Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/209

 "From the time of the Lord's being in the world, when He executed a last judgment in person, it was permitted that they who were in civil and moral good, though in no spiritual good, so that in externals they had the appearance of being christians, notwithstanding they were devils in internals, should continue longer than the rest in the world of spirits, which is in the midst between heaven and hell; and at length they were allowed to make there for themselves fixed habitations, and also by the abuse of correspondences, and by means of phantasies, to form as it were heavens to themselves, which they likewise did form in great abundance; but when these were multiplied to such a degree, as to intercept the spiritual light and spiritual heat in their descent from the superior heavens to men upon earth, then the Lord executed the last judgment, and dispersed those imaginary heavens; which was done in such manner, that the externals, by means of which they put on the appearance of being christians, were removed and taken away, and the internals, in which they were devils, were laid open, and then they appeared such as they were in themselves, and they who proved to be devils were cast into hell, every one according to the evils of his life; this was done in the year 1757; but more concerning this universal judgment may be seen in the little work on the Last Judgment, published at London 1758, and in the Continuation of the same, published at Amsterdam 1763." In the "Last Judgment," to which reference is here made, the author, in the first place, very fully and clearly demonstrates the following propositions; deriving his arguments chiefly from the Divine Word: "That the day of the Last Judgment does not mean the destruction of the world."

"That the procreation of the human race on the earth will never cease."

"That heaven and hell are from mankind."

"That all who have ever been born men from the beginning of creation, and are deceased, are either in heaven or in hell."

"That the Last Judgment must be where all are together, and therefore in the spiritual world, and not upon earth."

"That the Last Judgment exists, when the end of the Church is; and that the end of the Church is, when there is no faith because there is no charity."

"That all the things which are predicted in the Apocalypse, are at this day fulfilled."