I trust that the futility, in every respect, of the arguments adduced against Swedenborg's statements on this subject, may now be apparent, and that every candid reader will see, that, while abundant considerations may be produced, both from reason and Scripture, evincing that angels are of the same species,-of the same origin, as men, nothing can justly be urged from either source in proof of their diversity. SECTION VI. HEAVEN AND HELL; AND THE APPEARANCES IN THEM, AND IN THE INTERMEDIATE REGION, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS. PART III. All Swedenborg's Statements respecting the Spiritual World are perfectly Reasonable and Scriptural, when certain Truths, relating to that World are known. IN the general views which are presented in the writings of Swedenborg respecting Heaven and Hell, as the abodes, respectively, of happiness and misery, while there certainly is not any thing which is not in the highest degree agreeable to both Reason and Scripture, there also is nothing which can be deemed inconsistent with the usual conceptions of the Christian world. Such, at least, is the case, if it be admitted, as we have just seen is the fact, that all the inhabitants of heaven and hell strictly belong to the human race, having first come into existence as men in a natural world. But my aim in this Appeal is, to recommend our views of the eternal world and state, and our doctrines of faith and life, not so much by the direct presentation of their obvious beauties, as by the vindication of those points which have been most assailed by objectors, because they most differ from the common apprehensions of the Christian world. Now some of the particulars brought to light in the writings of Swedenborg respecting Heaven, Hell, and the Intermediate Region or World of Spirits,-some of the circumstances relating to their inhabitants, and to the appearances which are there presented to the view,-certainly do widely differ from the commonly received apprehensions. It is by these, then, that our adversaries chiefly hope to make an unfavourable impression on their readers; with which view they set them forth in an isolated manner, separate from the explanations of their causes which the Author gives in various parts of his works. When the causes are seen, though they do not bring the statements objected to nearer to the common apprehensions, they evince the common apprehensions to be founded in mistake, and establish the agreement of all the Author's statements with Reason and Scripture. The explanatory truths, then, necessary to the right understanding of the subject, I propose here to offer; and nothing more will be necessary for the vindication of every relation which our adversaries would stigmatise as unfounded or ridiculous. A great change must be made in our ideas respecting the other world in general, when we have got rid of the notion of angels created such, and of some of them falling out of heaven and becoming the original devils. When we conceive of angels as men, freed from the imperfections which adhered to them when here, and exalted to the highest degrees of human perfection; and of infernals as men in the deepest extremes of degradation, deprived of all outward good and rationality, thus of everything properly human, but yet retaining a relation to what is human though in complete perversion; our ideas as to what is likely to take place in the other life must be very much altered from what they are, while we dream of the inhabitants of the eternal world as chiefly consisting of a class of beings of whose real nature we know nothing at all, but only imagine it to be something immensely superior to the nature of mankind. In addition, then, to the great truth, that all angels and spirits began their existence as men in the world, only two other general truths are necessary to be known, in order to see the reasonableness and Scripture ground of the seemingly most extraordinary of the particulars stated by Swedenborg respecting the inhabitants of heaven, hell, and the spiritual world in general, and the objects and appearances which there exist. These two general truths are, FIRST, That man after death, though no longer clothed with a material body, is no less a real and substantial man than before: and, SECONDLY, That all things which exist before the sight in heaven, hell, and the intermediate state or region, are appearances, expressing and outwardly exhibiting, according to the laws of the immutable analogy or correspondence that exists by creation between spiritual things and natural, the state, ideas, and inclinations, of those who dwell there. 1. With respect to the first of these general truths,―That man after death, though no longer clothed with a material body, is no less a real and substantial man than before,-sufficient proof, I apprehend, to satisfy any mind open to conviction, may have been given above in our Section on the Resurrection; where we found that the Apostle Paul expressly teaches, that there is a spiritual body as well as a natural body; and where it was shown that all the testimony of Scripture upon the subject treats this spiritual body as the man himself,- -as a real substantial existence, which rises in eternity immediately after death. As, however, Swedenborg's account of this matter has been quoted as ridiculous, I will adduce the paragraph in which he states the difference between man in the other world and man in this, and leave the candid to judge, whether, instead of its being ridiculous, it is not rational in the highest degree. His words are, "The difference between a man in the natural world, and a man in the spiritual world, is, that the latter is a man clothed with a substantial body, but the former with a material body, within which is his substantial body; and a substantial man sees a substantial man as clearly and distinctly as a material man sees a material man : a substantial man, however, cannot see a material man, nor can a material man see a substantial man, by reason of the difference between what is material and what is substantial, the nature of which difference may be described, but not in a few words.” ‡ Now, that this is the true representation of the matter, may be scripturally proved from all the accounts of the visions of the prophets. Did John the Revelator see the wonderful things that he describes with the eyes of his body? Does he not begin his revelations with saying, "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day ?"