduced by the Lord into order through
means of it, and since all who are inwardly good are taken into
heaven, and all who are inwardly evil are cast into hell, it is no
longer permitted them, as heretofore it was, to form societies
below heaven and above hell, or to have any thing in common
with other spirits, but as soon as ever they come thither, that is,
at the death of each of them, they are altogether separated, and
after passing a certain time in the world of spirits, they are
carried into their own places. They therefore who profane holy
things, that is who claim for themselves the power of open
ing and shutting heaven, and of remitting sins, (which are
powers belonging to the Lord alone), and who place Papal bulls
on an equality with the Word, and have dominion for an end,
are henceforth carried away into that black sea, or into those
gulfs, which are the hells of profaners. But it was declared
to me from heaven, that those of that religion who are of such
a nature, do not look at all to the life after death, because they
deny it in their hearts, but that they look solely to the life in
the world; and that hence they care not a straw (floccipen-
dant) for this lot of theirs after death, which yet is to endure to
eternity, but laugh at it, as a thing of nought.

OF THE FORMER HEAVEN AND ITS ABOLITION,
65. IT is said in the Apocalypse, " I saw a great throne, and
" One sitting upon it, from whose face the heaven and the land Jied
" away, and their place was not found," xx. 11. And afterwards,
" / saw a new heaven and a new land; the first heaven and the first
" land had passed away," xxi. i. That a new heaven and a new
land, after the passing away of the former heaven and the former
land, do not mean the visible heaven or the land we inhabit, but
an angelic heaven and a church, was shewn above in the first
article, and also in those which follow it. For the Word in itself
is Spiritual, and therefore treats of spiritual things ; spiritual
things being those which are proper to heaven and the church ;
these are expounded by natural things in the sense of the letter,
because natural things serve as a basis to spiritual things, with
out which basis the Word would not be a Divine Work, because
it would not be complete; for the natural, which is the ultimate in
Divine Order, completes, and makes the interiors, which are
spiritual and celestial, to subsist upon it, as a house upon itsfoun-
E

64 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
dation. Now whereas men have thought of the contents of the
Word from a natural and not from a spiritual ground, therefore,
by the heaven and the land which are mentioned here and else
where, they have understood none other than the sky and land
which exist in the world of nature ; hence it is that they all ex
pect the passing away and destruction of these, followed too by
a creation of new ones. But lest they should expect this ever
lastingly, from age to age in vain, the spiritual sense of the
Word is opened, that thus it may be known what is understood
by much in the Word, which, when thought of naturally, does
not enter the understanding, and, at the same time, what is un
derstood by the heaven and the land which will pass away.
66. But before shewing what is understood by the first
heaven and the first land, it ought to be known, that by the first
heaven is not understood the heaven formed of those who have
become angels from the first creation of the world to the present
time, for that heaven is abiding, and endures to eternity; for
all who enter heaven are under the Lord's protection, and he
who has once been received by the Lord, can never be plucked
away from Him. But by the first heaven is understood a heaven
which was composed (conflatum) of others than those who have
become angels, and for the most part of those who could not be
come angels. Who they were, and what, shall be told in the
following pages. This heaven it is, of which it is said, that
it "passed away." It was called heaven, because they who
were in it dwelt on high, forming societies upon rocks and
mountains, and living in similar to natural delights, but never
in any that were spiritual ; for very many who depart from the
earth into the spiritual world, believe themselves in heaven,
when they are on high, and in heavenly joy, when they are in
world-like delights. Hence it was called heaven, but " the
first heaven which passed away."
67. It is moreover to be noted, that this heaven which is
called the first, did not consist of any who had lived before
the Lord's coming into the world, but that all who composed
it lived after His coming, for (as was shewn above, n, 33 to
38) a last judgment is effected at the end of every church, a
former heaven being then abolished, and a new heaven created
or formed ; for all who led an outwardly moral life, and
lived in piety and sanctity that was external, although not
internal, were tolerated from the beginning to the end of the
church, and this so long as the internals which belong to the
thoughts and intentions could be held in bonds by the laws of
society, civil and moral; but at the end of the church their
internals are unveiled, and the judgment is then effected upon

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 66
them. Hence it is, that a last judgment has been effected upon
the inhabitants of this planet twice before, and now is, for the
third time (see n. 46) ; thus also a heaven and a land have
twice passed away, and a new heaven and a new land have been
created; for the heaven and the land are the church in either
world, as shewn above, n. 1 to 5. Hence it is plain, that the
new heaven and the new land, mentioned in the prophets of
the Old Testament, are not that new heaven and new land men
tioned in the Apocalypse, but that the former existed from the
Lord when He was in the world, and that the latter exist from
Him now. Concerning the heaven and the land in the prophets
of the Old Testament, it is thus written, " Behold I am about to
" create a new heaven and a new land, neither shall the former be
"remembered," Isaiah Ixv. 17. And in another place, "/ am
" about to make a new heaven and a new land," Isaiah Ixvi. 22;
besides what is said in Daniel.
68. Since the first heaven which passed away is the subject
now treated of, and since no one knows any thing concerning
it, I will describe it in order.
I. Of whom the first heaven consisted.
II. What kind of heaven it was.
III. How it passed away.
69. Of whom the first heaven consisted. The first heaven was
composed of all upon whom the last judgment was effected, for
it was not effected upon those in hell, nor upon those in heaven,
nor upon those in the world of spirits, (concerning which world
see the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 421 to 620), nor upon
any who were yet living in this world, but solely upon those
who had made to themselves the likeness of a heaven, of whom
the greater part were on mountains and rocks ; these also were
they whom the Lord meant by the goats, which he placed on
the left, Matthew xxv. 32, 33, and following verses. Hence
it may appear, that the first heaven existed, not merely from
Christians, but also from Mahometans and Gentiles, who
had all formed to themselves such heavens in their own
places. What manner of men they were shall be told in few
words. They were those who lived in the world in external, and
never in internal, sanctity; who were just and sincere for the
sake of civil and moral laws, but not for the sake of Divine
Laws, therefore, who were external or natural, and not internal
or spiritual men ; who also were in the doctrinals of the church,
and were able to teach them, but whose lives were not accord
ant with them ; and who filled various ofiices, and did uses,
but not for the sake of uses. These, and all throughout the
whole world who were like them, and lived after the Lord's

66 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
coming, constituted the first heaven. This heaven therefore was
such as the world and church upon earth is, among those who
do good, not because it is good, but because they fear the
laws, and the loss of fame, honor, and lucre; they who do
good from no other origin, do not fear God, but men, and are
destitute of conscience. In the first heaven of the Reformed,
there was a large proportion of spirits, who believed that man
is saved by faith alone, and did not live the life of faith, which
is charity; and who loved much to be seen of men. In all these
spirits, so long as they were associated together, the interiors
were closed, that they might not appear, but when the last
judgment was at hand they were opened; and it was then found
that inwardly they were obsessed by falses and evils of every
kind, and that they were against the Divine, and were actually
in hell : for every one after death is immediately bound to his
like, the good to their like in heaven, but the evil to their like
in hell, yet they do not go to them before the interiors are un
veiled ; in the meantime they may live together in society with
those who resemble them in externals. But it is to be noted,
that all who were inwardly good or spiritual, were separated
from those spirits, and elevated into heaven, and that all who
were outwardly, as well as inwardly, evil, were also separated
from them, and cast into hell ; and this from the time imme
diately succeeding the Lord's advent, down to the last time,
when the judgment was ; and that those only were left, to form
societies among themselves, who constituted the first heaven,
and who were of the kind above described.
70. There were many reasons why such societies, or such
heavens were tolerated ; the principal reason was, that by exter
nal sanctity, by external sincerity and justice, they were con
joined with the simple-good, who were either in the ultimate
heaven, or were still in the world of spirits and not yet introduced
into heaven. For in the spiritual world, there is a communica
tion, and thence a conjunction, of all with their like ; and the
simple-good, in the ultimate heaven, and in the world of spirits,
look principally to externals, yet are not inwardly evil ; where
fore if these spirits had been forcibly removed from them before
the appointed time, heaven would have suffered in its ultimates;
and yet it is the ultimate, upon which the superior heaven sub
sists, as upon its own basis. That these spirits were tolerated
until the last time on this account, the Lord teaches in the follow
ing words : " The servants of the householder came and said unto
" him. Didst thou not sow good seed in thy field, whence then are
" the tares'^ and they said. Wilt thou then that we go and gather ¦
"them up? but he said. Nay, lest, while ye gather up the tares.

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED, 67
" ye root up also the wheat with them ; let both therefore grow
" together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say
" to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them
" in bundles to burn ; but gatlier the wheat into barns. He that
" hath sowed the good seed, is the Son of Man ; the field is the
" world ; the good seed are the sons of the kingdom, the tares are
" the sons of evil ; the harvest is the consummation of the age :
" as therej'ore the tures are gathered together, and burnt with
"fire, so shall it be in the consummation of this age," Matt. xiii.
27 to 30, 37 to 40. The consummation of this age, is the last
time of the church ; the tares are those who are inwardly evil ;
the wheat are those who are inwardly good ; the gathering the
tares together, and binding them in bundles to burn, is the last
judgment, (q) The like is understood in the same chapter by
the Lord's parable of the fishes of all kinds, which were ga
thered together, and the good placed in vessels, but the bad
cast away; concerning which it is also said, "so shall it be in the
"consummation of the age ; the angels shall go forth, and sepa-
" rate the evil from the midst of the just," verses 47, 48, 49.
They are compared to fishes, because fishes in the spiritual sense
of the Word, signify natural and external men, both good and
evil; what the just signify may be seen below, (r)
71. What kind of heaven it was, may be concluded from the
things already said of it ; as also from this, that they who are
not spiritual by an acknowledgement of the Lord, by a life of
good, and by an affection of truth, and still appear as spiritual
by external sanctity, by talk [sermocinatio] on Divine things,
('jJThat bundles in the Word signify the arrangement of the truths and falses
a man has, into series, thug also the arrangement of men in whom truths and falses
are, n, 4686, 4687, 5339, 5530, 7408, 10303. That the Son of Man is the Lord
as to Divine Truth, n, 1729, 1733, 2159, 2628, 2803, 2813, 3255, 3704, 7499,
8897, 9087. That sons are the affections of truth from good, n. 489, 491, 533,
2623, 3373, 4257, 8649, 9807 ; therefore, that the sons of the kingdom are those
who are in the affections of truth from good ; and the sons of evil, those who are in
the affections of the false from evil ; whence the latter are called tares, and the
former good seed ; for tares signify the false from evil, and good seed, truth
from good ; that the seed of the field is truth from good, in man, from the Lord,
n, 1940, 3038, 3310, 3373, 10248, 10249. That seed in the opposite sense is the
false from evil, n. 10248. That the seed of the field is also the nutrition of the
mind by Divine Truth from the Word, and that sowing is instruction, n. 6158,
9272, That the consummation of the age is the last time of the church, n. 4535,
10622. (r) That fishes, in the spiritual sense of the Word signify scientifics, which
belong to the natural or external man, and hence also natural or external men,
both evil and good, u. 40, 991, That animals of all kinds correspond with
such things as are in man, n. 45, 46, 246, 714, 716, 719, 2179, 2180, 3519, 9280,
10609, That, in the Word, they to whom the Lord's justice and merit are attri
buted, are called just ; they to whom self-justice and self-merit are attributed,
are called unjust, n. 3648, 5069, 9263.

68 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE
and by sincerities for the sake of themselves and the world, rush
into the abominations which accord with their lusts, when they
are left to their own internals; for nothing detains them, neither
fear of God, nor faith, nor conscience. Hence it was, that as
soon as ever they who were in the first heaven were yielded up
into their own interiors, they were in open conjunction with
the hells.
72. The manner in which the first heaven passed away was
described before, in describing the last judgment upon the
Mahometans and Gentiles, n. 60 to 51 ; and upon the Papists,
11.61,62,63, since they also in their own places were constituents
of the first heaven. It remains that something be said of the
last judgment upon the Reformed, who are also called Protes
tants and Gospellers, or of the manner in which the first heaven
composed of them passed away ; for (as was said above) judg
ment was effected upon those only of whom the first heaven
consisted. After being visited, and yielded up into their own
interiors, they were separated from each other, and divided into
classes according to evils and their derivative falses, and ac
cording to falses and their derivative evils, and were cast into
hells correspondent with their loves. Their hells surrounded
the middle region on all sides, for the Reformed were in the
middle, the Papists around them, the Mahometans around the
Papists, and the Gentiles in the outmost circuit. (See n. 48.)
Those who were not cast into hells, were ejected into deserts;
yet there were some sent down to the plains in the southern and
northern quarters, there to form societies, and be instructed and
prepared for heaven ; these are they who were preserved. But
how all these things were accomplished, cannot be minutely
described in this place, for the judgment upon the Reformed
was of longer continuance than upon others, and was effected
by successive changes. Now since much that is worthy of men
tion was then heard and seen, I will present the particulars in
their own order in the explication on the Apocalypse.

