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The New View of Hell. 
 

 y; 
 
THE 
 
 New View of Hell. 
 
 SHOWING 
 
 ITS NATURE, WHEREABOUTS, DURATION, AND 
 HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 
 
 
 
 
 BY 
 B. F. BARRETT, 
 
 IIH2JS 
 
 Author of "Lectures on the New Dispensation," "The Golden Reed," 
 "Letters to Beecher on the Divine Trinity," Etc., Etc 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 1872. 
 
**$•> 
 
 IRA**! 
 HESS 
 
 flMOTON 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Lippincott's Press, 
 Philadelphia. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. — The New Dispensation 9 
 
 II. — The Old Doctrine of Hell 26 
 
 III.— The New View 36 
 
 IV. — The Scripture Argument. — Sheol, Hades, 
 
 Gehenna, and the Lake of Fire .... 46 
 V.— Hell.— The Chosen Home of All Who 
 
 go There 73 
 
 VI. — The Duration of Hell 87 
 
 VII. — Some Evidence of its Duration. — Philo- 
 sophical and Scriptural 100 
 
 VIII. — Why Cannot the Ruling Love be Changed 
 
 After Death ? 112 
 
 IX. — Displays of the Divine Benignity in Hell 125 
 X. — Is Hell to Undergo any Change ? If so, 
 
 of what Nature ? 145 
 
 XI. — The Devil and Satan 163 
 
 XII. — Practical Bearings of the Question.... 177 
 
 XIII. — How to Escape Hell 193 
 
 5 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 There are few subjects within the compass of revealed or 
 speculative Theology, upon which inquiring minds have been 
 more exercised within the last hundred years, than the sub- 
 ject of Hell. And there are few, perhaps, which have been 
 the occasion of more strifes and divisions in the churches, 
 which have caused more trouble to Christian believers, or 
 upon which there are at this moment more anxiety, doubt 
 and disagreement among religious teachers themselves. 
 
 There is no doubt that the popular mind of Christendom 
 has undergone a considerable change on this, as on many 
 other subjects, since the commencement of the present cen- 
 tury. The old representations of the Divine justice, and of 
 the condition of the wicked in the great Hereafter, would 
 hardly be listened to with patience — certainly not with satis- 
 faction — by any intelligent Christian congregation of to-day. 
 
 "The idea which men once had of hell and of divine jus- 
 tice," says the distinguished occupant of Plymouth Pulpit, 
 "was a nightmare as hideous as was ever begotten by the 
 hellish brood itself. And it was an atrocious slander on 
 God. I do not wonder that men have reacted from these 
 
 horrors — I honor them for it." 
 
 7 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 But what have the Christian teachers of to-day to offer as 
 a substitute for the old idea, which is confessedly becoming 
 obsolete in nearly all of the churches ? Many of them, 
 nothing — literally nothing, that can at once satisfy the reason 
 of thoughtful inquirers, and meet the demands of the lan- 
 guage of Scripture. And some are frank enough to confess 
 their destitution. Said a distinguished Presbyterian clergy- 
 man, writing on this subject some time ago : " It is all dark, 
 dark, dark, to my soul ; and I cannot disguise it." 
 
 The aim of the present work is to unfold and present the 
 New view of Hell, as set forth in the theological writings of 
 Emanuel Swedenborg ; to show that it is at once rational 
 and Scriptural, in harmony with the perfect love and wisdom 
 of God, as well as with the teachings of human experience 
 and the profoundest spiritual philosophy ; and that its prac- 
 tical influence upon the character of believers, cannot be 
 otherwise than beneficent. 
 
 How far I have succeeded in this, the reader himself must 
 judge. But if I have achieved even a partial success, and 
 presented the subject in a light to relieve and profit only a 
 few troubled souls, I shall be more than satisfied — I shall be 
 thankful. 
 
 B. F. B. 
 
 Philadelphia, November 15, 1871. 
 
THE 
 
 New View of Hell, 
 
 i. 
 
 THE NEW DISPENSATION. 
 
 THE theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are 
 regarded by many— by all, indeed, who have read 
 and studied them with care — as a new revelation. They 
 boldly claim for themselves this distinction, and chal- 
 lenge a candid examination of their claim in the light 
 of Scripture, reason, philosophy, history, and all human 
 experience. They are held to be (and this, too, is their 
 own claim) a new Dispensation of spiritual truth : that 
 Dispensation referred to in the Apocalypse under the 
 symbol of the New Jerusalem which John saw coming 
 down from God out of heaven. They are believed to 
 contain, not merely the reasonings and conclusions of a 
 great and pious mind — not a theological or doctrinal 
 system wrought out by patient labor and hard study, but 
 a system of spiritual truth so luminous in its nature and 
 so grand in its proportions, as to be itself the fulfillment 
 
 of the prophecy concerning the second coming of Him 
 
 9 
 
IO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 who is "the Light of the world." They are declared to 
 be a revelation of n£w and heavenly truth made by the 
 Lord himself through his own chosen servant, whom He 
 raised up and prepared for this work, and in due time 
 graciously and wonderfully illumined by his Spirit. 
 
 The stupendous system of truth, therefore, contained 
 in the writings of this man, is not to be considered his, 
 but the Lord's. He was but the chosen instrument to 
 receive and make known to men, truths which no amount 
 of labor or study could ever have enabled him to dis- 
 cover. Hear what the seer himself says on this subject : 
 
 "Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in Person, 
 and nevertheless has foretold that He would come and 
 establish a New Church which is the New Jerusalem, it 
 follows that He will do so by means of a man who 
 can not only receive these doctrines in his understanding 
 but can also publish them by the press. 
 
 "That the Lord manifested Himself before me his 
 servant, and sent me to this office, that He afterward 
 opened the eyes of my spirit and so intromitted me into 
 the spiritual world, granted me to see the heavens and 
 the hells, also to converse with angels and spirits, and 
 this continuously now for several years, I affirm in truth ; 
 as also, that, from the first day of that calling I have not 
 received anything whatever pertaining to the doctrines 
 of that Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone 
 while I read the Word." {True Christian Religion, 779.) 
 
 And elsewhere in his writings he repeats the same 
 
THE NE W D IS PENS A TION. 1 1 
 
 statement — in substance if not in words. Thus in his 
 preface to the Apocalypse Revealed, he says : 
 
 " Any one may see that the Apocalypse could no how 
 be explained but by the Lord alone, since every word 
 of it contains arcana which never could be known with- 
 out some special illumination and consequent revelation. 
 Wherefore it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of 
 my spirit and to teach me. It must not, therefore, be 
 supposed that I have given any explication of my own, 
 nor that even of any angel, but only what I have had 
 communicated to me from the Lord alone/ ' 
 
 And in his treatise on " The Intercourse between the 
 Soul and the Body," he relates a conversation that he 
 once had with "a man of reason," explaining to him 
 how it was that from a philosopher he became a theolo- 
 gian. After telling him that it was " for the same reason 
 that fishermen became the disciples and apostles of the 
 Lord," adding that he also "from early youth had been 
 a spiritual fisherman;" and after explaining what this 
 means, and confirming what he says by citing passages 
 from the Word which speak of fishermen, unfolding at 
 the same time their spiritual meaning, his interrogator 
 " raised his voice and said : 
 
 "•Now I can understand why the Lord called and 
 chose fishermen to be his disciples ; and therefore I do 
 not wonder that He has also called and chosen you, 
 since, as you have observed, you were from early youth 
 a fisherman in a spiritual sense, that is, an investigator 
 
12 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 of natural truths. The reason that you are now become 
 an investigator of spiritual truths, is, that these are 
 founded on the former. ' To this he added, being a man 
 of reason, that ' the Lord alone knows who is the 
 proper person to apprehend and teach or communicate 
 the truths which should be revealed for his New 
 Church.' "— Ibid. 20. 
 
 Swedenborg further claims that this new revelation 
 made through him as a chosen medium, is in fulfillment 
 of the prediction made by the Lord himself, concerning 
 his second coming, which was to be in the clouds of 
 heaven. This coming, he says, is not to be external and 
 natural, cognizable by the eye of sense ; but internal and 
 spiritual, cognizable by the understanding and the heart. 
 It is to be a coming of the Word of God, that is, of the 
 deeper meanings of the Word — a coming of its spiritual 
 or heavenly sense to the minds and hearts of men, and 
 exerting upon them a new and renovating power. And 
 the clouds in or upon which it is said He would come, 
 are the clouds of Scripture — the obscurities, more or less 
 dense, of the literal sense, in or upon which the spiritual 
 and true sense comes as the sun's light through a cloud. 
 To cite again his own language : 
 
 " It is the prevailing opinion at this day [1770] in 
 every church, that the Lord, when He comes to the last 
 judgment, will appear in the clouds of heaven with 
 angels and the sound of trumpets ; that He will gather 
 together all who are then dwelling on the earth, as well 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 13 
 
 as all who are deceased, and will separate the evil from 
 the good, as a shepherd separates the goats from the 
 sheep \ that then He will cast the evil, or the goats, into 
 hell, and raise up the good, or the sheep, into heaven ; 
 and further that He will, at the same time, create a new 
 visible heaven and a new habitable earth, and on the latter 
 He will cause a city to descend, which is to be called the 
 New Jerusalem, and is to be built according to the de- 
 scription given in the Revelation (Ch. xxi.) of jasper 
 and gold ; and the foundation of its walls of every precious 
 stone ; and its height, breadth and length to be equal, 
 each twelve thousand furlongs ; and that all the elect are 
 to be gathered together into this city, both those that are 
 then alive, and those that have died since the beginning 
 of the world ; and that the latter will then return into 
 their bodies, and enjoy everlasting bliss in that magnifi- 
 cent city, as in their heaven. This is the prevailing 
 opinion of the present day, in all Christian churches, 
 respecting the coming of the Lord and the last judg- 
 ment." — True Christian Religion, n . 768. 
 
 And a little further on he says : 
 
 "That the second coming of the Lord, is a coming, not 
 in person, but in the Word which is from Him, and is 
 Himself. — It is written in many places that the Lord will 
 come in the clouds of heaven; as Matt. xvii. 5; xxiv. 
 30; xxvi. 64; Mark xiv. 62; Luke ix. 34, 35; xxi. 27; 
 Rev. i. 7; xiv. 14; Dan. vii. 13; but no one has here- 
 tofore known what is meant by the clouds of heaven, 
 
14 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 and hence mankind have believed that the Lord will 
 appear to them in person. But it has remained undis- 
 covered to this day, that the Word in its literal sense is 
 meant by the clouds of heaven ; and that the spiritual 
 sense of the Word is meant by the power and glory 
 in which also the Lord is to come. . . . Now since the 
 spiritual sense of the Word has been opened to me 
 by the Lord, and it has been granted me to be with 
 angels and spirits in their world as one of themselves, 
 it has been revealed to me that the clouds of heaven sig- 
 nify the Word in its natural sense ; and glory, the W T ord 
 in its spiritual sense \ and power, the effectual operation 
 of the Lord by the Word." — Ibid., n. 776. 
 
 There can be no doubt, then, about Swedenborg's 
 claim — extraordinary though it be, and incredible as it 
 may seem to those who have not examined his writings. 
 He claims to have been called of the Lord in an extra- 
 ordinary manner, and to have been specially illumined 
 by his Spirit, to make a new revelation ; — a revelation, 
 that is, of new and heavenly truth concerning Himself, 
 his Word, the nature of heaven and hell, and the con- 
 dition of different classes of men in the great Hereafter. 
 He declares that it is the Lord who opened the eyes of 
 his spirit ; that it is the Lord who taught him the true 
 meaning of the Word, and what doctrines to promul- 
 gate ; that the Lord had actually come (agreeably to his 
 promise), to establish a New Church by means of the 
 doctrines which it was given him to receive, understand 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 15 
 
 and publish to the world \ that these doctrines were not 
 his own — not the result of any labor or study on his 
 part, nor received from any angel, but communicated to 
 him by the Lord alone. " From the first day of that 
 calling," he says, "I have not received anything what- 
 ever pertaining to the doctrines of the New Church from 
 any angel, but from the Lord alone while I read the 
 Word." 
 
 It is not my purpose here to enter upon any discussion 
 of this claim, or to adduce evidence to show that it is 
 well founded. The need there was of a new revelation 
 at the time Swedenborg lived and wrote, as shown by 
 the doctrinal beliefs and teachings in all the churches of 
 his day; the luminous and extraordinary character of his 
 theological writings; the sweet and heavenly and catholic 
 spirit that they breathe throughout; the elevated and ra- 
 tional views they contain on all subjects — views that har- 
 monize with the teachings of Scripture and reason and 
 science, and with all we know of the laws of the human 
 soul and the ways and workings of God's providence ; — 
 all these combine to force an acknowledgment of his 
 claim from every intelligent and candid mind who thor- 
 oughly examines and understands his writings. Such 
 an one admits his claim because he cannot help it. He 
 finds the evidence so overwhelming, that it is easier to 
 accept than to reject it. He sees that here is, indeed, a 
 new revelation ; that here is a system of spiritual truth so 
 grand and harmonious and rational, so comprehensive 
 
1 6 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 and majestic, and so admirably adapted to human wants 
 in this age, that it could have none other than God him- 
 self for its author. He accepts Swedenborg's teachings, 
 therefore, as a new Dispensation of spiritual truth, bear- 
 ing the impress of God's own finger. So abundant and 
 overmastering is the evidence, that he cannot do other- 
 wise ; he cannot reach any other conclusion. 
 
 But those cannot admit his claim, who have not studied 
 his writings. How can they ? — for they have not weighed 
 the evidence; they have not seen it, indeed. And no- 
 where but in his writings themselves, can satisfactory evi- 
 dence of his claim be found. They may, from having read 
 a few pages or chapters of his works, admit that he saw 
 and taught much truth ; but we cannot expect them to go 
 beyond this — nor ought they — until they have studied 
 his writings sufficiently to enable them to discern, in some 
 measure, their wondrous depth and comprehensiveness 
 and philosophy and unity. Such persons, (and they are 
 not a few) stand toward this New Christian Dispensation 
 in the same attitude as those stand toward the first Chris- 
 tian dispensation, who admit that Jesus Christ was a wise 
 and excellent man, and that much truth is to be found in 
 the New Testament ; but who do not admit the proper 
 divinity of the one, nor the inspiration of the other ; 
 who regard the Saviour as a merely finite and human 
 being, and the writings of the Evangelists as merely 
 human compositions. And while some of these persons 
 may have more of the spirit of Christ than many who 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 17 
 
 know and believe more of Him and his gospel, still they 
 would not be regarded, popularly or doctrinally speak- 
 ing, as Christians ; for they do not acknowledge Chris- 
 tianity as a new Dispensation, or in any proper sense as 
 a new Revelation. 
 
 So, popularly speaking, those are not of the New 
 Christian Dispensation (they may belong to it really 
 but not nominally) who do not see or acknowledge that 
 any such dispensation has commenced, or that the 
 writings of Swedenborg are, indeed, a new and divinely 
 authorized revelation of heavenly truth — though they 
 may have in their hearts more of the spirit and life 
 of the New Church than some who accept its doc- 
 trines. 
 
 But many persons — and these inhabiting the most en- 
 lightened portions of Christendom — are beginning to 
 admit that Swedenborg's claim is well founded. They 
 believe that he wrote under a special divine illumination, 
 and that his writings are or contain a new revelation. 
 And what is implied by this admission ? That no mis- 
 take, however trivial, is anywhere to be found in his writ- 
 ings ? That in every sentence and word he penned after 
 his illumination, he was immediately directed by the 
 Lord ? That every word he wrote is as certainly true as if 
 it had been written by the finger of God himself? Noth- 
 ing of this sort is involved in the fullest and most cordial 
 admission of his claim. We may admit his divine illumin- 
 ation; we may believe that he was enlightened and taught 
 2 * B 
 
l8 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 of God as no other man ever was ; and that his writings are, 
 as they claim to be, a new and divinely authorized reve- 
 lation ; and yet we may believe that his illumination 
 was not precisely the same at all times ; that he was not 
 absolutely infallible ; that his pen, and even his thought 
 on some minor points, might momentarily have slipped, 
 making him teach or seem to teach in one place, some- 
 thing contrary to his general teaching upon the same 
 subject. 
 
 But an admission of this man's claim, or the belief 
 that his writings are a new dispensation of spiritual truth 
 to men, does involve the belief, that, upon all important 
 doctrines — upon all questions which have hitherto en- 
 gaged the attention of Christians, and in which they are 
 likely always to feel a deep interest — he has spoken with 
 authority, because he wrote under an extraordinary divine 
 illumination. It involves the admission that, in what he 
 wrote and published concerning the Lord, the Sacred 
 Scripture, Redemption, Regeneration, Salvation, the 
 Resurrection, the Judgment, the nature and duration of 
 Heaven and Hell, and all the great facts and laws of the 
 spiritual world, he has not given us his opinion merely, 
 but the truth which God was pleased to reveal through 
 him. It involves the belief that, upon such momentous 
 themes he was illumined by the Holy Spirit, and has 
 taught only what the Lord authorized and directed him 
 to teach. So that what his writings contain on such 
 subjects, is not his own opinions or conclusions merely, 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 19 
 
 but is what the Lord himself teaches or is trying to teach 
 mankind through him. 
 
 Let me endeavor to make my view more clear by an 
 illustration : — 
 
 A man is duly accredited by our government to the 
 court of St. James. Upon all important matters between 
 the two countries, he receives his instruction from Wash- 
 ington. And if he acts according to his instruction, 
 the things he does as the authorized agent of the govern- 
 ment, are not to be regarded merely as his acts, but the 
 acts of the government ; and the government alone is 
 responsible for them. But in carrying on some negotia- 
 tion, Mr. Adams or Mr. Motley, in the exercise of the 
 freedom and discretion of a plenipotentiary, may here 
 and there drop a word or use an expression which his 
 government might not approve ; but that is of small con- 
 sequence if it does not prevent nor in any way interfere 
 with the negotiation. He may not, in every interview 
 with the British minister of foreign affairs, or at every 
 court dinner, do and say exactly the thing that the gov- 
 ernment from which he is accredited would approve ; 
 but if he carries out his instructions generally, does his 
 duty faithfully, and so accomplishes the purpose of his 
 mission, is he any the less the accredited American min- 
 ister, or his acts any the less cheerfully endorsed by his 
 government because of an occasional and unimportant 
 remark made by him, which the authorities at Wash- 
 ington might not approve ? 
 
20 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 So Swedenborg— though it might be shown that he has 
 here and there said things, unimportant in themselves but 
 not in agreement with the general tenor of his teaching 
 — is to be regarded as none the less a divinely accredited 
 teacher or a divinely authorized expounder of sacred 
 mysteries, if his teaching upon all important and funda- 
 mental points be true, or such as meets the approval of 
 heaven's own King. 
 
 But though it is, or claims to be, a New Dispensation, 
 it is a dispensation of rational religious truth. It ad- 
 dresses us as rational beings, endowed with the capacity 
 of discriminating between right and wrong— truth and 
 falsehood. It declares that Rationality, or the ability to 
 understand spiritual truth when presented, and to judge 
 between it and error, is one of the noblest gifts of God. 
 And it holds it to be every one's solemn duty to respect 
 this gift, by faithfully exercising his own understanding 
 upon whatever is offered him for religious truth. It 
 teaches that no one ought to accept what his own under- 
 standing rejects, even though it should be proclaimed by 
 a messenger from heaven, or have the unanimous vote of 
 all Christendom in its support. 
 
 No one, therefore, is expected to receive for truth what 
 Swedenborg has taught on any subject, unless the teach- 
 ing approve itself to his rational intuitions ; that is, un- 
 less he himself sees it to be true. Each one must use 
 his own eyes, and not allow another to see for him. The 
 great seer himself says : 
 
TK DISPENSA TIC 
 
 This tenet, that the understand to be kept in 
 
 subjection to faith, is rejected in the New Church : and 
 in its place is to be received as a maxim, that the 
 
 truth of the church should be s order that it may 
 
 be believed. . . . What is truth not seen, but a voice 
 not understood ? M And again he The ai 
 
 sdom in consequence of seeing truths. 
 fore when it \ to any angel that this or that 
 
 believed although it is not understood, the angel replies, 
 Do you suppose me to be insane, or that you yourself 
 are a god whom I am bound to believe ? 
 
 This Dispensation, mo: >lic, comprejien- 
 
 . universal, in its spirit. It breath :ughout the 
 
 : charity. It inculcates the largest liberty of 
 thought. It encourages the utmost freedom of religious 
 inquiry. It asserts with new and increased emphasis the 
 great Protestant principle — the right :f private judgment 
 in matters of faith, however th gment may c 
 
 from the solemn decree of popes, prelates, coun 
 synods, assemblies or conventions. It upholds, there- 
 fore, and furnishes new and paw fence 
 of religious ant of all form :ror, 
 innocently imbibed and conscientiously held, and shows 
 the possibility of salvation under all of them. It con- 
 demns no individual, no se : : . n : f e : [ ie — n 
 hometans or Pagans — merely on account of their beliefs ; 
 but teaches that infinite L s for ever brooding : 
 all; and for ever seeking, through such forms of faith 
 
22 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 and modes of worship as are best suited to the wants of 
 each, to lift them up into clearer light and a higher 
 life — into fuller communion and sweeter fellowship with 
 itself. It is full, therefore — this New Dispensation — 
 of the all-embracing and all-reconciling spirit of the 
 Lord. 
 
 The following extracts — and a volume of similar ones 
 might be quoted from the writings of Swedenborg — will 
 exhibit something of the large and catholic spirit of this 
 New Dispensation : — 
 
 "Notwithstanding there are so many various and dif- 
 ferent doctrines [believed by Christians], still, if all who 
 hold these doctrines did but acknowledge charity as 
 the essential of the church, or what is the same, if they 
 had respect to life as the end of doctrine, they would to- 
 gether form one church ; ... for every one in the other 
 life is gifted with a lot from the Lord according to the 
 good of his life, not according to the truth of his doctrine 
 separate from that good." — Ai'cana Coslestia 3241. 
 
 "If charity were in the first place and faith in the 
 second, the church would have another face. For then, 
 none would be called Christians but they who lived the 
 life of charity. Then, too, there would not be many 
 churches distinguished by their different opinions con- 
 cerning the truths of faith ; but the church would be 
 called one, containing all those who are in the good of 
 life."— Ibid. 6761. 
 
 "Schisms and heresies would never have arisen if 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 23 
 
 charity had continued to live and rule in the church. 
 For then they would not have called schism by the name 
 of schism, nor heresy by the name of heresy j but they 
 would have called them doctrinals agreeable to each 
 one's particular opinion or way of thinking, which they 
 would have left to his individual conscience ; not judging 
 or condemning any for their opinions, provided they did 
 not deny fundamental principles — that is, the Lord, 
 eternal life, and the Word — and maintained nothing con- 
 trary to the commandments of the decalogue." — Ibid. 
 1834. 
 
 "He who is in goodness of life does not condemn 
 another because he differs from him in opinion, but 
 leaves it to his faith and conscience ; and he extends this 
 rule even to those who are out of the church — [those, 
 that is, in heathen lands]. For he says in his heart that 
 ignorance cannot condemn any, if they live in innocence 
 and mutual love." — Ibid. 4468. 
 
 "Within the church there are some of all denomina- 
 tions who have a conscience ; though their conscience, 
 however, is more perfect according as the truths which 
 form it approach nearer the genuine truths of faith." — 
 Ibid. 2053. 
 
 "Every one, of whatsoever religion he be, may be 
 saved— even the Gentiles who have no truths from the 
 Word — if only he has had regard to the good of life 
 as an end." — Ibid. 10648. 
 
 "Let this truth be accepted and confirmed in the out- 
 
24 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 set, that love to the Lord and charity toward the neigh- 
 bor are the essentials of all doctrine and worship, then 
 heresies would be no more ; and one church would be 
 formed out of many, however they might differ in doc- 
 trine and ritual. ... In this case, all would be gov- 
 erned as one man by the Lord ; for they would be like 
 the members and organs of one body, which, though 
 dissimilar in form and function, still have reference to 
 one heart, on which they all depend both in general 
 and in particular, however various their forms. Then, 
 too, every one would say of another, in whatsoever doc- 
 trine or external worship he might be, This is my broth- 
 er ; I see that he worships the Lord, and that he is a 
 good man." — Ibid. 2385. 
 
 "Persons in a blind or persuasive faith, since they do 
 not see truths, are not willing that the doctrines of their 
 church should be approached and examined rationally 
 with the understanding ; but they say that these are to 
 be received from a principle of obedience, which is called 
 the obedience of faith ; and it is not known whether 
 the things received in such blind obedience be true or 
 false ; nor can they open the way to heaven, for in heaven 
 nothing but what is seen, that is, understood, is acknow- 
 ledged as truth." — Apocalypse Exp lamed 1100. 
 
 "The dogma that the understanding is to be kept in 
 subjection to faith, is rejected in the New Church ; and in 
 its place this is to be received as a maxim, that the truth 
 of the church should be seen in order that it may be be- 
 
THE NEW DISPENSATION. 25 
 
 lieved ; and truth cannot be seen otherwise than ration- 
 ally. How can any man be led by the Lord and con- 
 joined to heaven, who shuts his understanding against 
 such things as relate to salvation and eternal life ? Is it 
 not the understanding that is to be illumined and in- 
 structed? And what is the understanding closed by 
 religion but thick darkness, and such darkness, too, as 
 rejects the light that would illumine?" — Apocalypse Re- 
 vealed 564. 
 
 These quotations might be extended indefinitely. But 
 the reader may gather from the few here given, some- 
 thing of the large, free, tolerant and truly catholic spirit 
 of this new Dispensation. And if we recognize in 
 nearly all the churches of to-day, a steady increase of 
 this same spirit, that is only additional evidence that 
 "old things" — the old bigotry, narrowness, intolerance, 
 denominational hatreds, and high partition walls of the 
 last century — are passing away, and a new and more 
 truly Christ-like spirit taking their place; agreeably to 
 the Divine promise: "And he that sat upon the throne 
 
 said, Behold I make all things new." 
 3 
 
 
II. 
 
 THE OLD DOCTRINE OF HELL. 
 
 MORE than a hundred years ago, Swedenborg an- 
 nounced the end or consummation of the first 
 Christian Church or Dispensation, and the commence- 
 ment of a new one. Repeatedly, and in the calmest and 
 most emphatic language, did he declare that the Lord 
 had manifested Himself to him in person; had opened 
 his spiritual senses ; had permitted him to see and con- 
 verse with the denizens of the other world as men see 
 anpl converse with each other ; had vouchsafed to him a 
 clear understanding of the spiritual and true meaning of 
 the Sacred Scripture ; and had authorized and directed 
 him to make a new revelation of heavenly truth for the 
 instruction of all Christians and for the benefit of man- 
 kind. 
 
 Up to this time comparatively few have openly em- 
 braced this new revelation. Yet its power has been seen 
 and its influence felt in the gradual and steady modifica- 
 tion of the old theological beliefs, which has been going 
 on in nearly all of the sects for the last hundred years. 
 This is admitted by some of the keenest observers and 
 26 
 
THE OLD DOCTRINE, 27 
 
 most advanced thinkers in all the churches. Says a 
 learned critic of rare candor in the New York hidepend- 
 ent (March 18, 1869) : 
 
 "More than any other form of religious thought, Swe- 
 denborgianism is a leaven Q hid in three measures of 
 meal.' To a careless reader of ecclesiastical statistics, 
 the Swedenborgian Church would seem to be one of the 
 least of the great household of faith. To a careful stu- 
 dent of religious thought, it appears to be among the 
 most important. It has made very few converts from the 
 faith of orthodoxy; but it has materially modified that 
 faith. ... As a little salt changes the contents of a large 
 vessel of water, so Swedenborgianism, seemingly lost in 
 the great multitude of churches, has more or less modi- 
 fied the form of faith of all." 
 
 And this very candid writer, and careful observer of 
 the theological and religious tendencies of these new 
 times, specifies some of the modifications already wrought 
 in the old theological beliefs by the teachings of Sweden- 
 borg. After referring to the old doctrines of the Trin- 
 ity, the Atonement, and the Sacred Scripture, and show- 
 ing how these have been already modified by the writings 
 of the Swedish seer, he concludes his list of specifica- 
 tions thus : 
 
 "The church [meaning all the so-called orthodox de- 
 nominations] holds fast to the solemn truth, which no 
 one has ever taught more vividly than Christ himself, that 
 after death is the judgment, and after judgment heaven 
 
28 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 and hell ; but it has accepted, unconsciously, from Swe- 
 denborg, his teaching that every man carries heaven or 
 hell in his own bosom ; and remits to the Past the fear- 
 ful pictures of Edwards and his cotemporaries, of literal 
 torments and a remorseless and pitiless God." 
 
 And with equal truth and plainness (though with a 
 little less candor, perhaps, in not hinting at the real cause) 
 the distinguished pastor of Plymouth Church (Brooklyn), 
 said in a sermon on " Future Punishment" preached 
 some months ago : " that the educated Christian mind 
 of all lands, for the last hundred years [note the period] 
 has been changing" in regard to the nature of punish- 
 ment in the great Hereafter. 
 
 "It is certainly true," he continues, " that theories 
 have been changing from gross material representations 
 [of hell], more and more in the direction of moral repre- 
 sentations. It is very true that this subject is not preached 
 as it used to be — not as it was in my childhood. It has 
 not been preached so often, nor with the same fiery and 
 familiar boldness that it used to be. Multitudes of men 
 who give every evidence of being spiritual, regenerate, 
 devout, laborious and self-denying, find themselves 
 straitened in their minds in respect to this question, 
 and are turning anxiously every whither to see whence 
 relief may come to them. There has been a profound 
 change [within the last hundred years, observe] in the 
 sentiment of Christendom in regard to those gross rep- 
 resentations of future punishment, which were handed 
 
THE OLD DOCTRINE. 29 
 
 down to us from the past." And he gives, as among the 
 reasons of those gross representations, " the mediaeval 
 literalization of the Bible figures.' ' 
 
 Now, to judge correctly of the need there was of a 
 new revelation a hundred years ago, we should go back 
 to the time when Swedenborg wrote, and see what 
 were the then accepted teachings upon the various 
 points of Christian theology. Since that time the be- 
 liefs of Christians have, through the light of the New 
 Dispensation (which is " as the lightning that cometh 
 out of the east and shineth even unto the west"), be- 
 come so modified, that, on many subjects, they bear but 
 little resemblance to those held previous to that time. 
 Very few are aware of the changes in theological opinion 
 that have taken place in nearly all the churches during 
 the last hundred years, and that are still going ,on at a 
 rapid pace ; and fewer still are aware of the cause of 
 these changes. 
 
 Take, for illustration, the doctrine concerning hell, or 
 the future punishment of the wicked. At the time Sweden- 
 borg wrote, the commonly received doctrine in all the 
 churches was according to the literal teaching of the 
 Bible. It was believed and taught for Christian verity 
 that hell is literally a lake of fire and brimstone; — a 
 place created by the Lord at the beginning for the ex- 
 press purpose of inflicting upon all who die in their sins 
 as much suffering as infinite ingenuity could possibly de- 
 vise. It was held that sinners, after death, were to be 
 3* 
 
3° NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 cast alive into this burning lake by order of the Supreme 
 Judge of the universe, as criminals on earth are cast into 
 prison by order of the judges of criminal courts. And 
 that they were always to remain there, perfectly con- 
 scious, indued with the most exquisite sensibility to 
 pain, forever burning yet never consumed, writhing and 
 groaning in eternal agony. And as if this were not tor- 
 ment enough, the gross imaginations of religious teachers 
 often added other horrors equally revolting. Mr. Buckle, 
 in his History of Civilization in England, speaking of the 
 clergy of the seventeenth century — especially the Scotch 
 clergy — and their view of hell and its torments, says : 
 
 " In the pictures which they drew, they reproduced and 
 heightened the barbarous imagery of a barbarous age. 
 They delighted in telling their hearers that they would 
 be roasted in great fires and hung up by their tongues. 
 They were to be lashed with scorpions, and see their 
 companions writhing and howling around them. They 
 were to be thrown into boiling oil and scalding lead. 
 A river of brimstone broader than the earth was prepared 
 for them ; in that they were to be immersed. . . . Such 
 were the first stages of suffering, and they were only the 
 first. For the torture, besides being unceasing, was to 
 become gradually worse. So refined was the cruelty, 
 that one hell was succeeded by another; and, lest the 
 sufferer should grow callous, he was, after a time, moved 
 on, that he might undergo fresh agonies in fresh places, 
 provision being made that the torment should not pall 
 
THE OLD DOCTRINE. 3 1 
 
 on the sense, but should be varied in its character as well 
 as eternal in its duration. 
 
 " All this was the work of the God of the Scotch clergy. 
 It was not only his work, it was his joy and his pride. 
 For, according to them, hell was created before man 
 came into the world ; the Almighty, they did not scruple 
 to say, having spent his previous leisure in preparing and 
 completing this place of torture, so that, when the human 
 race appeared, it might be ready for their reception. 
 Ample, however, as the arrangements were, they were in- 
 sufficient ; and hell not being big enough to contain the 
 countless victims incessantly poured into it, had, in these 
 latter days, been enlarged. But in that vast expanse 
 there was no void, for the whole of it reverberated with 
 the shrieks and yells of undying agony. . . . Both chil- 
 dren and fathers made hell echo with their piercing 
 screams, writhing in convulsive agony at the torments 
 which they suffered, and knowing that other torments 
 more grievous still were reserved for them." (Vol. II. 
 pp. 294, 295.) 
 
 Now every statement that Mr. Buckle here makes, 
 finds ample confirmation in the works of distinguished 
 theologians of that period and some of the previous cen- 
 turies. Rutherford in his Religious Letters, speaking of 
 the future punishment of the wicked, says: " Tongue, 1 
 lungs and liver, bones and all, shall boil and fry in a tor- ! 
 turing fire" (p. 17); — "a river of fire and brimstone 
 broader than the earth." (p. 35.) And Boston, in his 
 
3 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 Human Nature in its Fourfold State, treating of this same 
 subject, says: " They will be universal torments, every 
 part of the creature being tormented in that flame. When 
 one is cast into a fiery furnace, the fire makes its way into 
 the very bowels, and leaves no member untouched : what 
 part then can have ease when the damned swim in a lake 
 of fire burning with brimstone?" (p. 458.) And Rev. 
 Thomas Halyburton, in his Great Concern of Salvation, 
 says : " Consider, Who is the contriver of these torments. 
 There have been some very exquisite torments contrived 
 by the wit of men, the naming of which, if ye under- 
 stood their nature, were enough to fill your hearts with 
 horror \ but all these fall as far short of the torments ye 
 are to endure, as the wisdom of man falls short of that 
 of God." (p. 154, Edinburgh edit., 1722.) 
 
