trackless waste?-Let him, then, after having accompanied us for a time through the dreary desert of moderate-modernized Calvinistic doctrine, learn to enjoy, with fuller delight, and more heartfelt gratitude, the privileges of his paradisiacal home, within the gates of the Holy City, New Jerusalem!

*

EXTRACTS FROM SWEDENBORG'S SPIRITUAL DIARY. (Now first translated from the original Latin; continued from page 464, 1843.)

That the wicked esteem no one as a friend, but that they wish to do injury, and cause torment to all.

4375. There was a certain spirit, who had been known to me in the world, and for whom I had performed greater services than for any other person, and he always regarded me as a friend. This person was with me during several months, and he continually thought of doing evil to me, and he endeavoured by every secret means to torment me more than others. It was told him, that I had performed offices and acts of friendship towards him, but all this he considered as nothing. He had not the slightest cause for treating me in this manner, but it was only the delight which he had of tormenting every body. The evil, in the other life, are of such a character. This person had contracted this nature from this circumstance :-During his life in the world, he had been in an office, or function, in which he could either assist or ruin [perdere] others; but he continually thought of injuring, or ruining others, caring nothing whether they were orphans, widows, or miserable, but only caring about the rich, who could raise him to honors, or give him some money lest he should ruin [perdere] them; which he also confessed [was the case].-1749, Aug. 24.

Concerning punishments,-that they are of mercy.

4421. I have conversed with spirits who thought that to be punished was contrary to mercy; but it was told them, that it is an act of mercy, and that it is contrary to mercy not to punish, and they were convinced of the truth of this by examples; as in case a father does not punish a son, or a daughter, who is disobedient, and mischievous, or who does evil to others,-in case the father do not punish them, but indulge them, he acts an unmerciful part, because the children are carried away with the love of mischief and evil, and are thus unmerciful to other children and persons; hence it is evident, that to punish is

not contrary to love and mercy. In like manner, a king who forgives those who perpetrate crimes, and does not punish them, in such case, he also acts an unmerciful part, for thus he not only tolerates the wicked in his kingdom, but increases their number. Thus also it is with punishments in the other life; for if the wicked were not punished even to emendation, as is always the case, [that is, even to the point, when from torment they begin to feel horror and dread at the idea of doing evil] they would not only continue in their abominable deeds of wickedness, but they would injure the good, which is contrary to mercy.

Concerning the common good.

I have conversed with the angels, by ideas, concerning the common good, saying, that he who in the life of the body is for the common [or public] good, when he comes into the other life, is also for the common [or public] good there; the common good in that life is the Lord's kingdom, thus he is for the good of the Lord's kingdom, and, consequently, for the Lord himself, who is the all-in-all of his kingdom. Hence, in proportion as any person in the world has been in zeal for the common good, in the same proportion, in the other life, he is in zeal for the Lord's kingdom.

Concerning those who are resuscitated from the dead, and who in their last moments have confessed the faith.

A certain person (Brahe) was beheaded at ten o'clock in the forenoon, and I saw him and conversed with him, at ten o'clock in the night, thus twelve hours after he was beheaded; I also saw him afterwards for some days almost continually. After two days he began to return to the former state of his life, which was that of loving worldly things; and after the third day he became as he had been before in the world, and was carried away into the evils which he had imbued in the world.

Concerning faith in the doctrines of the Word without doing them. 4935. A faith which consists in believing those things which are in the Word, may exist without believing in God; to believe in God, is to hear and to do; whereas, to believe those things which are from God, although it is called faith, yet it is not faith without the former. This fact I perceived with a spiritual idea;-there were with me two angels from the celestial kingdom, who were naked, and were in such a [living] faith, when it was clearly seen, that the faith which consists in believing those things which are from God, that is, from the Word, is by no means the faith which saves, but that, without the former, it is a

faith in which there is no salvation;-it is a species of persuasive faith.

Concerning the life after death,-that man appears to himself to live in the world.

4568. I have conversed with some persons in the Church concerning the life of man after death; they said, that man when he dies, does not rise again into life, until the day of the last judgment, and that then he will also rise as to the body; but I have always replied to them, saying, that every man's day of the last judgment is immediately after his death, and that then he comes into another life, and appears there in a body obviously as in the world; but that his body there [being a spiritual body] is not conspicuous to the eyes of the body in the world, nor is this latter [being a natural body] conspicuous to the eyes of his spiritual body. But they who were of the Church in the world totally denied this, and also derided it, not being aware, that I knew it from living experience; they said that they believed only in a resurrection together with the [natural] body; but that the soul has a [spiritual ] body, they were by no means willing to know, not even that the soul has a form, still less that the soul is the spirit, in a human form, after the death of the [natural] body. Hence I perceived, that they had no idea whatever of the soul as being any thing, nor of the spirit, nor of the internal man, and that it appeared to them quite as a paradox, yea, as impossible, that a man can appear in a human form in the other life, as spirits and angels who appeared to many, and concerning whom we read in the Word.* Hence also I could conclude, that few within the Church even believe in the resurrection. Concerning this subject

I have also conversed with spirits, who have wondered that the men of the Church, at the present time, should be of such a nature, and especially that they should entirely reject this fact, that man appears as a man in the other life, in like manner as all spirits and angels amongst themselves; that they mutually see each other in a much clearer light than in the world, mutually hear and converse with each other, yea, touch each other, thus that they are in a body, and also in a world, but in a spiritual world, which is not conspicuous to the eyes of men living in a material body, as the natural world is not visible to the eyes of men or spirits living in the spiritual world.