OF THE STATE OF THE WORLD, AND OF THE CHURCH HEREAFTER,
73. THE state of the world hereafter will be quite similar to
what it has been heretofore, for the great change which has
been effected in the spiritual world, does not induce any change
in the natural world as regards the outward form ; so that the
affairs of states, peace, treaties, and wars, with all other things
which belong to societies of men, in general and in particular.

BABYLON WHICH HAS BEEN DESTROYED. 69
will exist in the future, just as they existed in the past. The
Lord's saying, that " in the last times there will be wars, and that
" nation will then rise against nation, and kingdom against king-
" dom, and that there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes
" in divers places," Matthew xxiv. 6, 7, does not signify that such
things will exist in the natural world, but that things corres
pondent with them will exist in the spiritual world, for the Word
in its prophecies does not treat of the kingdoms, or of the
nations upon earth, or consequently of their wars, or of famines,
pestilences, and earthquakes in nature, but of such things as
correspond to them in the spiritual world ; what these things
are, is explained in the Arcana Ccelestia, and a collection of
passages on the subject may be seen below, (s) But as for
the state of the church, this it is which will be dissimilar here
after ; it will be similar indeed in the outward form, but dissi
milar in the inward. To outward appearance divided churches
will exist as heretofore, their doctrines will be taught as here
tofore ; and the same religions as now, will exist among the
Gentiles. But henceforth the man of the church will be in a
more free state of thinking on matters of faith, that is on spi
ritual things which relate to heaven, because spiritual liberty
has been restored to him. For all things in the heavens and
in the hells are now reduced into order, and all thinking which
entertains or opposes Divine things inflows from thence, — from
the heavens, all which is in harmony with Divine things, and
from the hells, all which is opposed to them. But man does
not observe this change of state in himself, because he does
not reflect upon it, and because he knows nothing of spiritual
liberty, or ofinflux : nevertheless it is perceived in heaven, and
also by man himself when he dies. Since spiritual liberty has
been restored to man, the spiritual sense of the Word is now
unveiled, and interior Divine Truths are revealed by means of
it; for man in his former state would not have understood them,
and he who would have understood them, would have profaned
them. That liberty is given to man by means of an equilibrium
(s) From the Arcana Ccelestia. That wars in the Word signify spiritual
combats, n. 1659, 1664, 8295, 10455. That hence all the arms of war, as the
bow, the sword, the shield, signify something of spiritual combat, n. 1788,
2686. That kingdoms signify churches as to truths and as to falses, n, 1672,
2547. That nations signify those in the church, who are in goods and who are
in evils, n. 1059, 1159, 1205, 1258, 1260, 1416, 1849, 4574, 6005, 6306, 7830,
8054, 8317, 9320, 9327. That famine signifies a defect of the knowledges of
good and truth, n. 1460, 3364, 5277, 5279, 5281, 5300, 5360, 5376, 5893. That
it also signifies the desolation of the church, n. 5279, 5415, 5576, 6110, 6144,
7102. That pestilence signifies the vastation and consummation of good and
truth, n. 7102, 7505, 7507, 7511. That earthquakes signify changes of thestate
of the church, n. 3355.

70 OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, ETC.
between heaven and hell, and, that man cannot be reformed
except in freedom, may be seen in the work on Heaven and
Hell, n. 597 to the end,
74, I have had various converse with the angels, concerning
the state of the church hereafter. They said, that things to come
they know not, for that the knowledge of things to come be
longs to the Lord alone, but that they do know that the
slavery and captivity in which the man of the church was for
merly, is removed, and that now, from restored liberty, he can
better perceive interior truths, if he wills to perceive them, and
thus be made more internal, if he wills it ; but that still they
have slender hope of the men of the Christian church, but much
of some nation far-distant from the Christian world, and there
fore removed from infesters [infestatores], which nation is such,
that it is capable of receiving spiritual light, and of being made
a celestial-spiritual man, and they said, that at this day interior
Divine Truths are revealed in that nation, and are also received
in spiritual faith, that is, in life and in heart, and that it
worships the Lord.

THE END.

WALTON AND MITCHELL, PRINTERS, WARDOUR-ST, OXFORD-ST.

A CONTINUATION COHCEBMNG
THE LAST JUDGMENT.

This Work is printed at the expense of, and published for,
" The Society fqr Printing and Publishing the
Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, instituted in
London in the Year 1810."

PniNTED BY WALTON AND MITCHLI.L, WARDOUR STllEl.T, OXFORD STREET,

A
CONTINUATION

CONCERNING THE

LAST JUDGMENT,

concerning the

SPIRITUAL WORLD.

From the Latin of
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

LONDON :
JAMES S. HODSON, 112, FLEET STREET;
WILLIAM NEWBERY, CHENIES STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE
EDWARD BAYLIS, MANCHESTER.
1841.

LONDON: PRINTED BY WALTON AND MITCHELL, WARDOUR STREET.

A CONTINUATION
CONCERNING
THE LAST JUDGMENT.

THAT THE LAST JUDGBIENT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
1. IN the former small work on the Last Judgment, the follow
ing subjects were treated of: That the day of the last judg
ment does not mean the destruction of the world, n. 1 to 6.
That the procreations of mankind will never cease, n. 6 to 13.
That heaven and hell are from mankind, n. 14 to 22. That all
who have ever been born men from the beginning of creation,
and are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell, n. 23 to 27.
That the last judgment must be, where all are together;
therefore in the spiritual world, and not on the earth, n. 28 to
32. That the last judgment exists, when the end of the
church is ; and that the end of the church is, when faith is not,
because charity is not, n. 33 to 39. That all the things, which
are predicted in the Apocalypse, are at this day fulfilled, n. 40
to 44, That the last judgment has been accomplished, n. 46
to 52, Of the Babylon, and of its destruction, n. 53 to 64.
Of the former heaven, and of its abolition, n. 65 to 72. Of
the state of the world and of the church hereafter, n, 73, 74.
2. The subject of the last judgment is continued, princi
pally that it may be known what the state of the world and
the church was before the last judgment, and what the state of
the world and the church has become since; also, how the
last judgment was accomplished upon the Reformed.
3. It is a common opinion in the Christian world, that the
universal heaven we see, and the universal earth we inhabit,
will perish at the day of the last judgment, and that a new
heaven and a new earth will become extant in their places ;
that the souls of men will then regain their bodies, and that
man will thus again be man as he was before. This opinion
has become matter of faith, because the Word has not been
understood otherwise than according to the sense of its letter;
(and it could not be understood otherwise, until its spiritual

4 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.
sense was discovered,) also, because there is a wide-spread be
lief, that the soul is the mere breath exhaled by man, and that
spirits, as well as angels, are as unsubstantial as the wind.
While there was such a deficiency of understanding concern
ing souls, and concerning spirits and angels, the last judg
ment could not be thought of in any other manner. But when
it comes to be understood, that a man is a man after death, just
as he was a man in the world, with the sole difference, that
then he is clothed with a spiritual, and not as before with a na
tural body ; and further, that the spiritual body appears before
those who are spiritual, even as the natural body appears be
fore those who are natural, it may then also be understood,
that the last judgment will not be in the natural, but in the
spiritual world ; for all the men who were ever born and have
died, are together there.
4. When this is understood, then may the paradoxes be dis
sipated, which man would otherwise entertain on the state of
souls after death, and their re-union with putrid corpses, and
on the destruction of the created universe ; in other words, on
the last judgment. The paradoxes he would entertain on the
state of souls after death, are these : that man was then like
an exhalation, or like wind, or like ether ; either that he was
floating in the air, or permanent in no place, but in a some
where, (in Ubi) which they call Pu ; and that he saw nothing,
because he had no eyes ; heard nothing, because he had no
ears; spoke nothing, because he had no mouth; and was there
fore blind, deaf, and dumb ; and that he was continually, and,
it must be, sorrowfully, longing to regain those functions of
the soul, from which all the joyousness of life proceeds, at
the day of the last judgment : also, that the souls of all who
have lived since the first creation, were in the same wretched
state, and that the men of fifty or sixty ages ago, were like
wise still floating in the air, or remaining in Pu, and awaiting
the judgment ; with other lamentable things.
5. I pass over paradoxes, similar to, and equally numerous
with, these, which the man, who knows not that he is a man
after death, as before it, must entertain concerning the destruc
tion of the universe. But he who does know, that a man,
after death, is not an exhalation, or a wind, but a spirit, and,
if he has lived well, an angel in heaven, and that spirits and
angels are men in a perfect form, may think from his intellect,
of the future state, and the last judgment ; rejecting the non-
intellectual faith which harbours mere traditions : and may also
with certainty conclude from his intellect, that the last judg
ment, which is predicted in the Word, will not exist in the

CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 5
natural world, but in the spiritual world, where all are together :
and furthermore, that whenever it does exist, it must be re
vealed, for the sake of the fidelity of the Word, [propter fidem
Verbi.] 6. Put away from you the idea of the soul being an ex
halation, and then think of your own state, or of the state of
your friends, or of the state of your infants after death. Shall
you not think you will be a living man, [qupd victurus sis
homo] and they likewise ? And since there is no proper life
without the senses, you cannot think otherwise than that they
also see, hear, and speak ; which also accords with the in
scriptions of those who erect monuments over deceased relations,
and place them in heaven among the angels, in white garments,
and in paradises. But if afterwards you relapse into the idea,
that the soul is an exhalation, and has no sensitive life un
til after the last judgment, can you help being distracted
when you think, " What, and where shall I be in the mean
time ? Shall I float in the air, or remain in Pu ? Yet the
preacher teaches me that after death I shall come among the
blessed, if I have believed well, and lived well." You may
believe then, as the truth is, that you are a man after death as
well as before it, differing only, as spiritual differs from natural.
Thus also, think all those who are believers in eternal life,
without knowing anything of this hypothetic tradition on the
soul. 7. From what has been said already, it may appear, that
the last judgment cannot exist in the natural world, but may
exist in the spiritual world. That it also has existed there,
may be seen from the things related of it from sight, in the
former small work On the Last Judgment, n, 45 to 72, and,
will appear still further, from the particulars, about to be
related from sight, of the last judgment upon the Reformed.
He who attends, may also see it, from the new things which
are now revealed concerning heaven, the Word, and the church.
What man can draw such things from himself?

