Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/110

 heaven after living wicked lives, gasp there for breath, and writhe about like fishes taken from the water into the air, and like animals in the ether of an air-pump, after the air has been exhausted."—Heaven and Hell, 54.

Again he says:

"Conscience is the Lord's presence with man; and this is nearer in proportion as a man is in the affection of good and truth. If his presence is nearer than is suitable to the degree of a man's affection for good and truth, the man comes into temptation. The reason is, that the evils and falsities in him tempered with the goods and truths in him, cannot endure a nearer presence. This may appear from circumstances existing in another life, viz., that evil spirits cannot possibly approach any heavenly society without beginning to experience anguish and torment:—also that hell is removed from heaven, because it cannot endure heaven, that is, the Lord's presence which is in heaven. Hence it is said of them in the Word: 'Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills. Cover us.' Luke xxiii. 30."—Arcana Cœlestia 4299. See also n. 4225, '6, 5057, '8, 4674, 7519.

It is in tenderest mercy to the wicked, therefore, that they are not compelled to live in heaven; for they would be far more wretched among the angels, than they are in their own chosen and congenial homes in hell.

But the heavenly life, some think, will be at last and gradually developed in the devils, so that they will all