 Such was the generally accepted doctrine concerning 
 hell in all the Christian churches at the time Sweden- 
 borg wrote. Such, too, had been the doctrine for cen- 
 turies previous, as we learn from Christian writers and 
 Christian artists. These latter aimed to embody or repre- 
 sent upon canvas the prevalent Christian thought of the 
 period in which they lived. Thus Michael Angelo, in 
 his picture of the Last Judgment, tells us more plainly 
 than words could tell, what idea Christians of his day 
 had of the future punishment of the wicked. Truly did 
 Mr. Beecher say in one of his sermons not long ago : 
 
 "If you will take this picture, you will better under- 
 stand what was the real feeling of the age in which he 
 
THE OLD DOCTRINE. 33 
 
 lived on the subject of reward and punishment, than by 
 reading any amount of theological treatises. Let any 
 one look at that ; let any one see the enormous gigantic 
 coils of fiends and men ; let any one look at that defiant 
 Christ that stands like a superb athlete at the front, 
 hurling his enemies from him and calling his friends 
 toward him as Hercules might have done ; let any one 
 look upon that hideous wriggling mass that goes plung- 
 ing down through the air — serpents and men and beasts 
 of every nauseous kind, mixed together ; let him look at 
 the lower parts of the picture, where with pitchforks 
 men are by devils being cast into caldrons and into burn- 
 ing fires, where hateful fiends are gnawing the skulls of 
 suffering sinners, and where there is hellish cannibalism 
 going on — let a man look at that picture and the scenes 
 which it depicts, and he sees what were the ideas which 
 men once had of hell and of divine justice. It was a 
 nightmare as hideous as was ever begotten by the hellish 
 brood itself; and it was an atrocious slander on God. 
 ... I do not wonder that men have reacted from these 
 horrors — I honor them for it." {Plymouth Pulpit for Oct. 
 29, 1870.) 
 
 And this bold and eloquent divine further adds in the 
 same discourse : 
 
 " To allow such a stream of human existence to be fed 
 and renewed in every generation, which was pouring 
 over the precipice at the rate of thirty millions a year, 
 into such torments as the old method of representation 
 
34 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 presented to us, and at the same time to teach that God 
 was a loving Father — these two things have seemed so 
 difficult to multitudes of persons, that they have fled 
 from the attempt to reconcile them, and have abandoned 
 all belief in them." 
 
 And how does Mr. Beecher himself reconcile them ? 
 Or how does he understand and interpret the language 
 of the Bible which refers to the future state of the wicked ? 
 He frankly confesses his own blindness and confusion 
 here. He don't know what to make of this language. 
 " It goes to my heart to say these things," he says — i. e. 
 the things he finds in the Bible. " Yet it is there, and 
 if I am faithful to my whole duty I must preach it. As 
 a surgeon does things that are most uncongenial to him- 
 self, so sometimes do I. And I do this with tears and 
 with sorrow. It makes me sick." 
 
 It is plain, then, what was the old and universally re- 
 ceived doctrine among Christians concerning hell at the 
 time Swedenborg wrote. 
 
 Very few, however, believe this doctrine now. The 
 light that has been flowing into all minds from out the 
 new angelic heavens for the last hundred years, has so 
 clearly revealed its hideousness, that you will hardly find 
 an intelligent Christian of any denomination now-a-days, 
 who does not reject it. Most people have no rational 
 and clearly defined doctrine to take the place of the old ; 
 but this latter nobody now accepts. 
 
 The old doctrine, therefore, being such as we find it — 
 
THE OLD DOCTRINE. 35 
 
 so irrational and monstrous and cruel in itself — so utterly 
 repugnant to every true Christian feeling and to every 
 just conception of the character and government of God 
 — is it unreasonable to suppose that the Divine Being 
 would some day vouchsafe a further revelation to his 
 children on this subject ? If there ever was a subject on 
 which the minds of men were in utter and impene- 
 trable darkness, and on which, therefore, a further reve- 
 lation was needed, is it not the very subject we are con- 
 sidering ? And at what time should we expect the reve- 
 lation to be made, other than that when it seemed most 
 necessary — the time of densest spiritual darkness, when 
 such preposterous ideas as to the nature of hell and future 
 punishment as those I have here presented, were gener- 
 ally taught and accepted for revealed truth ? 
 
III. 
 
 THE NEW VIEW. 
 
 WE have seen what the doctrine of hell was, which 
 was generally taught and accepted by Christians 
 a hundred years ago. It was a doctrine quite in agree- 
 ment with the sensuous appearances of truth in the letter 
 of the Word ; and in agreement, therefore, with the gross 
 conceptions of men in a carnal and sensuous state. It 
 taught that hell was, literally, a lake of fire and brim- 
 stone ; — a place into which the wicked were to be finally 
 cast, not out of mercy to them, or from any consideration 
 of their comfort, improvement, or best welfare, but from 
 a feeling of Divine wrath and vindictiveness. It was 
 the generally accepted belief when Swedenborg wrote, 
 that this fiery lake was created for the express purpose of 
 inflicting upon sinners the most excruciating tortures 
 which Divine ingenuity could invent. 
 
 Moreover, according to the doctrine of that period, 
 the Supreme Judge of all the earth took a fiendish delight 
 in casting his rebellious offspring into that fiery gulf, 
 listening to their agonizing shrieks, and gazing on their 
 ceaseless and indescribable sufferings ! And no incon- 
 siderable part of the joys of heaven, it was also believed 
 36 
 
THE NEW DOCTRINE. 37 
 
 and taught, would spring from a clear view, given to 
 those there, of the dreadful torments of the damned, 
 and from a contemplation of the contrast between the 
 miserable condition of these latter, and their own happy 
 condition in the realms of bliss ! 
 
 Such was the dreadful doctrine taught from most if 
 not all of the pulpits in Christendom a hundred years 
 ago ! — taught for the revealed truth of God ! — taught by 
 the professed expounders of the Word of God ! — by the 
 acknowledged teachers and guides of the people in mat- 
 ters pertaining to man's immortal life ! 
 
 Yet intelligent people gravely ask, What need was there 
 of any new or further revelation at the time Swedenborg 
 lived and wrote? Considering how the Word of God 
 was then misunderstood and falsified by its professed ex- 
 pounders — in what fearful darkness the minds of pro- 
 fessing Christians were then immersed, not only upon 
 this subject but upon others also pertaining to religion, 
 it would, indeed, have been strange if a new revelation 
 had not then been made. 
 
 Nor need we wonder, in view of this horrible doctrine 
 concerning hell, which was commonly taught a hundred 
 years ago for Bible truth (to say nothing of other doc- 
 trines equally revolting), that so many in Christian lands 
 should have lost all faith in the Bible as a Divine revela- 
 tion ; and that many others who retain their faith, should 
 have come to deny the existence of any hell whatever in 
 the other world. Among the last and sure results of 
 
38 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 false teaching, are suspicions, doubts, denials, and finally 
 the total eclipse of all faith. 
 
 See how good men — ministers of the gospel even — who 
 have not accepted the rational and heart-cheering truths 
 of the New Dispensation, are troubled even in this our 
 day by what they suppose the Bible to teach in regard to 
 the future state of the wicked. Says the late Rev. Dr. 
 Barnes, one of the most distinguished of the Presbyterian 
 ministers of our country: — 
 
 " That any should suffer for ever, lingering on in hope- 
 less despair, and rolling amidst infinite torments without 
 the possibility of alleviation and without end ; that since 
 God can save men and will save a part, He has not pro- 
 posed to save all — these are real, not imaginary, difficul- 
 ties. . . . My whole soul pants for light and relief on 
 these questions. But I get neither ; and in the distress 
 and anguish of my own spirit, I confess that I see no 
 light whatever. I see not one ray to disclose to me why 
 sin came into the world ; why the earth is strewn with 
 the dying and the dead ; and why man must suffer to all 
 eternity. I have never seen a particle of light thrown 
 on these subjects, that has given a moment's ease to my 
 tortured mind. ... I confess, when I look on a world 
 of sinners and sufferers — upon death-beds and grave- 
 yards — upon the world of woe filled with hosts to suffer 
 for ever ; when I see my friends, my family, my people, 
 my fellow-citizens — when I look upon a whole race, all 
 involved in this sin and danger — and when I see the 
 
THE NEW DOCTRINE. 39 
 
 great mass of them wholly unconcerned, and when I feel 
 that God only can save them, and yet He does not do so, 
 I am struck dumb. It is all dark, dark, dark, to my 
 soul, and I cannot disguise it." 
 
 How many other good men are there among the Chris- 
 tian ministers of to-day, who, if they would but confess 
 the honest truth, would tell you that they are in just the 
 same darkness and distress that Dr. Barnes here confesses 
 to — if not upon the same subjects, then upon some others 
 no better understood. Yet Dr. Barnes himself, I pre- 
 sume, was so confirmed in all the dogmas of the Presby- 
 terian church, that the light of heaven as it beams out 
 from the luminous pages of Swedenborg, would have 
 seemed to him darkness as thick, perhaps, as that in 
 which he confessed himself to be ; — it could hardly have 
 seemed more dense. Verily, "the light shineth in dark- 
 ness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." 
 
 Certainly, then, a new revelation concerning the nature 
 of hell, or concerning the condition of the wicked in 
 the great Hereafter, was greatly needed when Sweden- 
 borg wrote ; and therefore it was to be expected. 
 
 Let us now examine the New doctrine on this subject, 
 and see whether it is really worthy of the origin claimed 
 for it; or whether it be as irrational as the Old one 
 which it comes professedly to displace. 
 B According to the new doctrine of the immortal life, 
 the human soul is in the same form as the material body 
 — that is, the human form. It is organized of spiritual 
 
4° NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 substance, as the natural body is of material substance. 
 It is the real individual — man, woman or child. It is 
 that in us which thinks, remembers, reasons, loves. It is 
 endowed with the senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. 
 — far more acute and perfect, too, than the bodily senses. 
 It is not subject to decay or death, but lives on after the 
 natural body dies. When that change which we call 
 death (and which is the death of the body) takes place, 
 the soul passes consciously into the spiritual world. It 
 was there before death, but ^-consciously while its out- 
 look was into the realm of nature ; just as the body in a 
 state of sleep is, unconsciously, in the natural world ; 
 and when it awakes, it becomes fully conscious of its 
 abode here. 
 
 While the soul tabernacles in the flesh, its senses are 
 ordinarily closed ; but when released from all connec- 
 tion with the body, its senses are all opened. It awakes 
 to a consciousness of its existence in the spiritual world. 
 It is then brought into open and sensible intercourse with 
 the people and objects of that world. Its eyes and ears 
 being opened, it sees and hears other spirits as plainly as 
 we see and hear one another. 
 
 And when the body dies, the character of every soul 
 is, and continues to be, essentially the same as it was 
 before death. And every one's character depends on 
 the nature of his supreme or governing purpose — that 
 is, on the character of his ruling love. If he were wise 
 and righteous before death — if he took delight in serving 
 
THE NEW DOCTRE\ T E. 41 
 
 and blessing others, he will be wise and righteous after, 
 will find still greater delight in serving and blessing, and 
 feel a more intense desire to serve and bless. But if he 
 loved himself supremely — if his chief aim in life was to 
 get gain for himself alone, to secure his own ease, com- 
 fort and advancement, and promote his own welfare, 
 careless of the welfare and the rights of others, he will 
 be in precisely the same state after death ; he will be 
 just as indifferent to the wants, the woes, the welfare and 
 the rights of others as he was before. If he had no 
 genuine love of the Lord and the neighbor before, he 
 will have none after. If meanness, dishonesty, lust, 
 tyranny, hatred, contempt of others in comparison with 
 himself, and selfish greed of gain, were in his heart be- 
 fore, he will be full of these same unclean and hateful 
 vermin after. As it is written : " He that is unjust, will 
 be unjust still ; and he that is filthy, will be filthy still ; 
 and he that is righteous, will be righteous still ; and he 
 that is holy, will be holy still. " 
 
 Heaven is within the soul ; so says the new doctrine. 
 It is essentially a state of life, not a place ; — a state of 
 supreme love to the Lord and the neighbor. It consists 
 in the reception and exercise of the Lord's own unselfish 
 love, which for ever seeks not its own, but the welfare 
 and happiness of others. The happiness of heaven re- 
 sults from the exercise of unselfish love. This love is 
 the angels' breath of life ; and the purer and more in- 
 tense it is, the more exalted is their bliss. 
 4 * 
 
42 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 We see how well this agrees with the teaching of our 
 Lord. For not only does He tell us that the sum of all 
 which the Law and the Prophets teach, is comprehended 
 in the two great commandments which require us to love 
 the Lord supremely and our neighbor as ourselves, but 
 He says also that " the kingdom of God is within you." 
 And the kingdom of God is the same as the kingdom of 
 heaven. Wherever love — pure, unselfish love — reigns, 
 there the Lord reigns ; there his kingdom is established 
 and his laws obeyed. 
 
 And as the kingdom of heaven is within, so also (says 
 the New doctrine) is the kingdom of hell. As heaven 
 consists essentially in love to the Lord and the neigh- 
 bor, which is the love of doing good and serving, so 
 hell consists essentially in the opposite kind of love — in 
 the love of one's own self; and this love is real hatred of 
 the neighbor. 
 
 Hell, therefore, is a state of life the very opposite to 
 that of heaven. It is a state in which the love of self 
 has absolute dominion in the heart. This love is the 
 fountain of all other evil loves. It is the primal source 
 of all infernal deeds. When it reigns supreme in the 
 heart, there is no evil thing which a man will not do 
 unless restrained by force, or by fear of loss, suffering or 
 damage of some sort. Hence the Lord says : " For out 
 of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
 fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy" — all the 
 
THE DOCTRIXE. 4.3 
 
 things which defile a man. or render him spiritually un- 
 clean. 
 
 e, then, where bell is and what it is, according 
 to the New doctrine. It is in the soul, and consists essen- 
 tially in the supreme love of self which prompts to all 
 infernal deeds. To have hell in the soul, or to be in a 
 state of supreme self-love, is to be in hell; just as having 
 heaven within, or loving the Lord supremely and the 
 neighbor as one's self, is to be in heaven. 
 
 N dw all men are bv natural inheritance more or less 
 selfish. Naturally, therefore, we are all in the low state 
 denoted by hell ; for we are dominated more or less abso- 
 lutely by the love of self. This is a low — a merely ani- 
 mal love; and as our corporeal or animal life unfolds 
 and matures, this love also unfolds and strengthens ; so 
 :h;.: v/ier. ~ ± hive :r.::.7.t:. :: f:._ rnir-iriry. :: is isi?l'.y 
 the strongest — the ruling love. But this is not our true 
 state. It is not the properly human state. It is not the 
 orderly or blissful state for which we were created. It 
 is not the state in which the Lord desires that we should 
 remain, because He desires that all should be happy. 
 Therefore He is in the constant effort to lift us out of 
 our carnal selfish state, and to make us unselfish and 
 loving like Himself. For this end He assumed our 
 natural humanity. For this end He has revealed the laws 
 of our higher or heavenly life. For this end He has 
 shown us very clearly the way to rise out of our natural 
 state of self-love, which is hell, into that higher and 
 
44 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 nobler state — that state of sweet unselfish love, which 
 is heaven. 
 
 This great change (for it is, indeed, a great change), or 
 this passing out of a low, natural, selfish state of life, into 
 one that is higher, richer, nobler — in short, into the 
 truly human state, is spoken of in the Bible as a "resur- 
 rection to newness of life;" as a "putting off of the 
 old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful 
 lusts," and a "putting on of the new man, which after 
 God is created in righteousness and true holiness;" as 
 " passing from death unto life ;" as being " born again " 
 — " born from above " — " born of God," without which, 
 we are assured, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven. 
 "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the king- 
 dom of God." 
 
 Now although the Lord desires that we should all pass 
 out of our low or hellish state, into that high and heav- 
 enly one which He has made us capable of attaining, 
 although He has told us how we may do so — has made 
 the way very plain — has assumed our nature with all its 
 hereditary and selfish proclivities that He might thereby 
 become to us THE WAY — yet He uses no compulsion. 
 He leaves all in freedom to either remain in their low 
 natural state, which is hell, or to rise out of it into that 
 exalted and unselfish state, which is heaveji. He has 
 made known the conditions upon which alone we can 
 rise ; and He is ever ready to lend us all needed help. 
 He is continually calling to us and saying, This is the 
 
THE NEW DOCTRINE. 45 
 
 way ; walk ye in it. But He does not take hold of us 
 like a policeman, and force us to walk in that way. No 
 one can be forced to heaven \ for no one can be forced 
 to shun evils as sins, nor to love what is good and true for 
 its own sake. To go to heaven, we must freely comply 
 with the conditions; and the conditions are, that we 
 voluntarily obey the laws of the heavenly life ; — that we 
 struggle with and overcome our selfish and evil propen- 
 sities; — that we deny self, take up our cross, and follow 
 the Lord in the regeneration. 
 
 Such, briefly, is the New doctrine concerning hell — 
 where it is, what it is, and how to escape it." Is there 
 anything in it absurd and revolting, as we have seen that 
 there is in the Old? Is there anything here against 
 which enlightened reason utters its emphatic protest? — 
 anything which impugns the wisdom or love of our 
 Heavenly Father ? 
 
 But how does this doctrine, it will be asked, accord 
 with the teaching of Scripture ? It may be reasonable — 
 far more reasonable than the Old doctrine. But is it 
 also Scriptural ? This is the question — and an important 
 one it is, too — which next claims and will receive atten- 
 tion. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT— SHE OL, HADES, GE- 
 HENNA, AND THE LAKE OF FIRE. 
 
 I HAVE said that while the Old doctrine of hell is 
 sensuous, and in agreement with a sensuous philoso- 
 phy and a sensuous interpretation of Scripture, the New 
 is eminently spiritual, and in harmony with the higher 
 spiritual philosophy and with the spiritual interpretation 
 of the Word. 
 
 For the essential difference between the Old and the 
 New doctrine, lies in this : That the Old represents hell 
 as a place, created by the Lord at the time of man's 
 creation, previous to his lapse into sin, and for the express 
 purpose of tormenting sinners ; while the New declares 
 it to be a certain internal state, wrought out in freedom 
 through the voluntary infraction of the soul's own laws, 
 or the laws of our higher life. Your child may reside in 
 the someplace with yourself — beneath the shelter of the 
 same roof, and surrounded by the same beautiful objects. 
 But by a course of willful disobedience or unreasonable 
 self-indulgence, that child may have destroyed its health, 
 impaired its senses, and rendered itself miserable and 
 wretched generally. And until its habits are changed 
 
 4G 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 47 
 
 and its health renewed, it will find rest and comfort in 
 no place however beautiful. 
 
 Both hell and heaven, according to the New Theology, 
 are within men. They are not places but states of life. 
 But in the other world, these states project themselves 
 outwardly, making all the surroundings of each spirit a 
 perfect mirror, as it were, of himself; — reflecting with 
 mathematical precision his own affections and thoughts. 
 Heaven is a state the very opposite of hell \ as opposite 
 as day is to night, light to darkness, health to sickness, 
 love to hate, good to evil. The essential life of heaven, 
 is the life of disinterested love — love to the Lord and 
 the neighbor. The essential life of hell, is the life of 
 self-love; and this is real hatred of the neighbor. 
 Heaven is a state in which the understanding is illu- 
 mined by the light of truth ; hell is a state in which it is 
 obscured by the darkness of falsity. Heaven is a state 
 of spiritual health, order, peace and joy unutterable ; 
 hell is a state of spiritual sickness, disorder, unrest and 
 comparative sorrow. In the most exalted heavenly state, 
 every one loves others even more than he loves himself; 
 in hell, and in all hellish states, every one hates others 
 in comparison with himself. Heaven is a state of hu- 
 mility, self-forgetfulness, and of sweet and serene trust 
 in the Lord ; hell is a state of pride, self-seeking, and 
 inward alienation from and opposition to the Lord. 
 Heaven is a state of the most delightful freedom, in 
 which every one finds his highest gratification in the 
 
48 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 performance of good uses from love to the Lord and 
 his neighbor ; hell is a state of spiritual thraldom, in 
 which no useful act is performed from love of or delight 
 in the use, but only by compulsion, as a slave works 
 under the lash. 
 
 It should be said, however, that the love of self is evil 
 and makes man an infernal only when it is the supreme 
 and ruling love. Then it is out of its place and the soul 
 is in disorder... In its right place, which is a state of 
 subordination and complete subjection to the nobler 
 love of heaven, it is good and useful. Says Sweden- 
 borg: 
 
 " These three loves [the love of heaven, the love of 
 the world, and the love of self] are related to each other 
 like the three regions of the body, the highest of which 
 is the head, the intermediate the chest and abdomen, 
 while the legs and feet and soles of the feet form the 
 third. When the love of heaven forms the head, the 
 love of the world the chest and abdomen, and the love 
 of self the feet with the soles of the feet, then man is in 
 a perfect state according to creation, because the two 
 lower loves then subserve the highest as the body and 
 all its parts subserve the head." {True Christian Relig- 
 ion, 403.) 
 
 But when the love of self or of the world is as the 
 head* — is supreme — then the true order is reversed ; the 
 man is turned, as it were, upside down ; the love of 
 heaven is as the feet, and he tramples on the laws of 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 49 
 
 justice and neighborly love as often as his ruler (self- 
 love) dictates. 
 
 Such, according to Swedenborg is the essential nature 
 of heaven and hell. They are both within the human 
 soul, and consist in essentially opposite states of life — 
 opposite kinds of love — resulting by inevitable sequence, 
 in character, conduct, modes of government, and an 
 outward or objective world, as different as are the loves 
 that rule in these two kingdoms respectively. 
 
 Surely there is nothing unreasonable in all this. But 
 how does it agree with the teachings of Scripture ? That 
 is the question for present consideration. And the first 
 thing that claims attention, is the meaning of the word 
 Hell. To ascertain this, we must go to the original lan- 
 guages of the Bible. 
 
 SHEOL AND HADES. 
 
 The Hebrew word translated Hell, is Sheol. And 
 Sheol, according to its primary literal import, means the 
 under world, or a vast subterranean place pervaded by 
 thick darkness. Hence this word is sometimes translated 
 the grave, as in Genesis xxxvii. 35 ; xlii. 38. The corre- 
 sponding Greek word is Hades. This has the same 
 meaning as Sheol, and is always used instead of it in the 
 Greek version of the Old Testament. And as further 
 evidence of their identity of import, we find the passage 
 from the sixteenth Psalm, "Thou wilt not leave my soul 
 
 in hell M etc., quoted in the Acts of the apostles (ch.ii.). 
 5 D 
 
SO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 And in the Old Testament the Hebrew word for Hell in 
 this passage is Sheol, and in the New it is Hades, — prov- 
 ing that these words have one and the same meaning. 
 
 Such being the plain literal import of the Hebrew 
 Sheol, and its Greek equivalent Hades, some theologians 
 have contended that our English word hell ought to be 
 restricted in its meaning to the natural world ; for, 
 according to the strictly literal import both of the Greek 
 and Hebrew word, it means simply the grave, or a low and 
 dark place — a place underground; and has no reference 
 whatever to the condition of the wicked in the other 
 world, or to anything beyond the natural realm. 
 
 And if the Bible is to be literally interpreted — if it 
 contains no meaning beyond that which lies upon the 
 surface, and which is obvious to the merely natural or 
 sensuous mind, these theologians certainly have the best 
 of the argument. What answer can the literalist consist- 
 ently give? For how, according to his theory, is this 
 word hell made to refer to the condition of the wicked 
 in the other world ? Why should it not be restricted in 
 its meaning, to that which it literally denotes, viz., the 
 grave, or a dark subtei^'anean region ? 
 
 Yet there are insuperable difficulties which those who 
 contend for such a limitation of the meaning of this 
 word, have to encounter. For, to be consistent in their 
 hermeneutics, they should limit the meaning of the term 
 heaven in precisely the same way. They should insist 
 on restricting the meaning of this word also to the realm 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 5 1 
 
 of nature ; and should maintain that it has no reference 
 to the condition of the righteous in the other world — for, 
 in its obvious literal sense it has not. 
 
 The word in the original Hebrew, translated heaven in 
 our English version, is shdmayim ; and the literal signifi- 
 cation of this is, the firmament, or the space above the 
 earth. It comes (so the best linguists tell us) from an 
 obsolete root, shdmd, whose meaning in the cognate 
 Arabic language is, to be high, or lifted up. And to this 
 Arabic radical lexicographers refer the Hebrew term as 
 denoting an elevated locality — a high place. The Greek 
 equivalent of this Hebrew word is ouranos, which is also 
 translated by our English heaven, and means the same as 
 shdi7iayi7n ; that is, the space above the earth, or the vast 
 concave that surrounds the earth. And according to 
 most philologists it comes from the Greek radical orao, 
 which means to see — referring to the space above or 
 around the earth, where by means of the sun's light 
 objects are visible. 
 
 We find, therefore, that the words heaven and hell, 
 which occur so often in the sacred Volume, refer — in 
 their plain, obvious, literal sense, as gathered from the 
 Hebrew and Greek terms — to merely natural localities; 
 one, to a place that is high, or to a region above the 
 earth, involving also the idea or possibility of clear- 
 seeing ; the other, to a place that is low, or to a region 
 beneath the earth, involving also the idea of darkness, 
 or great difficulty in seeing. And if the literalists, or 
 
52 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 those who deny that the Scripture everywhere contains a 
 spiritual sense, would be consistent, they should restrict 
 the meaning of both these words to the natural world — 
 and to things without, not within the soul of man. For 
 all good Biblical scholars know that neither heaven nor 
 hell, according to the literal import of their equivalent 
 Greek and Hebrew terms, conveys an idea of anything 
 above the realm of nature. 
 
 But there is abundant Scripture evidence that these 
 terms are not to be thus restricted in their meaning. 
 There is evidence that they refer to states and conditions 
 of two widely different classes of people in the spiritual 
 world. Thus the seer of Patmos tells us of persons and 
 things that he saw in heaven, when he was " in the 
 spirit," or when u a door was opened" to him in 
 heaven. Surely the myriads of angels whom he beheld, 
 were not seen with his natural eyes, nor in that region of 
 natural space above our earth. No : John's spiritual eyes 
 were opened, and this enabled him to see the beings 
 and objects of the spiritual world. 
 
 The Apostle Paul tells us that, on a certain occasion, 
 he was " caught up to the third heaven," and heard 
 there things which natural language cannot express. 
 How " caught up"? Was the apostle's material body 
 lifted through natural space into the upper regions of 
 the air ? No one, I presume, believes this. No one sup- 
 poses that his corporeal part underwent any change of 
 place. No doubt there was to the apostle the appearance 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 53 
 
 of being suddenly lifted up ; but this appearance was 
 caused by, and was in perfect correspondence with, a 
 change which took place at that time in the condition 
 of the apostle's own mind. It was produced by a sudden 
 opening of his spiritual senses even to the third degree.* 
 No one ever was or ever can be carried to heaven — the 
 heaven of which the Bible speaks — by being elevated 
 bodily to the upper regions of space ; — no, not even if 
 he were lifted higher than the stars. 
 
 Then in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, we find the 
 rich man represented as alive and in hell after the death 
 and burial of his material body ; which proves conclu- 
 sively that the hell of which the Bible speaks, is not any 
 region of natural space, but the state or condition of the 
 wicked — and a state, too, in which they find themselves 
 after the death of the body. 
 
 How, then, are we to arrive at the true Scripture im- 
 
 * According to Swedenborg, man is endowed with spiritual senses, 
 which are ordinarily closed during his sojourn in the flesh. Yet 
 these senses may be and sometimes are opened during his abode on 
 earth; and when opened, he is intromitted into the spiritual world, 
 and sees the objects and hears the sounds of that world as plainly as 
 with his natural senses he sees and hears the objects and sounds 
 of the natural world. And if the spiritual senses are opened to 
 the third or inmost degree (for there are three degrees to the mind 
 corresponding to the three angelic heavens) the individual is there- 
 by intromitted into the third or highest heaven. This, Swedenborg 
 tells us, is the way in which he was admitted into heaven while on 
 earth. And it was the way in which Paul was " caught up." 
 5* 
 
54 JVEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 port of the terms heaven and hell? — for in their obvious 
 literal sense, they are both used to designate natural 
 localities — one a high and illumined, the other a low and 
 dark place. According to what principle or law is their 
 true meaning to be elicited ? 
 
 Swedenborg answers this question, as no one else has 
 ever answered it. (Let the reader, if he would appre- 
 ciate the full force of the answer, bear in mind that the 
 Bible everywhere represents heaven and hell as opposite 
 kingdoms — opposite as light and darkness, love and hate, 
 truth and falsity, righteousness and sin, happiness and 
 misery) — He tells us that the written Word is composed 
 throughout upon the principle of correspondence ; that, 
 between all natural and spiritual things, there is a cor- 
 respondence like that existing between the body and the 
 soul; and that the Sacred Scripture, therefore, in each 
 and all its parts, contains both a spiritual and a natural 
 sense, which stand related like the spiritual and the nat- 
 ural worlds, or like the soul and body of man. The 
 spiritual sense is as the soul ; the natural sense, as the 
 body. As the body's life is from the indwelling soul or 
 spirit, so the life of every part of the written Word is 
 from the spiritual sense. The body of man without the 
 soul, has no life ; neither is there life in the letter of the 
 Word when divorced from its inner spiritual meaning. 
 It is by virtue of their spiritual sense that the Lord's 
 words are spirit and life ; for he says : " The words that 
 I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." And 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 55 
 
 the apostle also clearly recognizes the same truth when 
 he says : " The letter killeth; but the spirit giveth life." 
 
 Agreeably to this doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, 
 therefore, the words heaven and hell have each a natural 
 sense such as I have already explained, and a spiritual 
 sense with which the natural corresponds. Natural space 
 corresponds to spiritual or mental state. Hence all 
 words of Scripture, which in their natural sense refer to 
 space, in their spiritual sense denote states of the mind. 
 Accordingly there is natural elevation, and spiritual eleva- 
 tion ; elevation in space and elevation in state. And the 
 term heaven, which in its natural sense refers to elevation 
 in space, in its spiritual sense denotes elevation of state ; 
 — that exalted condition of mind and heart, that state of 
 clear perception of whatever is beautiful and true, and of 
 disinterested love for all that is good and right, in which 
 the angels are. 
 
 So, too, there is natural lowness, and spiritual lowness ; 
 the former having reference to space, the latter to state. 
 And the term hell, which in its natural sense denotes a 
 low place or a region under ground, in its spiritual sense 
 denotes a low groveling state of mind ; — that state of 
 carnal desire and selfish craving and obscure perception 
 and blunted moral sensibility, in which the devils are. 
 
 We often use the words high and low in their spiritual 
 sense in familiar discourse ; and always when we have 
 occasion to apply them to moral or human qualities, 
 though in their primary literal signification they have 
 
56 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 reference only to natural space. We employ them to 
 designate superiority and inferiority of character, or of 
 mental and moral attributes. Thus we speak familiarly 
 of a high order of intellect, of a high-minded man, of 
 lofty souls, superior worth, exalted wisdom and love. 
 We say of an individual that he stands high in the com- 
 munity, high in the church or in the state, that he is 
 above others, etc., when our meaning is that he is spirit- 
 ually or mentally above them — superior in wisdom, skill, 
 integrity, and moral worth. And equally often in famil- 
 iar discourse is the word low used in a similar way. As 
 when it is said of a mean and selfish man, that he is a 
 person of a low mind, low desires, low motives, or that 
 he is a low fellow. Indeed, the correspondence between 
 the natural and spiritual import of these terms, is so 
 obvious that it has never been lost sight of. Every one 
 perceives it from common influx. 
 
 The Lord is called the Most High in Scripture, and is 
 said to dwell on high, above the earth, and above the 
 heavens. Surely it is not with any reference to natural 
 locality that such things are predicated of the omnipresent 
 One. No rational mind thinks of interpreting such lan- 
 guage literally ; for no one thinks of localizing the Divine 
 Being. He is in all space — in the depths beneath as 
 truly as in the heights above — yet is Himself without 
 space. But on account of the infinite purity and excel- 
 lence of his character — because, in respect to the human 
 attributes of love, wisdom and power, He is infinitely 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. SI 
 
 exalted above men and angels, He is said to be above all 
 the earth, above the heavens, the Most High, etc. 
 
 Yes : — The Scripture has everywhere a deeper meaning 
 than that of the letter. It was given, not to teach us 
 natural but spiritual truth. And it is by means of the 
 law or rule of correspondence now revealed, that its true 
 spiritual meaning is to be elicited. Space corresponds 
 to state. And the words high and low, therefore, which 
 in their natural sense refer to opposite regions of space, 
 in their spiritual sense denote opposite mental states — 
 opposite kinds of love. The Lord is spiritually the Most 
 High. Therefore those who draw near to Him spirit- 
 ually, who become like Him in the spirit and temper of 
 their minds, are spiritually exalted. And because all the 
 angels are images and likenesses of Himself — because 
 they resemble Him in their love, wisdom and works — 
 because their affections, thoughts, motives, purposes are 
 all pure, noble and elevated, therefore they are said to 
 dwell on high ; or, what is equivalent, in heaven. 
 
 And on the other hand those who are spiritually most 
 remote from the Lord, who are most unlike Him in dis- 
 position and character, whose aims are altogether selfish, 
 whose affections, thoughts, motives and actions are low 
 and ignoble, and contrary to the nature of the Divine 
 Love, and who are, therefore, in a state the very opposite 
 to that of the angels, are said to dwell in a low place, 
 beneath the earth ; or what is the same, in hell. 
 
 I have said, moreover, that the Greek word translated 
 
58 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 heaven, involves the idea of light, being derived from a 
 verb which signifies to see ; and that the original word 
 translated hell, involves the idea of darkness, being 
 composed of two words, which together mean impossible 
 to see, or where one cannot see. Here, again, let that 
 magic Key, the law of Correspondence, be applied ; and 
 observe the result. 
 
