Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/218

212 ascended and seen it, has been hitherto unknown even in the Christian world. Lest, therefore, from ignorance of the existence of such a world, and the doubts about the reality of heaven and hell which result from such ignorance, men should be so infatuated as to become materialists and atheists, it has pleased the Lord to open my spiritual sight, and, as to my spirit, to elevate me into heaven and let me down into hell, and to exhibit to my view the nature of both." (Influx 3.)

But Swedenborg's intromission into the spiritual world in the manner alleged, was not a thing of his own seeking. It was of the Divine Providence, and for the accomplishment of a sublime and beneficent purpose. Otherwise such intromission would have been most perilous. Accordingly he teaches, and the New Church believes, that to seek open intercourse with spirits by breaking down the existing barriers between the two worlds, as not a few in our day are doing, is unscriptural, disorderly and dangerous.

"It is believed," says Swedenborg, "that man may be taught of the Lord by spirits speaking with him. But they who believe and desire this, do not know that it is connected with danger to their souls. Man, so long as he lives in the world, is as to his spirit in the midst of spirits; yet the spirits do not know that they are with him, nor does the man know that he is with spirits. . . . But as soon as spirits begin to speak with him, they come out of their spiritual state into the man's natural state; and then they know that