Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/51

 must have had their initial or rudimental state. Where and what was that state? Where and what was the rudimental or embryo angel? Can the Old Theology answer this question? And if this world is not our final home, if we were created to live forever in another and a higher realm, what shall we be in that higher realm?—provided that we here obey the laws of our higher life, and thus give to our spirits a right direction in this their rudimental state. Shall we not be more fully developed and more perfect men? Shall we not be in a higher state of love and wisdom—nearer the moral likeness of the Creator? In a word, shall we not be angels?

Reason and analogy, then, are clearly in favor of Swedenborg's teaching respecting the origin of angels, and as clearly opposed to the commonly received doctrine. Let us now turn to the Scripture and see what is its testimony on the subject.

And we remark first, that the Bible nowhere speaks of the creation of angels. It tells (in the literal sense) of the creation of everything else, of the sun and moon, the earth and the seas, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms, and lastly of man the crowning work of the Creator's hands; but never of angels. As to the creation of an order of beings intermediate between God and men, the Scripture says not a word.

In the next place, the Bible teaches that "God created man in his own image" (Gen, i. 27). How, then, is it possible that there could be an order of beings above man? A different order of beings must needs have a different form from the human; and if so, they