 Light and darkness, like all other objects, have a two- 
 fold signification — an outer and an inner, or a natural 
 and a spiritual meaning. Light in its natural sense, is 
 the light of the natural world, which affects our natural 
 organs of vision. But spiritual light is of a different 
 nature, though in perfect correspondence with the natural. 
 It is the light of the spiritual world ; and although in its 
 essence it is divine truth, it appears before the eyes of 
 the angels as light. They see by means of it. This light 
 proceeds from the Lord who is the Sun of the spiritual 
 world — a Sun that appears to the angels immeasurably 
 more brilliant than the sun of our world appears to us. It 
 is the light of this spiritual Sun which illumines the minds 
 of both angels and men. This is " the true light which 
 lighteth every man that cometh into the world. " 
 
 And as natural darkness is the absence of natural light, 
 so spiritual darkness is the absence of spiritual light. 
 But there are two causes of natural darkness ; one is the 
 absence of light, and the other is a diseased state of 
 the organs of vision. The darkness from the first of 
 these causes is seldom of long duration ; and if the 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 59 
 
 organs of vision are preserved in a healthy condition, 
 we shall be able to see when the light comes. But the 
 darkness produced by the second cause is, indeed, de- 
 plorable. However brightly the light may shine, it is (if 
 the eye-sight be gone) as if the sun were blotted out. 
 The brightness of noon-day is as midnight darkness 
 to us. 
 
 So, likewise, there are two corresponding causes of 
 spiritual darkness. One is, the absence of truth, or 
 spiritual light. But this kind of darkness may soon be 
 dispersed. For a person may be ignorant, and therefore 
 in spiritual darkness \ yet he may preserve his mind in 
 such an honest and healthy condition, that he will be 
 able to understand and receive the truth so soon as it is 
 presented to him. But there is another and far more 
 deplorable kind of spiritual darkness. It is that which 
 results from disobedience to the known laws of the 
 heavenly life. It is the darkness into which those fall, 
 who, under the influence of selfish and evil loves, confirm 
 themselves in various false ideas contrary to the revealed 
 Word of the Lord. For everywhere and always is it 
 true, that "he who doeth evil hateth the light, neither 
 cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved.' ' 
 Persons who, under the prompting influence of infernal 
 loves, disregard and trample on the laws of their inner 
 life, and so obscure their moral perceptions, come at last 
 to hate the light of truth, and shun it as owls and bats 
 shun the light of day. Their understanding becomes 
 
60 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 diseased ; their mental eye, adjusted to error. And how- 
 ever bright the truth may shine, they do not see it. To 
 them it appears as falsity. They " put darkness for light 
 and light for darkness. M Therefore the Lord says : "If 
 thine eye be single [or more correctly, sound, healthy] 
 thy whole body shall be full of light ; but if thine eye be 
 evil [i. e., unsound, diseased], thy whole body shall be 
 full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee 
 be darkness, how great is that darkness!'' Matt. vi. 
 22, 23. 
 
 Agreeably to this, Swedenborg often tells us that the 
 denizens of heaven dwell in light inconceivably more 
 brilliant than the light of this world ; while those in 
 hell live in great darkness — for their understandings are 
 darkened by innumerable falsities originating in evil 
 lusts. Milton had a perception of this great truth when 
 he sang : 
 
 " He that hath light within his own clear breast, 
 May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day; 
 But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, 
 Benighted walks under the mid-day sun, 
 Himself is his own dungeon." 
 
 There is a great darkness within all evil spirits, and this 
 produces the darkness without ; for in the other world 
 everything without is but the reflection, under the great 
 law of correspondence, of the state or quality of life 
 within. But evil spirits do not appear to themselves to 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 6 1 
 
 be in such darkness as they really are. Neither do evil 
 men, whose understandings are darkened by falsities 
 originating in evil loves. They even imagine themselves 
 in clearer light than others. And so do the devils think 
 they -see far better than the angels. But their light is the 
 light of fatuity — the dim (yet mercifully accommodated) 
 light of perverted natures — which, compared with the 
 light that shines in heaven, is as the light from ignited 
 coals compared with the splendor of the noon-day sun. 
 
 From what has been said, and from the correspond- 
 ence of light and darkness, we may see why the Divine 
 Saviour — the embodiment and living manifestation of 
 the Truth — calls himself " the light of the world " ; and 
 why He says to those who had not previously known the 
 truth, but had nevertheless kept themselves in a state to 
 receive it, "They that sit in darkness and in the shadow 
 of death, upon them hath the light shined.' , We may 
 see also why it is said that " God is light, and in Him is 
 no darkness at all"; and of the wicked, that "they 
 walk in darkness," and will finally be "cast into the 
 outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of 
 teeth." 
 
 All who do not, while here on earth, resist and over- 
 come their evil loves, find themselves in that "outer 
 darkness ' ' when they enter the other world ; for through 
 the indulgence of their evil lusts they shut out the light 
 of God and the things of his wisdom from their minds. 
 They are, therefore, excluded from the kingdom of 
 
62 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 heaven, having no heaven, and no love for the things 
 which constitute heaven, in their hearts. Whatever 
 truths they have ever known, they now reject and turn 
 away from, because such truths condemn their evil loves. 
 And so they immerse themselves altogether in falsities, 
 for these are in agreement with their evils. Hence 
 there are endless strifes and bickerings among them ; for 
 each one fights for his own falsity, and calls it truth. 
 And the jarring discord and angry disputes among those 
 who are in falsities, joined also with mutual hatred, 
 derision and contempt, are what the gnashing of teeth 
 corresponds to, and what it, therefore, spiritually denotes. 
 
 GEHENNA AND THE LAKE OF FIRE. 
 
 But the Bible speaks of a fire in the great Hereafter — 
 of the fire of hell, the everlasting fire, a furnace of fire ; 
 a lake burning with fire and brimstone, etc. And in 
 this hell-fire, or lake of fire, it is said that the wicked 
 will have their part. And the rich man in the parable is 
 represented as saying, " I am tormented in this fiame ; " — 
 and this, after he had died and was buried. 
 
 I presume few intelligent Christians now-a-days think 
 of interpreting such language according to the strict 
 sense of the letter — as it was interpreted a hundred years 
 ago. They will tell you that this language is figurative, 
 though none of them may be able to tell precisely what 
 was meant to be conveyed by it. But Swedenborg, in 
 his great doctrine of Correspondence, has furnished the 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 63 
 
 true key to its meaning. He has given us the spiritual 
 meaning of hell-fire, or the Gehenna of fire, and told us 
 what it is in the human soul that fire corresponds to. 
 
 But as the literal sense is the foundation of the spir- 
 itual, it is necessary always to give careful attention to 
 this first. 
 
 In the original Greek, Gehenna is the word translated 
 hell, where the fire of hell, or the hell of fire, is spoken of. 
 And Gehenna is a Hebrew word transplanted into the 
 Greek, with but little variation in its form. It is composed 
 of two other Hebrew words, Gai or Ge, which means a 
 valley, and Hinno7n, the name of a man. The literal 
 meaning, therefore, of Gehenna is, the valley of Hinnofn. 
 This valley was south-east of, and near to, Jerusalem. 
 The brook Kedron ran through it. Here the Jews at 
 one time practiced the most impious idolatry. They 
 had an image dedicated to Moloch, to which they offered 
 in sacrifice not only bulls, lambs, rams, etc., but even 
 their own children, who were placed in the arms of the 
 image previously heated by a fire within, and thus were 
 quickly destroyed. On this account the place subse- 
 quently came to be regarded with such abhorrence, that 
 it was made the common receptacle of all the filth and 
 rubbish of the city. The dead bodies of animals as 
 well as of the most notorious criminals, were there 
 thrown into one common heap. And a fire was kept 
 continually burning to prevent the atmosphere from be- 
 coming pestilential — the worms, meanwhile, reveling in 
 
64 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 a luxurious repast upon the remains of the rubbish which 
 the fire failed to consume. 
 
 Here we have the primary, literal signification of the 
 Gehemia of fire, which our translators have rendered hell- 
 fire. It means the fire that burned in that loathsome 
 valley of Hinnom. And as the last punishment and dis- 
 grace of condemned criminals was, to cast their dead 
 bodies into that valley or that fire, the place came to be 
 used as an appropriate symbol of the condition of those 
 in the other world, who had violated, and persisted in 
 violating, the laws of eternal love and justice revealed 
 in the Divine Word. 
 
 But what is the precise spiritual meaning of this hell- 
 fire, or Gehenna of fire, as elicited by Swedenborg's 
 grand Key — the rule of Correspondence?' And we 
 must never forget that the spiritual meaning. of Scripture, 
 if we can ascertain what that really is, is its true mean- 
 ing. For the Lord has himself declared that his words 
 "are spirit and life." 
 
 What, then, is the spiritual correspondent of fire? 
 Swedenborg answers, "Love." Love, he says, is spirit- 
 ual fire or heat. Love is life ; and every man, therefore, 
 has some kind of love, because he has life. To wholly 
 deprive him of We, would be to extinguish the vital 
 spark — yes, to annihilate him. Love is the motive 
 power in whatever a man thinks, wills, says or does. 
 As heat is the proximate cause of all activity, germina- 
 tion, expansion and growth in the natural world, so love 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 65 
 
 is the cause of all activity, germination, expansion and 
 growth in the moral or spiritual realm. Deprived of all 
 love, a man would be like the earth deprived of all heat 
 — unproductive and dead. While the more passionately 
 he loves any object or being — it may be a woman, it 
 may be wealth, it may be literary or scientific fame, it 
 may be civil or military glory — the more alive and 
 active he is. See how the lower kinds of love — the 
 purely selfish and worldly — the love of gold or glory, 
 incite men to days of toil and nights of watchfulness ! 
 And the higher and nobler kinds — loves purer and more 
 angelic — are the springs of action in all men's higher 
 and nobler achievements, in all deeds done to improve 
 and bless mankind. Take away all love from human 
 hearts, and what would men do then ? And the less pas- 
 sionately one loves, the more sluggish he is in thought and 
 action — the less is he alive. So obvious is it that love is 
 the quickener and enlivener of the human soul, the very 
 fire of every man's life. And the character of each one, 
 therefore, or the quality of his life, is according to the 
 nature of this fire. 
 
 The correspondence between natural and spiritual fire, 
 or natural and spiritual heat, is placed beyond a doubt 
 when we reflect upon the fact that the body grows warm 
 in proportion as any kind of love is enkindled or inten- 
 sified in the soul. The love may be impure and devil- 
 ish, such as those feel who are full of anger or revenge ; 
 
 still it produces bodily heat ; the face reddens and the 
 6* E 
 
66 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 circulation is quickened. Again, the body grows cold 
 as love departs, or as its activity ceases. All of which 
 proves that there exists, between natural heat or fire and 
 spiritual heat or love, a relation like that between cause 
 and effect. And this kind of relation is what Sweden- 
 borg means by Correspondence. 
 
 It is for the same reason, also, that the bodies of chil- 
 dren and young persons are usually warmer than those 
 of the aged. They have more love in their hearts, or 
 their love is more active \ and this quickens the circula- 
 tion of their blood. For a similar reason, again, we call 
 persons whose hearts are full of love and sympathy, 
 Z£w/;z-hearted ; and those who seem to have no love for 
 anybody, cold-hearted. Then how often do we hear 
 Christians pray that the Lord would kindle in their hearts 
 a heavenly fire ! And sometimes they pray that He 
 would warm them with his love. For the same reason 
 we hear it said of an angry man, especially if his anger 
 breaks forth in deeds of violence, that he is inflamed, 
 burns with anger, is all on fire, etc. And does not the 
 internal fire at such times manifest itself in the counte- 
 nance as well as in the gestures and tones of the voice ? 
 
 Furthermore, the wise man says: "A hot mind is a 
 burning fire." And the inspired Psalmist calls the Lord 
 " a consuming fire" ; and says that " a fire goeth before 
 Him, and burneth up his enemies round about Him." 
 Does any one believe that the Lord is literally a con- 
 suming fire? or that He literally burns up his enemies? 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 67 
 
 No : This language, like all of the inspired Word, is 
 the language of correspondence. It contains a spiritual 
 meaning. And in this, which is its true meaning, it ex- 
 presses the intensity of the Divine Love, and its effect 
 upon the wicked. Those who are in states of opposition 
 to the Lord, change his love in themselves into its oppo- 
 site ; just as the deadly night-shade changes the sweet 
 dews and sunshine into poison. They cannot receive 
 his love as it is, because of their own state. They, feel it 
 as something wrathful, fiery, burning. To them it is as a 
 consuming fire ; for they change its nature at the moment 
 of receiving it. In its origin all love is pure and good ; 
 for it is all from Him who is Love itself. But its quality 
 or nature is changed in the recipient subjects. (See Swe- 
 den?) org' s Heaven and Hell, n. 569.) 
 
 Now there are in general two very different and even 
 opposite kinds of love. There is a love of the Lord and 
 the neighbor, which is good \ and there is a love of self 
 and the world, which, when it reigns supreme in the 
 heart, is evil, and prompts to all kinds of wickedness. 
 And one or the other of these loves bears rule in every 
 man, spirit, or angel, and constitutes the very fire of his 
 life. Good men and angelic spirits live in the former, 
 and wicked men and evil spirits live in the latter kind 
 of love. There is, therefore, a heavenly and a hellish 
 love ; or, speaking in the language of correspondence, 
 there is a heavenly fire and a hell fire — the term fire de- 
 noting the love or delight which constitutes the life. 
 
68 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 "Infernal fire," says Swedenborg, "is the love of 
 self and the world \ therefore it is every lust which 
 springs from these loves ; for lust is love in its continuity, 
 since a man continually lusts after what he loves ; and 
 it is likewise delight, for what a man loves or lusts 
 after, he perceives as delightful when he obtains it; nor 
 is heart-felt delight communicated to him from any other 
 source. 
 
 "Infernal fire, therefore, is the lust and delight which 
 spring from the love of self and the world as from their 
 fountain. The evils originating in these two loves, are 
 contempt of others, enmity and hostility against those 
 who do not favor them, envy, hatred and revenge, and 
 as a consequence of these, savageness and cruelty. And 
 in regard to the Divine, they consist in the denial, and 
 hence in the contempt, mocking, and reviling of the holy 
 things belonging to the church; and after death, when 
 man becomes a spirit, these evils are turned into anger 
 and hatred against those holy things. . . . These are the 
 things signified by fire in the Word, where the wicked 
 and the hells are treated of." — Heaven and Hell, n. 570. 
 
 The supreme love of self, therefore, according to the 
 New Theology, together with all the unholy passions and 
 malignant feelings which proceed from it, and the infer- 
 nal delight felt in the indulgence of filthy lusts, is what 
 is meant by hell-fire in the true spiritual sense. This is 
 what the Gehenna of fire corresponds to ; for the delight 
 arising from the gratification of mean, base, and purely 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 69 
 
 selfish desires, is a flame supported by that heap of spirit- 
 ual filth and rubbish, which renders the heart of man 
 unclean. 
 
 From what has now been said, the meaning of that 
 "lake of fire burning with brimstone" spoken of in the 
 Revelation, in which "the fearful, and unbelieving, and 
 abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sor- 
 cerers, and idolaters, and all liars ' ' shall have their part, 
 is sufficiently obvious. Brimstone corresponds to the 
 filthy lusts of the natural man. These, through un- 
 bridled indulgence, feed and support the flame of infer- 
 nal love, as brimstone feeds and supports the flame of 
 natural fire. Such lusts are spiritual brimstone. 
 
 Those, therefore, who are immersed in evil concupis- 
 cences originating in the love of self, are in precisely 
 the state which corresponds to being in a " lake that burn- 
 etii with fire and brimstone. ' ' Such a lake is a perfect 
 symbol, framed under the law of correspondence, of the 
 spiritual condition of the wicked. Hence it is said that, 
 in the great Hereafter, they will have their part in this 
 lake. They are in it now and here, but not so entirely 
 as they will be then and there. 
 
 But a smoke is said to issue from that lake. "The 
 smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." 
 What does this mean ? 
 
 If the fire and the brimstone are not to be literally in- 
 terpreted, neither is the smoke. If the former are sym- 
 
70 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 bols of something spiritual, the latter should be so like- 
 wise. And so, indeed, it is. 
 
 We know it is the tendency of all infernal passions 
 and propensities originating in the love of self, to darken 
 the understanding in spiritual things ; — to obscure our 
 perceptions of what is just and true and good. While 
 the more unselfish a man is, the more reverently he heeds 
 the still small voice within him, the more earnestly he 
 strives to do the will of the Heavenly Father, the clearer 
 becomes his moral vision, the keener his perception of 
 the true and right upon questions involving the higher 
 and more permanent interests of humanity. Hence we 
 read : " If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be 
 full of light ; but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body 
 shall be full of darkness." "If any man will do his 
 will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be from 
 God." "He that doeth truth, cometh to the light." 
 Which texts conspire to prove that purity of purpose and 
 the faithful doing of the truth, are indispensable to clear- 
 ness of mental vision upon subjects of profoundest in- 
 terest. But where the love of self is supreme, and there 
 is no regard for God or duty, and no respect for the 
 great laws of love and justice, there the understanding 
 is darkened ; there the moral perceptions are obscured, 
 and the true and right are not seen. As saith the in- 
 spired penman: "The sun and the air are darkened by 
 the smoke of the abyss." 
 
 From this we may see what is meant in the spiritual 
 
SHEOL, HADES, GEHENNA, ETC. 7 1 
 
 sense by "the smoke of the pit," and the smoke that 
 "ascendeth up for ever and ever." It is that darkened 
 understanding, that mental obscurity which results from 
 the fire of a supremely selfish love, which is the fire of 
 hell. And in the other world where all outward appear- 
 ances correspond to internal states, a cloud of smoke 
 actually appears round about infernal societies when they 
 are seen in heavenly light. 
 
 Thus we see that the doctrine announced by Sweden- 
 borg concerning the nature of hell, however it differs 
 from the literal teaching of the Bible, is in perfect agree- 
 ment with the teaching of its spiritual sense. No candid 
 mind can deny that it is, indeed, the very doctrine of 
 the Bible on this subject, and in harmony with the whole 
 scope of its teaching as well as with all we know of the 
 wisdom of God and the nature of man. 
 
 Then look at its obvious, practical tendency. By 
 showing hell to be a state instead of a place, it teaches 
 every one to look within himself, at his own heart ; to 
 examine carefully his dominant love, his ends and aims in 
 life, his ruling principles of action. It teaches us, more- 
 over, what that state is : and that those, and those only, 
 go to hell, who carry in their bosoms the loves that rule 
 in hell ; and therefore that those only escape it, who 
 resist and overcome these loves. It shows us that only 
 those shun hell, who shun as sins against God the indul- 
 gence of the dispositions and loves of hell ; — who shun, 
 
7 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 from religious principle, all wicked arts and devices, all 
 base and dishonest actions, all falsehood, fraud, deceit, 
 revenge and hate, all dispositions and actions that tend 
 to separate us from God and heaven and bring us into 
 fellowship with devils. It teaches further, that if we do 
 not, here on earth, strive to do the Heavenly Father's 
 will, and so vanquish within us the loves of hell, we 
 shall carry those loves with us into the other world, 
 where they will burst forth with quenchless rage. 
 
 Thus the practical tendency of this doctrine is good, 
 and only good. It tends to make men less regardful of 
 self, and more regardful of God and duty; — more 
 honest and sincere in their conduct, more kind and 
 generous in their feelings, more correct in their prin- 
 ciples, more exalted in their aims, more pure in heart 
 and life. 
 
V 
 
 HELL— THE CHOSEN HOME OF ALL WHO GO 
 
 THERE. 
 
 'TT^HAT the reasonableness and truth of the New doo 
 
 -^- trine of hell may be more apparent, and the sharp 
 
 contrast between it and the Old be more clearly seen — 
 
 as well as its consistency with the perfect wisdom and 
 
 love of God, something more must be said about that 
 
 essential element of our humanity — freedom. 
 
 We have seen that the Old doctrine is based upon the 
 
 literal teaching of Scripture wholly divorced from its 
 
 living spirit; and that it is in harmony with the sensuous 
 
 conceptions and sensuous philosophy of a by-gone Age ; 
 
 while the New is eminently spiritual, in strict accord 
 
 with the spirit of the Word, and with the highest spiritual 
 
 conceptions of the most enlightened minds of this New 
 
 Age. The Old makes hell a place, and the casting into 
 
 it a purely arbitrary and willful act of Omnipotence ; 
 
 the New declares it to be a certain state of life which 
 
 each individual forms or develops for himself through 
 
 the voluntary abuse of his own freedom and rationality. 
 
 Every one, therefore, who goes to hell, goes there as 
 7 73 
 
74 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 freely as the tippler goes to the gin-shop, or the profli- 
 gate to the brothel. 
 
 Here is one born, we will suppose, and living in a 
 miserable, barren, dreary region, where there is little to 
 delight the eye or regale the senses. Yonder is a rich 
 and fertile country, charming to look upon, abounding 
 in fruits and flowers, singing birds and running brooks, 
 splendid habitations and magnificent gardens, with 
 everything therein that can charm or gratify the senses. 
 But the way to that beautiful country is over a rough road 
 — across deep ravines and miry places — and sometimes 
 through turbulent waters and up steep and slippery ac- 
 clivities. But there is no other road to that delightful 
 region. Whoever would take up his abode there, must 
 encounter all the difficulties of the way. He must climb 
 the precipices, and wade the bogs, and wallow through 
 the miry places, and ford the swiftly running streams. 
 
 And the dweller in the desert, we will suppose, knows 
 all this. Now he may have his choice : — he may remain 
 in the dreary region where he was born, or, if he is will- 
 ing to endure the hardships of the journey, he may go 
 to yonder region so rich and fair, and snuff its balmy 
 breezes for the remainder of his life, and gaze upon its 
 beautiful scenery, and inhale its sweet perfumes and taste 
 its delicious fruits. The choice is offered him \ and he is 
 free to choose. He may stay where he is, or go to the 
 land of beauty and promise. But if he goes, he must 
 endure all the fatigues and hardships of the journey. 
 
THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 75 
 
 He must accept the conditions, else he can never reach 
 there. The proprietor of the country uses no compul- 
 sion. He simply says : There it lies ; and this is the 
 way to it; and there is no other. Go or stay, as you 
 please. But remember, the going involves labor and 
 hardship. If you are willing to endure these, that beau- 
 tiful country, or as much of it as you desire, shall be 
 yours forever. 
 
 Let this desert region represent man's natural state, 
 and the beautiful country yonder, the state which he is 
 made capable of attaining through spiritual labor and 
 conflict with the foes of his own household, and the illus- 
 tration is complete. By rising out of or migrating from 
 that state of life denoted by hell, we come into the state 
 denoted by heaven. It is not by any change of place, 
 nor through any exercise of immediate Divine mercy 
 that this is effected. It is a purely spiritual migration. 
 It is a passing out of a low or exterior spiritual condition, 
 into a higher or more interior one. 
 
 And though this change of state is as much a matter of 
 the individual's own volition as an act of natural migra- 
 tion, or a change of natural locality, and cannot, indeed, 
 take place without the exercise of his own free choice, 
 yet it has its laws or conditions ; and without the observ- 
 ance of these the change cannot be effected. And no 
 one can be forced to comply with the conditions. He is 
 left to his own free choice. He may remain in Egypt, 
 and delve there under the lash of his old task-masters, 
 
76 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 and get^lhat comfort he can from the flesh-pots ; or he 
 may (if he choose) leave that country, and go to the land 
 of promise — "a land of brooks of water, of fountains 
 and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land 
 of wheat and barley and vines and fig-trees and pome- 
 granates ; a land of oil, olive and honey/' 
 
 But if he choose the latter course, he voluntarily places 
 himself under the Lord's government and guidance, and 
 may expect at times the chastening hand of paternal 
 love to keep him in the right way. " Thou shalt also 
 consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, 
 so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." He must endure 
 all the perils and hardships of the journey. He must go 
 "through that terrible wilderness, wherein are fiery 
 serpents and scorpions and drought — where there is no 
 water." 
 
 But multitudes choose to remain and do remain in 
 Egypt. They are not willing to accept the conditions 
 on which alone they can rise out of their natural into a 
 heavenly state of life. They are not willing to deny 
 self, take up the cross, and follow the Lord in the regen- 
 eration. They are not willing to deny themselves the 
 indulgence of their selfish and inordinately greedy pro- 
 pensities. They have no desire and make no effort to 
 overcome these propensities, or to bring them into due 
 subjection to higher and nobler loves. They prefer 
 to follow the bent of their inclinations, and to do as 
 
THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 77 
 
 their pride and love of self and greed of gain and lust 
 of power prompt. 
 
 Multitudes of this class pass from the natural into the 
 spiritual world every year. Some of them ultimate their 
 supreme selfishness here, in w T ords and deeds befit- 
 ting devils \ — in falsehood, fraud, theft, blasphemy, adul- 
 tery, murder and other abominations. But some of them 
 are, outwardly, quite respectable people. Some of them 
 are members of churches — professedly very religious; and 
 at times, when they have some selfish end to serve, they 
 are (on the outside, at least) kind and benevolent. But 
 inwardly, at heart, they are supremely selfish. It is this 
 class (and they are to be found among Christians to- 
 day, as certainly as they were among the Jews eighteen 
 hundred years ago) whom our Lord addresses when He 
 says: " For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which 
 indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of 
 dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so ye 
 also, outwardly, appear righteous unto men, but within ye 
 are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Every one's real 
 character depends on the quality of his heart — on the 
 nature, that is, of his ruling love. All whose ruling love 
 is the love of self, are devils at heart, though they may 
 be saints to outward appearance. 
 
 Now the Lord does not desire to punish these people 
 in anyway — either in this world or in the world to come. 
 He does not desire that they should suffer, nor permit 
 them to suffer, except for their own ultimate good. He 
 
78 XEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 forever desires to improve their condition, and perpet- 
 ually works toward this end. But He cannot overcome 
 their inordinate self-love without their willing co-opera- 
 tion. Before He can do this, they must recognize this 
 love as essential evil when it is allowed the mastery, and 
 must compel themselves to deny its cravings and to obey 
 the laws of neighborly love. So far is the Lord from 
 hating these people, or from any desire that they should 
 suffer one atom beyond what He knows will be for their 
 own good, He pursues them with his infinitely wise and 
 pitying love, in the other world as He had previously 
 pursued them in this. 
 
 On their first entrance into the spiritual world, they 
 find themselves attended and cared for by wise and loving 
 angels. And the angels remain with them and perform 
 for them every kind office in their power, so long as 
 their company is agreeable, or so long as the new-comers 
 are willing that they should remain. But soon their in- 
 terior selfishness becomes active. Their internals come 
 forth into their externals. Their devilish dispositions 
 and feelings manifest themselves in corresponding looks, 
 words and actions. Their interior and real character 
 throws off whatever mask it had previously worn on 
 earth, and reveals itself as it really is. The previously 
 hidden or concealed quality of their hearts comes out 
 there, and is openly and fully revealed. Agreeably to 
 these words of the Lord : " For there is nothing covered 
 that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be 
 
THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 79 
 
 known." Their externals are brought into perfect agree- 
 ment with their internals ; and they show by their looks, 
 tones, words and actions, just what they are. They no 
 mnger have a divided mind ; but they appear outwardly 
 just what they are inwardly. The avenues in their souls 
 through which they had previously held some communi- 
 cation with heaven, or retained some perception of 
 heavenly things, are all closed — closed in tender mercy 
 to them. 
 
 Is it not infinitely better for a wolf, that he be wolf 
 all through, from inmosts to outmosts? Suppose the 
 wolf possessed a kind of human internal, which enabled 
 him to see the dreadful ferocity and cruelty of his na- 
 ture, and filled him with keenest self-reproach every time 
 he invaded the sheep-fold. Suppose he were human in- 
 side, but wolf outside ; yet the wolfish propensities were 
 so strong and overmastering that they could not be held 
 in check. Can we not see what unutterable misery that 
 poor creature would endure ? 
 
 It is from tenderest mercy to the selfish and inwardly 
 evil, therefore, that, in the great Hereafter the heavens 
 of their minds are closed ; that their moral sense, or 
 their perception of right and wrong, is completely be- 
 numbed or lost ; and that their externals are reduced to 
 a state of perfect agreement with their internals. When 
 this takes place, they no longer desire to remain in com- 
 pany with the angels. The angelic sphere becomes ex- 
 tremely disagreeable to them — painfully so; and they 
 
80 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 withdraw from it as instinctively as owls and bats with- 
 draw from the light of day. And then they gravi- 
 tate each one to the society of spirits whose character 
 is nearest like his own. For in the hells as in ti^ 
 heavens there are innumerable societies, some in one 
 kind of evil and some in another ; and some more des- 
 perately wicked than others — for there are various kinds 
 and degrees of wickedness in the other world, as there 
 are in this. And the great law of spiritual affinity, which 
 is as universal and constant in the spiritual world as the 
 law of gravitation is in this, tends to bring those of like 
 character together, and to hold them together. 
 
 Every evil spirit, therefore, soon as his interior cha- 
 racter is fully developed, gravitates with unfailing cer- 
 tainty toward those who are most like himself. Nor 
 does he go reluctantly among his like ; he goes there 
 willingly, gladly, joyfully, as thieves and profligates on 
 earth go among those of like character. He seeks their 
 society in perfect freedom, because he finds it congenial ; 
 because he prefers it to the society of the good and wise ; 
 and he prefers it, because they are like himself. With 
 them he feels more at home, more free, more contented, 
 more happy than any where else ; — and it is the Lord's 
 ceaseless desire and effort to make every one as happy as 
 possible. He does not force a single individual to go 
 where he does not wish to go in the Hereafter. And 
 those who go into any of the societies of hell, go in free- 
 dom and from choice. They go there because they find 
 
THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. Si 
 
 such society more congenial than that of the angels. If 
 forced to live in heaven, or in the society of the wise 
 and good, they would be out of their proper element ; 
 nay, they would be unspeakably miserable. It would be 
 far more cruel than it would be to compel persons whose 
 eyes are diseased, to dwell in the bright blaze of the 
 noon-day sun. Accordingly Swedenborg says : 
 
 " Spirits who come from the world into the other life, 
 desire nothing more than to be admitted into heaven. 
 Almost all seek to gain admittance, imagining that heaven 
 consists only in being introduced and received. There- 
 fore also, because they desire it, they are conveyed to 
 some society of the lowest heaven ; but when they who 
 are in the love of self and the world approach the thresh- 
 old of that heaven, they begin to be so distressed and 
 tormented interiorly, that they feel hell in themselves 
 rather than heaven. Therefore they cast themselves 
 down headlong thence ; nor do they find rest until they 
 come into hell among their like. 
 
 "It has often happened also that such spirits desired 
 to know what heavenly joy is ; and when they heard that 
 it is in the interiors of the angels, they have wished to 
 have it communicated to themselves. Therefore this 
 also was granted, — for whatever a spirit desires, who is 
 not yet in heaven or in hell, is granted him if it be bene- 
 ficial. But when the communication was made, they 
 began to be tortured to such a degree that they knew not 
 
 into what posture to screw their bodies on account of the 
 
 F 
 
82 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 pain. I saw them force their heads down even to their 
 feet, cast themselves upon the ground, and there twist 
 themselves into folds, in the manner of a serpent ; and 
 this by reason of the inward agony. Such was the effect 
 which heavenly delight produced upon those who were 
 in delights from the love of self and the world." {Heaven 
 and Hell n. 400.) 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 " Most of those who go from the Christian world into 
 the other life, carry with them the belief that they are to 
 be saved by immediate mercy. But when they are exam- 
 ined, they are found to believe that to come into heaven 
 is merely to be admitted ; and that those who are ad- 
 mitted are in heavenly joy, — being totally unacquainted 
 with the nature of heaven and of heavenly joy. Where- 
 fore they are told that heaven is not denied to any one 
 by the Lord ; and that they can be admitted if they 
 wish, and tarry there as long as they please. They who 
 have desired this, have also been admitted ; but when 
 they reached the first threshold, they were seized with 
 such anguish of heart, from the breathing upon them of 
 heavenly heat which is the love in which the angels are, 
 and from the influx of heavenly light which is divine 
 truth, that they experienced infernal torment instead of 
 heavenly joy ; and in consequence of the shock they cast 
 themselves headlong thence. Thus were they instructed 
 by living experience, that heaven cannot be given to any 
 one from immediate mercy." — Ibid. 525. 
 
THE CHOSEN HOME* ETC. S3 
 
 We see this great law of affinity exemplified here on 
 earth — among animals as well as the human race. Those 
 of the same species or general characteristics, always 
 prefer the society of each other. Beavers love to be 
 with beavers, bears with bears, wolves with wolves, mice 
 with mice. None of these creatures feel quite contented 
 or at home in the society of animals of a totally different 
 nature. 
 
 And so with the members of the human family. Not 
 only do the evil, when left to act in perfect freedom, 
 shun the society of the good, but they group themselves 
 together according to the kinds and degrees of wicked- 
 ness in which they are. Pirates choose the society of 
 pirates ; thieves the society of thieves ; counterfeiters the 
 society of counterfeiters ; tipplers, gamblers, burglars, 
 profligates, the society of persons of their own profession 
 — persons most like themselves. So obvious is this truth, 
 that it has passed into the proverbs, universally accepted, 
 " Birds of a feather flock together;" and "A man is 
 known by the company he keeps." 
 
 There can be no doubt, then, that this law of affinity 
 is one of the unchangeable laws of the moral universe ; 
 and it must, therefore, govern in the arrangements of all 
 in the spiritual world — the evil as well as the good. It 
 must group congenial spirits into innumerable associa- 
 tions. And a most wise and beneficent provision it is, 
 too ; — a provision whereby every human being, whatever 
 be his character, shall have a home in the Hereafter 
 
84 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 among just that class of persons whose society he prefers 
 and finds congenial to his tastes. 
 