§ In this state it was that he first heard behind him "a great voice as of a trumpet," and that, on turning round, he "saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man." || When he was in the spirit, he was in his spiritual or substantial man, and it was with the eyes and senses of this that he witnessed all that he afterwards describes. That this idea is as agreeable to reason as to Scripture, is evident from the opinions of many intelligent and pious persons, who have been convinced of its truth by their own reflections. I will mention here one testimony of this sort: it is that of Mrs. Fletcher, the widow of the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, the sentiments of both of whom respecting Swedenborg have been noticed above. ¶ The life of Mrs. Fletcher, published from her own papers, has been very extensively read among religious people: and in it this intelligent and excellent lady gives her views of the state of man after death. She entertained the full belief, that, though separated from her husband, so far as death could separate, her union and communion with him still remained; and she thus expresses her ideas, in answer to objections made to them, partly in the very language of Swedenborg. "Is not [the objector is supposed to ask] the spirit, divested of * Anti-Swedenborg, p. 123. The author uses the terms substantial and substance, in the logical sense of that which subsists by itself and sustains accidents; but he confines it to spiritual subsistences as distinct from material, because the latter do not exist of themselves, but from the former; as do these from the Lord, who is the veriest substantial Being of all. True Christian Religion, n. 793. § Rev. i. 10. Pp. 250-254. the body, become of a quite different nature to what it was before, so as to be incapable of the same feelings? I answer, Certainly, no ; the spirit is the man. The spirit of my dear husband loved and cared for me, and longed above every other desire for my spiritual advancement. Now if it were the body, why doth it not love me still? You answer, Because it is dead. That is to say, the spirit is gone from it: therefore, that which loved me is gone from it. And what is that but the spirit, which actuated the body, as the clockwork does the hand which tells the hour? It therefore appears quite clear to me, that every right affection, sentiment, and feeling of mind, we have been exercised in here, will remain in the spirit, just the same, immediately after death.” Now if many believe this to be true when they read it in Mrs. Fletcher, why do they deride Swedenborg as an enthusiast for saying the very same thing? Our opponents will say, "Because she gives it only as her opinion: he delivers it as a truth which he could testify from experience." This does not make it less true, at any rate. But I may add, that Mrs. F. also gives us experience on the subject, both of her own and others, of which I extract the following, which she relates † as an indubitable fact, of a woman whom she calls "that dear old saint, Mary Matthews." This good woman having awaked under an extraordinary influence early in the morning, on getting up and coming down stairs, relates what happened to her thus: "All around me seemed God! It appeared to me as if the room was full of heavenly spirits.-Falling back in my chair, I remembered no more of any thing outward, but thought I was at the threshold of a most beautiful place. I could just look in:-The first thing I saw was the Lord Jesus sitting on a throne. There was a beautiful crown over his head. It did not seem to bear with a weight, but as if it was suspended there, and as he turned his head it turned with him. A glorious light appeared on one side, and all around him was glory! I thought of that word of St. Paul,-Who dwelleth in light unapproachable. Turning my eyes a little, I saw close to my Saviour my dear minister, Mr. Fletcher. He looked continually on the Lord Jesus with a sweet smile. But he had a very different appearance from what he had in the body, and yet there was such an exact resemblance, that I could have known him among a thousand. Features and limbs just the same, but not of flesh. It was what I cannot describe, all light! I know *P. 195, 8vo. ed. 1818. It has been shown above, p. 254, that, after her husband's decease, Mrs. F. consulted the Treatise on Heaven and Hell, to see the account there given of the world to which he was gone. This explains, what otherwise would be truly extraordinary, the co-incidence, not only as to ideas, but as to expressions, between Mrs. F., in the passage above, and Swedenborg. It is quite plain that she fully accepted his sentiments on the subject. + P. 227. not what to call it: I never saw anything like it. It was, I thought, such a body as could go thousands of miles in a moment. There were several passed who had the same appearance: and I seemed to have lost my old weak shaking body. I seemed to myself as if I could have gone to the world's end, as light as air. I looked on him a long time, and observed every feature with its old likeness. He then turned his eyes on me, and held out his hand to me, just as he used to do. After this, the whole disappeared, and I came to myself."-I offer no opinion of this vision; but I suppose that all the people called Methodists, and most pious persons, will admit it to have been something real. Yet here we have an account of man's retaining his identity after death, and existing in a spiritual and yet substantial body, that exactly accords with the statements given by Swedenborg. Are we not then intitled to say, that, according to the evidence of Scripture, the conclusions of the intelligent, and the experience of the pious, the testimony of Swedenborg, upon this subject, is most certainly true? Man after death is still a man,- a real man in a substantial yet spiritual body, though no longer in a material body, as while here. II. We proceed to the second general truth necessary to our seeing the reasonableness and scripture-ground of the particular facts respecting the appearances in the other world which are stated by Swedenborg. That general truth is, That all things which exist before the sight in heaven, hell, and the intermediate state or region, are appearances, expressing, and outwardly exhibiting, according to the laws of the immutable analogy or correspondence that exists by creation between spiritual things and natural, the state, ideas, and inclinations, of those who dwell there. It is a fact which was well known in ancient times, though it has long been lost sight of, that there does exist, by the very first laws of nature and creation, a constant mutual relation between spiritual things, or such as relate to the mind and its perceptions, and the objects which appear in outward nature; which is such, that natural things answer to spiritual by an unalterable, fixed, and most exact analogy or correspondence, so that in every natural object an image of some spiritual thing or principle is to be seen. Thus, who does not know, without any one to inform him, that light is an exact image of truth; darkness, of ignorance and falsehood; fire, of love? And if some natural things thus clearly answer to certain spiritual things, who can doubt that all natural things do the same, and that such correspondence is essential to their nature ?* Now in heaven See this proved in the work on the Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures. See it shown also in Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology, Vol. i. pp. |