OF THE STATE OF THE WORLD AND OF THE CHURCH BEFORE
THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND AFTER IT.
8. THAT the last judgment has been accomplished in the
spiritual world, may appear from what has just been said:
nevertheless, in order to know anything of the state of the

6 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.
worid and the church before and after it, a thorough knowledge
of the following subjects is necessary.
I. What is understood by the former heaven and the former
land which passed away. Apoc. xxi. 1.
II. Who, and what manner of men, those in the former
heaven, and in the former land, were.
III. That before the last judgment was effected upon them,
much of the communication between heaven and the world,
therefore also between the Lord and the church, was intercepted.
IV. That after the last judgment the communication was
restored. V. That hence it is, that after the last judgment, and not
sooner, revelations were made for the new church.
VI. That the state of the world and of the church before
the last judgment was as evening and night, but after it, as
morning and day.
9. I. What is understood by the former heflven and the former
land which passed away, mentioned in the Apocalypse xxi., 1. The
former heaven, and the former land there mentioned, neither
mean a heaven visible to the eyes of men in the world,
and a land inhabited by men ; nor the former heaven, which is
the abode of all those, since the first creation, who have lived
well. But congregations of spirits are understood, who, be
tween heaven and hell, had made seeming heavens [tanquam
cselos] for themselves : and inasmuch as all spirits and angels
inhabit lands, as well as men, therefore, by the former heaven
and the former land, these seeming heavens themselves are under
stood. The passing away of that heaven and that land was a
thing seen, and it has been described from sight in the work
On the Last Judgment, n. 46 to 72.
10. II, Who, and what manner of men, those in the former
heaven, and in the former land, were, was described in the work
On the Last Judgment ; but inasmuch as on a knowledge of
this subject, depends the understanding of what follows, who
and what they were, shall again be told. All those who gathered
themselves together underneath heaven, and in various places
formed seeming heavens for themselves, and also called them
heavens, were conjoined with the angels of the ultimate heaven,
but only as to externals, not as to internals. For the most part
they were the goats and those akin to them, who are named in
Matthew xxv. 41 to 46 ; who, indeed, in the world had not
done evils, for, morally, they had lived well ; but they had not
done goods from a good origin, for they had separated faith
from charity, and hence, had not regarded evils as sins. Now,
because in externals they had lived as Christians, they were

CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 7
conjoined with the angels of the ultimate heaven, who were
like them in externals, but unlike them in internals ; they be
ing the sheep, and in faith, yet in the faith of charity. On
account of this conjuntion they were necessarily tolerated ; for
the act of separating them, before the last judgment, would
have brought ruin upon those who were in the ultimate heaven,
who would have been drawn into destruction with them. This
is what the Lord foretold in Matthew : " Jesus spake a parable;
" the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a man who sowed good
" seed in his field : but while men slept, his enemy came, and
" sowed tares, and went away : when the blade was sprung up,
" and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also : so the
"servants of the householder coming, said unto him. Sir, didst
" not thou sow good seed in thy field ? Whence then are the tares ?
" Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up ? But he said,
'' Nay, lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the
" wheat with them : let both grow together until the harvest ; and
" in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers. Gather ye to-
" gether first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them ;
"but gather the wheat into my barn. He who hath sown the
" good seed, is the Son of Man ; the field is the world ; the seed
" are the sons of the kingdom; the tares are the sons of evil; the
"harvest is the consummation of the age: as therefore the tares
" are gathered together, and burned, so shall it be in the consumma-
" tion of the age," xiii. 24 to 30, 37 to 40 ; the consummation
of the age is the last time of the church ; the tares are those
who are inwardly evil ; the wheat are those who are inwardly
good ; the gathering the tares together to burn, is the last judg
ment upon the evil ; the care lest a separation before the last
judgment should bring ruin upon the good, is signified by " lest
in collecting the tares you should at the same time root up the
wheat with them : suffer them both to grow till the harvest.'
11. III. That before the last judgment was effected upon them,
much of the communication between heaven and thev)orld, therefore
between the Lord and the church, was intercepted. All enlighten
ment comes to man from the Lord through heaven, and enters
by an internal way. So long as there were congregations of
such spirits between heaven and the world, or between the Lord
and the church, man was unable to be enlightened. It was as
when a sunbeam is cut off by a black interposing cloud, or
as when the. sun is eclipsed, and its light arrested, by the
interjacent moon. Wherefore, if any thing had been then re
vealed by the Lord, either it would not have been understood,
or if understood, still it would not have been received, or if
received, still it would afterwards have been suffocated. Now

8 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.
since all these interposing congregations were dissipated by the
last judgment, it is plain, IV. That the communication between
heaven and the world, or between the Lord and the church, has
been restored.
12. V. Hence it is, that after the last judgment, and not
sooner, revelations were made for the New Church. For since
communication has been restored by the last judgment, man is
able to be enlightened and reformed ; that is, to understand the
Divine Truth of the Word, to receive it when understood, and
to retain it when received, for the interposing obstacles are re
moved ; and therefore John, after the former heaven and the for
mer land passed away, said that he " saw a new heaven and a
" new land, and then, the holy city Jerusalem, descending from
" God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her hus-
" band ; and heard One sitting upon the throne, say. Behold
" I make all things new." Apoc. xxi. 1, 2, 6. That the church
is understood by Jerusalem may be seen in the Doctrine con
cerning THE Lord, n. 62 to 64. Concerning its new revela
tions see n. 65 of the same work.
13, VI. That the state of the world and of the church before
the last judgment was as evening and night, but after it, as morning
and day. When the light of truth does not appear, there is a
state of the church in the world like evening and night ; (that
there was such a state before the last judgment, may appear
from what is said in n. 11); but when the light of truth appears,
and the truth is received, there is a state of the church m the
world like morning and day. Hence it is, that these two states
of the church are called evening and morning, and night and
day, in the Word ; as in the following passages : " The Holy One
" said unto me. Until the evening (and) the morning {be) two thou-
" sand three hundred; then the holy thing shall be justified," Dan.
viii. 14. " The vision of the evening and the morning is truth,"
Dan. viii. 26. " There shall be one day, which is known to Je-
" hovah, neither day nor night, for about the time of evening there
" shall be light," Zech. xiv. 7. " One crying unto me out of Seir,
" Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said. The mom-
" ing eometh, and also the night," Isaiah xxi. 11, 12. Concerning
the last time of the church, Jesus said, " Watch, for ye know
" not when the Lord of the house will come, whether at evening,
" at midnight, at cock-crowing, or in the morning," Mark xin.
36. " Jesus said, I must work while it is day ; the night eometh,
"when no one can work," John ix. 4; and elsewhere, as in
Isaiah xvii. 14. Jer. vi. 4, 6. Psalm xxx. 6. Psalm Ixv. 9.
Psalm xc. 6. Since such things are understood by evening and
morning, therefore the Lord, in order to fulfil the Word, also
was buried in the evening and rose again in the morning.

continuation of the last judgment.

OF THE LAST JUDGMENT UPON THE REFORMED.
14. The former work On the Last Judgment treated of
the judgment upon those who are understood by the Babylon ;
and somewhat of the judgment upon the Mahometans, and
upon the Gentiles; but not of the judgment upon the Reformed.
It was said only, that the Reformed were in the middle, ar
ranged there according to countries ; the Papists around them ;
the Mahometans around the Papists, and the Gentiles, and
peoples of various religions in the circumferences. The Re
formed constituted the middle, or central region, because they
read the Word, and worshipped the Lord, and hence had the
greatest light : and spiritual light, proceeding from the Lord as
a sun, which sun in its essence is Divine Love, extends itself
in all possible directions, and enlightens even those who are in
the extreme circumierences, opening in them the faculty of un
derstanding truths, in as far as their religions allow them to be
receptive. For spiritual light in its essence is Divine Wisdom,
and it enters the intellect in man, in as far as, from knowledges
received, he has the faculty of perceiving it; and does not
pass through spaces, like the light of the world, but through
the affections and perceptions of truth, therefore, in an instant,
to the last limits of the heavens. From these affections and per
ceptions, arise the appearances of spaces in the spiritual world.
On this subject much may be seen in The Doctrine con
cerning the Sacred Scripture, n. 104 to 113.
15. The last judgment upon the Reformed shall be described
in the following order.
I. Upon whom among the Reformed the last judgment
was effected.
II. Of the signs and visitations preceding the last judg
ment, III. How the universal judgment was effected.
IV. Of the salvation of the sheep.
16. I. Upon whom among the Reformed the last judgment
was effected. The last judgment was effected upon those only
of the Reformed, who professed a belief in God, read the Word,
heard sermons, partook of the sacrament of the supper, and did
not neglect the solemnities of church-worship, in the world ;
and yet thought that adulteries, various kinds of theft, lying,
revenge, hatred, and the like, were allowable. These, although
they professed a belief in God, still made no account of sins
against Him ; though they read the Word, still they made no

10 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.
account of the precepts of life in it ; though they heard ser
mons, still they paid no attention to them ; though they par
took of the sacrament of the supper, still they desisted not
from the evils of their former lives; and though they did not
neglect the solemnities of worship, still they amended their
lives in nothing. Thus they lived as if from rehgion m their
externals, yet were totally destitute of it in their internals.
These are they who are understood by the Dragon in the Apo
calypse xii. ; for it is there said of the Dragon, that it was
seen in heaven, that it fought with Michael in heaven, and that
it drew down the third part of the stars from heaven ; which
things are said, because these spirits, by means of the profes
sion of a belief in God, by reading the Word, and by outward
worship, communicated with heaven. These same spirits are
understood by the goats in Matthew xxiv. ; to whom it is not
said that they did evils, but that they omitted to do goods;
and all such omit to do goods which are goods, because they
do not shun evils as sins, and, because, although they do not
commit them, they think them allowable, and therefore com
mit them in spirit, and in body, too, when they can.
17, Upon all such among the Reformed the last judgment
was effected, but not upon those, who did not believe in God,
who contemned the Word, and rejected from their hearts the
holy things of the church, for all these, so soon as ever they
went from the natural into the spiritual world, were cast into
hell. 18. All who lived like Christians in externals, and made no
account of a Christian life, were outwardly in unity with the
heavens, but inwardly with the hells, and since they could not
be torn away instantaneously from their conjunction with hea
ven, they were detained in the world of spirits, which is mediate
between heaven and hell, and it was there permitted them to
form societies, and to live together as in the world ; and by
arts unknown in the world, to cause splendid appearances, and
by this means to persuade themselves and others, that they were
in heaven ; from the outward appearance, therefore, they called
their societies heavens. The heavens and the lands in which
they dwelt, are understood by the former heaven, and the
former land which passed away, Apoc. xxi. 1.
19. In the meantime, so long as they remained there, the
interiors of their minds were closed over, and the exteriors
were opened ; by which means, their evils, which united them
with the hells, were not apparent. But on the approach of the
last judgment, their interiors were unclosed, and they then
appeared before all, such as they really were ; and since they

CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 11
then acted in unity with the hells, they were no longer able to
simulate Christian lives, but rushed with delight into evils and
crimes of every description, and were turned into devils, and,
moreover, were seen as such, some black, some fiery, and some
livid like corpses ; those who were in the pride of self-intelligence,
appearing black ; those who were in the furious love of ruling
over all, appearing fiery ; and those who were in the neglect and
contempt of truth, appearing livid like corpses. Thus were the
scenes of those theatres changed.
20. The Reformed constitute the inmost part or middle re
gion of the world of spirits, which is mediate between heaven
and hell, and are there arranged according to countries. In the
centre of this middle region are the English ; towards the south
and the east of it are the Dutch ; towards the north, the Ger
mans ; towards the west and the north, the Swedes ; and to
wards the west, the Danes. But those only, who have led
lives of charity and its faith, are in that middle region : many
societies of them dwell there. Surrounding them are those
of the Reformed, who have not led lives of faith and charity :
these are they who made seeming heavens to themselves. But
there is a different arrangement of all in heaven, as well as of
all in hell. The reason why the Reformed constitute the middle
is, because the Word is read, and the Lord is worshipped among
them, in consequence of which, the light is greatest where they
are; and thence, as from a centre, this light is propagated to,
and enlightens, all the circumferences. For the light in which
spirits and angels are, proceeds from the Lord as a Sun, and
this Sun, in its essence, is Divine Love, and the light which
proceeds from it, in its essence, is Divine Wisdom: all the
spirituality [omne spirituale] of that world is derived from it.
Concerning the Lord, as the Sun of the spiritual world, and
concerning the light and heat of that Sun, see the work on
Heaven and Hell, n. 116 to l40.
21. Every arrangement of the societies in that world, is an
arrangement according to the differences of love ; the reason of
which is, that love is the life of man, and the Lord, Who is
Divine Love Itself, arranges them according to receptions of it ;
and the differences of loves are innumerable, and known to
no one, but the Lord alone. He so conjoins the societies, that
they all lead, as it were, one life of man ; the societies of the
heavens, one life of celestial and spiritual love ; the societies of
the hells, one life of diabolical and infernal love ; the heavens
and the hells He conjoins by oppositions. On account of this
arrangement, every man, after death, goes into the society of
his own love, and cannot go into any other, for his love opposes

12 CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.
it. Hence it is, that they who are in spiritual love are in hea
ven, but that they who are in mere natural love are in hell.
Spiritual love is entirely and only implanted [unice inditur] by
a life of charity, and natural love remains natural, if a life of
charity is omitted ; and natural love, if it is not subjected to
spiritual love, is opposed to it.
22. From these particulars it may appear, upon whom of the
Reformed, the last judgment was effected ; — that it was not
upon those who were in the centre, but upon those who were
around it : whose external morality, as was said above, gave them
the outward appearance of Christians, while inwardly they were
not Christians, because they were destitute of spiritual life.
23. Of the signs and visitations preceding the last judgment.
There was seen, as it were a stormy cloud upon those who had
formed to themselves seeming heavens, which appearance re
sulted from the presence of the Lord in the angelic heavens
above them, especially from His presence in the ultimate hea
ven, lest any of the angels of that heaven, in consequence of
conjunction with these spirits, should be carried away, and
perish with them. The superior heavens moreover were brought
down nearer to them, by means of which, the interiors of those
upon whom the judgment was about to come were disclosed ; on
which disclosure, they appeared no longer like moral Christians,
as before, but like demons ; in tumults, and in mutual strife,
about God, the Lord, the Word, faith, and the church ; and
because their concupiscences to evils were then let loose, they
rejected all these subjects with contempt and ridicule, and
rushed into every kind of enormity. Thus the state of those
heavenly inhabitants was changed. Then at the same time, all
their splendid appearances, which they had made to themselves
by arts unknown in the world, vanished away ; their palaces
were turned into vile huts ; their gardens into stagnant pools ;
their temples into heaps of rubbish ; and the very hills they in
habited into mounds of gravel, and into other similar things,
which corresponded to their depraved dispositions and lusts.
For all the visible things of the spiritual world, are the corres
pondences of the affections of spirits and angels. These vcere
the signs of the coming judgment.
24. As the disclosure of the interiors increased, so the order
among the inhabitants was changed and inverted. Those who
were most potent in reasonings against the holy things of the
church, rushed into the middle, and assumed the dominion ;
and the rest, who were less potent in reasonings, receded to
the circumferences, and acknowledged those who were in the
middle, as their tutor-angels. Thus they banded themselves
into the form (facies) of hell.