 But the societies of the hells, selfish and wicked as 
 they are, are under a government as well as those of the 
 heavens. And this government, too, is provided by the 
 Lord, and is most wisely and mercifully adapted to their 
 condition and wants. It is provided for the best good 
 of the devils themselves, as well as for the good of all 
 other parts of the moral universe. It is precisely such a 
 government as they require ; the only one, indeed, that 
 is suited to their state — a government not of love, but of 
 fear and force ; for there is no love of the neighbor in 
 their hearts, and therefore no desire to promote the 
 common good. Hence their violent and malignant pas- 
 sions can only be restrained by fear of punishment. 
 Says Swedenborg : 
 
 "All the inhabitants of hell are governed by fears; 
 some by fears implanted in the world, which still retain 
 their influence \ but because these fears are not sufficient, 
 and likewise lose their force by degrees, they are gov- 
 erned by fear of punishments, and this fear is the prin- 
 cipal means of deterring them from doing evil. The 
 punishments in hell are various, more gentle or more 
 severe according to the nature of the evils to be re- 
 strained. For the most part, the more malignant who 
 excel in cunning and^ artifice, and are able to keep the 
 rest in a state of submission and slavery by punishments 
 and the terror thereby inspired, are set over the others; 
 
THE CHOSEN HOME, ETC. 85 
 
 but these governors dare not go beyond the limits pre- 
 scribed to them. It is to be observed that the fear of 
 punishment is the only means of restraining the violence 
 and fury of those in the hells. There is no other." 
 {Heaven and Hell, n. 543.) 
 
 Who cannot see that this is the very best kind of gov- 
 ernment for those in hell — the only kind, indeed, that is 
 suited to their state and needs ? We see that punishment 
 there has a beneficent design and a beneficent tendency. 
 It is not directly from the Lord, though it results from 
 the unfailing operation of laws that He has established. 
 
 "Wherefore," says Swedenborg, "when evil is done 
 from an evil heart, then, because it casts away from itself 
 all protection from the Lord, infernal spirits rush upon 
 him who does the evil, and punish him. This may be 
 illustrated in some measure by crimes and their punish- 
 ments in the world, where also they are linked together ; 
 for the laws prescribe some punishment for every crime, 
 so that whoever rushes into crime, rushes also into the 
 punishment thereof. The only difference is, that in the 
 world crime may be concealed ; but in the other life 
 concealment is impossible. From these considerations 
 it may be seen that the Lord does evil to no one ; and 
 that the case herein is similar to what we find in the 
 world, where not the king, nor the judge, nor the law, 
 is the cause of punishment to the guilty, since neither of 
 them is the cause of the crime committed by the evil- 
 doer." (Ibid. n. 550.) 
 8 
 
86 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 Look, now, at the intrinsic reasonableness of this New 
 doctrine of hell ; and compare, or rather contrast it with 
 that believed and taught a hundred years ago. While 
 our reason protests against the Old as utterly absurd, it 
 freely and cordially accepts the New. The Old is a 
 purely sensuous doctrine, in accordance with a sensuous 
 age, a sensuous philosophy, and a sensuous interpretation 
 of holy Scripture ; while the New is eminently spiritual, 
 in harmony with the conceptions of spiritually minded 
 men, with the higher spiritual philosophy, and the spirit- 
 ual interpretation of the Divine Word. The Old is ar- 
 bitrary — lying quite outside of the domain of law and 
 order; while the New is seen to be in perfect accord 
 with the known laws of the human soul — the inevitable 
 result, indeed, of the violation of these laws. The Old 
 presents God as a very monster of cruelty; while the 
 New exhibits Him as a wise and tender and loving 
 Father, forever pursuing his rebellious children into the 
 lowest depths of sin and suffering; clasping his arms 
 around even the devils in hell ; providing a congenial 
 home for all in the great Hereafter ; and just such a home 
 as each one, by the life that he has voluntaril^ormed, 
 strengthened and confirmed, is fitted to enjoy, and will 
 himself freely choose. 
 
 Who, that is not utterly blinded by prejudice, can fail 
 to see that this New doctrine, as compared with the Old 
 and once generally accepted view, is as the light of 
 noon-day compared with the darkness of midnight ! 
 
VI. 
 
 THE DURATION OF HELL. 
 
 I" AVING shown where and what hell really is, and 
 *■ -^ having exhibited the sharp contrast between the 
 Old and the New doctrine in respect to reasonableness ; 
 — having shown, also, that the law according to which 
 all spirits, the evil as well as the good, associate in the 
 great Hereafter, is unquestionably a law of the human 
 soul, and must therefore be as enduring in its operations 
 as the. soul itself, I proceed next to consider the moment- 
 ous question : — 
 
 Is the condition of the wicked in the other world, as 
 Swedenborg was permitted to see and commissioned to 
 reveal it, to continue substantially the same throughout 
 the ages of eternity ? In other words, will those who 
 pass into that world in a hellish state of life, remain for 
 ever in that state ? Or can men repent, and their ruling 
 loves be changed from evil to good, after death ? Can 
 the great work of spiritual renewal be commenced in the 
 other world (with those who have died in a state of con- 
 firmed evil), if it has not been begun in this? Or, as 
 some believe and confidently affirm, are "the inverted 
 forms of the natural degree which constitute the external 
 
 87 
 
88 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 body of the infernal in the hells," to be finally destroyed 
 through " the unrestrained ultimation given to the ruling 
 infernal loves"? — so that the man (when these forms 
 are destroyed), " freed from his prison-house in the 
 hells," will be "restored to his original infant state of 
 conscious existence," ? — will " at once ascend to the plane 
 of the New Heaven — his eternal Home — and there, from 
 this new point of departure, advance in and to Eternal 
 Life"? 
 
 These interrogatories, it will be seen, are only differ- 
 ent ways of presenting one and the same question, which 
 is commonly stated in this form: "Are the hells to be 
 unending in their duration?" — or this: "Will those 
 who go to hell after death, always remain there ? Will 
 they always continue in an infernal state?" 
 
 This inquiry is not only natural, but it is one which 
 cannot be kept down. It rises spontaneously to the 
 thought, however its utterance by the lips or pen may be 
 suppressed. 
 
 And where shall we look for an answer to this ques- 
 tion? To the intuitions of the natural reason? or to the 
 unequivocal teachings of Revelation? Is the verdict of 
 natural reason worthy of implicit reliance in questions of 
 this nature? — perverted, distorted, beclouded as all will 
 admit this reason to be. Were reason alone sufficient to 
 assure us of our continued and conscious existence after 
 the body dies? Reason may have nothing to urge 
 against the doctrine of the soul's immortality — nay, it 
 
ITS DURATION* S9 
 
 may have much to urge in favor of it; but could it prove 
 it in such a manner as to give us anything like a com- 
 forting assurance of its truth ? 
 
 And if unaided reason could not discern or clearly 
 demonstrate even the soul's existence apart from the ma- 
 terial body, what could it tell us about the nature, facts 
 or laws of that realm which it is to inhabit after the body 
 dies ? What assurance could reason alone give us of any 
 hell or heaven after the death of the body, or what could 
 it tell us of the nature of either ? — to say nothing of the 
 more profound and subtle questions like that now before 
 us. What need was there of any revelation concerning 
 the life after death, if human reason of itself could have 
 learned all about it? 
 
 Obviously the Lord saw the inadequacy of reason to 
 such sublime discoveries ; and therefore, in tender com- 
 passion and love toward us, He supplements the deficien- 
 cies of reason by the clearer light of revelation. He 
 opens the eyes of chosen seers and prophets, and through 
 them reveals truth concerning man's immortality and the 
 life after death, which no one's reason without such reve- 
 lation could ever have found out. 
 
 Plainly, then, the question before us narrows itself 
 down to this : What is the teaching of revelation on the 
 subject? Has the infinitely wise and gracious Lord — 
 aiming to instruct and bless mankind through his own 
 chosen and gifted seers — deigned to tell us anything in 
 regard to the duration of the hells ? If so, what is it ? 
 
 8* 
 
90 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 Any one may reject the revelation, or refuse to believe it 
 if he chooses; but in that case he either denies that any 
 divinely authorized revelation has been made on the 
 subject, or he sets his reason above that revelation ; he 
 assumes " to be wise above what is written," yea, wiser 
 than the Lord himself. He plants himself outside of or 
 above revelation, on precisely the ground occupied by 
 the Deistic and rationalistic schools. I cheerfully 
 concede every one's right to do this; but doing it, he 
 has no right to complain of the logical consequence. 
 He has no right to find fault with others for casting him 
 into the ranks of those whose fundamental idea he delib- 
 erately accepts. 
 
 Have we, then, a divinely authorized revelation on this 
 subject? And is that revelation clear and unmistak- 
 able? This is the question for those to consider who 
 believe in revelation; and my argument is addressed 
 exclusively to such. And it is a question which should 
 be approached with judicial calmness, and with as much 
 freedom as possible from the biasing or blinding influence 
 of our own private judgments, feelings, or wishes in the 
 case. The question is: Has the Lord spoken on this 
 subject? And if so, what has He said ? 
 
 Nowhere but in its literal sense, does the Scripture tell 
 us anything about the duration of hell ; for in the 
 higher or spiritual sense of the Word, no idea is any- 
 where conveyed of time or duration in the sense com- 
 monly understood by these words. And it cannot be 
 
ITS DURATION. 91 
 
 denied that, so far as the Bible in its literal sense 
 teaches anything about the duration of hell, it teaches 
 that it will be unending. The same terms to indicate 
 endless duration, that are applied to heaven, are also 
 applied to hell. Its punishment is said to be "ever- 
 lasting," and its fire "the fire that never shall be 
 quenched." "And these [the wicked] shall go away 
 into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into ever- 
 lasting life." 
 
 And the great majority of the First Christian Church 
 have believed, according to the plain teaching of the 
 letter, that the hell of which the Bible speaks is to be 
 unending in duration, and that those who go there after 
 death will remain there for ever. It is plain that the 
 Lord intended that those who received his Word (as 
 Christians have hitherto for the most part) in its literal 
 sense, should believe in the eternity of hell. Otherwise, 
 we may be sure that very different language would have 
 been employed from what we find wherever the duration 
 of hell is spoken of. And if it be argued, as it some- 
 times is, that the words "eternal" and "everlasting" 
 are occasionally applied in Scripture to things known to 
 be of temporary duration, and if the force of the argu- 
 ment be .admitted, what follows? Why, simply that the 
 Bible teaches nothing in regard to the duration of hell, 
 and that no argument can be drawn from its language 
 either for or against its eternity. 
 
 Let us turn, then, to that more recent revelation which 
 
92 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 the Lord has been pleased to make for the establishment 
 and upbuilding of a New Christian Church; — a revela- 
 tion wherein are disclosed many things concerning the 
 life after death, which the First Christian Church was 
 not able to bear. Upon no one subject, perhaps, has the 
 Lord's servant been more explicit, than upon the dura- 
 tion of the hells. The following are some of his clear 
 and emphatic statements : 
 
 " Every man's ruling affection or love remains with 
 him after death, nor is it extirpated to eternity; since 
 the spirit of man is altogether such as his love is ; and 
 (what is an arcanum) the body of every spirit and angel 
 is the external form of his love, perfectly corresponding 
 to the internal form [i. e. to the quality of his love]. 
 It is therefore manifest that man remains to eternity of 
 the same character as his ruling affection or love is. It 
 has been granted me to converse with some who lived 
 seventeen hundred years ago, and whose lives are well 
 known from the writings of that period ; and it was 
 found that every one was still influenced by the love 
 which ruled him when he lived in the world." {Heaven 
 and Hell, n. 363.) 
 
 " Man, as to his entire life [or character], remains for 
 ever such as he is at the time of his death." (Ap. Ex., n. 
 174.) "As man is when he dies, such he remains to 
 eternity." (Ibid. 125.) 
 
 "It is man's will-faculty that lives after death, and not 
 his thinking-faculty except so far as this has been in 
 
ITS DURATION. 93 
 
 agreement with his will-faculty. ... It may be imagined 
 by those who are # not instructed concerning the life after 
 death, that they can then easily receive faith when they 
 see that the Lord governs the universal heaven, and when 
 they hear that heaven consists in loving Him and their 
 neighbor. But they who are principled in evil, are as far 
 from being able to receive faith after death, that is, from 
 being able to believe from a ground in the will-faculty, as 
 hell is from heaven. ... If it were possible for spirits 
 to believe and become good from mere instruction in 
 the other life, there would not be a single individual in 
 hell ; for the Lord is desirous of elevating all, how 
 many soever there be, to Himself in heaven. For his 
 mercy is infinite, because it is the Divine [Love] itself; 
 and is exercised toward the whole human race, alike 
 toward the evil as toward the good." (Arcana Ccelestia 
 2401.) 
 
 "The life of a man cannot be changed after death, 
 but must remain for ever such as it had been in this 
 world; for the character of a man's spirit is in every 
 respect the same as that of his love ; and infernal love 
 can never be changed into heavenly love, because they 
 are in direct opposition to each other. This is what is 
 meant by the words of Abraham addressed to the rich 
 man in hell : ' Between us and you there is a great gulf 
 fixed ; so that they who would pass from hence to you, 
 cannot ; neither can they pass to us who would come 
 from thence.' (Luke xvi. 26.) Hence it is evident that 
 
94 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 all who go to hell, remain there for ever." {New Jeru- 
 salem and its Heavenly Doctrine n. 239:) 
 
 " He who is in evil in the world, is in evil after his 
 departure from the world; therefore if evil is not removed 
 in the world, it cannot be removed afterwards. Where 
 the tree falls, there it lies. So also does a man's life, 
 when he dies, remain such as it was. Moreover, every 
 one is judged according to his deeds; not that these 
 are recounted, but because he returns to them and does 
 them as before ; for death is a continuation of life, with 
 the difference that the man cannot then be reformed." 
 {Divine Providence n. 277.) 
 
 "Because it has been granted me during many years 
 to be with the angels, and to speak with new-comers 
 from the world, I can with certainty testify that every 
 one is there explored as to the quality of the life he had 
 led ; and that the life which he contracted in the world 
 remains with him for ever." (Conjugial Love 524.) 
 
 " Since it has been granted me for many years to be in 
 company with the angels, and to converse with those who 
 have left the world, I can testify with certainty that every 
 one is there examined as to the quality of his past life, 
 and that the life which he had contracted in the world 
 remains with him to eternity. I have conversed with 
 those who lived many ages ago, whose lives I was ac- 
 quainted with from history ; and I found them to be of 
 a character similar to the description given of them. 
 
ITS BUR ATI OX. 95 
 
 I have also heard from the angels that no one's life can 
 be changed after death." {Brief Exposition n, no.) 
 
 "I have been told by the angels that the life of the 
 ruling love [after death] is never changed with any one 
 to eternity, since every one is his own love ; wherefore 
 to change that love in a spirit, would be to deprive him 
 of his life, or to annihilate him." {Heaven a?id Hell n. 
 480.) 
 
 "I can testify from much experience, that it is impos- 
 sible to implant the life of heaven in those who have led 
 an opposite life in the world." Then — after relating 
 some experiments made with persons who had imbibed 
 the notion that they might receive the life of heaven in 
 the other world, however they had failed to obey the 
 laws of that life in this — the writer concludes: " From 
 these and other experiments, the simple good were in- 
 structed that no one's life can possibly be changed after 
 death ; and that evil life can by no means be changed 
 into good life, nor infernal life into angelic, since every 
 spirit from head to foot is of the same quality as his love, 
 and therefore of the same quality as his life : and that to 
 transmute this life into the opposite, were to destroy the 
 spirit altogether. The angels declare that it were easier 
 to change a bat into a dove, or an owl into a bird of 
 paradise, than an infernal spirit into an angel of heaven." 
 (Ibid. n. 527.) 
 
 (See also Arcana Ceelestia n. 3762, 3993, 4464, 4588, 
 5145, 7186, 8206, 9061, 10,243, 10,284; True Chris- 
 
9 6 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 tian Religion n. 531, Doctrine of Life n. 8, and other 
 places, where the same doctrine is plainly taught.) 
 
 The above quotations and references (and many sim- 
 ilar ones might be made), leave us in no doubt as to what 
 the doctrine revealed for the New Church on this subject, 
 is. I have quoted freely, that the reader may see how 
 explicit and uniform and positive Swedenborg is in his 
 teaching concerning the impossibility of any essential 
 change of character taking place in the other world. 
 The time in, which the several works here quoted were 
 written, stretches over a period of more than twenty 
 years ; yet the essential fact stated is always the same. 
 There is not a single point of doctrine on which he has 
 been more explicit or more positive. 
 
 Nor does he proclaim the endless duration of the hells 
 as his belief or opinion merely, but as a part of the reve- 
 lation which he was divinely commissioned to make. 
 And not only does he declare the fact over and, over 
 again, and without any essential variation throughout the 
 long period of his illumination, but he tells us that this 
 is what the angels believe and teach on the subject, and 
 is what is meant by the passage in the Word which 
 speaks of a gulf that cannot be passed over after death. 
 And not only so, but he assures us that he saw and con- 
 versed with persons known to him from history, who had 
 been dead, some of them seventeen hundred years, and 
 some for ages, and whose characters had not essentially 
 changed since that period. And elsewhere he tells us 
 
ITS DURATION, 97 
 
 why the character cannot be changed after death, as will 
 be shown in a future chapter. 
 
 Now no one is under obligation to accept Sweden 
 borg's teaching on this or any other subject. He may 
 accept or reject it as suits his inclination. But I submit 
 that he cannot consistently accept this man as a teacher 
 sent of God — as one divinely illumined and commis- 
 sioned to make a new revelation — and at the same time 
 discredit or reject such explicit teaching as we find in 
 the foregoing extracts. 
 
 Can we suppose the Swedish seer to have been enlight- 
 ened as no other man ever was upon spiritual subjects 
 generally, yet more in the dark on this one — and by no 
 means an unimportant one, either — than some of. us who 
 give no evidence of, and make no pretensions to, any 
 special illumination ? There is as little reason for be- 
 lieving him mistaken in regard to the duration of the 
 hells, as there is for believing him mistaken in regard to 
 a hundred other things that he tells us he was commis- 
 sioned to reveal concerning the great Hereafter. 
 
 We cannot, therefore, reject Swedenborg's teaching on 
 this subject, without virtually discrediting his claim as a 
 divinely commissioned messenger, and claiming for our- 
 selves a higher degree of illumination than he enjoyed — 
 upon one subject, at least. 
 
 The eternity of the hells, then, is not a human inven- 
 tion. It is not the conclusion of natural reason, nor the 
 offspring of an unenlightened mind. It is a matter of di- 
 
 9 G 
 
98 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 vine revelation, as much so as the immortality of the 
 soul, the nature and time of the resurrection, the nature 
 of heaven and hell, and the law that determines the asso- 
 ciates of each one and the appearance of his surround- 
 ings in the Hereafter. Whoever rejects the doctrine, 
 therefore, sets his own reason above revelation, or as- 
 sumes to be " wise above what is written." Yet the 
 revelation is not contrary to enlightened reason, but 
 quite in accordance with it, as will be shown hereafter. 
 
 But let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that the 
 hells are not to be eternal ; — that, ultimately, all the devils 
 will become, through a process that no one yet under- 
 stands or is able to explain, shining and happy angels. 
 Supposing this to be the fact, the time may come when 
 the Lord will reveal it to the children of men. But cer- 
 tainly that time has not yet arrived. The Lord has not 
 yet made such a revelation as justifies any man who 
 plants himself upon revealed truth, in maintaining the 
 non -eternity of the hells. What right, then, have we to 
 preach, on such a subject, a doctrine which the Lord in 
 his infinite wisdom has thought proper not to reveal — 
 nay, a doctrine the very opposite to that which He has 
 revealed ? If it were best for the world in its present 
 state that this doctrine be preached, certainly God would 
 have known it, and would have vouchsafed the needed 
 revelation. But since He has not done this, but has told 
 us in the most explicit language that the hells are eternal 
 — that a man's ruling love cannot be changed after death 
 
ITS DURATION. 99 
 
 — shall we assume to be wiser than the Most High, and 
 proclaim in advance a doctrine, which (supposing it to 
 be true) the Lord in his wisdom has thought proper 
 hitherto to conceal from the children of men? 
 
 No : Let us scrupulously guard against such presump- 
 tion. Let us reverently acknowledge that the infinitely 
 wise One knows what truth, or what measure of truth, is 
 adapted to human wants, and what is the proper time to 
 reveal it. Under the New Dispensation the Lord has 
 plainly taught the eternity of the hells. True or not, it 
 is clearly His will that it should be believed and preached 
 — for the present, at least — yes, during the continuance 
 of this Dispensation. And to believe or teach a different 
 doctrine, is either to discredit the revelation that has 
 been made, or to assume to know better than the Divine 
 Being himself what is true on this subject, or when is the 
 proper time to proclaim this truth. 
 
 We see not, therefore, how any one who professes to 
 believe in Swedenborg's divine illumination — who re- 
 gards him as a man especially prepared, authorized and 
 sent of God to make a new revelation — can for a mo- 
 ment think of rejecting or questioning his teaching in 
 regard to the duration of the hells, or of substituting for 
 it the more than doubtful conclusions of his own under- 
 standing. Surely it is not wise to shut ourselves in a 
 dark room and invoke the feeble glimmer of a lamp, 
 when the great orb of day is shining in meridian 
 splendor. 
 
VII. 
 
 SOME EVIDENCE OF ITS DURATION— PHIL O SOPH 
 ICAL AND SCRIPTURAL. 
 
 EVERY individual has some ruling love ; and this 
 love is his life. His character is according to the 
 nature of this love; — heavenly if the love be good, in- 
 fernal if the love be evil. And this love each one takes 
 with him into the other world, because he takes there his 
 life — -his character — his own spiritual organism which 
 the ruling love has moulded ; and he can take nothing 
 else. 
 
 And according to Swedenborg the ruling love cannot 
 be changed after death. If, therefore, it be of an infer- 
 nal character, it remains so for ever. The individual will 
 have no desire to change his character in the other 
 world, or to be anything else than his ruling love 
 makes him ; and without such desire we cannot con- 
 ceive how any essential change in him can possibly take 
 place. And if the character or ruling love undergoes 
 no change after death, then the wicked will remain so 
 for ever, and the hells will be unending in their duration. 
 
 And this is the solemn fact disclosed by Swedenborg. 
 
 100 
 
EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. IOI 
 
 Upon no single subject is he more explicit in his teach- 
 ings, than upon the unchangeable state of the wicked in 
 the other world, and the consequent eternity of the 
 hells. The extracts in the preceding chapter furnish 
 sufficient evidence of this. And although this question, 
 like all others concerning the life beyond the grave, 
 is one to be settled mainly by the light of revelation, yet 
 revelation rightly understood will ever be found in agree- 
 ment with the highest reason. Let us, then, examine 
 Swedenborg's teaching on this subject in the light of rea- 
 son and of that comprehensive system of spiritual phil- 
 osophy which his own writings furnish. 
 
 Consider, first, what takes place with the evil in this 
 world ; — and by the evil I mean all those who act, not 
 from principle, or from any regard to what in itself is 
 just and right, but from purely selfish considerations. 
 We know that the love of self is strengthened by being 
 indulged ; and weakened only as its cravings are denied. 
 Like every other faculty and propensity, it acquires 
 strength by exercise. The more it is allowed to have 
 complete sway, and to outwork itself in all the multifa- 
 rious forms of villany — such as falsehood, fraud, theft, 
 adultery, murder — the more hardened does the soul be- 
 come, the more benumbed its sensibilities, the dimmer 
 its perceptions and the feebler its desire for whatever is 
 true and just and right in itself. Let a person go on 
 cheating and defrauding from month to month and year 
 
 to year, and he will find himself steadily growing more 
 9 * 
 
102 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 and more blind to the odiousness and moral deformity 
 of this vice, and less and less inclined to change his 
 course. Or let him practice for a considerable time, 
 lying, stealing, profane swearing, adultery, or any other 
 vice, and his perception of its sinfulness will gradually 
 grow more and more obscure, and his inclination to turn 
 from it more and more feeble. 
 
 So with every sinful habit in which a man indulges. 
 The longer it is pursued the more fully does the evil in- 
 clination take possession of him, the more overmastering 
 becomes its sway, the darker his understanding, and the 
 weaker his inclination to return to the path of innocence 
 and rectitude. 'No fact is better established and no law 
 of the human soul is more certain than this. 
 
 Now, under the operation of this law, can we conceive 
 how spirits in the other world, when self-love, which is 
 essential evil, has taken full possession of them, so that 
 they are the very forms of that love ; — so that they turn 
 from and loathe the society of the good, and love and 
 seek the companionship of the wicked ; — so that they 
 put darkness for light and light for darkness, and say to 
 evil, "Be thou my good" ; — so that they hate and shun 
 the light of heaven as owls and bats shun the light of 
 day ; — so that they find their delight in doing evil, as a 
 wolf finds his in destroying sheep, or a hog his in wal- 
 lowing in the mire ; — so that they go from choice each 
 one to some congenial society in hell, as freely as the 
 tippler, the gambler and the profligate go to their chosen 
 
EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 103 
 
 haunts ; — when spirits, I say, are brought into this state, 
 can we see in any rational light how they are ever to be 
 brought out of it ? Can any one give us any rational or 
 philosophical explanation of the modus operandi? To 
 suppose that they may be brought out some time or 
 other and in some way or other, is scarcely less absurd 
 than to suppose that a wolf may be changed into a lamb 
 or a serpent into a dove. The supposition has neither 
 reason, philosophy, experience, nor historical fact to 
 support it. 
 
 If heaven could be given by an act of immediate 
 mercy, undoubtedly all would finally go there ; and there 
 would be no hell. But it cannot. It is an internal state 
 which cannot be developed or reached without the indi- 
 vidual's own volition and active co-operation. The heav- 
 enly character must be developed, the heavenly organism 
 and tissues must be formed, else the light and warmth of 
 that sweet realm would be as uncongenial as our atmo- 
 sphere is to fishes, or as the light of the noon-day sun is 
 to owls and bats. Agreeably to this Swedenborg says : — 
 
 "Many spirits entertain the opinion that heaven may 
 be given to every one from immediate mercy ; and on 
 account of their belief they have been taken up into 
 heaven ; but when they came there, because their interior 
 life was contrary to that of the angels, they grew blind 
 as to their intellectual faculties till they became like 
 idiots, and were tortured as to their will faculties so that 
 they behaved like madmen ; in a word, they who go to 
 
104 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 heaven after living wicked lives, gasp there for breath, 
 and writhe about like fishes taken from the water into the 
 air, and like animals in the ether of an air-pump, after 
 the air has been exhausted." — Heaven and Hell, 54. 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 " Conscience is the Lord's presence with man ; and 
 this is nearer in proportion as a man is in the affection 
 of good and truth. If his presence is nearer than is 
 suitable to the degree of a man's affection for good and 
 truth, the man comes into temptation. The reason is, 
 that the evils and falsities in him tempered with the 
 goods and truths in him, cannot endure a nearer pres- 
 ence. This may appear from circumstances existing in 
 another life, viz., that evil spirits cannot possibly ap- 
 proach any heavenly society without beginning to expe- 
 rience anguish and torment: — also that hell is removed 
 from heaven, because it cannot endure heaven, that is, 
 the Lord's presence which is in heaven. Hence it is said 
 of them in the Word : ' Then shall they begin to say to 
 the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.' 
 Luke xxiii. 30." — Arcana Coelestia 4299. See also n. 
 4225, '6, 5057, '8, 4674, 1^9- 
 
 It is in tenderest mercy to the wicked, therefore, that 
 they are not compelled to live in heaven ; for they would 
 be far more wretched among the angels, than they are in 
 their own chosen and congenial homes in hell. 
 
 But the heavenly life, some think, will be at last and 
 gradually developed in the devils, so that they will aU 
 
EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 105 
 
 finally become angels. Again I ask, How? Will it be 
 developed like vegetable life,- without the volition or 
 active co-operation of the spirits themselves ? Is moral 
 character ever developed or formed under the laws of the 
 vegetable kingdom? Can it be? And are the condi- 
 tions and surroundings and influences in the hells, and 
 the kind of government that exists there, favorable to the 
 development of the heavenly life ? Or is this life to be 
 gradually unfolded and strengthened there, in spite of all 
 the adverse influences ? If so, will any one tell us how. 
 Will he show us the law, or give us some hint of the 
 philosophy of this development. 
 
 But God, it is said, wills the salvation and happiness 
 of all men. And can we suppose that His will is to be 
 frustrated ? — that He will not be able finally to accom- 
 plish his purpose? 
 
 And does not God will that men live righteously 
 here on earth? — that they shun falsehood, theft, hatred, 
 adultery, murder, as sins? — that they practice toward 
 each other the laws of neighborly love ? But is the Di- 
 vine will accomplished ? As a matter of fact, do all men 
 live as the Lord wills that they should ? And if not, 
 then is not the Divine purpose so far frustrated ? And if 
 frustrated here and now, then why not there and always ? 
 No argument for the non-eternity of the hells can be 
 based upon the omnipotence of the Divine will, unless 
 it can be shown that this will with reference to man is 
 never frustrated. And in order to show this, we must 
 
106 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 concede that all the abominable deeds which men com- 
 mit, are done in accordance with the will of God. For 
 if not, then the omnipotence of that will does not always 
 ensure the accomplishment of the Divine purpose. 
 
 But the mistake arises from overlooking the proper 
 characteristics of man, or the nature of the properly hu- 
 man faculties. If he were a machine, he might be dealt 
 with as a machine ; and the builder or operator would 
 alone be responsible for its movements or defects. But 
 being man, and endowed with the faculties of liberty 
 and rationality, he becomes himself responsible for his 
 actions and his character. His salvation and happiness 
 are not things that can be forced upon him — -no, not 
 even by Omnipotence itself. They are states to be freely 
 chosen, sought after, labored for, by himself; and in no 
 other possible way can they ever be attained. If we 
 could conceive of those, who have become so thoroughly 
 confirmed in evil as to love and seek the companionship 
 of devils, desiring and laboring for the exalted and un- 
 selfish life of heaven, then we might concede the possi- 
 bility of the devils being all ultimately converted into 
 angels, and the hells blotted out or changed into heavens. 
 
 Then there is a judgment which all have to undergo 
 in the other world. And Swedenborg has described 
 very fully the nature of that process. It consists in such 
 a complete development of each one's internals, or such 
 a thorough immersion of the individual in his own 
 dominant love, whatever that may be, that he no longer 
 
EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 1 07 
 
 has a divided mind ; — no longer wears any disguise, or 
 appears outwardly different from what he is inwardly. 
 This judgment, or letting each man drop, as it were, 
 into himself, takes place in the intermediate state, or 
 world of spirits. And it is accomplished by means of 
 the all-revealing light of truth. " The Word that I have 
 spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." Swe- 
 denborg says : 
 
 "With the wicked, all those things which belong to 
 the exterior thought from which they speak, and to the 
 exterior will from which they act, are not properly theirs, 
 but those things which belong to their interior thought 
 and will. 
 
 "When the first state [after death] is passed through, 
 which is the state of the exteriors, the spirit is let into 
 the state of his interiors. ... In this state he thinks 
 from his own will, therefore from his own affection or 
 from his own love ; and then his thought makes one with 
 his will, and so completely one that he scarcely appears 
 to think but merely to will. 
 
 "All men without exception are let into this state after 
 death, because it is the proper state of their spirits. . . . 
 When a spirit is in the state of his interiors, it mani- 
 festly appears of what character the man was in himself 
 when in the world ; for he then acts from his selfhood. 
 He who was evil in the world, then acts foolishly and 
 insanely — more insanely, indeed, than he did in the 
 world, because he is in freedom and under no restraint. 
 
IoS NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 " No one goes to hell until he is in his own evil and in 
 the falsities of evil [or until there is a perfect union of 
 will and understanding] ; since it is not allowed any one 
 there to have a divided mind, that is, to think and speak 
 one thing and to will another. Every evil spirit must 
 there think what is false derived from evil, and must 
 speak from such falsity ; in both cases from the will, thus 
 from his own proper love and its delight and pleasure, as 
 he did in the world when he thought in his spirit, that 
 is, as he thought in himself when he thought from inte- 
 rior affection. The reason is, that the will is the man 
 himself, and not the thought, except so far as it par- 
 takes of the will; and the will is the man's very nature 
 or disposition; therefore to be let into his will is to be 
 let into his nature or disposition, and also into his life, 
 for man puts on a nature according to his life ; and after 
 death, he remains of such a nature as he had procured 
 to himself by his life in the world, which, with the 
 wicked, can no longer be amended and changed by 
 means of thought, or the understanding of truth. 
 
 " Every one goes to his own society in which his spirit 
 was while he lived in the world ; for every man as to his 
 spirit is conjoined to some society, either infernal or 
 heavenly. . . .The spirit is led to that society by succes- 
 sive steps, and at last enters it. An evil spirit, when he 
 is in the state of his interiors, is turned by degrees toward 
 his own society, and at length directly to it before this 
 [second] state is completed ; and when completed, the 
 
EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. 109 
 
 evil spirit of his own free choice casts himself into the 
 hell of those whose character is similar to his own." — 
 Heaven and Hell 502-510. 
 
 We see from this that the judgment which every one 
 undergoes after death, is merely the bringing of a man's 
 externals into perfect agreement with his internals, or his" 
 thoughts, words and actions, into agreement with his 
 ruling love. It is turning the " whited sepulchres" in- 
 side out. It is letting the man drop into himself; so 
 that he no longer has a divided mind as he had when in 
 the flesh, but is of the same character all through from 
 centre to circumference. Unless, therefore, he is subse- 
 quently to undergo another stupendous change, of which 
 revelation has told us nothing — unless he is to be brought 
 back again into his former double-minded state, and the 
 heavenly part of him then to be aroused into strong and 
 persistent action so as to completely overpower the in- 
 fernal part, we cannot see how he is ever to be brought 
 out of his hellish state. For we must remember that 
 there are no germs of heavenly life in man — no "remains ' ' 
 of good and truth implanted by the Lord — which can 
 develop under the laws of vegetable growth, or without 
 the individual's own volition. We know of no such in- 
 voluntary development of the heavenly life in this world ; 
 nor can we conceive of any such in the world to come. 
 
