Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/179

 is called in Scripture, each of which expresses something of the essential nature of hell; such as, Angel of the bottomless pit, Prince of this world, Prince of darkness, Destroyer, Beelzebub, Belial, Adversary, Accuser, Deceiver, Liar, Murderer, Tormentor, Serpent, Lucifer, Leviathan and Dragon. Such are the significant names which we find in the Bible sometimes applied to the collective body of evil spirits in the other world, who, viewed as one individual, are more frequently called the Devil and Satan. And how completely do such names justify the following language of Swedenborg:

"As heaven, from the Lord, by mutual love, constitutes as it were one Man or one soul, and thus regards one end which is the preservation and salvation of all to eternity; so on the other hand hell, from proprium, by self-love and the love of the world, that is, by hatred, constitutes one Devil or one mind, and thus regards one end, which is the destruction and damnation of all to eternity. That such is the tendency of each has been granted me to perceive many thousands of times." (Arcana Cœlestia 694.)

We thus see that the New doctrine on this, as on other subjects, is quite different from the Old. The Devil, according to Swedenborg's disclosures, is not the personal one described by Milton, and hitherto believed in by Christians generally. Nor is he a fabulous or imaginary being, but one whose existence and reality the philosphic inquirer readily admits. Nay, he is one