CONTINUATION OF THE LAST JUDGMENT. 13
25. These changes of their state were accompanied by va
rious concussions of their dwelhngs and lands; which were fol
lowed by earthquakes, mighty according to their perversities.
Here and there, too, gaps were made towards the hells which
were under them, and a communication was thus opened with
these hells : there were then seen exhalations ascending, as of
smoke mingled with sparks of fire. These also were signs
which preceded, and they are understood by the Lord's words
on the consummation of the age, and afterwards on the last
judgment, in the Evangelists, " Nation shall be stirred up against
"nation; there shall be great earthquakes in divers places ; signs
" also from heaven, terrible and great. And there shall be distress
" of nations, the sea and the salt water roaring."
26. Visitations also were made by angels ; for before any
ill-constituted [male sarta] society perishes, visitation always
precedes. The angels exhorted them to desist, and denounced
destruction upon them if they did not. At the same time they
sought out, and separated, any good spirits who were inter
mingled with them. But the multitude, excited by their leaders,
reviled the angels, and rushed in upon them, for the purpose of
dragging them into some public place, and treating them in an
abominable manner ; just indeed as was done in Sodom. The
most of these spirits were professors of faith separated from
charity ; and there were even some among them, who professed
charity, and yet led wicked lives.
27. III. How the universal judgment was effected. Since
the visitations and premonitory signs of the coming judgment
could not deter their minds from abominable practices, and from
seditious plottings against those who acknowledged the Lord as
the God of heaven and earth, held the Word sacred, and led a
life of charity, therefore the last judgment came upon them. It
was thus effected.
28. The Lord was seen in a bright cloud with angels, and a
sound as of trumpets was heard from it ; which was a sign re
presentative of the protection of the angels of heaven by the
Lord, and of the gathering of the good from every quarter.
For the Lord does not bring destruction upon any, but only
protects his own, and draws them away from communication
with the wicked ; whereupon, the wicked come into their own
concupiscences, by which they are impelled into every kind of
abomination. Then all who were about to perish, were seen
together in the likeness of a great dragon, with its tail extended
in a curve, and elevated towards heaven, bending itself about
on high in various directions, as though it would destroy hea,-
ven, and draw it down : but the attempt was vain, for the tail

14 continuation of the last judgment.
was cast down, and the dragon, which also appeared elevated,
sank beneath. It was granted me to see this representation,
that I might know and make known who are understood by
the dragon in the Apocalypse; namely, that the dragon
means all who read the Word, hear sermons, and perform the
rites of the church, making no account of the concupiscences
of evil which beset them, and inwardly meditating thefts and
frauds, adulteries and obscenities, hatred and revenge, lies and
blasphemies ; and who thus live like devils in spirit, and like
angels in body. These constituted the body of the dragon, but
the tail was composed of those who, when in the world, lived
in faith separated from charity, and were like the former in re
gard to thoughts and intentions.
29. Then I saw some of the rocks they inhabited subsiding
to the lowest depths [ima] ; some transported to a great dis
tance ; some cleft in the middle, and those who were on them
cast down through the openings ; and others inundated as with a
deluge. And I saw many spirits collected into companies, as
into bundles, according to the genera and species of evil, and
cast hither and thither into whirlpools, marshes, stagnant
waters, and deserts, which were so many hells. The rest who
were not on rocks, but scattered here and there, and who yet
were in similar evils, fled affrighted to the Papists, Maho
metans, and Gentiles, and professed their religions, which they
could do without any disturbance of mind, inasmuch as they
themselves had no religion at all ; but still, lest they should
seduce these spirits also, they were driven away, and thrust
down to their own companions in the hells. This is a general de
scription of their destruction ; the particulars, I saw, are too nu
merous to be here described.
30. Of the salvation of the sheep. After the last judgment
was accomplished, there was then joy in heaven, and also hght
in the world of spirits, such as was not before. The kind of
joy there was in heaven, after the dragon was cast down, is
described in the Apocalypse xii. 10, 11,12; and there was
light in the world of spirits, because the infernal societies which
were removed, had been interposed, like clouds which darken
the earth. A similar light also then arose in men in the world,
giving them new enlightenment.
31. I then saw angelic spirits, in great numbers, rising from
below, [ex Inferis] and elevated into heaven. They were the
sheep, there reserved, and guarded by the Lord for ages back,
lest they should come into the malignant sphere of the influ
ence of the dragonists, and their charity be suffocated. These
are they, who are understood in the Word, by those who went

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 15
forth from the sepulchres ; also, by the souls of those slain for
the testimony of Jesus, who were watching ; and by those who
are of the first resurrection.

A CONTINUATION

CONCERNING

THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.

OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD,

32. THE spiritual world has been treated of in a special work
on Heaven and Hell, in which many particulars of that
world are described; and since every man enters that world
after death, his state then, is also described there. It has been
commonly known, that man will live after death, because he is
born a man, and created in the image of God, and because the
Lord, in His Word, teaches it ; but the manner of his future
life has hitherto been unknown. It has been believed that he
was then a soul, of which the only idea conceived was, that it
resembled air, or ether, with some cogitativeness residing in it,
and without such sight as belongs to the eye, without such
hearing as belongs to the ear, and without such speech as be
longs to the mouth. And yet man is equally a man after death ;
and so much a man, that he knows no other than that he is
still in the former world ; he sees, hears, and speaks, as in the
former world ; he walks, runs, and sits, as in the former world;
he eats and drinks, as in the former world ; he sleeps and
awakens, as in the former world ; he enjoys the conjugial de
light, as in the former world ; in a word, is a man, in the gene
ral, and in every particular ; from which it is plain, that death
is but a continuation of life, and a mere transit.
33. There are many causes of man's ignorance of this, his
state after death ; one of which is, that he could not be en
lightened, so little faith had he in the immortality of the soul ;
as may appear from many, even of the learned, who believe
themselves to be similar to beasts, and only more perfect than

16 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
they, in having the faculty of speech; thus denying the life
after death in their hearts, although they admit it with their
mouths. This way of thinking of theirs has made them so
sensual, that they cannot believe that a mari is a man after
death, because they do not see him with their eyes, for they
say, how can a soul be a man? It is not so with those who
beUeve they will live after death ; their interior thought is, that
they shall go to heaven, enjoy delights with the angels, see
heavenly paradises, and stand before the Lord in white gar
ments, besides other things. This is their interior thought ;
their exterior thought may possibly wander from it, when they
think of the soul, from the hypothesis of the learned.
34. That a man is equally a man after death, although he
is not apparent to the eyes, may appear from the angels seen
by Abraham, by Gideon, by Daniel, and other prophets ; from
the angels seen in the Lord's sepulchre, and afterwards, often
times, by John in the Apocalypse; especially from the Lord
Himself, who showed his disciples that He was a man, by
touch, and by eating, and yet became invisible to their eyes.
The reason why they saw Him was, because the eyes of their
spirits were then opened ; and when these eyes are opened, the
things in the spiritual world appear as clearly as the things in
the natural world.
36. Since it has pleased the Lord to open for me the eyes of
my spirit, and to keep them open now for nineteen years, it has
been given me to see the things which are in the spiritual world,
as well as to describe them. I can asseverate, that they are
not visions, but things seen in all wakefulness,
36. The difference between a man in the natural world, and
a man in the spiritual world, is, that the one man is clothed in
a spiritual body, but the other in a natural body ; and the spi
ritual man sees the spiritual man, as clearly as the natural man
sees the natural man ; but the natural man cannot see the spi
ritual man, and the spiritual man cannot see the natural man,
on account of the difference between natural and spiritual;
what kind of difference this is, may be described, but not in a
few words.
37. From the visual experience of so many years, I am
enabled to relate the following : that there are lands in the spi
ritual world, just as in the natural world; and that there are
hills and mountains, and plains and vallies, also fountains and
rivers, lakes and seas; that there are paradises and gardens,
and groves and woods, and palaces and houses ; also that there
are writings and books, professions and trades ; and that there
are precious stones, gold and silver ; in short, that there are all

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 17
the things, in general and in particular, which exist in the na
tural world, and that these things are infinitely more perfect in
the heavens.
38. But the difference in general is this ; that all things in
the spiritual world, are from a spiritual origin, and hence, as to
their essence, are spiritual, for they are from the sun there,
which is pure love ; and that all things in the natural world, are
from a natural origin, and hence, as to their essence, are natural,
for they are from the sun there, which is pure fire. Hence it is,
that the spiritual man must be nourished with food from a spi
ritual origin, as the natural man is, with food from a natural
origin. More may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell.

OF THE ENGLISH IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
39. THERE are two states of thought in man, an external
and an internal state ; man is in the external state in the natural
world ; in the internal state in the spiritual world : these states
with the good, are united, but not with the wicked. What
a man is, as regards his internal state, is rarely manifest in the
natural world, because, from his infancy, he has chosen to be
moral, and has learned to seem. But what he is, clearly ap
pears in the spiritual world, for spiritual light reveals it, and
besides, man is then a spirit, and the spirit is the internal man.
Now, since it has been given me to be in that light, and from
it, to see what the internal is, in the men of various kingdoms,
by an intercourse of many years with angels and spirits, it be
hoves me, from the importance of the subject, to declare what
I have seen. I shall here confine myself to saying something
of the noble English nation.
40. The more excellent of the English nation, are in the
centre of all Christians, (see above, n. 20.), and the reason why
they are in the centre is, because they have interior intellectual
light. This is not apparent to any one in the natural world,
yet it is conspicuously so in the spiritual world. This light,
they derive from the liberty they enjoy of thinking, and thence
of speaking and of writing. Among the people of other na
tions, who have jiot such liberty, intellectual light is buried,
because it has no outlet. This light, however, of itself, is not
active, but is rendered active by others, especially by men of
reputation and authority among them. As soon as any thing
is said by these men, or as soon as any thing they approve, is
read, that light shines forth ; and seldom sooner. On this ac
count the English have governors placed over them in the

18 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
spiritual world, and priests of great name for learning and
powerful ability given them, whose commands and monitions,
from this their natural disposition, they cheerfully obey.
41. They rarely go out of their own society, because they
love it, even as, in the world, they love their country. More
over, there is a similarity of disposition among them, in conse
quence of which, they contract intimacy with friends of their
own country, and seldom with others : and they mutually
minister to each others wants, and love sincerity,
42, There are two great cities similar to London, into
which many of the English enter after death : these cities, it
was given me to see, as well as to walk through. The middle
of the one city answers to that part of the English London,
where there is a meeting of merchants, called the Exchange ;
there dwell the governors. Above that middle is the east ;
below it is the west ; on the right side of it is the south ; on
the left side of it is the north. They who pre-eminently have
led a life of charity, dwell in the eastern quarter, where there
are magnificent palaces. The wise, among whom there is
much splendor, dwell in the southern quarter. They who fore-
mostly love the liberty of speaking and of writing, dwell in
the northern quarter. They who make profession of faith,
dwell in the western quarter ; to the -right in this quarter, there
is an entrance into, and an exit from the city ; they who live
wickedly are there sent out of it. The priests, who are in the
west, and profess faith (as was said above), dare not enter the
city through the broad ways, but only through the narrow
streets, because they who are in the faith of charity, are the
only inhabitants who are tolerated in the city. I have heard
persons complaining, that the preachers in the west make up
their discourses with such mingled art and eloquence, inter
weaving the strange doctrine of justification by faith, that they
leave it doubtful whether good is to be done or not; they
preach intrinsic good, and separate it from extrinsic good,
which they sometimes say is meritorious, and therefore not ac
ceptable to God ; yet still they call it good, because it is use
ful. But when those who dwell in the eastern and southern
quarters, hear such mystical discourses, they walk out of the
churches, and the preachers are afterward^ deprived of the
priestly office.
43. The other great city similar to London, is not in the
Christian centre, (see n. 20) but lies beyond it in the north.
They who are inwardly wicked, enter it after death. In the
middle of it there is an open communication with hell, by
which the inhabitants are absorbed in their turns.