 Equally unphilosophical, too, and alike unsupported 
 by reason and revelation, is the idea that, at some indefi- 
 nite period after the judgment here referred to, the 
 10 
 
HO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 sinner will die or be destroyed "that the man may be 
 saved " — meaning by the sinner "the inverted forms of 
 the natural degree, which constitute the external body 
 of the infernal in the hells." There is no such "sinner" 
 then and there, apart from the living, conscious, im- 
 mortal individual; — no such "external body" that may 
 be sloughed off, leaving "the man in his original infant 
 state of conscious existence " — "the actual state of the 
 infant man of the New Heaven." All this is mere 
 theory, without the slightest foundation in fact, philos- 
 ophy, or duly authenticated divine revelation. 
 
 Swedenborg's teaching, then, in regard to the eternity 
 of the hells, is clearly in accordance with reason and the 
 highest spiritual philosophy of which the world has any 
 knowledge. 
 
 And the Bible, so far as it teaches anything on the 
 subject, confirms the testimony of reason and philos- 
 ophy. It speaks of the wicked in the Hereafter, going 
 away "into everlasting punishment," while the right- 
 eous go into "everlasting life"; — of a great gulf be- 
 tween the evil and the good, which cannot then be passed 
 over; — of a fire that "never shall be quenched." It 
 assures us that, in the other world, every one will be 
 judged and rewarded according to his works. "The 
 dead were judged out of those things which were written 
 in the books, according to their works." " The word 
 that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last 
 day." The blessing of the higher, even the heavenly 
 
EVIDENCE OF ITS ETERNITY. m 
 
 life, is promised to none but those who keep or do the 
 Lord's commandments; nor dp we find in Scripture any 
 warrant for the belief that others will ever enter in 
 through the gates into the city \ — for what other way is 
 there, save by religious obedience to the laws of the 
 heavenly life ? 
 
 "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that 
 they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in 
 through the gates into the city. 
 
 " For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremon- 
 gers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth 
 and maketh a lie. ' ' 
 
 Nor does the Bible tell us, or any where intimate, that 
 these latter will ever enter into the blessedness of eternal 
 life. But all who thirst for and are willing to. take of its 
 waters, may enter in. Therefore it is written again : " Let 
 him that is athirst, come. And whosoever will, let him 
 take the water of life freely." 
 
 But Swedenborg has himself told us why a man's 
 
 ruling love cannot be changed after death; and why, 
 
 therefore, the hells must be unending in their duration. 
 
 It may be alike interesting and instructive to consider 
 
 some of his reasons, which I shall proceed to do in the 
 
 next chapter. 
 9 
 
VIII. 
 
 WHY CANNOT THE RULING LOVE BE CHANGED 
 AFTER DEATH? 
 
 ^T^HE doctrine revealed for the New Church — revealed 
 -*- so clearly, too, that there is no ground for a dif- 
 ference of opinion on this subject — is, that the love 
 which rules supreme in the heart of man at the time of 
 or previous to his death, will forever remain unchanged 
 in its nature. Very often does the illumined herald of 
 the New Church declare, that, " As man is when he dies, 
 such he remains to eternity. " " The life of a man cannot 
 be changed after the body dies. M ' ' If evil is not removed 
 [from the soul] in the world, it cannot be removed after- 
 ward." "The life which a man contracts [or forms for 
 himself] in the world, remains with him for ever." 
 "To change the ruling love in a spirit, would be to de- 
 prive him of his life, or to annihilate him." " No one's 
 life can possibly be changed after death." "Evil life 
 can by no means be changed [after death] into good life, 
 nor infernal life into angelic." "The angels declare 
 that it were easier to change a bat into a dove, or an 
 
 owl into a bird of paradise, than an infernal spirit into 
 112 
 
CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 113 
 
 an angel of heaven." "Infernal love can never be 
 changed into heavenly love [after death]. . . . This is 
 what is meant by the words of Abraham addressed to the 
 rich man in hell : i Between us and you there is a great 
 gulf fixed, ' " etc. "Hence it is evident that all who 
 go to hell, remain there for ever." 
 
 In such clear and explicit declarations on this subject, 
 do the writings of Swedenborg abound. If then, we 
 accept his teachings concerning the future life, as a di- 
 vinely authorized revelation of the solemn realities of 
 the spiritual world, we must believe that a person's ruling 
 love cannot be changed after death \ and therefore that 
 the condition and character of the wicked in the Here- 
 after, will remain essentially the same to all eternity. 
 
 And we cannot reject this doctrine, or set up another 
 in its place, viz. this : — that all who pass into the other 
 world in an infernal or supremely selfish state, will ulti- 
 mately be brought out of that state and become shining 
 angels — without undermining or deranging the entire 
 system of Swedenborg' s spiritual philosophy. To be 
 consistent, we must set aside his doctrine of degrees \ his 
 doctrine concerning the nature of the final judgment; 
 his doctrine of human freedom and the law of moral 
 growth ; his doctrine of spiritual equilibrium ; together 
 with his great law of spiritual affinity which determines 
 all associations in the spiritual world. So intimately are 
 all truths linked or dovetailed together, that it is no easy 
 
 matter to remove one, or substitute a falsity in its place, 
 10* H 
 
H4 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 without disturbing the entire system of which that truth 
 makes a part. 
 
 The great Swede's doctrine on this subject, then, has 
 the merit of perfect consistency; while any different 
 doctrine is seen, upon slight examination, to be in direct 
 conflict with other facts and laws announced by him, the 
 obvious truth and rationality of which compel the assent 
 of intelligent and candid minds. 
 
 But not only has Swedenborg declared the fact that a 
 man's ruling love cannot be changed after death, but he 
 has told us why it cannot. In proclaiming the endless 
 duration of the hells, he has at the same time given us 
 the philosophical reason. It is, that when the ruling 
 love is fully unfolded, and everything that disagrees with 
 it is rejected, hated, loathed, the individual is then pre- 
 cisely what this love makes him from centre to circum- 
 ference. If it be the love of self, then he is selfish all 
 through ; just as a crocodile is a crocodile, a wolf a wolf, 
 or a serpent a serpent all through. And he has no more 
 desire to change that love, or to receive an unselfish, 
 heavenly love in lieu of it, or to become any other than 
 the supremely selfish being that he is, than a wolf has 
 to become a sheep, or a serpent a dove. And without 
 the desire to overcome the love of self, and to have the 
 opposite heavenly love implanted or developed in the 
 soul, can we conceive it possible that this change will 
 ever take place ? Human character in this world or in 
 the world to come, is not, as I have before remarked, 
 
CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 115 
 
 developed under the law of vegetable growth. Its for- 
 mation everywhere implies the exercise of human voli- 
 tion, and never takes place without it. A vegetable germ 
 unfolds into a plant or tree according to an implanted 
 instinct or law of its nature, and without volition. But 
 is there any human germ, hidden away in the inmosts or 
 elsewhere of the human spirit, — can there be any — that 
 will ever develop into true manhood or womanhood in 
 like manner? — that is, without conscious volition on the 
 part of the individual ? And if the properly human or 
 heavenly growth can never take place without volition, 
 how can the needed volition spring up in the soul of 
 one who has passed the ordeal of judgment, and become 
 thoroughly and supremely selfish ? 
 
 True, there is but one life ) and all life in derivative 
 forms, is one and the same in its origin. The same 
 exhaustless Fountain that vitalizes the organism of the 
 sheep, supplies the wolf also with life. The form into 
 which the life flows, makes all the difference in its qual- 
 ity or manifestations. And we cannot conceive how a 
 wolf could be changed into a sheep, without such a com- 
 plete change in its entire organism, as would utterly 
 destroy its identity. And this destroyed, where is the 
 original wolf? Annihilated, beyond question. 
 
 Let us hear, now, the reasons which Swedenborg him- 
 self has given, showing why a man's ruling love cannot 
 be changed after death. He says : 
 
 "I have also heard from the angels that no one's life 
 
lib NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 can be changed after death, because it is organized ac- 
 cording to his love and faith, and hence according to 
 his works ; and that if the life were changed, the organ- 
 ization would be destroyed, which can never be done. 
 They further added, that a change of organization can 
 only take place in the material body, and by no means 
 in the spiritual body after the former has been rejected. 7 ' 
 {Brief Exposition n . no; Conjugial Love 524.) 
 
 "1 have been told by the angels that [after death] the 
 life of the ruling love is never changed with any one, 
 since every one is his own love ; wherefore to change 
 that love in a spirit, would be to deprive him of his 
 life, or to annihilate him. They also stated the reason, 
 which is, that man after death is no longer capable of 
 being reformed by instruction as in the world, because 
 the ultimate plane which consists of natural knowledges 
 and affections, is then quiescent, and cannot be opened 
 because it is not spiritual ; that the interiors which 
 belong to the rational and natural mind, rest upon that 
 plane like a house on its foundation ; and that it is for 
 this reason that a man remains for ever such as the life 
 of his love had been in the world." {Heaven and Hell 
 n. 480.) 
 
 " By washing the feet is meant to purify the natural 
 principle of man ; for unless this principle in man be 
 purified and cleansed when he lives in the world, it 
 cannot afterward be purified to eternity ; for such as his 
 natural principle is when he dies, such it remains ; nor 
 
CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY? 1 17 
 
 is it afterward amended, since it is that plane into which 
 interior things which are spiritual flow, it being their 
 receptacle ; therefore when this is perverted, interior 
 things when they flow in, are perverted in like manner. 
 The case herein is as when the eye is injured, or any 
 other organ of sense or member of the body ; on which 
 occasion interior things feel and act by them no other- 
 wise than according to reception therein. Therefore it 
 is that man can never be purified to eternity if he be not 
 purified as to his natural principle in the world ; this is 
 meant by the Lord's words, i What I do thou knowest 
 not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.' " {Arcana Coe- 
 lestia 10,243.) 
 
 Then there are degrees belonging to the mind ; and 
 the influx of life is through the higher degrees to the 
 lower \ and the quality of the life that inflows, or the 
 character of the individual, is according to the form of 
 the natural degree which receives the influx. If this 
 degree is in a disordered or hellish form, it changes 
 God's love and wisdom as they flow in, into their oppo- 
 sites ; comparatively as the fox-glove or deadly night- 
 shade changes the sunshine and the rain and the sweet 
 dews of heaven into poison. But if this degree be re- 
 generated or restored to order, then the whole man is 
 regenerated. Life being received into an orderly nat- 
 ural form, is felt and manifested as the true life. 
 
 The character, therefore, of the lower or natural degree 
 of a man's mind, since it determines for ever the quality 
 
Il8 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 of the life that inflows, must necessarily determine for 
 ever the character of the man. The interior life is ter- 
 minated in, and therefore takes on the character of, the 
 external or natural life, just as the light and heat of the 
 sun, terminating in hideous forms and excrementitious 
 substances, take on the ugliness of the one and the offen- 
 siveness of the other. Accordingly Swedenborg says : 
 
 "A man's interiors are distinguished into degrees, and 
 in every degree are terminated, and by termination sepa- 
 rated each from the interior degree ; and this from the 
 inmost to the outermost. . . . These degrees in man 
 are most distinct; hence, if he lives in good, he is as to 
 his interiors a heaven in its least form, or his interiors 
 correspond to the three heavens. And therefore if a 
 man has lived the life of charity and love, he can after 
 death be translated even into the third heaven : but in 
 order to acquire such a capacity, it is necessary that all 
 his degrees be well terminated, and thus by terminations 
 be distinct from each other ; and when they are termin- 
 ated, or by terminations are made distinct, every degree 
 is a plane in which the good inflowing from the Lord 
 rests and is received. Without these degrees as planes 
 good cannot be received but flows through, as through 
 a sieve or a perforated basket, even to the sensual [plane], 
 and in that is changed to what is filthy, viz., into the 
 delight of self-love and the love of the world, conse- 
 quently into the delight of hatred, revenge, cruelty, adul- 
 tery, avarice, or into mere voluptuousness and luxurious- 
 
CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 1 19 
 
 ness, which delight appears to those who are in it as 
 good. . . . 
 
 "In the other life especially it is discovered whether 
 the things of a man's will have been terminated or not. 
 With those in whom they have been terminated, there is 
 a zeal for spiritual good and truth, or for what is just 
 and right; for they had done good for the sake of good 
 and truth, and had acted justly for the sake of what is 
 just and right, not for the sake of gain, honor, and the 
 like. All those with whom the interiors of the will have 
 been terminated, are elevated to heaven, for the influent 
 Divine can lead them ; but all those with whom the inte- 
 riors of the will have not been terminated, betake- them- 
 selves to hell, for the Divine flows through and is turned 
 into what is infernal, as in the case of the sun's heat, 
 which falling upon filthy excrements, produces a foul 
 stench." {Arcana Ccelestia 5T45.) 
 
 "With things relating to spiritual birth, the case is 
 such that reception must be altogether in the natural 
 principle. This is why, during man's regeneration, the 
 natural principle is first prepared to receive \ and so far 
 as this principle is rendered capable of receiving, so far 
 interior goods and truths can be brought forth and mul- 
 tiplied. For this reason also, if the natural man be not 
 prepared to receive the truths and goods of faith in the 
 life of the body, he cannot receive them in the other 
 life, and therefore cannot be saved. This is what is 
 meant by the expression so often used, that, as the tree 
 
120 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 falls, so it lies ; or, as a man dies, so his state remains. 
 For man has with him in the other life all the natural 
 memory, or the memory of the external man, but is not 
 permitted to use it in that life \ wherefore it is there as a 
 fundamental plane into which interior truths and goods 
 fall; and if that plane is incapable of receiving the truths 
 and goods which flow in from an interior principle, they 
 are either extinguished, perverted or rejected." (Ibid. 
 4588.) 
 
 These degrees of the mind, Swedenborg tells us, exist 
 in every man, "from his birth potentially, and actually 
 when opened." And he tells us, also, how the higher 
 or heavenly degrees of life are opened ; and that every 
 one after death, "enters that degree which was opened 
 within him in the world." {Divine Love and Wisdom 
 238.) But evil, or the indulgence of a supremely selfish 
 and worldly love by the natural mind, closes more and 
 more firmly the higher or heavenly degrees. 
 
 "In such a man — [one who 'delights in all kinds of 
 wickedness, as in adultery, fraud, revenge, blasphemy, 
 and so on'] — the spiritual mind is more and more 
 firmly closed ; the confirmation of the evil by the false 
 especially closes it. Therefore evil and the false once 
 confirmed, cannot be extirpated after death; this can 
 only be done in the world by repentance." (Ibid. 262.) 
 
 I have quoted freely that the reader may see the rea- 
 sons given by Swedenborg himself, why a man's ruling 
 love cannot be changed after death ; and why, therefore, 
 
CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY? 121 
 
 the hells must be eternal in .duration. And they are 
 reasons, we observe, growing' out of, harmonizing with, 
 and making indeed a part of, his grand and comprehen- 
 sive system of spiritual philosophy. So that, in adopt- 
 ing a different view from the one he has taught in regard 
 to the duration of the hells — in denying their eternity, 
 and insisting that, some time or other and in some way 
 or other, the ruling love will be changed after death, 
 and the devils be all converted into angels — we not only 
 reject a doctrine as clearly revealed as anything can be, 
 but we are compelled also to sweep away so much of his 
 spiritual philosophy as would leave his whole system tot- 
 tering. We are compelled to deny that the life's love 
 can become so inwrought into the spiritual organism 
 during one's earthly pilgrimage, that an entire change 
 in the quality of the love would involve annihilation, or 
 a total destruction of the soul's organism (C. L. 524; 
 H. H. 480). We are compelled to deny, what we are 
 repeatedly assured the angels affirm, that the interior 
 things of the mind, resting for ever on the ultimate or 
 natural plane of life developed here on earth " like a 
 house on its foundation," will for ever be in Harmony or 
 correspondence with that plane. (Ibid.) We must deny, 
 too, that there is any such eternal and indissoluble con- 
 nection between the life here and the life hereafter, as 
 Swedenborg has declared ; or that any such cleansing of 
 the external or natural man here below as he alleges, is 
 
 essential to that internal purification without which there 
 11 
 
122 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 can be no heaven. (A. C. 10,243.) We must deny the 
 declared existence of degrees to the mind \ or that no 
 higher degree of life can be entered and enjoyed in the 
 other world, than the degree which has been opened in 
 this. We must deny that the lower or natural degree 
 bears any such fixed and permanent relation to the 
 higher, as the eye bears to seeing or the ear to hearing. 
 And considerably more must we deny, if we would be 
 consistent. 
 
 Who that has studied Swedenborg enough to grasp a 
 tithe of his deep and comprehensive philosophy, and 
 has felt constrained by the illuminating power of his 
 writings to acknowledge that he was, indeed, a man or- 
 dained and sent of God, dares venture on such a string 
 of denials ? Yet they all follow inevitably from the de- 
 nial of his doctrine concerning the eternity of the hells, 
 or the assumption that a man's ruling love may be 
 changed after death. 
 
 Then apply to the doctrine taught by Swedenborg on 
 this subject one other test — that most searching one 
 of all — that divinely authorized touch-stone of truth and 
 of error expressed in the formula, " By their fruits ye 
 shall know them." 
 
 Judge the doctrine by its fruits — that is, by its obvious 
 influence on the character of believers. Compare it 
 in this respect with that other doctrine which some 
 would substitute in its place — viz., the doctrine that 
 a man may repent and his ruling love be changed in 
 
CHARACTER REMAINS UNCHANGED— WHY ? 123 
 
 the other world, and the devils be ultimately all con- 
 verted into angels. 
 
 The New Church doctrine says: " Keep the com- 
 mandments 3 shun evils as sins ; deny self, take up the 
 cross and follow the Lord. For if you do not, while on 
 earth, begin the great work of building up the kingdom 
 of heaven in your heart, you will have no inclination to 
 begin this work beyond the grave ; and that blessed 
 kingdom will, therefore, never be yours." 
 
 The other doctrine, stripped of its fine rhetoric and 
 speaking in the plainest language, says: "It is best, of 
 course, to keep the commandments. This will carry you 
 to heaven quickest. But live as you will — sin as you 
 may — trample on all the laws of God as you choose — in- 
 dulge your avarice, your lust, your pride, your selfish- 
 ness, your hate, to any excess — develop and strengthen 
 within you the life of hell to whatever extent — and God 
 will some day, spite of yourself and every other obstacle, 
 bring you out of that hellish state, and make you a 
 shining and happy angel. " 
 
 Now which of these doctrines is it best for men to 
 believe ? Which is most stimulating to the better part 
 of our nature, and most helpful in repressing and re- 
 straining the worse? Which is most likely to excite to 
 prayer and watchfulness ? to patience and self-denial and 
 holy endeavor ? to inward and persevering conflict with 
 the foes of our own household? Which is the most 
 wholesome doctrine to preach? — which the most benign 
 
124 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 in its practical tendency and effects ? It is not difficult, 
 I think, to answer these questions. And let us remember 
 that " a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither 
 can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.' ' Nor is it 
 possible for a false doctrine to exert upon the hearts and 
 lives of men a more benign influence than the truth. 
 
IX. 
 
 DISPLA YS OF THE DIVINE BENIGNITY IN HELL. 
 
 MAN alone, of all created beings, is endowed with 
 Liberty and Rationality. These are the properly 
 human faculties. Without them he would not be man. 
 These are the faculties which alone render him morally 
 accountable. Without them, he would have been inca- 
 pable of either sin or holiness ; and to have been inca- 
 pable of these, he must have been something other than 
 man — a very different being from what he is. 
 
 Why is not the w r olf or the bear morally responsible ? 
 Why is every other creature incapable of sin ? Simply 
 because man alone is endowed with what belongs to no 
 other creature — a moral sense — the power to discrimi- 
 nate and the liberty to choose between justice and injus- 
 tice, right and wrong; or in other words, with the 
 faculties of rationality and liberty, which alone distin- 
 guish him from the brute creation and make him man. 
 
 But the very possession of these faculties involves a 
 responsibility corresponding in magnitude to the dignity 
 and worth of the endowment. It involves, moreover, 
 the liability of their abuse and utter perversion by the 
 
 11* 125 
 
126 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 possessor, and the possibility, therefore, of a spiritual 
 lapse. And this must have been foreseen by the great 
 Giver of these faculties. And now comes the question : 
 
 What shall be done with a man when he fails to dis 
 charge the obligations which the gift bestowed on him 
 imposes? — when he abuses his properly human faculties, 
 and yields to the promptings of his lower, carnal, animal 
 nature, regardless of his obligations as a morally ac- 
 countable being ? What provision should infinite Love 
 and Wisdom make for those who violate, and persist in 
 violating, the laws of their spiritual or properly hitman 
 nature? To say that their condition will be the same and 
 their happiness the same in the Hereafter, as if they had 
 faithfully obeyed these laws, is to utter what every en- 
 lightened mind sees to be absurd. As reasonably might 
 one maintain that no penalty ought to be attached to the 
 violation of physical laws; that men ought to be per- 
 mitted to eat arsenic without being poisoned ; to handle 
 red hot iron without being burned ; to leap from the top 
 of Bunker Hill monument without being bruised ; or to 
 stick their bodies full of pins without suffering pain. 
 There is everywhere and always a penalty attached to the 
 violation of law. This is both wise and right. Other- 
 wise laws would be without meaning and without force. 
 
 But infinite Love must make the best possible provision 
 which infinite Wisdom can suggest, for those who abuse 
 their human faculties, and obstinately persist in violating 
 the laws of their spiritual being. It is bound by its very 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 127 
 
 nature to do this. And who can- doubt that it will do it? 
 The illumined Swedenborg assures us that it actually does 
 do it; and he tells us how. Nothing can exceed the 
 extent and beauty of the Divine beneficence, as dis- 
 played in the provision made for those in the other 
 world, who, by a life of evil here on earth, have con- 
 firmed themselves in a state of opposition to the Divine, 
 and to the laws of their own inner and heavenly life. 
 
 "Life is love," is a remark often made by Sweden- 
 borg. And a man's ruling love is his life. His cha- 
 racter is according to the nature of this love ; — pure and 
 heavenly if the love be pure ; vile and infernal if the 
 love be selfish. The ruling love is the inner and ever 
 active force, perpetually working to mould the whole 
 outer man — his words, tones, looks and actions — into 
 perfect correspondence with itself. 
 
 Look at the face of an inveterate miser. How visibly 
 is the spirit that prompts and sways him imprinted there ! 
 Or that of the confirmed inebriate — is it not the very 
 image of bestiality? Or listen to the tones of the hard- 
 hearted, cruel and malignant — are they not in perfect 
 agreement with the affections from which they proceed ? 
 So with hate, revenge, jealousy, despair — every strong 
 passion or deep, feeling long indulged — its manifest tend- 
 ency is to mould the countenance and the whole outer 
 man into perfect correspondence with itself. And on 
 the other hand who has not seen the very beauty, bright- 
 ness and joy of heaven beaming from the face of one in 
 
128 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 whose heart love to the Lord and the neighbor has long 
 been the ruling principle of action ? 
 
 Now under the operation of this law — a law too gener- 
 ally recognized and too long established to be for a mo- 
 ment called in question — what ought to be the appear- 
 ance of evil spirits in the other world, where infernal 
 loves have taken full possession of their souls, from centre 
 to circumference? Why, they ought to be monsters in 
 form as they are in feeling and purpose. Their looks 
 and tones ought to be the true expression of the infernal 
 loves that rule them. Accordingly Swedenborg says : 
 
 "All the spirits in the hells, when inspected in any 
 degree of heavenly light, appear in the form of their 
 own evil ; for every one there is the effigy of his own 
 evil, because with every one the interiors and exteriors 
 act in unity, — the interiors exhibiting themselves visibly 
 in the exteriors, which are the face, the body, the speech, 
 and the gestures. Thus their quality is known as soon 
 as they are seen. In general, they are forms of con- 
 tempt of others ; of menace against those who do not 
 pay them respect ; of hatred of various kinds ; also of 
 various kinds of revenge. Ferocity and cruelty from 
 their interiors are transparent through those forms. But 
 when others commend, honor, and worship them, their 
 faces are contracted, and have an appearance of gladness 
 arising from delight. It is impossible to describe in a 
 few words all those forms, as they actually appear, for no 
 one of them is similar to another. Among those, how- 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLA YED. I 29 
 
 ever, who are in a similar evil/and thence in a similar 
 infernal society, there is a general likeness, from which, 
 as from a plane of derivation, the faces of all there 
 appear to bear a certain resemblance to each other. In 
 general, their faces are hideous, and void of life like 
 corpses ; in some cases they are black ; in others they 
 are fiery like little torches; in others, disfigured with 
 pimples, warts, and ulcers. . . . Their bodies also are 
 monstrous ; and their speech is like the speech of anger, 
 hatred, or revenge, — for every one speaks from his own 
 falsity, and in a tone corresponding to his own evil. In 
 a word, they are all images of their own YitM" —Heaven 
 and Hell, n. 553. 
 
 And mark here the unspeakable love and mercy of the 
 Lord ! — the wonderful display of the Divine benignity ! 
 The devils are not permitted to see themselves or each 
 other as the hideous creatures they really are. They 
 only appear under these disgusting and loathsome forms 
 when seen, as Swedenborg saw them, in the light of 
 heaven ; for this light aione reveals the real quality of 
 persons and things. Seen in the false and fatuous glare 
 of hell, nothing appears as it really is. And so the true 
 character of the devils — their internal and external de- 
 formity — is mercifully concealed from themselves and 
 from each other. Their dreadful wickedness does not 
 seem to them wickedness, but praiseworthy shrewdness. 
 Their unmitigated foolishness seems to them not foolish- 
 ness at all, but rarest wisdom. They do not appear to 
 
 I 
 
130 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 each other like the horrid monsters they are, but like a 
 very respectable class of people. In their own light, and 
 to each other's eyes, they look not hideous but quite 
 human. Their bitter and fiendish tones have in them 
 nothing harsh or grating to each other's ears; on the 
 contrary they seem quite agreeable and even musical to 
 them. Accordingly Swedenborg, after describing the 
 loathsome appearance of the devils as seen by himself in 
 the clear light of heaven, adds : 
 
 "It is, however, to be observed, that such is the ap- 
 pearance of infernal spirits when seen in the light of 
 heaven; but among themselves they appear like men. 
 This is of the Lord's mercy, that they may not appear as 
 loathsome to each other as they do to the angels. But 
 this appearance is a fallacy ; for as soon as a ray of light 
 from heaven is let in, their human forms are turned into 
 monstrous ones, such as they are in reality, as described 
 above ; for in the light of heaven everything appears as it 
 really is." — Ibid. 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 "Among the wonderful things which exist in the other 
 life, this also is one : that, when the angels of heaven 
 look into evil spirits, these latter have a totally different 
 appearance from what they have when seen among them- 
 selves. Among themselves and in their own fatuous 
 light, which is like that of a coal fire, as before re- 
 marked, they appear to themselves in a human form, and 
 also, according to their fantasies, not without beauty ; 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 13 1 
 
 but when the same spirits are looked into by the angels 
 of heaven, that light is instantly dissipated, and they ap- 
 pear with entirely different faces, each according to his 
 character ; some dusky and black as devils ; some with 
 pale ghastly faces like corpses ; — some like skeletons ; 
 and, more wonderful still, some like monsters, the de- 
 ceitful like serpents, and the most deceitful like vipers ; 
 and others in other forms. But as soon as the angels 
 remove their sight from them, they appear in their above 
 mentioned forms, which they have when seen in their 
 own light." — Arcana Ccelestia n. 4533. See also A. C. 
 4798.— H. H. 481. 
 
 A wonderful display, indeed, is it of the Lord's un- 
 speakable love and mercy, that He does not permit in- 
 fernal spirits to see themselves or one another as they 
 really are ! 
 
 And we have similar illustrations of the Divine be- 
 nignity here on earth. The desperately wicked never 
 see their own moral deformity. Their eyes are blinded 
 out of tenderest mercy toward them ; for to see them- 
 selves as they appear in the light of heaven, would cause 
 them unutterable agony. Take any class of the most 
 hardened villains you can find — those of a character 
 nearest allied to that of devils, such as gamblers, thieves, 
 swindlers, murderers, fornicators, pimps, pirates — does 
 any one imagine that these people see themselves to be 
 the dreadful creatures they really are? Have they any 
 idea of their terrible moral deformity? Not one of 
 
*3 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 them, in their ordinary evil state. How can they ? for 
 they are not in the all-revealing light of heaven, but in 
 the fatuous light of hell ; and this light which is real 
 darkness, forever blinds and bewilders. In their own 
 infernal light, these fellows appear to each other very 
 respectable — appear, indeed, like men ; but in the light 
 of the Divine Word, or as viewed by heavenly minded 
 people, they appear not as me7i but as monsters. 
 
 And not only are the faces and the whole personal ap- 
 pearance of the devils in exact correspondence with their 
 evil loves, but all their surroundings exist under the 
 very same law, and are produced in the same way. All 
 the objects they look upon are but the embodied forms 
 of their own evil loves. So that their whole outward or 
 phenomenal world is a perfect reflection, under the law 
 of correspondence, of their internal or spiritual condi- 
 tion. 
 
 Accordingly we are told that the devils appear clad in 
 filthy and tattered garments ; that they dwell in deserts, 
 bogs, and miry places — some of them in caves and dens 
 like those of wild beasts ; that among the objects by which 
 they are surrounded, are dreary deserts, rocky and barren 
 wastes, thorns and thistles, ferocious beasts and venom- 
 ous reptiles, dirty pools and heaps of filth. And these 
 things (all of which are spiritual in their nature) are but 
 the embodied forms, under the law of correspondence, 
 of the filthy and infernal loves of the evil spirits them- 
 selves. To quote again from Svvedenborg : 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 133 
 
 "How the delights of every one's life are turned into 
 corresponding delights after death, may indeed be known 
 from the science of correspondences ; but because that 
 science is not yet generally known, I will illustrate the 
 subject by some examples from experience. 
 
 "All those who are in evil, and have confirmed them- 
 selves in falsities against the truths of the church, and 
 especially those who have rejected the Word, shun the 
 light of heaven, and betake themselves to subterranean 
 places, which through the openings appear very dark, 
 and to the clefts of rocks, and there hide themselves. 
 And they seek such retreats because they have loved 
 falsities and hated truths \ for such caverns, and clefts of 
 rocks, and darkness also, correspond to falsities, and 
 light corresponds to truth. It is their delight to dwell 
 in such places, and undelightful to them to dwell in open 
 plains. 
 
 "In like manner do those who have taken delight in 
 clandestine and insidious plots, and in the secret con- 
 trivance of fraudulent schemes \ these, too, are in those 
 caverns, and enter into chambers so dark that they can- 
 not even see one another, and there they whisper in each 
 other's ears in corners. This is what the delight of their 
 love is turned into. 
 
 "They who have studied the sciences with no other 
 
 end than to acquire the reputation of learning, and who 
 
 have not cultivated their rational faculty by means of 
 
 them, and have taken delight in the things of memory 
 12 
 
134 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 from pride thence derived, love sandy places, which they 
 choose in preference to fields and gardens, because sandy 
 places correspond to such studies. 
 
 " They who have been acquainted with the doctrinals 
 of their own church and of others, and have not applied 
 any of their knowledge to life, choose for themselves 
 rocky places, and dwell among heaps of stones, shunning 
 places that are cultivated, because they dislike them. 
 
 "They who have ascribed all things to nature, and 
 they also who have ascribed all things to their own pru- 
 dence, and who by various artifices have raised them- 
 selves to honors, and have acquired wealth, apply them- 
 selves in the other life to the study of magical arts, 
 which are abuses of divine order, and find therein the 
 highest delight of their life. They who have applied 
 divine truths to gratify their own loves, and thus have 
 falsified them, love urinous places and odors, because 
 these correspond to the delights of such love. 
 
 "They who have been sordidly avaricious, dwell in 
 huts, and love swinish filth, and such nidorous exhalations 
 as proceed from indigested substances in the stomach. 
 They who have passed their life in mere pleasures, have 
 lived delicately, and indulged their appetites, prizing 
 such enjoyments as the highest good of life, love excre- 
 mentitious things and privies in the other life. These are 
 delightful to them, because such pleasures are spiritual 
 filth. They shun places that are clean and free from 
 dirt, because such places are undelightful to them." 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 135 
 
 Here, again, we are called to admire the unspeakable 
 love and mercy of the Lord as manifested toward those 
 in the other world who are " enemies to him by wicked 
 works. ' ' For we must remember that all the objects which 
 greet their senses— though in reality just as Swedenborg 
 has described them — appear very different to the devils 
 from what they did to him, or from what they do to our 
 imagination — for we are able to contemplate them in some 
 degree of heavenly light. The regions they inhabit are 
 certainly dismal enough ; but not dismal to them. All the 
 objects by which they are surrounded, are really hideous 
 and loathsome to angelic natures ; but not hideous or 
 loathsome to them. The odors they inhale, so fetid and 
 offensive to angels, are by no means offensive to them. 
 On the contrary the devils find these things quite agree- 
 able and even delightful \ for they accord perfectly with 
 their nature ; they agree with their desires or loves ; they 
 are in exact correspondence with their life. 
 
 Everywhere and always life seeks that which is in 
 agreement with its nature. Nothing else will satisfy its 
 cravings. Such is the nature of the devils, that the 
 scenery of hell, so dismal and repulsive to our imagin- 
 ation, is quite agreeable to them ; — more beautiful, indeed, 
 to their eyes than would be the splendors and magnifi- 
 cence of heaven. Their life being what it is — degraded, 
 bestial, infernal — the objects that surround them are the 
 very ones with which they are best pleased ; for they suit 
 their tastes, being in perfect correspondence with their 
 
136 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 life. To them, their dens and caverns seem preferable 
 to the most gorgeous palaces of heaven ; their filthy rags 
 more seemly than the shining, garments of the angels ; 
 their fetid stenches more grateful to their nostrils than 
 would be the sweetest perfume from the gardens of the 
 blest. "It is delightful 'to the devils," says Swedenborg, 
 "to inhabit such places [as caverns and clefts of the 
 rocks], and ^delightful to them to dwell in open fields." 
 "They love sandy places, and prefer them to fields and 
 < gardens." "They love mean and squalid brothels." 
 "They love the filth of swine." "They love urinous 
 places and scents, because these things correspond to the 
 delights of their life." 
 
