Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/88

 heaven as if it were located in some region of space. The sacred penmen, when treating of it, make use of such terms as are uniformly employed in speaking of places. Thus they speak of going to heaven, of looking towards heaven, of ascending up into heaven, of looking down and coming down from heaven, etc.—language which, understood in its strictly literal sense, certainly favors the old idea of heaven as a place. Besides, it is sometimes called a place; as where our Lord, speaking of the "Father's house" (by which Christians generally understand that heaven is meant), says: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John xiv. 2, 3.) This is one of the strongest passages cited to prove that heaven is a place. "The Bible calls it a place, and does not the Bible mean what it says?"—is the usual form of the argument resorted to by the old theologians.

But the Bible, as we believe and as Swedenborg everywhere teaches, has both a natural and a spiritual sense related like body and soul. The spiritual is the true and real sense, as the soul is the true and real man; for the Bible was given to instruct mankind about spiritual and not about natural things. Accordingly all places mentioned in Scripture, signify, in their true spiritual sense, certain states of life—for place corresponds to state. And all words which, in their natural sense, refer to places and changes of place, in their spiritual sense refer to mental states and changes of state. Thus the Bible speaks of certain persons being far from the Lord, and of others as being near Him. It also invites