Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/200

 correspond, has the means of knowing that by the Lord's advent in the clouds of heaven, is not to be understood that He will thus appear, but that He will appear in the Word; for the Lord is the Word, because He is the Divine Truth; the clouds of heaven in which He is to come, are the sense of the letter of the Word, and the glory is its spiritual sense; the angels are the heaven from which He will appear, and moreover they are the Lord as to Divine Truths.

Hence the meaning of these words is now evident, namely: that when the end of the church takes place, the Lord will reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, and thus the Divine Truth such as it is in itself; therefore that this is the sign that the last judgment is at hand.

The last judgment must occur in the spiritual and not in the natural world. . . For no one is judged from the natural man, nor, therefore, during his life in the natural world; for man is then in a natural body. But everyone is judged in the spiritual man, and therefore when he comes into the spiritual world; for man is then in a spiritual body. It is the spiritual in man which is judged, not the natural [or material], for no blame or criminality can be imputed to it, since it does not live of itself, but is only the servant and passive instrument of the spiritual