 I am aware that this will sound very strange to minds 
 much confirmed in the old ideas. It will seem to them 
 utterly incredible that such unsightly and disgusting ob- 
 jects as those above mentioned, should be delightful to 
 the devils. But they will see upon reflection that nothing 
 could be more reasonable. For are there not animals 
 that delight in just such sights and smells here on earth ? 
 If so, then these things are agreeable to some kinds of 
 life. They are in perfect correspondence with some 
 natures, as truly so as beautiful gardens and the perfume 
 of sweetest flowers are in correspondence with the nature 
 of angels. To crows and kites the smell of carrion is 
 not unpleasant, but delightful. Owls and bats prefer 
 darkness to light. Mire and filth are not unsightly, but 
 beautiful to the eyes of swine ; and the stench of their own 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 137 
 
 stye is quite agreeable to their nostrils. Serpents and 
 vipers love the clefts of rocks \ foxes love deserts \ rats 
 prefer cellars and subterranean regions ; turtles and croc- 
 odiles seek marshy places ; and to the eyes of wolves and 
 bears their own dens, undoubtedly, seem more beautiful 
 and home-like than would the palaces of kings. 
 
 Who cannot see that the things which such creatures 
 prefer for food, the odors they delight to inhale, and the 
 places they love to inhabit, affect their senses in a man- 
 ner very different from what they do ours? And the 
 only reason to be assigned is, that their life is very dif- 
 ferent from the properly human. Their loves and conse- 
 quent tastes are different from ours. And they choose 
 and delight in what is agreeable to their life, as we do 
 what is agreeable to ours. Says Swedenborg : 
 
 " The delights belonging to the lusts of evil, and those 
 belonging to affections for the good, cannot be com- 
 pared ; because resident within the former is the devil, 
 and within the latter is the Lord. If a comparison must 
 be drawn, the delights of the lusts of evil can only be 
 compared to the lasciviousness of frogs in ponds, and of 
 serpents in slimy places ; while the delights of affections 
 for the good may be compared to mental delights in 
 gardens and flowers. For things similar to those which 
 are pleasing to frogs and serpents, are also pleasing to 
 those in the hells who are in the lusts of evil ; and 
 things similar to those which are pleasing to the mind 
 
 in gardens and flowers, are also pleasing to those in the 
 12* 
 
138 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 heavens who are in affections for the good. For as 
 before stated, unclean correspondences are pleasing to 
 the evil, and clean correspondences to the good." — Di- 
 vine Providence n. 40. 
 
 And are there not, even in this world, people who 
 seem to prefer disorder, filth and squalor, to order, neat- 
 ness and cleanliness? Have you never seen persons, 
 who, if they were presented with the most magnificent 
 habitation, filled and surrounded, too, with everything 
 beautiful, and arranged in the most orderly and tasteful 
 manner, would, if left to do precisely as they pleased, 
 convert that palatial residence into a vile and loathsome 
 place in less than six months? Are there not some 
 whose nature (inherited, or acquired by habit,) is so 
 near akin to that of certain animals, that they would 
 very soon convert the sweetest and most lovely place 
 of abode, into a squalid and disgusting stye? Their 
 nature is such that cleanliness and order seem far less 
 agreeable to them, than filth and disorder. And, place 
 them where you will, they will very soon reduce all their 
 surroundings to a condition that will reveal with great 
 clearness the state of their own minds. So on the other 
 hand, place people of refinement and culture in the 
 humblest cabin, and they will soon make that cabin 
 reveal to the careful observer something of their refined 
 and cultivated tastes. And the reason of this is, that every 
 kind of life is delighted with, and therefore seeks, that 
 which corresponds with its own nature. 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 1 39 
 
 But it does not appear after all, some may say, how 
 the devils, having once been men in the natural world, 
 can find delight in things which here on earth are known 
 to be agreeable only to a low order of animals. 
 
 It does not? Let the reader reflect for a moment. 
 What has made those people devils ? What kind of life 
 is theirs ? — the life, too, that they have freely chosen ? 
 It is not angelic life. It is not properly human. It is 
 the life of self and sense — mere corporeal or animal, 
 not celestial life. They have marred and spoiled their 
 truly human life ; or have suffered it to become stifled 
 and overrun by a rank luxuriance of thorns and thistles 
 and noxious weeds, which, if not carefully and betimes 
 rooted out, are sure to spring up and take possession of 
 the natural heart. Only a kind of bestial life, therefore, 
 is left them— such life as corresponds to, and forms the 
 very essence of, animals like those above mentioned. 
 This life, therefore, must from its very nature, seek and 
 find delight in scenes and objects which are agreeable to 
 such animals. 
 
 Considering the nature of the devils, therefore, or 
 the kind of life they have freely chosen and made their 
 own, it is most reasonable that the hideous and loath- 
 some objects by which they are surrounded, should not 
 appear hideous or loathsome to them, but pleasant and 
 altogether agreeable ; for they are all in perfect corre- 
 spondence with their life's love. And whatever corre- 
 sponds to this, is always perceived as delightful. 
 
14° AUSfT VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 But if this be reall; me will say. what is there, 
 
 after all, to choose between heaven and hell ? What 
 great advantage has one over the other? The devils, 
 you say, have their delights as well as the angels, though 
 they are not delighted with precisely the same things. 
 They have what is most agreeable to their nature. Their 
 surroundings as well as their associates are such - 
 prefer. They go in freedom where they wish to go — 
 into the society of congenial spirits ; and there they feel 
 quite at home. What great inducement is there, then, 
 to strive for heaven, or to shun hell ? 
 
 It is true that every kind of love has its delights. But 
 the nature of the delight is according to the quality o\ 
 the love. The purer the love, the more exalted the 
 delight. The delights of the devils, therefore, as com- 
 pared with those of the angels, are as the delights of 
 bears and crocodiles compared with those of Christ-like 
 men ; yea, they are as the sweetness and tranquillity of 
 love, compared with the bitterness and unrest of hatred. 
 
 Why is God so unspeakably happy — the happiest Being 
 in the universe ? Because He is the best. Because his 
 love is the purest. It is the love of others out of Him- 
 self — the love of imparting happiness. And the more a 
 man grows to be like God — the more he receives of His 
 unselfish love, the more does he enjoy of that sweet 
 peace which it is in the very nature of this love to bestow. 
 While the less of this love he receives — the more selfish 
 and ////-like the Lord he is, the more does he experience 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 141 
 
 of that inward unrest which it is the nature of this oppo- 
 site love to produce. 
 
 Who that has ever truly loved — be it husband, mother, 
 wife or child — does not know that in the exercise of dis- 
 interested love, there is an unspeakable bliss which the 
 world cannot give ? The Lord promises peace — his own 
 peace — to all who humbly acknowledge Him, and wil- 
 lingly consecrate themselves on the altar of duty. 
 " Peace I leave with you," says He to all such — u my 
 peace I give unto you." There is true peace nowhere 
 but in Him ; — nowhere but in the reception and exercise 
 of his unselfish love. Therefore He says: "In me ye 
 shall have peace." And when those who have followed 
 Him in the regeneration, enter the spiritual world and 
 come more fully into their life's love, they will receive 
 in greater fullness than ever before the delights of that 
 love. They will then know, from the sweet seraphic 
 joy that floods their souls, the full meaning of the words, 
 "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
 But they who have yielded habitually to the prompt- 
 ings of their lower nature, regardless of God and the 
 good of the neighbor, and have not denied self, taken 
 up the cross, and followed the Divine Master — these, 
 when they enter the other world, come more fully into 
 the life and delights of self-love. And what are these ? 
 The delights of fraud, hatred, revenge, adultery, blas- 
 phemy, wickedness of every kind; — delights, indeed, to 
 those whose ruling love is the love of self, but torment 
 
14 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 and unmitigated misery when compared with the pure 
 ecstatic delights of angelic love. Therefore these per- 
 sons are represented as receiving the sentence, " Depart 
 from me, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and 
 his angels." 
 
 The truth, then, summarily stated, is : that all life, 
 from that of the highest angel in heaven down to that 
 of the meanest creature here on earth, has its delights ; 
 for life is love, and all love has its delights. The degree 
 of happiness which each creature enjoys, depends upon 
 the character of his delights ; and the character or ex- 
 altation of his delights, depends on the nature or quality 
 of. his love. And as far as the human transcends in dig- 
 nity the bestial life — as far as man surpasses the brute in 
 wisdom or in the extent and variety of his powers, so far 
 has he the capacity of enjoyment above (yes, and of 
 misery below) that of the brutes, and so far does the 
 happiness of the angels exceed that of the devils. 
 
 Is not this new view of hell in the highest degree ra- 
 tional ? What can be more reasonable, (in view of the 
 kind of life which infernal spirits have voluntarily made 
 their own) than that they should be totally oblivious of 
 their own condition ? — that they should be unable to see 
 themselves or one another or the objects that surround 
 them, as they really are ? — that everything should seem to 
 them quite different from what it is, and from what it act- 
 ually appears when viewed in the light of heaven ? — that 
 
THE DIVINE BENIGNITY DISPLAYED. 143 
 
 they should remain forever ignorant of realities, and 
 spend an eternity in the midst of shadows and phan- 
 tasms? (See Arcana Ccelestia 4623.) 
 
 And what unspeakable benignity in our Heavenly 
 Father, does this doctrine display ! When his children 
 have wandered far from the way of his commandments ; 
 when they have shut their souls against the light of his 
 wisdom and the purity of his love, and confirmed them- 
 selves in a life of evil ; He loves them still — loves them 
 too tenderly to permit them to see where and what they 
 are. He loves them, and, for their own good, merci- 
 fully provides that they remain forever oblivious of what 
 they were created to be ; that they shall not be permitted 
 to see themselves or each other as monsters, but as men ; 
 that the loathsome objects which surround them, and 
 which their own evil loves create by an unfailing law, 
 shall not seem loathsome but pleasing to them ; that they 
 shall still enjoy what they call delights — delights, too, as 
 elevated as the kind of life they have formed for them- 
 selves, will possibly admit of. 
 
 Where shall we find a more striking display of the 
 Lord's infinite and unspeakable mercy, than is presented 
 in the wonderful provision He has made for the comfort 
 and highest welfare of the devils? His love is, indeed, 
 unfathomable. " His mercy is forever." Who can un- 
 fold his marvelous loving-kindness? "Who can show 
 forth all his praise?" 
 
H4 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are 
 over all his works." 
 
 " Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall 
 I flee from thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, 
 thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou 
 art there." 
 
 "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt 
 love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. 
 
 "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them 
 that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray 
 for them which despitefully use you and persecute you ; 
 
 "That ye may be the children of your Father which 
 is in heaven: for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
 and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on 
 the unjust." 
 
X. 
 
 IS HELL TO UNDERGO ANY CHANGE? IF SO, 
 OF WHAT NATURE? 
 
 SWEDENBORG has disclosed with great clearness 
 the condition of the wicked in the other world. 
 Nor does he pretend to give us merely his opinion on the 
 subject, but to set forth what he actually heard and saw 
 when his spiritual senses were opened. He has told us 
 what sort of people he found in hell, or of whom it con- 
 sists. To cite his own language : 
 
 " Hell consists of spirits who, while living in the 
 world, denied God, acknowledged nature, lived contrary 
 to divine order, loved evils and falsities (although not so 
 much before the world on account of the appearance) 
 and who, therefore, were either insane in regard to truths, 
 or despised and denied them, if not with the mouth, yet 
 in heart [and in their lives]. Of all such, who have 
 lived from the creation of the world, hell consists.' ' — 
 Athanasian Creed n. 41. 
 
 The wickedness of the infernals is described as terrible 
 — surpassing all belief. Speaking of their " malignity, 
 cunning, fraud, deceit, and cruelty," he says: 
 
 66 These are such and so great that, if they were told 
 
 13 K 145 
 
I4 6 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 only in part, scarcely an individual in the world would 
 believe it. The infernals are so cunning and artful, and 
 likewise so wicked — in short they are of such a cha- 
 racter, that they cannot possibly be resisted by any man, 
 nor even by any angel, but by the Lord alone " — A.C. 
 6666. And speaking of those who have lived wicked 
 lives on earth, and have interiorly denied the Divine, he 
 says: "Such persons in the other life, when they come 
 into the state of their interiors, and are heard to speak 
 and seen to act, appear as if infatuated ; for from their 
 evil lusts they break out into all manner of abomina- 
 tions — into contempt of others, ridicule, blasphemy, 
 hatred and revenge. They contrive plans of mischief, 
 some of them with such cunning and malice, that it can 
 scarcely be believed that anything of the kind could 
 exist in any man." "They lay snares; they cherish 
 hatred ; they burn with revenge, and seek to vent their 
 rage against all who do not submit themselves to them. 
 . . . At last they deliberate with themselves how they 
 may climb up into heaven so as to destroy that, or be 
 worshiped there as gods. To such lengths does their 
 madness go. Those of this class who have been of the 
 Roman Catholic religion, are more insane than the rest." 
 " [When on earth] they desired to be worshiped as 
 gods, and therefore burned with hatred and revenge 
 against all who did not acknowledge their power over the 
 souls of men and over heaven. They still cherished the 
 same disposition which distinguished them in the world, 
 
ANY REFORMATION THERE? 147 
 
 that is, the same hatred and revenge against those who 
 oppose them. Their greatest delight is to exercise 
 cruelty; but this delight is turned against themselves; 
 for in their hells one rages like a madman against an- 
 other who derogates from his divine power. ' ' And, as 
 might be expected, " within their habitations, they are 
 engaged in continual quarrels, enmities, blows and fight- 
 ings, while in the streets and lanes of their cities are rob- 
 beries and depredations " — Heaven and Hell 506, '8, 86. 
 
 Such is the sad condition in the great Hereafter of 
 those who, while on earth, have disregarded and tram- 
 pled on the laws of their spiritual and heavenly life, and 
 have thereby brought themselves into a state to love 
 darkness rather than light, and evil rather than good. 
 And the ruling love, we are told, can never be changed 
 in the other world. 
 
 Swedenborg has told us of various kinds of hells which 
 he was permitted to inspect* — for no two of the infernal 
 societies are precisely alike ; and their punishments are 
 
 * In order that he might learn the actual state of things in hell, 
 from his own personal observation, he says : " I was sometimes let 
 down thither. To be let down into hell, is not to be translated from 
 one place to another ; but it is an immission into some infernal so- 
 ciety, while the person remains in the same place." On one of 
 these occasions, he continues, " I clearly perceived that a kind of 
 column, as it were, encompassed me, which became sensibly 
 stronger ; and I perceived also that this was the wall of brass spoken 
 of in the Word, formed of angelic spirits, in order that I might be 
 let down in safety among the unhappy." — Arcana Ccelestia 699. 
 
I4<> NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 as various as their characters, but admirably adapted to 
 their states and needs. Thus he speaks of " the hells of 
 those who have spent their lives in hatred, revenge, and 
 cruelty ;" of " the hells of those who have lived in adul- 
 tery and lasciviousness;" of " the hells of the deceit- 
 ful;" of "the hells of the covetous and of robbers;" of 
 "the hells of those who have lived in merely carnal 
 pleasures," etc. And while the ruling spirit and general 
 features of them all are the same, each has its peculiar- 
 ities. Without attempting any detail of these, I will 
 quote one or two passages from his account of ' ' the hells 
 of those who have passed their lives in adulteries and 
 lasciviousness," and leave the reader to form his own 
 judgment. 
 
 "Those who find their chief delight in the spoils of 
 virginity, having no regard to marriage or issue, and 
 who, after compassing their lustful ends, conceive an 
 aversion for their victims, and then leave them to prosti- 
 tution, suffer the most grievous punishment in the other 
 world. For their life is contrary to all order, natural, 
 spiritual, and celestial. Not only is it contrary to con- 
 jugial love, which in heaven is accounted most holy, but 
 also to innocence, which they wound and destroy by se- 
 ducing innocent beings into a course of prostitution, who 
 might have been initiated into conjugial love ; for the 
 first delights of love, as is well known, introduce virgins 
 to chaste conjugial love, and conjoin the minds of mar- 
 ried partners. And since the sanctity of heaven is 
 
ANY REFORMATION THERE? 149 
 
 founded on conjugial love, and on innocence, the de- 
 stroyers of such love must needs be murderers interiorly.' ' 
 
 And after giving some account of the terrible punish- 
 ment which this class of persons have to suffer in the 
 other world, he continues : 
 
 "This punishment returns many times for a hundred 
 and a thousand years, until they become affected with 
 horror at these lusts. I have been informed that the off- 
 spring of such parents are worse than other children on 
 account of their constitution, derived hereditarily from 
 the father, partaking of his nature. Therefore children 
 are seldom born from such connections ; or if they are, 
 they do not remain long in this world." — A. C. 828. 
 
 And what does he say of the innocent victims of these 
 wicked persons, some of whom he met in the other 
 world ? 
 
 "There are young girls who have been enticed to 
 
 prostitution, and persuaded that there was no evil in it, 
 
 who in other respects were well disposed. These, not 
 
 having yet attained to an age capable of knowing and 
 
 judging correctly of the nature of this kind of life, have 
 
 a certain instructor set over them in the other world, who 
 
 is very severe, and chastises them whenever they give 
 
 their thoughts to such wantonness, and of whom they are 
 
 much afraid. In this way they become vastated." That 
 
 is, they are carried through a certain reformatory course 
 
 of discipline; and "when the time of vastation is over, 
 
 they are taken up into heaven ; and being novitiates, 
 13* 
 
ISO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 they are instructed in the truths of faith by the angels 
 among whom they are received." — A. C. 1106, '13. 
 
 But very different is it with another class of females 
 whom he met in the spiritual world, and who were, when 
 on earth, persons of most captivating manners, but de- 
 ceitful, ambitious and destitute of conscience. 
 
 " There are some of the female sex who have lived in 
 the indulgence of their inclinations, regarding only 
 themselves and the world, and making the sum total of 
 life and its delights to consist in external decorum, in 
 consequence of which they have been particularly es- 
 teemed in polished society. They have thus, by prac- 
 tice, acquired the power of insinuating themselves into 
 the good graces of others by specious pretences and a 
 fair exterior, for the purpose of gaining an ascendency 
 over them. Hence their life has been one of simulation 
 and deceit. They used to frequent churches like other 
 people, but for no other purpose than to appear upright 
 and pious ; being, moreover, destitute of conscience, 
 and extremely prone to wickedness and adulteries when 
 able to conceal them. Such persons in the other world 
 think as they did here, not knowing what conscience is, 
 and making a mock of those who speak of it. They 
 enter into the affections of others by a pretended hon- 
 esty, piety, compassion, and innocence, which with 
 them are a means of deceiving ; and whenever external 
 restraints are removed, they plunge into the most wicked 
 and obscene practices. These are they who in the other 
 
ANY REFORMATION THERE? 151 
 
 world become enchantresses or sorceresses, some of 
 whom are denominated sirens, who become expert in 
 arts unknown on earth.' 7 
 
 Some of these arts are described. "They can assume 
 the likeness of others" at will. By cunning artifice 
 "they can inspire every one with an affection for them." 
 "They have the power of representing to the view of 
 spirits a bright flame encompassing the head, and this — 
 which is an angelic token — to several at the same mo- 
 ment. They can feign innocence by various methods, 
 even by representing infants whom they kiss ; they also 
 excite others whom they hate to murder them. . . . 
 Their nature is so persuasive that no one suspects them ; 
 and hence their ideas are not communicated like those 
 of other spirits ; for they have eyes resembling those as- 
 cribed to serpents, seeing every way at once, and having 
 their thoughts present everywhere. 
 
 " These sorceresses or sirens are punished grievously, 
 some in Gehenna, others in a kind of court among ser- 
 pents ; others by being, as it were, torn asunder and sub- 
 jected to various collisions attended with intensest pain 
 and torture." — Ibid. 831. 
 
 And this, too, for their own good. For there is noth- 
 ing of vindictiveness in the punishments of hell. They 
 are all repressive, corrective and reformatory in their 
 design and tendency. 
 
 But will the hells remain forever as they were when 
 Swedenborg saw them? Is th^^ ^ be n° ^h^ree — no 
 
I5 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 improvement — in their condition? If so, of what na- 
 ture ? — and how is the improvement to be effected ? The 
 answer to these questions has been already anticipated in 
 a measure ; but I will endeavor to make it clearer and 
 more definite. 
 
 "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are 
 over all his works/' He, therefore, has regard for, and 
 continually endeavors to promote the best good even of 
 the devils. He governs the hells as well as the heavens ; 
 and his love and wisdom are as conspicuous and as 
 active in the one realm as in the other. But the devils 
 cannot be governed in the same way, or by the same 
 methods, as the angels. The latter, because they love 
 the Lord above all things, and their neighbor even better 
 than themselves, can be led and governed by love — by 
 the love of what is just and true and good. But the 
 former, since they have no love of the Lord or their 
 neighbor, but love themselves supremely, can be gov- 
 erned only by fear. Self-love is perpetually encroaching 
 upon the rights of others \ perpetually grasping at un- 
 limited power; perpetually seeking, not to serve and 
 bless others, but to subjugate them to its own control. 
 It is, therefore, from its very nature, forever threatening 
 the peace and welfare of the moral universe. And the 
 only way this love can be restrained in its insane en- 
 deavors, is through fear — the fear of punishment. 
 
 The only way, therefore, that the Lord can reach the 
 hells, and exert upon them a controlling influence, is 
 
ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 53 
 
 through the medium of fear. It is in this way that He 
 comes to, and manifests his love for, the devils. He does 
 not hate them. He does not turn his face away from 
 them. He does not take delight in tormenting them, as 
 Christians have hitherto believed and taught ; — far from 
 it. On the contrary his love for them is like that of a 
 kind and benignant father for his disobedient children, 
 only infinitely more tender. It is not less .strong for 
 them, than it is for men on earth, or even for the angels 
 in heaven ; — no, nor less active in its efforts to promote 
 their highest welfare. But because they have quenched 
 his holy Spirit in their hearts — because they have refused 
 to listen to his loving voice, which evermore seeks to 
 lead men freely in the path to heaven, therefore they 
 must be governed like wayward and rebellious children. 
 They cannot be governed as the angels are — by love ; 
 they can only be governed by fear. Therefore the Lord 
 permits them to be punished from time to time, with 
 more or less severity according to the stubbornness of 
 "their dispositions or the measure of their perversity. 
 And this, too, for their own good ; precisely as a wise 
 and loving father will chastise his disobedient children, 
 not because he delights in causing them pain, but because 
 he wishes, for their good, to subdue their rebellious dis- 
 positions, and prevent them from injuring themselves and 
 others through the unrestrained indulgence of their 
 wrong inclinations. 
 
 It is precisely in this way that the Lord deals with the 
 
154 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 evil spirits in hell — his disobedient and rebellious chil- 
 dren. He permits them to suffer punishment from time 
 to time, but never without an end of use ; — never, but 
 for their own or others' good. As Swedenborg says : 
 "The Lord turns all punishment and torment [in the 
 other life] to some good use. It would be impossible 
 that there should be any such thing as punishment, un- 
 less use were the end aimed at by the Lord ; for the 
 Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of ends and uses." {Ar- 
 cana Ccelestia 696.) 
 
 And this is the use intended by punishment in the 
 hells, and the use which it actually accomplishes : It 
 excites fear and dread by the pain it produces ; and thus 
 the devils are constrained, through fear of punishment, 
 to moderate their insanities, and restrain in some meas- 
 ure their evil inclinations. And although the lust of 
 doing evil forever remains, yet the condition of the 
 devils is rendered vastly more tolerable when they have 
 been reduced to a state in which they dare not do the 
 evil to which they are inclined ; and are kept in this 
 state through fear of punishment. 
 
 Under a government of fear and force, therefore — the 
 only kind of government suited to the states of the in- 
 fernals — and through the instrumentality of punishments 
 administered by divine permission, a change in the con- 
 dition of the hells is perpetually going on, though not 
 such an internal reformation as will result in obliterating 
 
ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 55 
 
 their existence, or in finally converting the devils into 
 angels. Swedenborg says : 
 
 "All the inhabitants of hell are governed by fears \ 
 some, by fears implanted in the world, which still retain 
 their influence ; but because these fears are not sufficient, 
 and likewise lose their force by degrees, they are gov- 
 erned by fear of punishment ; and this fear is the princi- 
 pal means of deterring them from doing evil. The 
 punishments in hell are various, more mild or more 
 severe according to the nature of the evils to be re- 
 strained. For the most part the more malignant who 
 excel in cunning and artifice, and are able to keep the 
 rest in a state of submission and slavery by punishments 
 and the terror thereby inspired, are set over the others ; 
 but these governors dare not go beyond the limits pre- 
 scribed to them. It is to be observed that the fear of 
 punishment is the only means of restraining the violence 
 and fury of the hells : there is no other." — Heaven and 
 Hell 543. 
 
 "They who have not in the world acknowledged the 
 Lord, and that all good and truth are from Him and 
 nothing from man, cannot resist evils as of themselves 
 after death; for they are in evils and in the delight 
 thereof grounded in love \ and to resist the delight of 
 their love, is to resist themselves, their own nature and 
 their own life. On one occasion the experiment was 
 made whether they were able to resist evils while the 
 punishments of hell were announced to them, yea, while 
 
156 NEW VIEW OF BELL. 
 
 they were seen and likewise felt ; but it was in vain, for 
 they hardened their minds, saying, let come what will, 
 provided only that we are in the delight and joy of our 
 hearts while we are here. We shall not suffer more evil 
 than many others. But after a stated time they are cast 
 into hell, where they are compelled by punishments not 
 to do evil ; but punishments do not take away the 
 will, the purpose, and consequent thought of evil; 
 they only prevent the evil act." — Apocalypse Explained 
 n. 1165. 
 
 " While man lives in the world, he is kept continually 
 in a state capable of being reformed, provided he desists 
 from evil from a free principle. But his life follows him 
 after death, and he remains in the state which he had 
 procured to himself by the whole course of his life in the 
 world. Then he who was in evil, is no longer capable 
 of being reformed ; and lest he should have communica- 
 tion with any society of heaven, all truth and good are 
 taken away from him, in consequence of which he re- 
 mains in the evil and false, which principles increase ac- 
 cording to the faculty of receiving them which he has 
 acquired in the world ; but he is not permitted to pass 
 beyond the acquired bounds. . . . His state then is such 
 that he cannot any longer be amended as to his interiors, 
 but only as to his exteriors ; and this by fear of punish- 
 ments, which, being often repeated, compel the spirit at 
 last to abstain from evil, which he does, not in freedom 
 but through compulsion, the lust of doing evil still re- 
 
A NY RE FOR MA TION THERE ? 157 
 
 maining ; this lust is held in check by fears, as was said, 
 which fears are the external and compulsory means of 
 amendment. Such is the state of the evil in the other 
 life." — Arcana Ccelestia 6977. 
 
 " Every evil spirit in the other life brings punishment 
 and torment on himself, by casting himself into the 
 midst of the diabolical crew who act as the executioners. 
 The Lord never sends any one into hell, but desires to 
 bring all out of hell ; still less does He inflict torment. 
 But as the evil spirit rushes into it himself, the Lord 
 turns all punishment and torment to some good account. 
 There would be no such thing as punishment if use were 
 not the end aimed at by the Lord ; for his kingdom is a 
 kingdom of ends and uses ; but the uses which infernal 
 spirits are able to perform are most ignoble ; yet when 
 they are engaged in the performance of these uses, they 
 are not in a state of so great misery [as at other times]. " 
 —Ibid. 696. 
 
 " Man in the other life enters into new states and un- 
 dergoes changes. They who are being elevated into 
 heaven, and afterwards when they have been elevated, 
 advance forever towards perfection. But they who are 
 being cast into hell, and afterwards when they have been 
 cast in, endure sufferings more and more grievous, which 
 are continued until they dare not do evil to any one. 
 And afterwards they remain in hell to eternity. They 
 cannot be drawn out, because they cannot be gifted with 
 the ability to do good to any one, only not to do evi/fvom 
 
 14 
 
/ 
 
 158 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 fear of punishment, the lust of doing it always remaining." 
 —Ibid. 7541. 
 
 Such, then, is the nature of the change that is going on 
 in the hells, and such the means by which it is accom- 
 plished. And even in the punishments which are there 
 inflicted, we have a manifestation of the Divine benevo- 
 lence. For the purpose of these is, the amelioration of 
 the condition of the devils ; — an end altogether worthy 
 of infinite Love, but one which infinite Wisdom sees 
 could not be attained without the instrumentality of pun- 
 ishment. To withhold the exercise of this instrumental- 
 ity, therefore, would not be an act of benevolence, and 
 hence not agreeable to infinite Love ; for this Love for- 
 ever regards the end to be accomplished, and wisely per- 
 mits temporary suffering as a means toward the attain- 
 ment of that end. 
 
 Through the instrumentality of punishments, therefore, 
 severe and oft-repeated, the hells are undergoing an im- 
 provement not unlike that which goes on in a well gov- 
 erned penitentiary here on earth. They are being re- 
 formed outwardly, but not inwardly; — not as to their 
 spirit or ruling purpose, for no internal reformation is 
 ever effected by punishment or the fear of it. All that 
 punishment can ever do, is to intimidate and restrain, 
 and so prevent the actual commission of evil deeds, the 
 disposition to commit them still remaining. 
 
 By means of a strong police and severe punishments, a 
 community of thieves and murderers may be restrained, 
 
ANY REFORMATION THERE? 1 59 
 
 and kept in some degree of external order \ but theft and 
 murder (or the spirit that prompts them) still remain in 
 their hearts ; and will break forth into outward act as 
 soon as the police are out of the way, or there is no 
 longer any fear of punishment. You cannot drive love — 
 pure, unselfish love — into human hearts with bullets or 
 bludgeons, by infantry or artillery, by cavalry or police. 
 
 Our state prisons furnish a good illustration of the 
 hells as described by Swedenborg \ and the external im- 
 provement which has been going on in many of these for 
 the last thirty years, through a wise administration and a 
 firm government, will give us some idea of the nature 
 and extent of the improvement that is going on in the 
 hells. And while this is not such as will result in finally 
 changing their essential character or ruling love, let us 
 hope that it may, however, be carried so far as to render 
 the condition of the devils quite tolerable if not happy. 
 Let us hope that, ultimately, they may be reduced to 
 such a state of external order, that life — even the low 
 and selfish kind of life which they have chosen and 
 made their own — will be esteemed by them a blessing 
 and not a curse. 
 
 In a community here on earth, where a great majority 
 of the people have a conscience and are actuated by 
 principle, the sphere of law and order, of justice and 
 right, is usually so strong that there is rarely any out- 
 break of the hells through the minority. These latter 
 are kept in subjection and order by purely selfish and 
 
160 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 prudential considerations — from an enlightened regard 
 to their own temporal interests, or through fear of dis- 
 grace, punishment, or worldly loss of some sort. So from 
 like considerations, and under the rigid discipline to 
 which the devils are subjected and which I have here 
 hastily outlined, the universal hell may ultimately be 
 brought into such complete subjection to the angelic 
 heaven, (whose numbers and influence, it is believed, are 
 continually increasing), that the violent commotions and 
 outbreaks which are now so frequent, will entirely cease. 
 When this takes place, we can easily see that, although 
 the hells will still remain unchanged as to their essential 
 nature, they will be like the tamed tiger — submissive, 
 and therefore harmless. We can see, too, that, by their 
 subjection to the heaven of angels, or to the emanating 
 and controlling sphere of law and order, their own peace 
 and comfort will be increased, and the welfare of the 
 moral universe promoted to an extent beyond the power 
 of imagination to conceive. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of the New Doctrine of Hell ; 
 — a doctrine which builds itself impregnably upon the 
 constitution and laws of the human soul, which accords 
 with the teaching of sound philosophy, with the dictates 
 of reason, with the facts of history, with the record of 
 human experience, and with the teachings of Scripture 
 rationally and spiritually interpreted. 
 
 How different this doctrine is from the one taught in 
 
ANY REFORMA TION THERE ? 1 6 1 
 
 the literal sense of the Word, and generally accepted 
 among Christians a hundred years ago ! It presents us 
 not with an angry and vindictive God delighting in the 
 sufferings of his disobedient children, but with a tender 
 and loving Father pitying their infirmities, and pursuing 
 them with outstretched arms of mercy through all their 
 wanderings, and even into the lowest depths of degrada- 
 tion and sin. And if, in the exercise of the freedom 
 vouchsafed to every human being, they choose to unfold 
 only the lower or sensuous part of their nature — choose 
 to make their bed in hell, behold the loving Father is 
 there, restraining, correcting, controlling and governing 
 them in the manner best suited to their condition and 
 needs ; chastising them for their own good, and granting 
 them the enjoyment of such delights as belong to the 
 life which they have developed within them and made 
 their own ; mercifully closing their minds against the 
 light of heaven, that they may not see where and what 
 they really are ; providing for each and all a home in 
 the society of congenial spirits — a home which their 
 nature impels them to seek, and to which they go as freely 
 and as willingly as the inebriate goes to the gin-shop or 
 the leopard to his lair. 
 
 And the practical tendency of this doctrine, like that 
 of every other that is true, is most salutary. While it 
 proclaims the infinite love and mercy of God, and his 
 ceaseless desire and effort to save all, it at the same time 
 shows us that salvation is a work which not even almighty 
 
 14* L 
 
1 62 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 Love itself can accomplish without our willing co-opera- 
 tion ; that the heavenly life cannot be forced upon us nor 
 into us by almighty power, but can only be wrought out 
 by our own volition — or built up through struggle and 
 conflict and self-denial and obedience to the laws of that 
 life, — the Lord meanwhile " working in us to will and to 
 do of his good pleasure" ; and that unless we begin to 
 live the life of heaven here on earth — begin to deny 
 self, take up the cross and follow the Master — we shall 
 have no desire to engage in this work in the realm be- 
 yond the grave. The heaven of our minds will then be 
 closed in tender compassion for us \ and the peace and 
 joy and unutterable bliss of heaven will, therefore, never 
 be ours. 
 
 So tremendous are the moral sanctions with which 
 this new doctrine is invested ! So benign and quicken- 
 ing is it in its practical tendency ! 
 
XI. 
 
 THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 
 
 TV TO treatise upon the subject that has thus far en- 
 -^ ^ gaged our attention, would be satisfactory to an 
 inquiring mind, which did not embrace an explanation 
 of the terms Devil and Satan. These words occur very 
 often in the New Testament, and in the closest possible 
 connection with the term Hell. What is Swedenborg's 
 explanation of them ? Or what is the doctrine revealed 
 through him concerning the Devil and Satan ? 
 