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 19
44. I once heard some of the English clergy conversing
together concerning faith alone, and I saw them form a cer
tain image, which represented solitary faith. It appeared in
obscure lumen like a great giant, and in their eyes like a hand
some man; but when the light of heaven was let in upon it,
the upper part of it appeared like a monster, and the lower like
a serpent, not unlike the description which is given of Dagon,
the idol of the Philistines. When they saw this, they left it,
and the bystanders cast it into a stagnant pond.
45. It was perceptible to me, from those of the English who are
in the spiritual world, that this nation has, as it were, a twofold
theology, derived on the one hand, from the doctrine of faith,
and on the other, from the doctrine of life ; from the doctrine
of faith, with those who are initiated into the priesthood : from
the doctrine of life, with those who are not initiated into the
priesthood, and who are commonly called the laity. This doc
trine of life is avowed in an exhortation which is read in the
churches on certain Sabbath-days, to those who take the sacra
ment of the supper ; and it is there openly declared, that if they
do not shun evils as sins, they cast themselves into eternal
damnation, and that if they then attend the holy communion,
the devil will enter into them, as he entered into Judas. I have
sometimes told the clergy, that this doctrine of life does not
agree with their doctrine of faith : they made no reply, but en
tertained thoughts they dared not utter. You may see that ex
hortation in THE Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem,
n, 5, 6, 7.
46. I have often seen a certain Englishman, who became
celebrated by a book he published some years ago, in which he
attempted to establish the doctrine of a, conjunction of faith and
( harity, by an influx, and interior operation of the Holy Spirit.
He gave out, that this influx affected man in an inexpressible
manner, and without his being conscious of it, but did not
touch, much less manifestly move his will, or excite his thought,
to, do anything as of himself, except permissively ; the reason
being, that nothing of man might enter into union with the
Divine Providence; also, that thus evils might not appear in
the sight of God. He therefore excluded the external exercises
of charity fi:om having any concern in salvation, but admitted
them for the sake of the public good. Since his arguments were
ingenious, and the snake in the grass was not seen, his book was
received as most orthodox. This author retained the same
dogma after his departure from the world, nor could he recede
from it, because it was confirmed in him. The angels con
versed with him, and told him, that his dogma was not truth.

20 continuation of the spiritual world.
but mere ingeniosity, aided by eloquence, and that the truth
is, that man ought to shun evil, and do good, as from himself,
yet with an acknowledgment, that it is from the Lord, and
that there is no faith before this is done, — still less, they said,
is the mere thought, faith, which is called so. And since this
was opposed to his dogma, it was permitted him, of his own saga
city, to enquire further, whether any such unknown influx, and
internal operation, apart from the external operation of man, is
possible. He was then seen to strain his mind, and to wander
about (pervagari vias) in thought, always in the persuasion,
that man was no otherwise renewed and saved ; but as often
as he came to the end of his journey, his eyes were opened,
and he saw that he was wandering, and even confessed it to
those who were present. I saw him wandering thus for two
years, and in the end of his journeyings, / heard him confess,
that no such influx is given, unless evil in the external man
be removed, which is effected by shunning evils as sins, as if
from one's self ; and I heard him at length declaring, that all
who confirm themselves in that heresy, will be insane from the
pride of self-intelligence.
47. I have conversed with Melancthon, and questioned him
concerning his state ; but he was not willing to make any
reply : wherefore, I was informed of his lot by others. They
told me, that he is in a fretted stone chamber, and in hell,
alternately, and that, in his chamber, he appears clad in a
bear's skin on account of the cold, and that such is the filth
there, that he does not admit those visitors from the world,
whom the repute of his name inspires with a desire of seeing
him. He still speaks of faith alone, which, in the world, he
was foremost in establishing.

OF THE DUTCH IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
48. IT was said above, n. 20, that Christians, among whom
the Word is read, and the Lord worshipped, are in the middle
of the whole spiritual circle of nations and peoples, because
spiritual light is greatest among them, and thence, as from a
centre, is propagated to, and enlightens, all, even the remotest
circumferences : in accordance with what has been said in the
Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred
Scripture, n. 104 to 113. In this middle, the Reformed
Christians have places allotted them, according to their recep
tion of spiritual light from the Lord ; and since among the
English that light is treasured up in the intellectual part, they,

continuation of the spiritual world. 21
therefore, are in the very centre of the middle region ; and since
the Dutch keep that light more nearly conjoined to natural
lumen, and hence, there is no such brightness of light apparent
among them, but in its place a certain opacity, which is recep
tive of rationality from spiritual light, and at the same time
from spiritual heat, they, therefore, in the Christian middle
region have obtained dwellings in the east, and in the south ;
in the east, from the faculty of receiving spiritual heat, which
in them is charity, and in the south, from the faculty of re
ceiving spiritual light, which in them is faith. That the quarters
in the spiritual world are not like the quarters in the natural
world, and that dwellings according to quarters, are dwellings
according to the reception of faith and love, and that they
who excel m love and charity, are in the east, and they who
excel in intelligence and faith, are in the south, may be seen in
the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 141 to 153. Another
reason why the Dutch are in these quarters of the Christian
middle region is, that trade is their final love, and money is
the mediate subservient love, and such love is spiritual ; but
where money is the final love, and trade the mediate subservient
love, such love is natural, and originates in avarice. In the
before-mentioned spiritual love, which, regarded in itself, is the
common good, in which and from which is the good of country,
the Dutch excel other nations.
49. The Dutch adhere more firmly than others to the prin
ciples of their religion, and do not give them up, and if they
are convinced that one or the other of them is erroneous, still,
they do not confess it, but relapse into their former opinion, and
remain where they were : thus they remove themselves from an
interior intuition of truth, by keeping their reason under obe
dience on spiritual subjects. In consequence of this their na
ture, when they enter the spiritual world after death, they are
prepared for receiving the Spiritual of heaven, which is Divine
Truth, quite differently from other nations. They are not taught,
because they are not receptive of instruction, but what hea
ven is, is described to them, and afterwards it is granted them
to ascend there, and to see it, and then, whatever agrees with
their genius is infused into them, which being done, they are
sent down, and return to their companions, with a strong
desire for heaven. If then they do not receive this truth, that
God is One in Person, and in Essence, and that that God is
the Lord, and that in Him is the Trinity ; and also this truth,
that faith and charity as matters of knowledge and discourse,
are of no avail, apart from the life of faith and charity, and that
faith and charity are given by the Lord, when evils are avoided

22 continuation op the spiritual world.
as sins ; — if when they are taught these truths, they turn them
selves away, and still think of God, as existing in three persons,
and of religion, merely that there is such a thing, they are re
duced to misery, and their trade is taken away, until they are
brought to the greatest extremities. They are then led to those
who have abundance of everything, and a flourishing trade, and
when there, it is insinuated into them from heaven, to think of
the reason of their own condition, and at the same time, to
reflect on the faith of these persons concerning the Lord, and
upon their life, — in that they shun evils as sins. In a little time
they make enquiries, and perceive an agreement of what they
hear, with their own thought and reflection : this is done re
peatedly. At length, they think of themselves, that in order
to be relieved from their miseries, they must believe, and do the
same. Then, as they receive that faith, and live that life of
charity, opulence and joyousness of life are conferred upon them.
In this manner, those of them, who have led anything of a
life of charity in the world, are amended by themselves, and
not by others, and are prepared for heaven. They afterwards
become more constant than others, so that they may be fitly
called constancies ; and they do not allow themselves to be led
away by any reasoning, or fallacy, or obscurity brought on
by sophistries, or by any preposterous view, deduced from
mere confirmatory appearances.
60. The Dutch are easily distinguished from others in the
spiritual World, because they appear in the same kind of gar
ments as in the natural world, excepting, that the dress is
neater among those who have received faith and spiritual
life. They appear in similar garments, because they remain
steadfastly in the principles of their own religion ; and all in
the spiritual world, are clothed according to their religious
principles ; whence it is, that they who are in Divine Truths,
have garments of white and of fine linen.
61. The cities which the Dutch inhabit, are guarded in a
peculiar manner, all their streets being covered in, and provided
with gates, in order that they may not be overlooked from the
surrounding rocks and hills. This the inhabitants do, from
their inherent prudence in concealing their designs, and not
divulging their intentions ; for these things in the spiritual
world, are pourtrayed by inspection. If any one enters a city
with the animus of exploring their state, when he is about de
parting, he is led to the closed gates of the streets, backwards
and forwards from one to another, and this, to the most wea
risome extent, and he is then let out : all this being done, to
prevent him from returning. Wives who affect authority over

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 23
their husbands, dwell on one side of the city, and only meet
them by invitation, given formally; and the husbands then
lead them to houses, where married pairs are living, without
there being any dominion of the one over the other, and show
them how ornamental and how neat their houses are, and
how joyous their life is, and that these are the results of mu
tual and conjugial love. Those wives who attend to, and are
affected with these things, eease to domineer, and they live
with their husbands, and they then obtain a dwelling nearer to
the middle, and are called angels. The reason is, that con
jugial love is a celestial love, which is free from imperiousness.
53. In the days of the last judgment, I saw many thousands
of that nation, cast out of the cities in the spiritual world, and
out of the villages, and surrounding country. They were those,
who, when in the world, had done nothing of good from any
religion or conscience, but merely to preserve reputation, that
they might appear sincere for the sake of gain ; for such per
sons, when they no longer have the prospect of fame and gain,
as is the case in the spiritual world, then rush into every abom
ination ; and when they are in the fields, and without the
cities, they rob every one they encounter. I saw them cast
into a fiery gulf stretching under the eastern tract, and into a
dark cavern stretching under the southern tract. This I saw
on the 9th day of January, 1757. Those only were left, among
whom there was religion, and a conscience derived from religion.
54. I have spoken, but only once, with Calvin ; he was in a
society of heaven, which appears in front, above the head ;
and he said, that he did not agree with Luther and Melanc
thon, about faith alone, because works are so often named in
the Word, and the doing of them'commanded, and that, there
fore, faith and works ought to be conjoined. I was told by
one of the governors of that society, that Calvin was accepted
in his society, because he was honest (probus), and made no
disturbance. 55. What Luther's lot is, shall be told elsewhere, for I have
often seen and heard him. Here, I shall only say, that he has
often wished to recede from his faith alone, but in vain ; and
that therefore, he is still in the world of spirits, which is me
diate between heaven and hell ; where he sometimes undergoes
great sufferings.

24 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.

