Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/162

158 affections and thoughts. And in this way it is as possible for the spirit of a man still living in the body, whose interiors are open to heaven, to be led by the Lord into a similitude of state with the spirits and angels from distant earths, and even with the inhabitants themselves, as with the spirits, angels, and inhabitants of this earth. The various changes of state, which necessarily take place in bringing the spirit of a man belonging to one earth, into a similitude of state with the spirit of a man belonging to another earth, put on, in the spiritual world, the appearance of journeyings and progressions, in all respects resembling such as take place on earth, but in their intrinsic character most essentially different. In regard to the possibility of a spirit, or what is the same thing, of a man as to his spirit, seeing even material objects on any other earth, besides that to which he belongs, this also is capable of rational explanation. Neither spirits nor angels, by their own proper sight, can see any thing that is in the natural world, any more than man, by his natural sight, can see any thing that is in the spiritual world; the light of each world being as gross darkness to the other. Yet, when it pleases the Lord to open the interior faculties of a man, so as to enable him to see and converse with spirits and angels, which however is a rare case in the present day, then both the spirits and angels, who are present with such a man, can see through his eyes the natural objects of this world, and hear through his ears the conversation that passes among men. So again, the man, who is so privileged as to be the medium of communication between the spiritual and the natural world, as just described, may, by being brought into a similar state of life as to his spirit with an inhabitant of some distant earth, in like manner see through the eyes of such