 We know what doctrine had been generally taught and 
 accepted by Christians up to the time he wrote. It was 
 that of a personal Devil — an individual of unparalleled 
 malignity, the implacable enemy of both God and man, 
 and endued with little less than omnipotent power. And 
 this idea agrees with the literal teaching of the Bible. 
 It also appears from the literal sense of some passages 
 (and this, too, has been the accepted doctrine among 
 Christians) as if this almost omnipotent evil spirit, was 
 once an inhabitant of the highest heaven — foremost 
 among the heavenly host in wisdom and all angelic 
 graces ; — one 
 
 163 
 
164 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 " who, in the happy realms of light, 
 
 Clothed with transcendent brightness, did outshine 
 Myriads though bright ;" — 
 
 but who, on account of his impious attempt to overthrow 
 the divine government and establish himself on the 
 throne of the universe, was cast down from heaven, and 
 became thereby the prince of the bottomless pit, the 
 commander in chief of all the hosts of hell. (See Is. 
 xii. 14; Jude 6th v. ; Rev. ix. 11.) 
 
 Such was the generally accepted doctrine of the Devil 
 a hundred years ago. And it is believed by many at the 
 present day. A high authority where definitions are in 
 question (Noah Webster), defines Satan to be " the grand 
 adversary of man ; the devil, or prince of darkness ; the 
 chief of the fallen angels; the arch-fiend." And in an 
 abridgement of his great work, we find Devil defined 
 thus: — "In -the Christian theology — a fallen angel ex- 
 pelled from heaven for rebellion against God \ the chief 
 of the fallen angels." 
 
 From these definitions we learn that the notion which 
 Christians have generally attached to these words, has 
 been precisely that expressed by Milton in his great epic, 
 where he introduces Satan as one 
 
 " cast out from heaven, with all his host 
 
 Of rebel angels ; by whose aid aspiring 
 To set himself in glory above his peers, 
 He trusted to have equaled the Most High 
 If He opposed ; and with ambitious aim 
 
THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 1 65 
 
 Against the throne and monarchy of God, 
 Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud, 
 With vain attempt. Him the almighty Power 
 Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 
 With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
 To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell 
 In adamantine chains and penal fire, 
 Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms." 
 
 But there are not a few at the present day, both within 
 and outside of all the churches — and their number is 
 steadily increasing — who do not believe a word of this 
 old and once popular doctrine of the Devil. They 
 reject that whole story about the war in heaven, and the 
 overthrow and expulsion of the rebel hosts, as fabulous. 
 And if any one is curious to know the origin of this no- 
 tion about the " fallen angels/' let him read attentively 
 the critical remarks of Dr. Moses Stuart on the Apochry- 
 phal book of Enoch, from which it is evident that the 
 apostle Jude quoted. The conclusion of this learned 
 writer is briefly stated thus: "Probable I must deem it 
 to be, that Jude has quoted the book of Enoch ; because 
 he seems, in what he says of the angels who kept not 
 their first estate, but left their habitation and are reserved 
 in chains of darkness, to allude to the account of apos- 
 tate angels as given in the book of Enoch." {Stuart on 
 the Apocalypse, Vol. I., p. 51-73.) 
 
 The old doctrine on this subject, then, is clearly one 
 that belongs to a superstitious and unenlightened age. 
 
1 66 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 It bears about it the air of fable. Our reason and the 
 enlightened sentiment of the present day repudiate it 
 utterly. 
 
 Let us turn, now, to the new doctrine revealed through 
 Swedenborg ; and see if that be as unreasonable or im- 
 probable as the old. What, according to this new rev- 
 elation, is the Devil and Satan of Scripture ? 
 
 Consider that evil spirits are not all in the same kind 
 or degree of evil. They are not all alike, any more than 
 men on earth or angels in heaven. There are innumerable 
 varieties of evil in hell, as there are of good in heaven. 
 And those who are in similar kinds and degrees of evil, 
 prefer to be together. They are therefore drawn by the 
 law of spiritual affinity into the same society. Every 
 devil is carried to that particular society whose general 
 character most nearly resembles his own. There he 
 finds himself at home. He is drawn to it by an irre- 
 sistible attraction — for in the other world each one goes 
 where his ruling love leads him. Spirits can no more 
 resist or cut themselves loose from the law of spiritual 
 attraction, than our earth can resist or cut itself loose 
 from the law of material attraction. 
 
 By virtue of this law, and of the endless variety of 
 goods and evils in the other world, both in kind and in 
 degree, there are in heaven and in hell a countless num- 
 ber of societies, each one of which is in some specific 
 kind and degree of good or evil. All the societies in 
 heaven, viewed collectively, constitute one gigantic Man 
 
THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 167 
 
 or Angel ; and are often called by Swedenborg Maximus 
 Homo — the Grand Man. The meaning of this is, that 
 the connection, interdependence, and mutual relation 
 of the innumerable societies composing the whole angelic 
 heaven, and the uses which they severally perform, cor- 
 respond to the harmonious relation existing between the 
 different organs of the human body, and their respective 
 functions. 
 
 And since the mutual relation and dependence of all 
 the angelic societies is such that the whole heaven appears 
 before the Lord as one symmetrical and colossal Man or 
 Angel, so the infernal societies are so related and united 
 that all hell appears as one gigantic and deformed Mon- 
 ster or Devil. The difference in their appearance cor- 
 responds exactly to the difference in their character. 
 And this is as the difference between a single angel and 
 devil, one of whom is a form of all that is pure and 
 good, and therefore indescribably beautiful ; the other a 
 form of all that is evil and loathsome, and therefore 
 hideous. 
 
 This, according to Swedenborg, is what we are to un- 
 derstand by the Devil and Satan so often mentioned in 
 Scripture. Each of these is a collective term when used 
 in its widest sense, and denotes all the infernal societies 
 viewed as a single individual. There is an organic con- 
 nection among infernal spirits. One life pervades them 
 all, and that is the life of self-love and the lusts therein 
 originating, — just as one kind of blood, pure or impure, 
 
l6S NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 courses through all parts of the human body even to its 
 remotest extremities. And as the whole body conspires 
 in producing the slightest motion of any limb — a foot, 
 an arm, a hand or a finger — so all hell conspires in the 
 perpetration of every wicked deed — in every evil pur- 
 pose, word, or work. 
 
 We see, then, that, according to the New doctrine, no 
 single individual as chief of the fallen angels, is meant 
 by these Scripture terms, but all evil spirits in the com- 
 plex, — or some one of the infernal societies with whose 
 every act and purpose the whole conspires. Devil is the 
 term employed when hell is spoken of with more especial 
 reference to the evil loves that reign there : and Satan, 
 when it is spoken of with more especial reference to its 
 
 e persuasions. 
 
 ad because all hell is in a state of opposition to what 
 is good and true, and perpetually conspires to destroy 
 man spiritually, by the sphere of evil and falsity which 
 continually issues from it as a poisonous exhalation, 
 therefore we read that the Devil M was a murderer from 
 the beginning, and abode not in the truth because there 
 is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh 
 of his own [i. e., according to his own nature]; for he 
 is a liar and the father of it." :hing but falsity is in 
 
 agreement with evil. Therefore nothing but lies can 
 come forth from the hearts of those who are essentially 
 evil — supremely selfish — when they speak from their own 
 nature. 
 
THE DEVIL A. 169 
 
 So reasonable is the view here presented, and so much 
 more satisfactory than the Old doctrine, that we are not 
 surprised to find it beginning to be accepted by some of 
 the acutest minds and profoundest thinkers even among 
 those commonly reputed orthodox. To cite here, by 
 way of illustration, a single passage from that most fas- 
 cinating work. JTature and the Supernatural, from the 
 pen of Dr. Horace Bushnell, unquestionably one of the 
 ablest theologians in America. Speaking of the doctrine 
 of the Manichees or disciples of Zoroaster, this writer 
 
 M If their good principle, called God by us, is taken 
 as a being, and their bad principle as only a condition 
 privative ; one as a positive and real cause, the other as a 
 bad possibility that environs God from eternity, waiting 
 to become a fact and certain to become a fact when 
 the opportunity en, it is even so. And then it fol- 
 
 that the moment God creates a realm of powers, the 
 bad possibility as certainly becomes a bad acruali: 
 Satan, or Devil, in esse ; not a bad omnipresence over 
 against God, and his equal — that is a monstrous and hor- 
 rible conception — but an outbreaking evil or empire of 
 evil in created spirits, according to their order. For 
 Satan, or the I 7 taken in the singular, is not the 
 name of any particular person, neither is it a personation 
 merely of temptation, or impersonal evil, as many in- 
 fer there is really no such thing as impersonal 
 in the sense of moral evil : but the name is a name thai 
 
 15 
 
1 7° NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 generalizes bad persons or spirits, with their bad thoughts 
 or characters, many in one. That there is any single 
 one of them who, by distinction or pre-eminence, is called 
 Satan, or Devil, is wholly improbable. The name is one 
 taken up by the imagination, to designate or embody, in 
 a conception the mind can most easily wield, the all or 
 total of bad minds or powers.' ' — pp. 134, '5. 
 
 I do not know whether this learned writer derived the 
 view here expressed from Swedenborg, or whether he 
 reached it by a kind of spiritual intuition. In either 
 case the testimony of such a mind is equally valuable. 
 The doctrine, we see, is identically the same as that 
 revealed through Swedenborg. 
 
 Pursuing our inquiry, — we find that the word AngeZ is 
 used in Scripture in a manner similar to the word Devil, 
 as explained by Swedenborg. Sometimes it is used to 
 denote a single individual, sometimes a single angeric 
 society, and sometimes the whole angelic heaven which 
 is an angel in the largest form. Thus the seer of Pat- 
 mos speaks of the angels of the churches of Ephesus, 
 Smyrna, Thyatira, etc., by which are meant the angelic 
 societies connected with and presiding over these churches. 
 We read also in Psalms: "The angel of the Lord 
 encampeth round about them that fear Him, and deliv- 
 ered! them." Here "the angel of the Lord" means 
 the whole angelic heaven. 
 
 But heaven is the same in each and all of its parts, as 
 it is in the whole. Therefore the word angel, which is 
 
THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 171 
 
 sometimes used in Scripture to denote the whole angelic 
 heaven, or some society thereof, is also used in the plural 
 {angels) to denote two or more individuals ; for e very- 
 angel is a heaven in the smallest form. 
 
 Similar remarks may be made with reference to the 
 use of the word devil. It is used in the singular as a col- 
 lective term to denote all hell in the complex; and 
 again we find the same word often used in the plural 
 (devils), denoting individual evil spirits, or the constit- 
 uent parts of hell, which are similar in character to the 
 whole. 
 
 We use the term man in precisely the same way. We 
 sometimes apply it to a single individual, and sometimes 
 to the race. It is often used in this latter sense in the 
 Bible, as a collective term. As where it is said : " God 
 made man in his own image." "Man shall not live by 
 bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of 
 the mouth of God shall man li¥e. M Again we use this 
 word in the plural (ineti), when speaking of a number of 
 individuals, or of mankind in general. 
 
 And what is more common than to hear a country, 
 a kingdom, or state, or other community of persons 
 spoken of as a single individual. Every one speaks of 
 England, France, Germany, the United States, etc., or 
 the people of these countries viewed collectively, as one 
 person, with the same familiarity and the same confi- 
 dence of being understood, as he would speak of Mr. 
 Smith or Mr. Jones, his next door neighbor. 
 
172 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 Now if Man is often used as a collective term to denote 
 the entire human race, and Angel in like manner to de- 
 note the whole angelic heaven, why should not Devil 
 be used in the same way to denote all evil spirits in the 
 complex? or, as Dr. Bushnell expresses it, "the total 
 of bad minds"? These are all animated by one and 
 the same bad spirit; they all breathe hatred, cruelty, 
 revenge and murder ; they are all joined in an alliance 
 of evil; they all conspire to work deeds of darkness; 
 and viewed collectively, what are they but one inhuman 
 Monster or Devil ? 
 
 And this view has the clear testimony of Scripture as 
 well as of reason in its support. For we read of one 
 "that was possessed with the devil/' who was "always, 
 night and day, in the mountains and in the tombs, 
 crying and cutting himself with stones." This poor, 
 devil-possessed creature met Jesus as He came out of the 
 ship ; and as soon as he saw Him " he ran and worshiped 
 Him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have 
 I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high 
 God?" And Jesus, commanding the unclean spirit to 
 come out of the man, "asked him, What is thy name? 
 And he answered, saying, My name is Legion ; for we 
 are many." — Mark v. 9. And immediately after, this 
 same unclean spirit, called in verses 15 and 16 "the 
 devil," is spoken of in the plural as "the unclean spirits." 
 and "all the devils." 
 
 There are a number of other names by which the Devil 
 
THE DEVIL AND SATAN. 173 
 
 is called in Scripture, each of which expresses something 
 of the essential nature of hell ; such as, Angel of the 
 bottomless pit, Prince of this world, Prince of darkness, 
 Destroyer, Beelzebub, Belial, Adversary, Accuser, De- 
 ceiver, Liar, Murderer, Tormentor, Serpent, Lucifer, 
 Leviathan and Dragon. Such are the significant names 
 which we find in the Bible sometimes applied to the col- 
 lective body of evil spirits in the other world, who, 
 viewed as one individual, are more frequently called the 
 Devil and Satan. And how completely do such names 
 justify the following language of Swedenborg : 
 
 "As heaven, from the Lord, by mutual love, consti- 
 tutes as it were one Man or one soul, and thus regards 
 one end which is the preservation and salvation of all to 
 eternity ; so on the other hand hell, from proprium, by 
 self-love and the love of the world, that is, by hatred, 
 constitutes one Devil or one mind, and thus regards one 
 end, which is the destruction and damnation of all to 
 eternity. That such is the tendency of each has been 
 granted me to perceive many thousands of times.' ' 
 {Arcana Ccelestia 694.) 
 
 We thus see that the New doctrine on this, as on other 
 subjects, is quite different from the Old. The Devil, 
 according to Swedenborg 7 s disclosures, is not the per- 
 sonal one described by Milton, and hitherto believed in 
 by Christians generally. Nor is he a fabulous or imag- 
 inary being, but one whose existence and reality the 
 
 philosphic inquirer readily admits. Nay, he is one 
 15 * 
 
1 74 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 whose existence we are compelled to admit, the moment 
 we admit that each one takes his own character with him 
 into the other world, and that those of similar character 
 are there drawn together, and held together and act to- 
 gether as one. 
 
 And something — nay, much, I think — is gained, when 
 the Devil, whom intelligent people were fast coming to 
 look upon as a fabulous sort of being, is so presented 
 that all doubt about his existence and reality as well as 
 his nature, is banished. It places the Scripture in a dif- 
 ferent light, and inspires fresh confidence in its divinity. 
 
 And seeing what the essential nature of the Devil is, 
 we may see what it is to be influenced and led by him — 
 and what to be led by the Lord. When we earnestly strive 
 to know and do the right — when we look to the Lord 
 and seek to regulate our lives according to his revealed 
 will, then we suffer ourselves to be led and governed by 
 Him. 
 
 But when we seek only to do our own wills — when we 
 heed the promptings of self-love more than the still small 
 voice of truth and duty, then we breathe the atmosphere 
 of hell ; our spirits act in conjunction with the infernals ; 
 we are led and governed by the Devil. 
 
 And when we consider what legions there are who con- 
 stitute the Devil, and who are banded together in a con- 
 spiracy against all that is good and true and holy in 
 human hearts and human society, how clear and imper- 
 ative becomes the need of an almighty Arm to save us ! 
 
THE DEVIL AND SATAX. 1 75 
 
 and how earnestly should we seek the Divine protecting 
 sphere ! How anxious should we be to know the truth, 
 and how careful to govern our lives according to its 
 requirements — ever acknowledging the Lord's own im- 
 mediate presence and power in the truths we learn and 
 do ! This is the only way we can secure for ourselves the 
 protection of that Arm which alone can shield us against 
 the power of hell. 
 
 How imminent is our spiritual danger, how watchful 
 we ought to be over our hearts and lives, how much we 
 need the Divine protection, and how that protection is 
 best ensured, will appear from the following extract from 
 Swedenborg's Heaven and Hell : 
 
 " Every spirit is his own good or his own evil, because 
 he is his own love. Therefore, as an angelic spirit 
 thinks, wills, speaks, and acts from his own good, so 
 does an infernal spirit from his own evil ; and to think, 
 will, speak, and act, from evil itself, is to do so from all 
 the things which are included in the evil. It was other- 
 wise when he lived in the body. The evil of the man's 
 spirit was then restrained by the bonds, in which every 
 one is held by the law, by his love of gain and honor, 
 and through fear of losing them ; on which account the 
 evil of his spirit could not then break out, and manifest 
 itself in its own intrinsic nature. Besides, the evil of 
 the man's spirit then lay wrapped up and veiled in exter- 
 nal probity, sincerity, justice, and the affection of truth 
 and good, of which such a man has made an oral profes- 
 
176 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 sion, and has assumed an appearance for the sake of the 
 world. Under these outward semblances, the evil lay so 
 covered up and concealed, that he was scarcely aware 
 himself that his spirit contained so great wickedness and 
 subtlety, or that in himself he was such a devil as he 
 becomes after death, when his spirit comes into itself, 
 and into its own nature. Such wickedness then manifests 
 itself as exceeds all belief. There are thousands of evils 
 which burst forth from evil itself, among which, also, 
 are such as cannot be expressed in the words of any lan- 
 guage. I have been permitted to learn and comprehend 
 their nature by much experience ; for it has been granted 
 me by the Lord to be in the spiritual world as to my 
 spirit, and at the same time in the natural world as to 
 my body. This I can testify, that their wickedness is so 
 great, that it is hardly possible to describe a thousandth 
 part of it; and furthermore, that unless the Lord pro- 
 tected man, it would be impossible for him ever to be 
 rescued from hell; for there are with every man both 
 spirits from hell and angels from heaven ; and the Lord 
 cannot protect a man, unless he acknowledge the Divine, 
 and live the life of faith and charity ; for otherwise, he 
 averts himself from the Lord, and turns toward infernal 
 spirits, and thus becomes imbued as to his spirit with 
 similar wickedness. " — 577. 
 
XII. 
 
 PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 BESIDES this outer world of matter, there is another 
 realm of being ; — a world of spirits, both good and 
 evil ; — a heaven of angels and a hell of devils. Nor is 
 this realm remote from the world in which we are now 
 living and acting, but intimately present with it, inter- 
 penetrating every part of it, as the soul of man pervades 
 and animates every part of his body. 
 
 In the midst of this viewless host our own souls live 
 and breathe and act. With one or another class of 
 spirits we internally hold close companionship; and are 
 powerfully influenced by them for good or for evil. 
 Neither heaven nor hell are far-away, but present and 
 potential realities— none the less so because their deni- 
 zens are invisible to the natural eye. And the moment 
 this fact is recognized, the important practical bearings 
 of the subject discussed in these pages, becomes apparent. 
 For if hell be a present reality, or if it can come near to 
 men and exert upon them a potent influence, it is import- 
 ant that we understand its nature. 
 
 And all who accept the Sacred Scripture as a revelation 
 
 from God, must recognize this fact. For on almost 
 
 M 177 
 
lj% NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 every page of the Bible, the existence of a realm above 
 nature — of a world peopled by spirits, good and evil — is 
 clearly implied if not distinctly asserted. Angels and 
 devils are spoken of as often, and with as much familiar- 
 ity, as are any other objects whose reality no one ever 
 dreamed of questioning. Their existence is everywhere 
 assumed. There is never an attempt to prove it, any 
 more than there is to prove the existence of the sun, 
 moon or stars. 
 
 Angels are spoken of as often seen by persons in the 
 flesh ; as conversing with and sustaining an intimate re- 
 lation to them ; as feeling a lively interest in humanity, 
 and exerting an influence upon the condition of mortals. 
 They were seen, for example, by Jacob, Gideon, Manoah, 
 Zacharias, the shepherds of Bethlehem, and the women 
 "who were early at the sepulchre.' ' Myriads of them 
 were beheld, and their voices heard, by John when he 
 was in the spirit. And as evidence of their interest in 
 and their sympathy with people here on earth, we are 
 told in the gospel of Luke that " there is joy in the pres- 
 ence of the angels of God over one sinner that re- 
 penteth." 
 
 Equally explicit, too, is the Scripture in its teaching 
 respecting evil spirits or devils, and their malign influ- 
 ence upon the inhabitants of this world. When our 
 Saviour was on earth, multitudes were possessed by them ; 
 and we are told that "He cast out the devils with his 
 word." He also gave his disciples " power over unclean 
 
PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 179 
 
 spirits to cast them out." And when He sent them forth 
 to preach the gospel of the Kingdom, He gave them a 
 commission to "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise 
 the dead, and cast out devils" When the evil spirits 
 saw Him, they (or the persons possessed by them) cried 
 out for fear, fell down before Him, or quickly fled away 
 as from one whose sphere was insufferably painful. And 
 "with authority,' ' it is said, "He commandeth the un- 
 clean spirits, and they obey Him. ,, And on one occa- 
 sion when He was met by a poor demoniac who had his 
 dwelling among the tombs, "He said unto him, Come 
 out of the man, thou unclean spirit." And when he was 
 asked "What is thy name?" he answered "My name is 
 Legion ; for we are many. ' ' 
 
 Then look at the character of the Devil as portrayed 
 in the Bible ; — and this term, as shown in the previous 
 chapter, is applied to the congregated hosts of hell, or 
 all evil spirits viewed collectively. His character is 
 clearly indicated by the several names applied to him. 
 For he is called a liar, a destroyer, the accurser of the 
 brethren, the adversary, the deceiver, a murderer, the 
 old serpent, the tempter, the wicked one, the spirit that 
 worketh in the children of disobedience. He is repre- 
 sented, moreover, as the enemy of God and the human 
 race; as opposed to the establishment of the Redeemer's 
 kingdom, or to the reign of justice, liberty and love in 
 human hearts; as earnestly bent on man's destruction; 
 as the inspirer of all wicked thoughts, and malign pur- 
 
l8o NEW VIEW OE HELL. 
 
 poses ; as putting it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to 
 betray the blessed Saviour; as corrupting and misleading 
 men by craft and subtlety; as "going about like a roar- 
 ing lion, seeking whom he may devour." 
 
 The Scripture testimony on this subject is abundant 
 and conclusive. We see not how it could be more ex- 
 plicit. If the existence of an innumerable company of 
 angels and devils, their close proximity to man, and their 
 intense desire and earnest effort, the one class to do him 
 good and the other to do him harm, be not plainly taught 
 in the Bible, then it would be difficult, I think, to say 
 what is plainly taught there. 
 
 And yet the explicit teaching of Scripture on this mo- 
 mentous theme, has come to be quite overlooked or 
 ignored by many Christians ; and so explained by others 
 as to cast doubt on the very existence of spirits, good or 
 evil. These facts go to show how important it was that 
 some one should be intromitted into the spiritual world 
 in the manner that Swedenborg was (or, if you please, 
 claimed to be), that he might thereby be enabled to make 
 a truthful revelation concerning that world. 
 
 That the practical bearings of the question discussed 
 in these pages, may be more distinctly seen, I will give 
 a brief outline of the spiritual world, even at the risk of 
 treading upon some ground that has already been trav- 
 eled over. 
 
 I observe, then, that the spiritual world is one of sub- 
 stantial realities — more real, indeed, than the one in 
 
PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 181 
 
 which we are now living. It is not remote from this 
 world as to space, but is intimately present with it as the 
 soul is with the body. It is peopled by a countless 
 multitude of beings, all of whom are in the human form 
 and were once inhabitants of the natural world. These 
 are organized in general into two grand divisions, — a 
 heaven of angels and a hell of devils. The angels are 
 distributed into innumerable societies, corresponding, in 
 their mutual relations and in the functions they respect- 
 ively perform, to the different members and organs of 
 the human body ; so that together they constitute one 
 Grand Man or Angel. And to the Lord they actually 
 appear as one, and constitute his heavenly kingdom. 
 These are spoken of in the Bible as " the angel of the 
 Lord" and " the host of heaven." 
 
 And the angels are all good and wise, although there 
 is a wide diversity of character among them. Some are 
 in a high and others in a comparatively low degree of 
 wisdom j some in one kind of good, others in another. 
 But love to the Lord and the neighbor is the chief in- 
 spiration — yea, the very life-blood of all their hearts. 
 They are all, to some extent, images and likenesses of 
 the Lord. They have been with Him and learned of 
 Him ; — learned to be meek and lowly in heart, forgetful 
 of themselves and thoughtful only of the good of 
 others ; — learned to do justly, to love mercy, and to 
 walk humbly with their God. These constitute that 
 bright angelic throng, of whom it is said that they 
 
 16 
 
*82 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 "came out of great tribulation, and have washed their 
 robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb/' 
 They are all of them children of the Heavenly Father, 
 having their hearts stamped indelibly with the impress 
 of his spirit — which is what is meant by their having 
 " his name written in their foreheads/' Their love is like 
 God's, pure and unselfish. They love each other even 
 better than themselves, and find their chief delight in 
 doing good and communicating happiness to others. 
 Having in their hearts the very spirit of the Lord, they 
 love only what He loves, and delight to do only those 
 things that He delights to have them do. Their rul- 
 ing desire and purpose are the same as his ; their ends 
 and aims the same. For they desire above all else to 
 impart unto others the delights of heavenly life. They 
 desire to dissipate the spiritual darkness, to heal the 
 spiritual sickness, to restore the spiritual health and renew 
 the spiritual strength of the world. Swedenborg's writ- 
 ings are full of the most beautiful and inspiring pictures 
 of angelic life, from which people here on earth may 
 learn lessons of the highest practical wisdom. Thus he 
 says : 
 
 " The angelic life consists in the performance of uses, 
 or in the goods of charity. For to the angels nothing 
 is more delightful than to instruct spirits coming from 
 the world ; — to serve mankind by inspiring them with 
 what is good, and by restraining the evil spirits attend- 
 ant on them from passing their proper bounds ; — to raise 
 
PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. I S3 
 
 up the dead to eternal life, and afterwards, if their souls 
 be of such a character as to render it possible, to intro- 
 duce them into heaven. In the performance of these 
 offices they experience an unspeakable delight. Thus 
 they are images of the Lord, for they love their neighbor 
 more than themselves ; and where this feeling exists, 
 there is heaven. Angelic happiness, therefore, is in use, 
 from use, and according to use ; or in other words, it is 
 according to the goods of love and charity. . . . 
 
 " Some of the best educated [who were met with in the 
 other world], declared heavenly joy to consist in a life 
 separated from the good offices of charity and in merely 
 praising and worshiping the Lord, — calling this an active 
 life. They w r ere told, however, that praising and wor- 
 shiping the Lord, is not such an active life, but the 
 effect of such life ; for the Lord has no need of men's 
 praises, but desires that they perform the good works of 
 charity. According as they do these, they receive hap- 
 piness from the Lord. Yet these most learned spirits 
 could have no idea of delight, but of servitude, in these 
 good works of charity ; but the angels testified that such 
 good offices are compatible with the most perfect free- 
 dom, and attended with inexpressible felicity." — Arcana 
 Coelestia 454, 456. 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 " Charity is nothing unless it manifests itself in works 
 of charity. It exists only in exercise, or in the perform- 
 ance of uses. He who loves his neighbor as himself, 
 
184 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 never perceives the delight of charity except in its ex- 
 ercise, or in use ; the life of charity, therefore, is a life 
 of uses. Such is the life of the whole heaven ; for the 
 Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses, because a king- 
 dom of mutual love. Therefore every pleasure derived 
 from charity, has its delight from use ; and the more 
 exalted the use, so much the greater its delight. Hence 
 the angels have happiness from the Lord according to 
 the nature and quality of the uses they perform.' ' — 
 Ibid. 997. 
 
 Such is the nature of angelic life — the life which we 
 are all made capable of attaining, and which the Lord is 
 forever seeking to develop or build up within us. Such 
 is the character of that heavenly kingdom whereof the 
 Bible so often speaks — a kingdom of righteousness, joy 
 and peace — a kingdom of pure and loving hearts — the 
 very kingdom for which we pray when we breathe that 
 inspired petition, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be 
 done on earth as it is done in heaven." 
 
 And people are continually passing into that kingdom 
 — passing from earth to heaven. What class of people ? 
 The Bible tells us. All those righteous ones who walked, 
 while here below, in the law of the Lord ; — those lowly 
 ones who, through repentance and regeneration, have 
 become as little children ; — the meek, the merciful, the 
 poor in spirit, the pure in heart, those who have prac- 
 ticed self-denial, and earnestly sought to do the will of 
 the Father which is in the heavens. 
 
PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 1 85 
 
 We thus see what the kingdom of heaven is \ and that 
 all who enter that kingdom after death, must have heaven 
 within themselves. That is, they must carry the loves 
 and purposes that rule in heaven, and be able to find de- 
 light in such works as are delightful to the angels. 
 
 But there is another kingdom in the spiritual realm of 
 which the Bible tells us — a hell of devils. These, too, 
 are arranged, in like manner as the angels, into many 
 different societies according to the kinds and degrees of 
 evil in which they are. Nor is there anything arbitrary 
 or compulsory in this arrangement. They come into it 
 in perfect freedom. Each one goes into the society for 
 which he has an affinity — into the one whose general 
 character is nearest like his own. And these societies of 
 evil spirits, like those in heaven, are all so united, that 
 together they constitute one huge monster, called in 
 Scripture "the Devil." 
 
 The character of these evil spirits is quite the opposite 
 of that of the angels. They have no love of the Lord 
 or the neighbor; and therefore know nothing of the 
 heavenly delight resulting from the exercise of this love. 
 The love of self is the supreme and ruling love of them 
 all ; and this is real hatred toward those who refuse to 
 minister to its gratification. 
 
 And as self-love is the source of all other evil loves 
 when it reigns supreme, therefore the devils are thor- 
 oughly immersed in evil. They are full of hatred, 
 
 malice, craft and subtlety; — full of falsehood, tyranny, 
 16* 
 
l36 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 cunning and cruelty. Their life is one of unmitigated 
 selfishness. It is their delight to do all manner of mis- 
 chief; — to foment hatreds, strifes and divisions; — to stir 
 up envies, jealousies and revenges \ — to intensify all the 
 worst passions of the human heart ; — to blind, and mis- 
 lead, and if possible make slaves of, all who come within 
 the sphere of their influence. 
 
 Such, briefly, is the character of that legion of infer- 
 nals in the spiritual world, who, taken collectively, are 
 called the Devil. What a contrast to the character 
 of those shining ones in the realms above ! 
 
 Consider, now, that as to our spirits we are always 
 living in the spiritual world, even while clothed with 
 material flesh and blood ; and are actually associated 
 with one or the other class of spirits above described. 
 We may flee the society of persons in the flesh ; but we 
 can never be alone. We can never rid ourselves of the 
 society of spirits. Wherever we are, an invisible com- 
 pany attends us — in solitude no less than in society. We 
 do not see them, nor sensibly perceive their influence. 
 Yet their presence is none the less real on that account, 
 nor their influence less positive. We do not hear their 
 voices — certainly not with our outward ears ; yet they 
 converse with us during all our waking hours. Through 
 the intricate and mysterious galleries of the soul they 
 whisper to us a blessed gospel of peace and good will — 
 thoughts of kindness, usefulness, justice, mercy, forbear- 
 
PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 187 
 
 ance, benevolence, and willing self-sacrifice for the good 
 of others ; or they suggest ways and means whereby our 
 pride, vanity, ambition, lust of dominion, love of ease 
 or pleasure, or selfish greed of gain, may most surely be 
 gratified. 
 
 Yes : one or the other of these two classes of spirits, — 
 according as we are more willing to listen to the soft 
 pleadings of the angels, or to be beguiled by the glazing 
 flattery of devils, — one or the other of these classes are 
 our intimate associates, our bosom companions. Of one 
 or the other we take counsel day by day, however uncon- 
 scious we may be of the fact. To one or the other we 
 listen from hour to hour. With one or the other we 
 think and feel and act in the ordinary intercourse of our 
 every-day life. There is no escape from this. The laws 
 of our spiritual being, and the arrangements and consti- 
 tution of the moral universe, render it a necessity. Our 
 spirits breathe, and must breathe, the atmosphere of 
 heaven or of hell. They may — oftentimes they do 
 — breathe that of each by turns. 
 
 But the Lord vouchsafes to every one the liberty of 
 choice. We are as free to choose our invisible as we are 
 our visible associates. Nay, we do choose them, whether 
 we think of it or not. We have actually chosen them, 
 though it may not be for eternity ; for we have the power 
 to change our invisible as well as our visible companions. 
 Indeed, the whole work of regeneration — every inward 
 change we experience — involves a change in our spiritual 
 
1 88 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 associates, or the passing out of one spiritual society and 
 the entering into another. 
 
 And now comes the momentous question : Is there 
 any way of ascertaining the character of our invisible 
 associates? Is there any test whereby we may know 
 with certainty whether our spirits consort with angels or 
 devils ? — whether we inhale from day to day the balmy 
 air of heaven, or the noxious and soul-disordering exha- 
 lations of hell ? 
 
 Most undoubtedly. There is a universal law that gov- 
 erns all associations in the spiritual world — those in hell 
 as well as those in heaven. It is the law of spiritual 
 affinity which has been repeatedly spoken of in the fore- 
 going pages. This law forever impels spirits to seek the 
 companionship of those most like themselves. Under 
 its operation, therefore, kindred spirits are drawn to- 
 gether and held together in the same society. Those in 
 a similar kind and degree of good, or in a similar kind 
 and degree of evil, have an affinity for each other. 
 They love to be together. Their sphere is mutually 
 agreeable. Therefore they gravitate toward each other 
 by force of mutual attraction. 
 
 And it is this same law which determines the character 
 of our invisible companions. Through its operation, 
 spirits are attracted to us who are similar in character to 
 ourselves. The prevailing tenor of our thoughts and 
 affections — the nature of the love that rules in our hearts 
 — the kind of motives from which we generally act — 
 
PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 1 89 
 
 the principles which govern us in our ordinary inter- 
 course with men — these are the indices which reveal the 
 character of our spiritual associates. If our prevailing 
 desire and effort be to know and do the will of the Lord, 
 then angels are our companions ;• our spirits consort with 
 the white-robed throng \ we breathe the atmosphere of 
 heaven. 
 