OF THE PAPISTS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
56. THE Papists, and the last judgment upon them, were
treated of in the small work On the Last Judgment, n. 63
to 64. The Papists in the spiritual world appear encircling the
Reformed, and are separated from them by an interval, which
they are not permitted to pass. Nevertheless, those, who are
of the order of Jesuits, contrive, by clandestine arts, to com
municate with them, and send out emissaries, too, by unknown
paths, for the purpose of seducing them. But they are dis
covered, and after being punished, they are either sent back
to their companions, or are cast into hell.
57. After the last judgment, their state was so changed,
that they were not allowed to gather together in companies, as
they had done ; but ways were appointed to every love, both
good and evil, which those who come from the world, immedi
ately enter, and go to a society correspondent to their love.
Thus the wicked are borne away to a society in conjunction with
the hells, and the good to a society in conjunction with the
heavens; and, in this manner, the future formation of artificial
heavens, is provided against. Such societies in the world of
spirits, which is mediate between heaven and hell, are innume
rable ; being as many, as there are genera and species of good
and evil affections : and in the meantime, before spirits are
either elevated into heaven, or cast down into hell, they are in
spiritual conjunction with men in the world, because they, too,
are in the midst between heaven and hell.
58. All those of the Papists, who have not been complete
idolaters, and who, from their religious principles, have per
formed good works, out of a sincere heart, and have looked
to the Lord, are led to societies which are instituted in the con
fines nearest to the Reformed, and are instructed there, the
Word being read, and the Lord preached to them, and they who
receive truths, and apply them to life, are elevated into heaven,
and are made angels. There are many such societies of them in
every quarter, and they are guarded on all sides from the
treacheries and cunning devices of the monks, and from the
Babylonish leaven. Moreover, all their infants are in heaven,
because, being educated by the angels under the guidance of the
Lord, they know nothing of the falses of their parents religion.
59. All who go from the countries of the earth into the spi
ritual world, are at first kept in the confession of faith, and in
the religion of their country ; and so, therefore, are the Papists.
On this account, they always have some representative Pontiff

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 25
set over them, whom moreover they adore with the same cere
mony as in the world. Seldom does any Pope from the
world, act the Pontiff there; yet he who was Pope twenty
years ago, was appointed over the Papists, because he loved to
think, that the Word was more sacred than is believed, and that
the Lord ought to be worshipped. But, after filling the oflice
of Pope for some years, he abdicated it of his own accord, and
betook himself to the Reformed Christians, among whom he
still is, and enjoys a blessed life. It was granted me to speak
with him, and he said, that he adores the Lord alone, because
He is God, Who has power over heaven and earth, and that the
invocations of saints, and their masses, too, are absurdities ; and
that when he was in the world, he intended to restore his church,
but that for reasons, which he mentioned, he found it impossible
to do so. When the great northern city of the Papists was de
stroyed, on the day of the last judgment, I saw him carried
out of it on a couch, and taken to a place of safety. A widely
different event overtook his successor.
60. Here I am allowed to add a certain memorable circum
stance. It was granted me to speak with Louis the XIV.,
grandfather of the reigning King of France, who, whilst he
lived in the world, worshipped the Lord, read the Word, and
aknowledged the Pope only as the head of the church ; in con
sequence of which, he has great dignity in the spiritual world,
and governs the best society of the French nation. Once I
saw him as it were descending by ladders, and after he de
scended, I heard him saying, that he seemed to himself as if
at Versailles, and then there was silence for about half an
hour ; at the end of that time, he said, that he had spoken with
the King of France, his grandson, concerning the Bull Uni-
genitus, advising him to desist from his former design, and not
to accept it, because it was detrimental to the French nation ;
he said, that he insinuated this into his thought profoundly.
This happened in the year 1759, on the 13th day of December,
about eight o'clock in the evening.

OF THE POPISH SAINTS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD,
61. IT is known that man derives implanted or hereditary evil
from his parents, but in what it consists is known to few. It con
sists in the love of ruling, which is such, that in as far as the reins
are given it, in so far it bursts forth, until it even burns with
the lust of ruling over all, and at length of wishing to be in
voked and worshipped as God. This love is the serpent, which

26 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD,
deceived Eve and Adam, for it said to the woman, " God knows,
" that in the day ye eat of the fruit of the tree, your eyes shall be
" opened, and then ye shall be as God." Genesis iii. 4, 5.
In the same proportion therefore as man rushes with loosened
reins into this love, in the same proportion he averts himself
from God, and turns towards himself, and becomes an athe
ist ; and then the Divine Truths which belong to the Word,
may possibly serve as means, but inasmuch as dominion is the
end, the means are only loved in the ratio of their subserviency.
This is the cause, why those who are in the mediate and in the
ultimate degree of the love of ruling, are all in hell, for that
love is the devil there ; and in hell there are some of such a
nature, that they cannot bear to" hear any one mention God.
62. This love possesses those of the Papal nation, who have
been dominant from the stimulus of its delight, and have
despised the Word, and preferred before it the dictates of the
Pope. They are utterly devastated as regards externals, until
they no longer know any thing of the church, and then they
are cast down into hell and become devils. There is a certain
separate hell for those who wish to be invoked as Gods, where
such is their phantasy, that they do not see what is, but what is
not. Their delirium is of the kind which affects persons in a
malignant fever, who see things floating in the air, and in the
chamber, and on the covering of the bed, — things which are
not. This most dreadful evil, is understood by " the head of the
" serpent, which is bruised by the Seed of the woman, and which
" wounded His heel," Genesis iii. 15. The heel of the Lord, Who
is the Seed of the woman, is the Divine proceeding in ultimates,
which is the Word in the sense of the letter.
63, Because man's hereditary nature consists in the desire
of ruling, and of ruling, as the reins are loosened, successively
over more and more, and at length over all, and because the
wish to be invoked and worshipped as God, is the inmost of
this love of ruling, therefore all who have been canonized by the
Papal Bulls, are removed from the sight of others and hidden,
and are deprived of all intercourse with their worshippers. This
is done, lest that worst root of evils should be excited in them,
and they should be hurried into such phantastic deliriums, as
prevail in the above-mentioned hell. In such deliriums are those,
who, during their lives in the world, have studiously sought to
be made saints after death, for the purpose of being invoked.
64, Many of the Papal nation, especially the monks, when
they enter the spiritual world, seek the saints, each the saint of his
own order ; yet do not find them, and marvel that they do not ;
but are afterwards instructed by others, that their saints are

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 27
either intermingled with those who are in the heavens, or with
those who are in the hells, every one of them according to his
life in the world ; and that in whichsoever they be, they know
nothing of the worship and invocation which is paid them, and
that they who do know it, and wish to be invoked, are in that
separate and delirious hell. The worship of saints is such an
abomination in heaven, that the bare hearing of it causes
horror, because, in as far as worship is paid to any man, in so
far it is withheld from the Lord, for in this case He alone can
not be worshipped; and if the Lord is not alone worshipped,
a discrimination is made, which destroys communion, and the
felicity of life which flows from it.
65. That I might know, for the sake of informing others,
what manner of men the Popish saints are, as many as an hun
dred of them, who were aware of their canonization, were
brought up from the region below, [inferiori terri.] The greater
part ascended fi-om behind, and only a few in front, and I spoke
with one of them, who they said was Xavier. During our con
versation he was quite idiotic, yet he was able to tell me, that
in his place, where he remains confined, he is not so ; but that
. he becomes idiotic as often as he thinks himself a saint. I
heard the same thing murmured by those who were behind.
66. It is otherwise with the so-called saints who are in hea
ven : they are utterly ignorant of what is doing upon earth,
nor have I conversed with them, lest any idea of the matter
should enter their minds. On one occasion only, Mary, the
mother of the Lord, passed by, and appeared over head in white
raiment, and then, stopping awhile, she said, that she had been
the mother of the Lord, and that He was indeed born of her,
but that He became God, and put off all the human He derived
from her, and that therefore she now adores Him as her God,
and is unwilling that any one should acknowledge Him as her
son, because in Him all is Divine.
67. I shall here add a certain memorable circumstance.
A certain woman with glittering raiment and saint-like coun
tenance, occasionally appears in a middle altitude, to the Pa
risians who are associated in the spiritual world, and tells them
she is Genevieve. But as soon as any of them begin to wor
ship her, then instantly her countenance is changed, and her
raiment too, and she becomes like an ordinary woman, and
chides them for wishing to adore a female, who, among her
companions, is in no more repute than a servant-maid; and ex
presses her wonder that men in the world are caught by such ab
surdities. The angels said, that she appears, for the purpose o.
separating those who worship man, from those who worship the
Lord.

28 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.

OF THE MAHOMETANS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD; AND OF
MAHOMET.
68. THE Mahometans in the spiritual world appear behind the
Papists in the west, and form as it were a circle around them.
The principal reason why they appear in this situation is, be
cause they acknowledge the Lord as the grand Prophet, as the
Son of God, and the Wisest of all. Who was sent into the
world to instruct mankind. Every one, in that world, dwells at
a distance from the Christian centre, where the Reformed are,
according to his confession of the Lord, and of one God ; for
that confession conjoins the animus with heaven, and determines
distance from the east, above which the Lord is. They who, in
consequence of evil lives, do not from the heart make that con
fession, are in the hells beneath them.
69. Since religion constitutes man's inmost, and all else pro
ceeds from the inmost, and since Mahomet with Mahometans
is closely connected with religion, therefore some Mahomet is
always placed in their sight ; and in order that they may turn
their faces to the east, above which the Lord is, he is placed
beneath in the Christian centre. It is not the Mahomet
who wrote the Alcoran, but another who fills his office ; nor is
it always the same, but the person is changed. One Mahomet
was a native of Saxony, who had been taken by the Algerines,
and became a Mahometan ; and who, having been also a Chris
tian, was actuated to speak to the Mahometans concerning the
Lord, that He was not the Son of Joseph, as they believed in
the world, but the Son of God Himself, by which he insinuated
into them an idea of the unity of the Lord's Person and Essence
with the Father. To this Mahomet, others afterwards succeeded,
who were actuated to declare the same. By this means, many
of the Mahometans accede to a truly Christian faith concerning
the Lord, and they who do so accede, are carried to a society
nearer to the east, where it is granted them to communicate
with heaven, into which they are afterwards elevated. In the
place where the seat of that Mahomet is, there appears a flame,
as of a small torch, to distinguish him, but it is invisible to all
but Mahometans.
70. Mahomet himself, who wrote the Alcoran, is not to be
seen at the present day. I was told, that in early times he pre
sided over the Mahometans, but that he desired to domineer
over all things of their religion as a God, and that therefore he
was cast out of the seat he held beneath the Papists, and was
sent downwards, to the right side, near the south. Certain

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, 29
societies of Mahometans were once excited by evil spirits to
acknowledge Mahomet as their God. To quell the sedition
Mahomet was raised up from below [ex inferis], and shewn to
them, and I, too, then saw him. He appeared like corporeal
spirits, who have no interior perception, his face of a hue ap
proaching to black; and the only words I heard him say, were,
"I am your Mahomet;" and shortly afterwards, he subsided'
as it were, and returned to his place.
71. As regards their religion, it was permitted in its present
form, because of its agreement with the genius of the Orientals,
(on which account, too, it became the received religion of so
many kingdoms;) and because, at the same time, it made the
precepts of the Decalogue a matter of religion, and contained
some particulars of the Word, and, especially, because it ac
knowledged the Lord as the Son of God, and the Wisest of all.
And besides, it superseded the idolatries of many nations. The
reason why Mahomet was not made the means of opening to
his followers a more internal religion, was their polygamy,
which exhales uncleanness towards heaven ; for the marriage of
a husband with one wife, corresponds to the Marriage of the
Lord and the Church.
72. Many of the Mahometans are capable of receiving truth,
and of seeing justice in reasons, as I was enabled to observe,
from conversations with them in the spiritual world. I conversed
with them on the One God, on the Resurrection, and on Mar
riage. On the One God they said, that they do not compre
hend the Christians when speaking of the Trinity, and saying
that there are three persons, and that each person is God, and
still asserting that God is one. But I replied, that the angels
in the heaven which is composed of Christians, do not speak
thus, but say, that God is One in Essence and in Person, and
that in Him there is a Trine, and that men on earth call this
Trine three persons, and that this Trine is in the Lord. In con
firmation, I read before them out of Matthew and Luke, all
which is said of the conception of the Lord by God the Father,
as well as the passages in which the Lord Himself teaches, that
He and the Father are one. On hearing this, they had a per
ception of the truth, and said, that of consequence, the Divine
Essence belongs to Him, On the Resurrection they said,
that they do not comprehend Christians when they speak of the
state of man after death, making out that the soul is like wind
or air, and hence is deprived of all delight before its reunion
with the body at the day of the last judgment. But I replied,
that only some talk thus, but that they who are not of that
class believe they are to go to heaven after death, to speak