Concerning freedom [of will].

4569. That I might know that the life of man is in freedom, because freedom is [the essential nature] of affection, I was once led into what

* As that Moses and Elias, when the Lord was transfigured, appeared as men i and also the angels at the Lord's sepulchre, as young men, &c.—TR.

is compulsory (coactum), so that I could not act from freedom, but from compulsion; this compulsory restraint was insinuated into my thought; when the angels said, that I had no life, since they can clearly discern both the quantity and the quality of life which a man has. Hence it was evident to me, that life consists in freedom, and that man is so far deprived of life as he acts from compulsion; and also, that man cannot receive new life, that is, be regenerated, except he be in freedom, that is, except he be led by the affection of his love; and that genuine liberty cannot be given unless evils be removed, which constitute an opposite [or infernal] freedom.

Concerning the wisdom of angels.

5187. All the wisdom of the angels is given by means of the Word, because in its internal and inmost sense is the divine wisdom itself, which is communicated to the angels by the Word, when this is read by men, and when men think from it. It should, however, be known that wisdom is given to them mediately through those angels, who were from the most ancient Churches, and who were in the knowledge and perception of representatives and correspondences. These angels, whilst in the world, were of such a character as to know the internal arcana of the Church, and the correspondences by which wisdom is communicated, which, when communicated, appears to those who receive it as though it were their own, [that is, as though it were inherent, and underived] for this is the case with all communication. On this account angels from the most ancient Churches are dispersed throughout the heavens, that they may be the medium of wisdom to others.

5188. It should also be known, that the man who was in wisdom in the world, is also in wisdom in the other life, which is appropriated to him; but that the man who was not in wisdom in the world, but only in the [simple] good of life, can receive wisdom through others, which, however, is not appropriated to him, since when he recedes from those to whom wisdom is appropriated, he becomes simple as before.

5189. The science [or knowledge] of correspondences and representatives is the ultimate plane of angelic wisdom. As this science has, at the present time, so entirely perished that its existence is not known, it is now again discovered. I was permitted to see a certain angel from the ancient Churches, who was in a great angelic society, but who departed from it, when immediately there arose, as it were, an obscurity over that society, and the wisdom was taken away. That angel, who was from the ancients, and who had departed [or withdrawn himself,

for a time, from that society, that the effect might be seen] was in the knowledges of wisdom, and hence the others, by communication, had their wisdom.

5190. The angels act as a one with man, for they are conjoined, as what is inmost and what is extreme, or as what is first and what is last, [or ultimate] is conjoined together. The celestial angels are in the first degree (primo), but man is in the last degree (ultimo). Because man is in the last degree, he thinks materially or sensually, but the angels think spiritually and celestially, between which modes of thinking there is a correspondence. Man, therefore is, as it were, the plane upon which the thoughts of angels are founded; hence it is, that with those men, who are in the affection of truth and good from the Word, there is a connexion (nexus) with angels, and they have angelic wisdom in its summary form, for wisdom increases according to degrees, as they become more and more interior.

That heaven cannot be opened to the inhabitants of this earth. 5151. A certain spirit wondered that heaven is not opened to the inhabitants of this earth, as it is to the inhabitants of other earths; namely, that these latter can speak with spirits and angels, can be instructed by them, and thus, at least, know that there is a heaven, that there is eternal life, that man lives after death, and many other things conducive to salvation. But the reason is, because the inhabitants of this earth are in ultimates [that is, in sensual and corporeal things] in which they have plunged themselves by the love of rule, by the love of being eminent over others, and by the love of gaining all things of the world; whence, for the most part, they have become sensual. Hence it is that heaven is closed to them, since if it were opened they would immediately perish, because the spirits from this earth, who are of such a nature, breathe nothing but the destruction of others; and the men whose interiors were thus opened, would be led at the pleasure of spirits of such a nature, and would thus destroy each other; they would also profane holy things, for as soon as they turned themselves to the world, they would deny, yea, mock at heavenly things, as being nothing respectively, wherefore the angels, with whom, as to their interiors, they would be associated, would be injured, and also heaven; wherefore the angels avert themselves, and the internal man is closed. Now if men in these circumstances, namely, when heaven is estranged, and the angels have removed themselves, were to have open communication, infernal spirits would not only lead them to perpetrate abominable deeds, but also to destroy