 But if our ends be mean and selfish ; if we are heed- 
 less of the Divine commands, or deaf to the still small 
 voice of duty ; if our prevailing purpose be to do our own 
 will- rather than the will of God ; then, our spiritual asso- 
 ciates belong to the realms below \ we are in fellowship 
 with devils; we breathe the polluting air of hell. 
 
 We have but to look, therefore, at our governing prin- 
 ciples of action — at our dominant feelings, dispositions 
 and motives — at our chief end and aim in life, in order 
 to learn the character of our invisible associates. Accord- 
 ingly Swedenborg says : — 
 
 " All spirits are distinguished in the other life by this : 
 They who intend evil to others, are infernal or diabolical 
 spirits; but they who intend good to others, are good 
 and angelic spirits. A man may know which class he is 
 among, whether angelic or infernal spirits. If he intends 
 evil to his neighbor, thinking nothing but evil concern- 
 ing him, and actually doing him evil whenever it is in 
 his power, and finding delight in doing it, then he is 
 among the infernals, and also becomes an infernal him- 
 self in the other life. But if he intends good to his 
 
190 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 neighbor, and thinks nothing but good respecting him, 
 and actually does him good when it is in his power, then 
 he is among angelic spirits, and also becomes an angel 
 himself in the other life. 
 
 " This is the criterion. Let every one examine himself 
 by it. It matters not that a person does not do evil 
 when he either cannot or dare not, nor that he does 
 good from some selfish consideration ; such abstinence 
 from the one and performance of the other, have their 
 origin only in the man's externals; and these are re- 
 moved in the other life, where he is such as his thoughts 
 and intentions make hi*n." — Arcana Ccelestia n. 1680. 
 
 Again he says : 
 
 " A man's end is his very life ; for that which belongs 
 to his life, or what is the same thing, to his love, he re- 
 gards as an end. When the good of the neighbor, the 
 general good, the good of the church and of the Lord's 
 kingdom is the end regarded, then the man as to his 
 soul is in the Lord's kingdom ; for His kingdom is none 
 other than a kingdom of ends and uses having respect to 
 the good of the human race. The angels themselves 
 attendant on man, are in nothing else [or have regard to 
 nothing else] but his ends. As far as a man's end is the 
 same as that aimed at by the Lord's kingdom, so far the 
 angels are delighted with him and unite themselves to 
 him as to a brother ; but in proportion as he is actuated 
 by a selfish end, the angels recede, and evil spirits from 
 
PRACTICAL BEARINGS OF IT. 191 
 
 hell draw near ; for no other than a selfish end rules in 
 hell. 
 
 ' ' From these considerations it is evident how important 
 it is for a man to examine and know the origin of his 
 affections ; and this can only be known from the end at 
 which he aims." — Ibid. 3796. 
 
 In view of what has now been said, the practical 
 bearings of this question are sufficiently obvious. When 
 these great truths are recognized, that man is essen- 
 tially a spiritual being ; that, within our outer material 
 vesture, is a spiritual and substantial body which con- 
 tinues to live after the material body perishes ; that, as 
 to our spirits we are now and always living in the spiritual 
 world, in close companionship with an invisible com- 
 pany whose character is determined by our own gov- 
 erning motives and cherished purposes; that the cha- 
 racter we form while here on earth will go with us into 
 the other world, and continue essentially the same for- 
 ever; that the spiritual associates we now choose and 
 bind to us by an unfailing law, are the very ones whose 
 companionship we shall prefer and seek in the life beyond 
 the grave ; that we are already in hell, however uncon- 
 scious we may be of the fact, if our ends and aims be 
 similar to those that rule in the realms below ; and that 
 our only hope of deliverance is in looking to the Lord 
 in humble acknowledgment of our dependence on Him, 
 and religiously obeying the laws of life that He has re- 
 vealed ; — when these truths, which are all involved in 
 
I9 2 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 the New view of hell, are seen and acknowledged, the 
 practical value of this view will then be perceived and 
 confessed. 
 
 For all who desire to rid themselves of the society 
 of evil spirits, and to come internally into fellowship 
 with the angels, will see the absolute necessity, not only 
 of a good outward or moral life, but of cleansing "the 
 inside of the cup and of the platter" — of acting from 
 right motives — of making the love of use, or the desire 
 to serve others from love to the Lord and the neighbor, 
 their ruling principle of action. To this exalted state, 
 therefore, will they aspire. For this they will long ; for 
 this they will labor : for this they will pray. 
 
 And fully conscious that they cannot attain to this 
 state of right desire and feeling, as well as of right living, 
 by their own unaided strength, they will be led to look 
 beseechingly to, and humbly to acknowledge their de- 
 pendence upon Him who hath all power in heaven and on 
 earth; and who has said, "Without me, ye can do 
 nothing." 
 
XIII. 
 
 HOW TO ESCAPE HELL. 
 
 WE have seen that hell, according to the New 
 Theology, is not a place to which a certain 
 class of people are at last sent against their will, as dis- 
 orderly people in this world are sent to the lock-up, or 
 criminals to the penitentiary; but that it is a state or 
 quality of life which each one freely chooses, and which he 
 strengthens or confirms by habit. It is a low condition 
 of humanity — a disorderly or inverted condition — one 
 in which the higher part of our nature is in absolute 
 subjection to the lower, the human to the bestial, the an- 
 gelic to the infernal. It is not a state of unmitigated 
 misery ; for every kind of love, as we have seen, has its 
 delights. The more unselfish is the love that we develop 
 and strengthen — the more it is like God's own love, so 
 much the sweeter and more heavenly is the delight felt 
 in its exercise, and so much the purer and more exalted 
 our happiness ; but the more unlike we are to God in 
 character, feeling and purpose — the more supremely sel- 
 fish we grow to be, and the more indifferent to the wants 
 and woes and welfare of others, the lower is the form of 
 17 N 193 
 
194 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 life or quality of love developed in die soul, and the 
 nearer, therefore, does the delight experienced in its ex- 
 ercise, approach' to the delights of some of the brute 
 creation — to the delights of serpents, tigers, dogs and 
 swine. 
 
 In the natural world nothing is positively evil per se. 
 All things are good and useful in their proper places. 
 The ordure from our barns and stables, the filth and 
 refuse of our filthiest cities, the droppings of wild or 
 domestic fowls, and even the dead and decomposing 
 bodies of animals — offensive and hateful as all such things 
 are when out of place, in our parlors or libraries — are ex- 
 cellent in the field or garden ; and in the hands of the 
 skillful florist or agriculturist^ may be turned to profitable 
 account. 
 
 So, too, all the implanted instincts and proclivities of 
 our natural humanity, including even the love of self 
 with all its numerous offspring, are not wrong or sinful 
 per se. They are all of them gifts of God, and in their 
 proper place are good and useful. But what is their 
 proper place? Not that of rulers, but of servants. 
 Dogs and horses would make poor masters \ but as ser- 
 vants subject to man's direction and control, they are 
 very useful. In the order of man's creation, the body 
 comes first. Next the bodily senses are developed ; 
 then the lower parts of the mind — those lying nearest 
 the body — the selfish and sensual propensities ; then the 
 knowing and intellectual faculties ; then the rational and 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT 1 95 
 
 religious. And the highest or God-like part of his na- 
 ture — the spiritual and truly human — the angel (for this 
 is "the measure of a man," Rev. xxi. 17) is unfolded last 
 of all. But this takes place only when the man is " born 
 from above," or created anew in the image of his Maker. 
 In this case, none of the passions or propensities of the 
 natural man are destroyed, but simply brought under sub- 
 jection to the spiritual and more regal part of his nature 
 — to the true and heaven-born man. In due subjection 
 and subordination to the divine human love, everything 
 belonging to the natural man is good and useful. 
 
 This is plainly taught in the spiritual sense of the very 
 first chapter of the Bible ; in which sense this chapter 
 treats of a spiritual creation, that is, of the normal devel- 
 opment of the human soul from its natural, dark, chaotie 
 state, into one of heavenly order and life — into the image 
 and likeness of God himself. Note the order in this 
 creation. First, we have the earth without form, and 
 void, — and darkness brooding over it Then comes the 
 grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yield- 
 ing fruit. Then the fishes and the fowls — the "living 
 creatures which the waters brought forth abundantly after 
 their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind." Then 
 "the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after 
 their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth 
 after his kind." And last of all the man — a living soul 
 — created in the image and likeness of his Maker. 
 
 "So God created man in his own image; in the 
 
*9 6 JVEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 image of God created He him ; male and female created 
 He them. 
 
 "And God blessed them; and God said unto them, 
 Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and 
 subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
 and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing 
 that moveth upon the earth. . . . 
 
 "And God saw everything that He had made; and 
 behold it was very good." 
 
 When truth in the understanding becomes firmly 
 wedded to love in the will, or in other words, when the 
 great law of unselfish love (which is the properly human 
 life) comes to re^'^n throughout the soul, having complete 
 dominion over all the feelings, inclinations and thoughts 
 of the natural mind, then the true man is created — the 
 properly human understanding and will. " Male and 
 female created He them, and called their name Adam," 
 that is, man. And when this is the case — when all the 
 instincts, feelings, thoughts and propensities of the nat- 
 ural man are brought under perfect subjection to the 
 great law of love, then everything is seen to be " very 
 good." The inclinations of the natural man are evil 
 only when they are allowed to rule. In a state of proper 
 subordination and subserviency to the celestial principle 
 — the truly human — they all are very good. 
 
 But this exalted and heavenly state, when the soul is 
 so filled and pervaded by the Divine spirit that it may 
 truly be said to be created "in the image of God," 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT 197 
 
 cannot be suddenly attained. Many previous states must 
 be passed through — states of inward labor, and conflict 
 with the foes of " our own household." These states, 
 however, are all indispensable to the final evolution or 
 creation of the man; and are what is meant in the spir- 
 itual sense by the six days of creation spoken of in Gen- 
 esis. Accordingly Swedenborg says : 
 
 " During regeneration the cupidities and falsities [of 
 the natural man] cannot be instantly removed ; for that 
 would be to destroy the whole man, seeing that the life 
 of these is the only life he has yet acquired. Therefore 
 evil spirits are permitted to continue with him for some 
 time, that they may excite his cupidities. . . . And un- 
 less the Lord defended man every moment, yea, even 
 the smallest part of a moment, he would instantly perish 
 in consequence of the indescribably intense and mortal 
 hatred which prevails in the world of spirits against the 
 things relating to love and faith toward the Lord. 
 
 '•'The times and states of man's regeneration in gen- 
 eral and in particular, are divided into six, and are called 
 the days of his creation. For by degrees he is elevated 
 out of a state in which he possesses none of the qualities 
 which properly constitute a man, until by little and little 
 he attains to the sixth day, in which he becomes an 
 image of God. 
 
 " During this period the Lord fights continually for 
 
 him against evils and falsities, and by means of [these 
 
 internal and spiritual] conflicts confirms him in the true 
 17* 
 
19S NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 and the good. The time of the warfare is the time of 
 the Lord's operation; therefore a regenerate person is 
 called by the prophets, the work of God' s fingers. And 
 he does not rest until love becomes his ruling principle ; 
 then the conflict ceases. When the work has so far pro- 
 gressed that faith is united to love, it is then called very 
 good ; for the Lord then treats him as a likeness of him- 
 self. At the end of the sixth day the evil spirits depart, 
 and the good ones draw near." — Arcana Cce/estia, 59-63. 
 
 Then comes the sabbath of the soul ; — that state of 
 inward peace and rest which resembles the sweet and 
 serene peace of heaven \ — a state in which the natural 
 man yields a perfect and cheerful submission to the 
 spiritual, or what is the same, to the will of the Heav- 
 enly Father. Of this state, Swedenborg speaks thus : 
 
 " What the tranquillity of peace of the external man is, 
 on the cessation of conflict, or when he is no longer dis- 
 turbed by evil desires and false persuasions, can be known 
 only to one who is acquainted with the state of peace. 
 So delightful is this state as to exceed every conception 
 of delight. Not only is it a cessation of conflict, but life 
 proceeding from an interior peace, and affecting the ex- 
 ternal man in a manner that cannot be described." — 
 Ibid. 92. 
 
 What it is, according to the New Theology, to escape 
 hell, must by this time be obvious. It is to escape, or 
 rise out of, that low state in which the selfish propen- 
 sities of the natural man — pride, avarice, ambition, love 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT 199 
 
 of ease or pleasure, lust of power or glory — have com- 
 plete dominion in the heart, and to come into that ex- 
 alted and truly human state in which love to the Lord and 
 neighbor have supreme control. And this is something 
 which cannot be suddenly accomplished. It is a life-long 
 work. 
 
 And how shall we do it? How is the spiritual to gain 
 the ascendency over the natural man ? How, from loving 
 self and the world supremely, shall we be brought into a 
 state to love the Lord above all else, and our neighbor 
 as ourselves ? For to undergo this change, is to be lifted 
 out of a hellish into a heavenly state. In other words, 
 it is to escape hell, and enter upon the state denoted by 
 heaven. It is to experience such an inward renewal or 
 change of character, that when we enter the other world 
 we shall loathe and shun the society of devils, and be 
 drawn by the force of spiritual attraction to that of the 
 angels. 
 
 How to do this, is the question of questions. Yet the 
 Lord has pointed out the way, and made it very plain to 
 all who are willing to walk in it. He says: " If thou 
 wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." But this, 
 on account of our hereditary selfishness, requires the 
 practice of much self-denial, and the endurance of many 
 inward conflicts with the foes of our own household. 
 The cross is the symbol of these conflicts ; and engaging 
 in them, therefore, is what is meant in the spiritual sense 
 by " taking up the cross.' ' Hence the Lord says : 
 
200 NEW VIEW OF HELL, 
 
 "If any man will come after me, let him deny him- 
 self, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoso- 
 ever will save his life, shall lose it ; and whosoever will 
 lose his life for my sake, shall find it." 
 
 Our true life is the heavenly life — the life of pure unsel- 
 fish love — the Lord's own life in us, yet perceived as ours. 
 We faid or receive this life, only as we overcome or lose 
 our hereditary selfish life for the Lord's sake; and this 
 we can do only by denying to our natural and inordinate 
 love of self the gratification which it craves, and en- 
 gaging in many a fierce conflict with the evil inclinations 
 which spring from that love. This is the way the Lord 
 himself overcame the evil in his assumed humanity, and 
 made that humanity Divine. And we, if we would fol- 
 low Him, or come into full sympathy and spiritual union 
 with Him (and without this there is no heaven for us), 
 must do the same. That is, we must deny self, and take 
 up our cross. 
 
 " Keep the commandments," was the blessed Saviour's 
 answer to the young man who " came and said unto 
 Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I 
 may have eternal life?" And to every inquirer in every 
 age, He returns the self-same answer. And He goes 
 further and specifies the commandments that are to be 
 kept : " Thou shalt do no murder : Thou shalt not com- 
 mit adultery : Thou shalt not steal : Thou shalt not bear 
 false witness : Honor thy father and thy mother : And 
 thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 201 
 
 Now the commandments may be kept — in the letter, 
 at least — by one in whom there is no acknowledgment of 
 the Lord, and no sense of dependence on Him. A man 
 may refrain from falsehood, theft, adultery, murder, etc., 
 from purely selfish and worldly considerations; — from 
 fear of the law, or of losing his property or reputation, 
 or from hope of winning the good esteem of others. 
 He may keep all the commandments of the Decalogue, 
 in the outward form, with a heart brim full of pride and 
 self-conceit. He may do it in the spirit of the self- 
 righteous Pharisee, who thanked God that he was so 
 much better than other men. Those who keep the com- 
 mandments in this spirit, are deficient in one essential 
 qualification for the kingdom of heaven. They lack 
 humility. They lack a sense of utter dependence on 
 the Lord for whatever good they do, or whatever power 
 they have to shun evil. They abound in self-righteous- 
 ness. All the good they do, they regard as their own, 
 and claim merit on account of it. Some of this class 
 have "great possessions" — large investments in merito- 
 rious deeds. 
 
 This was the spirit in which that young man had kept 
 the commandments. "All these things," he says, " have 
 I kept from my youth up: What lack I yet?" And 
 what was the Lord's answer? "If thou wilt be perfect, 
 go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou 
 shalt have treasure in heaven \ and come follow me. But 
 
?02 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 when the young man heard that saying, he went away 
 sorrowful ; for he had great possessions." 
 
 We may keep the commandments, then, or shun the 
 deeds which they forbid, yet in such a proud spirit or 
 from such selfish motives, that we shall not be shunning 
 hell at the same time. We may shun fraud, falsehood, 
 theft, adultery, etc., merely from fear of the law, or of 
 some personal or worldly loss. In that case we shun the 
 evil from prudential considerations, not because it is 
 wrong or sinful in itself; and this is not really shunning 
 the evil at all. 
 
 If, therefore, we would shun hell, we must keep the 
 commandments from a religious ground. We must re- 
 gard the evils which they forbid, as sins against God, 
 and shun them because they are sins. If our self-love 
 prompts us to deceive or defraud our neighbor, or to 
 take any undue advantage of his weakness or ignorance, 
 or to injure him in any way, we must regard and shun 
 the doing of such wrong as a sin. If we are in the habit 
 of using profane language — of taking the Lord's name in 
 vain — we must regard and shun this habit, not merely 
 because it is ungentlemanly or disreputable, but because 
 it is sinful If we are inclined to deprive another, with- 
 out his knowledge or consent, of anything that justly be- 
 longs to him — be it honor, property, reputation, social 
 position, political or religious influence — we must regard 
 and shun such robbery as a sin. If we are inclined to 
 speak evil of others, to slander them — which is a kind of 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 20^ 
 
 moral murder, for it is stabbing one in the dark — we 
 must inwardly acknowledge the sinfulness of this before 
 God, and shun it because it is a sin. If we are inclined 
 to invade the freedom and trample on the rights of 
 others, to domineer over them — over our families, our 
 children, our brethren, our domestics, our employes — to 
 compel them to do our will and gratify our wishes, to 
 their own injury, loss, or discomfort, we must regard 
 such disposition as sinful, and shun its indulgence as a 
 sin. 
 
 And so with every inclination which originates in the 
 love of self, and whose indulgence is condemned by the 
 Lord's commandments, being utterly contrary to their 
 whole spirit and teaching. These inclinations are all of 
 them but streams which flow from hell ; and their exist- 
 ence and craving are indications of the presence of hell 
 within us. And it is only when we regard and shun 
 their indulgence as a sin against God, that we are really 
 shunning hell. 
 
 According to the New View, then, as herein unfolded, 
 the way to escape hell becomes very plain. We must 
 first have a clear perception and a firm conviction of 
 what hell really is. We must recognize it as a state, and 
 must understand the nature of that state. That is, we 
 must know what kind of life or love belongs to it. 
 
 And the next thing necessary is, a sincere desire to be 
 delivered from this state. And since we have no power 
 to deliver ourselves — for no man can of himself change 
 
204 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 his ruling love — we must rely on One who alone is able 
 to deliver ; we must look to Him and pray to Him 
 who hath "all power in heaven and on earth." No one 
 ever was or ever can be delivered from a state of bond- 
 age to evil or the love of self, without first desiring to be 
 delivered. And a sincere desire for deliverance, 
 implies a perception and acknowledgment of the low 
 state in which we are, and from which we seek to be 
 delivered. 
 
 But the desire alone, however intense, is not enough. 
 Prayer for deliverance, however earnest, is not enough. 
 Confession of our clearly discerned selfishness and sin, 
 however penitent, is not enough. Necessary as all these 
 are, they are of no avail without a life of practical obedi- 
 ence to the Divine precepts. " Not every one that saith 
 unto me, Lord, Lord," says the great Teacher, "shall 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the 
 will of my Father which is in heaven." We enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven, just in the degree that we enter 
 into that state of love to the Lord and the neighbor, 
 which is the essential thing in that kingdom. And we 
 enter that state by keeping the commandments, that is, 
 by doing the heavenly Father's will; and a part of this 
 consists in shunning, as sins against Him, the things 
 which are contrary to his will. 
 
 To come out of darkness, is to come into light. To 
 escape sickness, is to enjoy health. To get rid of weak- 
 ness, is the same as coming into the possession of strength. 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT 205 
 
 And to escape hell, is to come into the opposite kingdom 
 — heaven. 
 
 "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command- 
 ments." This is the only way — the way pointed out by 
 God's own finger — to escape hell and reach heaven. 
 "The commandments" are the laws of the heavenly 
 life. For all life has its laws ; and it is only by con- 
 formity to these, that the blessings of any kind of life can 
 be enjoyed. 
 
 Take, for example, our corporeal life. This has its 
 laws ] and these laws must be obeyed if we expect to en- 
 joy physical health. Our bodies require food, and 
 drink, and exercise, and sleep, and pure air, and pro- 
 tection from rain and frost. These requirements are 
 the body's laws — unchangeable, God-appointed laws. 
 And in the degree that they are transgressed, the body 
 suffers. And this suffering is the penalty with which 
 the Framer of our bodies visits such transgression. The 
 transgression and the suffering, the violation and the 
 penalty, are inseparably connected, like cause and 
 effect. 
 
 And the soul, too, has its laws, as well as the body. 
 And these can no more be violated with impunity, than 
 can the laws which preside over our physical organism. 
 In the violation of spiritual as in that of physical laws, 
 a penalty follows with undeviating certainty ; — not a pen- 
 alty arbitrarily inflicted, or in the way that human tri- 
 bunals punish offenders against civil enactments, but a 
 
 18 
 
Zo6 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 penalty linked with transgression as effects are linked 
 with causes. 
 
 But that higher life of the soul which those come into 
 who escape hell — the life which we call heavenly — the 
 life which allies us to God and the angels — that which 
 the Scripture calls "eternal life," whose very breath is 
 that unselfish love enjoined by the two great command- 
 ments — that life has to be begotten, formed, developed, 
 born in us, generally after the corporeal life has reached 
 maturity. This is the new birth — the birth into a higher, 
 even the heavenly stata^-to which our Lord has reference 
 when He says : " Except a man be born again, he cannot 
 see the kingdom of God." 
 
 How does this new birth of the soul take place ? or 
 how is this higher life developed and matured ? In the 
 same way that art-life, mechanical ingenuity, industrial 
 skill, oratorical or mathematical power, is developed and 
 perfected. Each follows as the normal result of self- 
 compelled obedience to certain principles or laws. 
 
 Ask those who have attained a proud distinction as 
 poets, artists, mechanics, scholars, statesmen, how they 
 won their lofty eminence. And they will tell you that, 
 under God, they are indebted mainly to their own per- 
 sistent efforts \ — to their ceaseless study, their tireless in- 
 dustry, their resolute struggles, their unflinching perse- 
 verance, their unremitting toil. They labored while 
 others lounged. They studied while others slept. They 
 were busy while others were idle. They were climbing 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 207 
 
 up the mountain while others were reposing in bowers 
 of ease. 
 
 No : Eminence in any art or profession was never 
 achieved in any other way than through the individual's 
 own voluntary and persevering efforts; — through the 
 patient learning and faithful application of the rules of 
 that art or profession. 
 
 And so we may say, men are born into the kingdom 
 of heaven — that is, born saints or angels, in the same 
 way that they are born artists, mechanics, scholars, 
 statesmen. For they inherit naturally the capacity or 
 aptitude for each of these ; and some have by inheritance 
 a larger capacity or aptitude than others. But they be- 
 come neither the one nor the other without personal 
 effort and much self-imposed labor ; — without first learn- 
 ing certain principles or laws, and then reducing these 
 laws to practice. 
 
 Take, for illustration, the accomplished musician. 
 How has he become such ? He inherited the talent or 
 aptitude for music, just as we all have inherited the capa- 
 bility of becoming angels. He has the musical talent 
 while yet a child — but undeveloped. And so we may 
 say the musician is there in potency. But as yet he is in 
 embryo. The individual is all unconscious of his latent 
 powers : — as unconscious of the sweet entrancing de- 
 lights which the music now wrapped up and hidden with- 
 in him will one day produce, as an infant before birth is 
 unconscious of its yet latent capabilities, or of the joys 
 
208 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 of its post-natal state. Properly speaking, the musician 
 is not yet born. He has only an embryonic or latent 
 existence in that individual, like that of the angel in the 
 unregenerate man. 
 
 Observe, now, the manner of his birth, — for this will 
 illustrate the manner in which every one who becomes 
 regenerate, is born from above and becomes a true child 
 of God. It will show us how we are to be brought out 
 of the state in which we love ourselves supremely, into 
 the opposite state of love to the Lord and the neighbor ; 
 or how " the new man " created in the image of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, comes forth from "the old man 7 ' that is 
 "corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. " In a word, 
 it will show us how hell is to be escaped and heaven 
 gained. 
 
 First, that individual places himself, or is placed, 
 under the instruction of a Master. He becomes a pupil 
 — a disciple or learner. He takes lessons of a music- 
 teacher. He acquaints himself with the rules of the art 
 — certain musical laws — and then reduces these rules to 
 practice. He does not learn all the rules at once, but 
 only a few, and the very simplest at first. When he has 
 practiced these for a time, then he learns other and more 
 difficult rules ; and straightway proceeds to reduce these 
 also to practice. 
 
 Thus he goes on, learning and practicing the rules of 
 the art. But he finds little pleasure in these first lessons. 
 Pie compels himself, however, to go through with them. 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT 209 
 
 It is all labor, task-work, drudgery, in the outset, which 
 he performs reluctantly and without one thrill of delight, 
 yet with the hope of some day becoming a musician. 
 How stiff and clumsy his fingers are at first ! How 
 slowly and awkwardly they hobble over the keys, like a 
 child just beginning to walk ! How much more readily 
 they go wrong than right ! And he finds it vastly more 
 difficult to practice the rules, than to commit them to 
 memory. But he struggles on, sometimes hopeful, some- 
 times discouraged. 
 
 At last, by dint of patience and perseverance and 
 much hard parctice, the difficulties are all overcome. 
 The musical laws are incarnated in him. They flow out 
 from the tips of his fingers the moment he seats himself 
 at the instrument. He is now able to render with facility 
 and effect the most difficult compositious of Beethoven 
 or Mozart. And he finds, too, that by practicing, and 
 thereby learning to give faithful expression to, the laws 
 that govern in the realm of music, he becomes more and 
 more enamored with the art. Strange and unlooked for 
 raptures transport him. He is introduced, as it were, 
 into a new world. Sweet melodies are rippling all 
 around him. His soul is flooded with the charms of 
 music. He experiences a delight in executing, or in 
 listening to the execution of, some grand composition, of 
 which, at the beginning of his musical education he 
 could form no conception. 
 
 It is in this way that the musician is born ; and in 
 18* 
 
2IO NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 no other. He comes forth, not suddenly nor in any mi- 
 raculous manner ; but slowly, gradually, after years of 
 hard study, close application and unremitting toil. 
 The student learns certain musical rules or laws, and 
 then compels himself to reduce those rules to practice. 
 And so at last the musician is produced, developed, 
 formed, or born. 
 
 And the painter, sculptor, architect, and mechanic are 
 born in the same way. Each of these comes forth, gen- 
 erally not until the physical man has attained maturity. 
 The individual first makes himself acquainted with the 
 rules of the art, and then learns, through patient and 
 protracted effort, to reduce these rules to practice. 
 
 And in a way precisely similar is "the new man " or 
 angel born. In other words, we are introduced or born 
 in a similar manner, into a state of supreme love to the 
 Lord and the neighbor; — are lifted out of that low nat- 
 ural state, which is hell, into that high spiritual state, 
 which is heaven. And this is what is meant by being 
 "born again," "born of the Spirit," "born from 
 above," and "born of God," whereof the Bible speaks. 
 
 The only possible way, therefore, of escaping the 
 hellish and attaining unto the heavenly state, is, by first 
 learning the laws of the higher or heavenly life, and then 
 (in humble acknowledgment of our utter and constant 
 dependence on the Lord) reducing them to practice. 
 These laws are all contained in the Sacred Scripture, and 
 are full of the Saviour's own life which is love. But 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT. 211 
 
 they must be reduced to practice — they must be relig- 
 iously obeyed — they must be made the laws of our life, 
 before we may hope to experience the love and delight 
 that are wrapped up within them. 
 
 We cannot, of course, learn and practice all these 
 laws at once. That is not expected or required of us. 
 But we are to do it by little and little, just as Raphael 
 learned to paint and Mozart to play. And the task of 
 learning the laws of our higher life, or of receiving truths 
 into the understanding merely, is comparatively easy. 
 Obeying them — living them — practicing them, in the 
 parlor, in the kitchen, in the office, in the shop, in the 
 counting-house, in the market-place, in the school-room, 
 on the farm, at the fire-side, and in legislative halls — 
 everywhere and always conforming our dispositions and 
 conduct to their requirements, and so weaving these laws 
 into the very fabric of our spiritual being, and making 
 them, as it were, a part of ourselves — this is the labo- 
 rious and difficult part of the work. And so it is with 
 every art, trade or profession. Learning the rules is 
 comparatively easy ; reducing them to practice, is a task 
 of far greater difficulty. 
 
 Hence we may see why doing the truth is so often 
 urged and so strongly emphasized in the Sacred Scrip- 
 ture. "Blessed are they that do his commandments, 
 that they may have right to the tree of life. " " Why call 
 ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" 
 "My mother and my brethren are those who hear the 
 
212 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 Word of God and do it." "Whosoever heareth these 
 sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken unto a wise 
 man who built his house upon a rock." But "whoso- 
 ever heareth and doeth them not, shall be likened unto 
 a foolish man who built his house upon the sand." Who- 
 soever doeth the will of the Heavenly Father," shall 
 enter into the Kingdom. 
 
 It is impossible, therefore, to escape hell and win 
 heaven through faith alone ; that is, by simply learning, 
 understanding, and believing the truth. Only those who 
 religiously do as the laws of the heavenly life require, 
 can hope ever to attain unto that life, or to have an in- 
 ward experience of its joys. 
 
 And the first steps in the way of obedience, are, like 
 all first steps, the most difficult. They have to be taken 
 from a sense of duty — taken laboriously, with an effort, 
 through self-compulsion, and without one throb of heav- 
 enly delight. They have to be taken when our natural 
 inclinations urge us in the opposite direction. But as 
 we go on practicing the laws of the higher life, every 
 successive step becomes easier and more delightful. And 
 as obedience becomes more and more the habit of the 
 soul, hell and its delights recede, and the life and joy 
 of heaven flow in with continually increasing fullness. 
 
 No : not by faith alone, or by a mere knowledge and 
 acknowledgment of the truth, can a man ever escape 
 hell or reach heaven ; but by yielding a voluntary, 
 though at first a self- compelled, obedience to the laws of 
 
HOW TO ESCAPE IT 213 
 
 heavenly life. Through obedience to these laws— at the 
 same time acknowledging the Lord as their source, and 
 the source of all our disposition and power to obey them 
 — the interiors of the soul are opened toward heaven, 
 and the influx of hell is lessened, and the Lord's life 
 flows in with ever-increasing power and fullness ; pre- 
 cisely as, through obedience to the laws of our physical 
 life, physical debility and disorder recede, and bodily 
 health, strength and elasticity flow in. 
 
 We cannot love the Lord supremely and our neighbor 
 as ourselves, by simply desiring or willing to do so ; — 
 no, nor by the power of faith alone however strong, or 
 prayer however sincere and fervent. But this love is sure 
 to flow into our hearts in the degree that we humbly ac- 
 knowledge its source, and compel ourselves to obey its 
 laws. Shun falsehood, fraud, deceit, adultery — all known 
 evils — as sins against God, and by degrees you will come 
 to hate and loathe these vices. Devote yourself re- 
 ligiously to some useful calling, and you will gradually 
 grow into the love of that use. Practice the laws of 
 charity, and the life of charity with its delights will be 
 imparted unto you- more and more. Obey the law of 
 kindness, and there will be a constantly increasing influx 
 of the spirit of kindness into your heart. Do justly, 
 because such is the will of God, and you will grow more 
 and more in love with justice. In all your dealings and 
 intercourse with your fellow men, be careful to obey the 
 laws of neighborly love, and to regard and shun their 
 
214 NEW VIEW OF HELL. 
 
 infraction as a sin, and that love with its unspeakable 
 delights will flood your soul more and more. 
 
 But pursue the opposite course — disregard the laws of 
 the soul's higher life — violate the precepts of heavenly 
 charity — trample on the rules of love and justice in your 
 intercourse with your fellows, and your soul will become 
 emptied of the Lord's life, and more and more insensible 
 to its ineffable sweetness ; your love of self will grow con- 
 tinually stronger, and your heart more and more like the 
 nether mill-stone ; your sympathies will become more 
 contracted and deadened ; your sense of justice will grow 
 more and more benumbed ; your moral perceptions more 
 and more beclouded ; your appreciation of, and your 
 aspirations after, the gifts and graces of heaven, more 
 and more feeble. ; and the angel life in you become more 
 and more marred and crushed, and the demon life more 
 vigorous and flourishing. 
 
 And thus will your soul, created with the capacity of 
 endless progress in wisdom, holiness, and love, and with 
 boundless capabilities of enjoyment, be lost and ruined. 
 Yes — lost and rui?ied ; because, through your voluntary 
 neglect or infraction of the revealed and everlasting laws 
 of love — the laws of your soul's higher life, that life is 
 dwarfed and spoiled, or fails to become developed with- 
 in you. Having chosen darkness rather than light, you 
 cannot help missing the glorious boon which you were 
 made capable of attaining — Heaven and its unutterable 
 delights. Verily, saith the Lord : 
 
HO W TO ESCAPE IT 21 5 
 
 " What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole 
 world and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give 
 in exchange for his soul?" 
 
 The nature of heaven and of hell is revealed. The 
 way of escape from one and of entrance into the other, 
 is made plain. The Lord ever watches, and waits, and 
 strives to draw all unto Himself. But He uses no com- 
 pulsion. He cannot force one soul to heaven. He leaves 
 us all in perfect freedom ; and says to every one : 
 
 "I have set before you life and death, blessing and 
 cursing. Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy 
 seed may live : 
 
 "That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, that thou 
 mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto 
 Him j for He is thy life, and the length of thy days." 
 
 Each one is free to choose for himself. He must and 
 does choose for himself. 
 
 "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, 
 choose you this day whom ye will serve." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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