30 continuation of the spiritual world.
with the angels, and to enter upon the fruition of heavenly joy,
which they do not conceive to be dissimilar to their joy in the
world, although they do not describe it ; and I told them, that
at the present day, many particulars of the state after death
are revealed to Christians, which they did not know before.
On Marriage, I have had many conversations with them, and
have told them, among other things, that conjugial love is a
celestial love, which can only exist between two, and that a
conjunction with more wives than one, is incompatible with the
heavenliness of that love. They heard my reasons, and per
ceived their justice ; as also this, that polygamy was permitted
them, because they are Orientals, who without this permission
would have burned for foul adulteries more than Europeans, and
would thus have perished,
OF THE AFRICANS AND OF THE GENTILES IN THE SPIRITUAL
WORLD.
73. THOSE Gentiles, who have any knowledge concerning
the Lord, appear encircled by those who have none ; so that.
at length, the extreme circumferences are composed of those
only, who are complete idolaters, and have been adorers of
the sun and moon. But they who acknowledge one God, and
make precepts, like those of the Decalogue, a part of religion
and of life, are seen in a superior region, and thus, communicate
more immediately with the Christians in the centre ; the com
munication not being intercepted by the Mahometans and Pa
pists. The Gentiles, moreover, are distinguished according to
each one's genius and faculty of receiving light through the
heavens from the Lord ; for there are some of them who are
more internal, and some who are more external ; and these di
versities are not caused by their place of birth, but by their
religion. The Africans are more internal than the rest of the
Gentiles. 74. All who acknowledge and worship one God, the Creator
of the universe, entertain concerning Him, the idea of a Man :
they say, that concerning God, no one can possibly have any
other idea. When they hear, that many think of Him as of a
small cloud, they enquire where they are, and on being told
that they are among Christians, they deny the possibility of
it. But it is replied, that Christians have this idea, because
God in the Word is called a spirit, and of a spirit, they are
accustomed to think that it is like a particle of cloud, not know
ing, that every spirit and every angel is a man. Yet when
they were explored, to discover whether their spiritual and

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 31
natural idea were alike, it was found that they were not alike
with those, who inwardly acknowledge the Lord as the God of
heaven and earth. I heard a certain Christian minister declare,
that no one can have an idea of a Divine Human, and I savv
him led about to various Gentiles, in succession to those who
were more and more internal, and from them to their heavens,
and at length to the Christian heaven, and the interior percep
tion of all concerning God was communicated to him, and he
perceived that their idea of God was no other than the idea of
a Man, which is the same as the idea of a Divine Human,
76. There are many societies of Gentiles, especially from
among the Africans, who, on being instructed by the angels
concerning the Lord, say, that it is impossible but that God,
the Creator of the universe, should appear in the world, be
cause He created them, and loves them ; and that the appear
ance must be made before the very eyes in a Human Form.
When they are told, that He did not appear as the angels are
wont, but that He was born a Man, and thus became visible,
they hesitate awhile, and enquire, whether He was born from a
human father, and on hearing that He was conceived by the
God of the universe, and born of a virgin, they say, that the
Divine Essence of consequence belongs to Him, and, that in
asmuch as It is Infinite and Essential Life, He was not such a
man as others are. They are afterwards informed by the an
gels, that in aspect He was like another man, but, that when
He was in the world. His Divine Essence, which in Itself is
Infinite and Essential Life, rejected the finite nature, and its
life derived from the mother, and thus made His Human, which
was conceived and born in the world, Divine. The Africans
comprehended and received these truths, because they think
more internally and spiritually than other nations.
76. Such being the character of the Africans even in the
world, there is, at the present day, a revelation among them,
which commencing in the centre of their continent, is commu
nicated around, but does not reach their coasts. They acknow
ledge our Lord as the God of heaven and earth, and laugh at
the monks in those parts they visit, and at the Christians who
talk of a three-fold Divinity, and of salvation by mere think
ing, saying, that there is no man who worships at all, who does
not live according to his religion, and that whosoever does
not, must become stupid and wicked, because, in such case,
he receives nothing from heaven. Ingenious wickedness, too,
they call stupidity, because there is not life, but death, in it.
I have heard the angels rejoicing over this revelation, because,
by means of it, a communication is opened for them with the

32 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD,
human rational, hitherto closed up, by the blind which has been
drawn over the things of faith. It was told me from heaven,
that the truths now published in the Doctrine of the New Jeru
salem concerning the Lord, concerning the Word, and in the
Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, are orally dictated by
angelic spirits, to the inhabitants of this portion of the globe.
77. When I conversed with the Africans in the spiritual
world, they appeared in garments of striped linen : they told
me, that such garments correspond to them, and that their
women wear garments of striped silk. Of their little children,
they related, that they frequently ask their nurses for food,
saying that they are hungry, and when food is set before them,
they examine and taste whether it be wholesome, and eat but
little; whence it is evident, that spiritual hunger, which is a
desire of knowing genuine truths, produces this effect ; for it is
a correspondence. When the Africans wish to be informed of
their state, as regards the affection and perception of truth, they
draw their swords ; and if these shine, they then know that
they are in genuine truths, in a degree according to the bright
ness of the shining: this, too, is from correspondence. Of
marriage they said, that it is indeed permitted them by law to
have a plurality of wives, but that still they take but one, be
cause love truly conjugial cannot be divided; and that if it is
divided, its essence, which is heavenly, perishes, and it becomes
external and thence lascivious, and in a short time grows vile, as
its potency diminishes, and at length disgusts, when the potency
is lost ; but that love truly conjugial, which is internal, and
quite distinct from lasciviousness, remains eternally, and in
creases in potency, and in the same degree, in delight.
78. Strangers from Europe they said, are not admitted among
them, and that if any such penetrate into their country, espe
cially if they be monks, they ask them what they know, and
when they relate any particulars of their religion [relio-iosa],
they call them trifles, which offend their very ears, and they
then send them out of the way to work, in order that they mav
do something useful ; and in case they refuse to work, they sell
them for slaves, whom their law allows them to chastise at
pleasure ; and should it be found impossible to drive them to
do anything useful, they are at last sold, for a small sum, to the
lowest class of the people.

continuation of the spiritual world. 33

OF THE JEWS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
79. BEFORE the last judgment, the Jews appeared in a valley
in the spiritual world, at the left side of the Christian centre ;
but after it, they were translated into the north, and forbidden
to hold intercourse with Christians, except with those who wan
dered without the cities. In the northern quarter, there are
two great cities, into which the Jews are led after death, and
which, before the judgment, were called Jerusalems, but since,
by another name, because Jerusalem, after the judgment, signi
fies the church, in which the Lord alone is worshipped. In these
cities, converted Jews are appointed over them, who admonish
them not to speak disrespectfully of Christ ; and punish those
who persist in doing so. The streets of their cities are filled
with mire up to the ankles, and their houses are full of filth,
and are so offensive to the smell, that none can approach
them. 80. An angel occasionally appears to the Jews in a middle
altitude above them, with a rod in his hand, and gives them to
believe that he is Moses, and exhorts them to desist from the
madness of expecting the Messiah even there, since Christ, who
governs them and all other men, is the Messiah : he says, that
he knows it to be so, and also, that when he was in the world,
he had some knowledge concerning Christ. On hearing this,
they retire ; the chief part of them forgetting, and only a few
retaining it. They who do retain it, are sent to synagogues,
which are composed of converted Jews, and are there instructed;
and if they receive instruction, they have new garments given
them in place of their old tattered ones, and are presented with
a neatly-written copy of the Word, and with a dwelling in a
not unbeautiful city. But they who are not receptive, are cast
down into the hells, beneath the great tract which the Jews
inhabit ; many also are cast into forests and into deserts, where
they live in the commission of mutual robberies.
81. In the spiritual world, as in the natural, they traffic
with various articles, especially with precious stones, which, by
unknown ways, they procure for themselves from heaven, where
precious stones exist in abundance. The reason of their trade
in precious stones is, that they read the Word in its original
language, and hold the sense of its letter sacred, and precious
stones correspond to the sense of the letter of the Word. On
the subject of this correspondence, see the Doctrine of the
New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture, n.

34 continuation of the spiritual world.
42 to 45. They sell their precious stones to the Gentiles who
encircle them in the northern quarter. They have the art, too,
of producing imitations, and of making others fancy them
genuine ; but they who do so, are heavily fined by their
governors. 82. The Jews are less aware than any other people of their
being in the spiritual world, believing, that they are still in the
natural world. The reason is, that they are wholly external
men, and do not think at all of their religion from the inward.
On this account, moreover, they speak of the Messiah, just as
they did in the world, saying, for example, that he will come
with David, and will go before them glittering with diadems,
and introduce them into the land of Canaan ; and that in the
way, by lifting his rod, he will dry up the rivers they are to
pass; and that Christians, whom privately they call Gentiles,
will then lay hold of the skirts of their garments, and humbly
entreat to be allowed to accompany them, and that they will re
ceive the rich according to their wealth, and that even the rich
are to serve them. For they are unwilling to know, that the land
of Canaan in the Word, means the church, and Jerusalem, the
church as to doctrine ; and hence, that Jews mean all those who
will be of the Lord's church. That such is the meaning of
Jews in the Word, may be seen in the Doctrine concerning
the Sacred Scripture, n. 51. When they are asked, whether
they believe that they, too, are to enter the land of Canaan,
they reply, that they shall then descend into it. When it is
observed, that this land cannot possibly hold them all, they
reply, that it will then be enlarged. When they are told, that
they know neither the site of Bethlehem, nor who the stock
of David is, they say, that it is known to the Messiah who is to
come. When asked, how the Messiah, the Son of Jehovah,
can dwell with such wicked people, they reply, that they are
not wicked. When they are reminded, that Moses describes
them in his song (Deuteronomy xxxii.) as the worst of nations,
they answer, that Moses at that time was angry, because of
his approaching decease. But when they are told, that
Moses wrote it by the command of Jehovah, they are silent,
and go away to consult about the matter. When it is said, that
they took their origin from a Canaanite, and from the whore
dom of Judah with his daughter-in-law, (Genesis xxxviii), they
are enraged, and say, that it suffices them to be descended- from
Abraham. When they are told, that within the Word there is
a spiritual sense, which treats of Christ alone, they reply, that
it is not so, but that within the Word there is nothing but gold ;
not to mention other particulars.

continuation of the spiritual world. 35
OF THE QUAKERS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
83. SEPARATED from all others, there are enthusiastic spirits,
who are so grossly stupid, as to believe themselves to be the
Holy Spirit. When Quakerism commenced, these spirits, being
drawn out as it were from encircling forests where they were
wandering, obsessed many, infusing into the persons thus ob
sessed a persuasion that they were moved by the holy spirit ;
and forasmuch as they had sensible perception of an influx,
they became so completely filled with this kind of religio
sity, that they believed themselves more enlightened and holier
than the rest of mankind ; on which account, moreover, it was
impossible to induce them to relinquish their persuasion. They
who have confirmed themselves therein, enter on a similar en
thusiasm after death, and are separated from the rest, and
sent away to their like in forests, where, at a distance, they
have the appearance of wild swine. But they who have not
so confirmed themselves, are bound, separately from the others,
to a place like a desert, in the extreme borders of the southern
quarter, where they have caves for their places of worship.
84. When the former enthusiastic spirits were removed
from them, the quaking of their bodies, which these spirits
had occasioned, ceased, and they now feel a motion to the
left. It was shewn me, that ever since the rise of Qua
kerism, they have gone on successively from bad to worse, and
at length, by command of their holy spirit, into abominations,
which they divulge to no one. I conversed with the founder
of their persuasion, as well as with Penn, who told me, that
they had no part in such things. But they who perpetrate
them, are sent down after death into a dark place, where they
sit in corners, appearing like the dregs of oil.
85. Inasmuch as they have rejected the two Sacraments, of
Baptism and the Holy Supper, and still read the Word, and
preach the Lord, and speak from the obsession of enthusiastic
spirits, and thus commix the sanctities of the Word with truths
profaned, therefore no society is formed of them in the spiritual
world, but after being divided from their companions, and roam
ing hither and thither, they are dispersed, and are gathered
into the before-mentioned desert.

