Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/112

 concede that all the abominable deeds which men commit, are done in accordance with the will of God. For if not, then the omnipotence of that will does not always ensure the accomplishment of the Divine purpose.

But the mistake arises from overlooking the proper characteristics of man, or the nature of the properly human faculties. If he were a machine, he might be dealt with as a machine; and the builder or operator would alone be responsible for its movements or defects. But being man, and endowed with the faculties of liberty and rationality, he becomes himself responsible for his actions and his character. His salvation and happiness are not things that can be forced upon him—no, not even by Omnipotence itself. They are states to be freely chosen, sought after, labored for, by himself; and in no other possible way can they ever be attained. If we could conceive of those, who have become so thoroughly confirmed in evil as to love and seek the companionship of devils, desiring and laboring for the exalted and unselfish life of heaven, then we might concede the possibility of the devils being all ultimately converted into angels, and the hells blotted out or changed into heavens.

Then there is a judgment which all have to undergo in the other world. And Swedenborg has described very fully the nature of that process. It consists in such a complete development of each one's internals, or such a thorough immersion of the individual in his own dominant love, whatever that may be, that he no longer