OF THE MORAVIANS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD,
86, I HAVE had much conversation with the people called
Moravians, or Heernhutters. They appeared, at first, in a

36 CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
valley not far from the Jews ; but after being examined and
detected, were conveyed away to uninhabited places. On ex
amining them, it was found, that they were cunning in the
art of conciliation, saying, that they were the remains of the
Apostolic Church, and that therefore they salute each other as
brethren, and those who receive the more internal of their mys
teries, as mothers ; also, that they teach faith better than the
rest of mankind, and love the Lord, because He endured the
cross, calling Him the Lamb, and the Throne of Grace ; with
other the like expressions, by the use of which they lead men
to believe, that the true Christian church is among them.
They examine those who listen to their smooth harangues, as
to whether they may safely entrust them with their mysteries ;
which they conceal or reveal accordingly ; endeavouring in the
latter case, by admonitions, and even by threats, to prevent the
betrayal of their secret doctrine concerning the Lord.
87. The Moravians having acted in a similar manner in the
spiritual world, when yet it was perceptible that their inward
thoughts were contrary to their actions ; therefore, in order
to make this apparent, they were admitted into the ultimate
heaven ; but not sustaining the sphere of the charity and deri
vative faith of the angels there, they fled away. Afterwards,
because in the world they believed, that they alone would be
alive, and would enter the third heaven, they were carried
up into this heaven also, but on perceiving its sphere of love to
the Lord, they were seized with anguish of heart, and began
to suffer inward tortures, and to move convulsively, like
persons in the agony of death, and therefore cast them
selves headlong thence. In this manner it was first made
apparent, that inwardly, they had cherished nothing of charity
to the neighbour, and nothing of love to the Lord. They were
afterwards sent to those, whose duty it is to examine the inte
riors of the thoughts, and these spirits declared of them, that
they slight the Lord, that their rejection of the life of charity
amounts to abhorrence, and that they make out that the Word
of the Old Testament is useless, and despise the Evangelists ;
only of their good pleasure, selecting from Paul, whatever is
said of faith alone : and that these are their mysteries, which
they conceal from the world.
88. As soon as it became apparent that they merely acknow
ledge the Lord as the Arians do, despise the Word of the Prophets
and Evangelists, and hold a life of charity in abhorrence, when
yet these three things are, as it were, the pillars on which the
universal heaven is supported ; then they, who at once had a

CONTINUATION OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 37
knowledge of, and a belief in, their mysteries, were adjudged
Anti-Christs, who reject the three essentials of the Christian
church, namely, the Divinity of the Lord, the Word, and
Charity, and were banished from the Christian world, into a
desert in the confine of the southern quarter, near the region
of the Quakers.
89. When Zinzendorf first entered the spiritual world after
his decease, and was permitted to speak as he used to speak
in the world, I heard him solemnly asserting, that he knew the
mysteries of heaven, and that no one enters heaven who is not
of his doctrine ; and also, that they who do good works for the
sake of salvation, are utterly damned, and that he would rather
admit Atheists into his congregation than such. The Lord, he
said, was adopted by God the Father as His Son, because he
endured the cross, and that still he was a mere man. When it
was observed to him, that the Lord was conceived by God the
Father, he replied, that he thought of that matter as he chose :
not daring to speak out as the Jews do. Moreover, I have per
ceived many scandals from his followers, when I have been
reading the Evangelists.
90. They say, that they have a sensation, and, from this
sensation, an interior confirmation of their dogmas. But it
was shewn them, that the sensation proceeds from visionary
spirits, who confirm a man in all his religious notions, and
enter into closer conjunction with those, who, like the Mora
vians, are fond of their religion, and frequently have it in their
thoughts. These spirits, moreover, conversed with them, and
they mutually recognized each other.

THE END.

WALTON AND MITCHELl,, PRINTERS, WARDOUR STREET, SOHO.

BOOKS published by
The Society foi" Printing and Publishing the TheologicalWritings
of Emanuel Swedenborg, instituted in London in 1810,
SOLD BY
JAMES S, HODSON, 112, FLEET STREET ;
WILLIAM NEWBERY, 6, CHENIES STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE;
EDWARD BAYLIS, ST, ANN'S STREET, MANCHESTER ;
AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS.

THE FOUR LEADING DOCTRINES of the NEW CHURCH, sig
nified in Rev. xxi. by the New Jerusalem ; being those respecting THE LORD, His
Divine and Human Natures, and the Divine Trinity ; THE SACRED SCRIPTURE ¦
FAITH ; and LIFE, With an Introductory Preface, and an Account of the Author!
4s, 6d. boards ; or on royal paper, 6s. Gd.
The same Work. Foolscap 8vo. 3s, cloth.
Each of the above Doctrines may be had separately, namely,
THE DOCTRINE of the NEW JERUSALEM RESPECTING the
LORD ; to which is added, NINE QUESTIONS RESPECTING the TRINITY, with
their ANSWERS. 8vo, Is. 6d. sewed ; or on royal paper, 2s,
THE NINE QUESTIONS may be had separately. Price 2d,
THE DOCTRINE of the NEW JERUSALEM RESPECTING the
SACRED SCRIPTURE ; to which is added, THE TREATISE on the WHITE
HORSE. 8vo. Is, 6d, sewed ; or on royal paper, 2s.
THE TREATISE on the WHITE HORSE may be had separately. Price 4d.
THE DOCTRINE of the NEW JERUSALEM RESPECTING
FAITH. 8vo. 6d. sewed; or on royal paper, 9d.
THE DOCTRINE of LIFE for the NEW JERUSALEM, from the
Commandments of the Decalogue, 8vo, Is, sewed ; or on royal paper, Is, 6d.
ON THE NEW JERUSALEM and its HEAVENLY DOCTRINE;
to which are prefixed, Some Observations concerning the New Heaven and the New
Earth. Bvo. Is. sewed.
The same Work without the Extracts from the Arcana Ccelestia. 8vo. Is. sewed ;
or on royal paper, Is. 6d.
The same Work in the WELSH LANGUAGE. 8vo. Is.
A BRIEF EXPOSITION of the DOCTRINES of the NEW
CHURCH signified by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation. 8vo. Is. sewed ; or on
royal paper. Is. 6d.
TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; or the Universal Theology of
the New Church which was foretold by the Lord, Dan. vii. 13, 14, and in the Apoca
lypse xxi. 1, 2. 8vo, 8s, cloth ; or on royal paper, 2 vols, 12s.
A CORONIS or APPENDIX to the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELI
GION; with A BRIEF CONTINUATION OF THE SAME. 8vo. Is, sewed.

ARCANA CCELESTIA; or, Heavenxy Mysteries contained m
the Sacred Scripture, or Word of the Lord, manifested and laid open ; beginning with
the Book of Genesis. Interspersed with Relations of Wonderful Things seen in the
World of Spirits and the Heaven of Angels : and INDEX. 13 volumes. 8vo. Zl. 18s.
cloth. The INDEX, or any other single Volume may be had separately, at 6s.
THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED ; wherein are disclosed the Arcana
therein foretold, which have hitherto remained concealed. 2 vols. 8vo. 12s, cloth ; or on
royal paper, 11. Is,
THE INDEX TO DITTO, separate. 2s. cloth.
THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED according to the Spiritual Sense ;
wherein are revealed (more fully fhan in the preceding Work) the Arcana which are
predicted therein, and which have hitherto been concealed. To which is added,
A SUMMARY EXPOSITION of the Internal Sense of the Prophetical Books of
the Old Testament, and of the Psalms of David, with a twofold Index, 6 vols, and
INDEX, 8vo. II. 18s. cloth.
Any single Volume may be had separately, at 6s.
THE SUMMARY EXPOSITION may also be had separately. 2s, sewed.
THE INDEX TO THE APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED. 8vo. 3s, boards.
THE WISDOM of ANGELS CONCERNING the DIVINE LOVE
and DIVINE WISDOM, illustrative of the Divine Attributes, of Creation and Re
demption, of the Eternal World, and of the Human Mind. 8vo. 2s. 6d. boards ; or on
royal paper, 4s. 6d.
THE WISDOM of ANGELS CONCERNING the DIVINE PRO-
VIDENCE, in which the Laws of Order are unfolded, by which the Divine Govern
ment is regulated, especially in regard to Man's Salvation. 8vo. 4s. cloth ; or on royal
paper, 6s,
THE DELIGHTS of WISDOM CONCERNING CONJUGIAL
LOVE. 8vo, s. cloth.
THE NATURE of the INTERCOURSE BETWEEN the SOUL and
the BODY, which is supposed to take place either by Physical Influx, or by Spiritual
Influx, or by Pre-established Harmony. 8vo, 6d. sewed ; or on royal paper, 9d.
The same Work. Foolscap 8vo. id.
HEAVEN and its WONDERS DESCRIBED ; with an Account of
HELL, from actual Observation and Information. 8vo. 5s. cloth.
A TREATISE CONCERNING the LAST JUDGMENT and the
DESTRUCTION of BABYLON; shewing that all the Predictions contained in the
Apocalypse are at this present Day fulfiUed. (Elucidatory of the present State of the
World.) Being a Testimony of Things heard and seen. To which is added, a CON
TINUATION concerning the LAST JUDGMENT and the SPIRITUAL WORLD.
8vo. Is. sewed.
ON THE EARTHS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, which are called
Planets; and on the Earths in the Starry Heaven ; with an Account of their Inhabit
ants, and also of the Spirits and Angels there ; from what has been heard and seen.
Is. sewed.

LATIN, 4to. £ s, d.
Apocalypsis Exphoata, 4 vols,
vols. 1, 3, and 4.  , each 0 10 0
Index rerum in ApOcalypsi Re-
velata  ,  ,.,.0 3 0
Index rerum, etc,, in Arcanis
Coelestibus  0 8 0
De CojLO ET Inferno  0 6 6
De Nova Hierosolyma  0 4 0
De Ultimo Judicio  .tf, 0 2

LATIN, 8vo. £ s. d.
Arcana Ccelestia, vols, 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, and 8  each 0 10 0
DocTRiNA DE Domino  0 2 0
 DE SCRIPTURA SaCRA 0 2 0
 DE Vita et de Fidb 0 3 0
Ttu following Latiii Worlts were never b^ore printed\
DooTrina de ChaRitate  0 10
Db Domino, et de Athana&ii
Symbolo  0 10 0

T E A C T S,

published by

The Missionary and Tract Society of the New Jerusalem Church,
instituted in London in the year 1821,
and SOLD AT THEIR DEPOSITORY,
No. 6, CHENIES STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE,
Aiid by all Booksellers.

1. A DECLARATION respecting the DOCTRINES taught by EMANUEL
SWEDENBORG. By Dr. Beyer, at the command of the King of
Sweden. Is. peir dozen.
2, PROOFS of the SUPREME DIVINITY of the LORD JESUS CHRIST,
and of the Doctrine of the Divine Trinity, Is, per dozen.
3. A DIALOGUE upon the APOSTOLIC DOCTRINE of the ATONE
MENT. In Three Parts, 2s, per dozen,
4. THE TRUE OBJECT of CHRISTIAN WORSHIP demonstrated;
and the Doctrine of the Trinity cleared of the Difficulties in which it is
commonly involved. Is, 6d. per dozen.
A FEW PLAIN ANSWERS to the QUESTION, WHY DO YOU
RECEIVE the TESTIMONY of SWEDENBORG ? Is. 6d. per dozen,
6. ON THE LIFE AFTER DEATH, Is. 6d, per dozen.
7, REASONS for RECEIVING the DOCTRINES of the NEW JERUSA
LEM CHURCH, 9d, per dozen.
AN INQUIRY into the LAWS according to which the WORD of GOD
is written. 6d. per dozen.
AN ACCOUNT of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, as contained in a
Eulogium to his Memory, By M. Sandel, Is, 6d, per dozen.
10. ON REGENERATION. 9d. per dozen.
11. THE GOSPEL; or, GLAD TIDINGS of SALVATION from SIN
made plain to all capacities. 6d. per dozen. '
12. ON the WORD of GOD; and on the SCIENCE of CORRESPOND
ENCE between NATURAL and SPIRITUAL THINGS, according to
which it is written. Is, 3d. per dozen.
13, ON CHARITY and FAITH. 9d, per dozen,
14, THE TRINITY in the PERSON of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and
the True Nature of His Humanity. Is. 3d, per dozen,
15. THE ATONEMENT, SACRIFICE, and MEDIATION of JESUS
CHRIST, placed on the True Scripture Basis. Is. per dozen.
16 ON REPENTANCE and the REMISSION of SINS, REGENERA
TION, and MERIT. 6d, per dozen.
17. ON the NATURE and NECESSITY of GOOD WORKS, 6d, per doz,
18, A BRIEF ABSTRACT of the DOCTRINES of the NEW JERUSA
LEM CHURCH respecting the LORD ; His Divine and Human Na
tures ; the Trinity in Unity ; Redemption and Salvation, 9d, per doz.
19. A RELATION of THINGS HEARD and SEEN in the SPIRITUAL
WORLD. By Emanuel Swedenborg, 9d. per dozen.

j(;5» The above Tracts, greatly reduced in price, may be ordered by the Nos.
prefixed to them.

Sufi:. * .;',>

¦j:

=. ^-i?-^9r4M'

'?=

!¦ '-' i'-O.-f