Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/202

 his desires impel him; but still he is actually where his love is, that is, in a society composed of persons who are in a love like his own. When a spirit is in such a state he appears in many other places, in all of them also present as it were with the body; but this is only an appearance. Therefore as soon as he is led by the Lord into his own ruling love, he vanishes instantly from the eyes of others, and is among his own in the society to which he was bound.

This peculiarity exists in the spiritual world, and is a wonder to those who are ignorant of its cause. Hence it is, that as soon as spirits are congregated and separated, they are also judged; and every one is presently in his own place—the good in heaven and in a society there among their own, and the wicked in hell and in a society there among their own. From these things it is evident that the last judgment can occur nowhere but in the spiritual world, both because every one there is in the likeness of his own life, and because he is with those who are in similar life, and is thus in society with his own.

But in the natural world it is not so. The good and the evil may dwell together there, the one ignorant of what the other is, and the life's love of each producing no separation between them. Indeed it is impossible for any one in the natural body to be [altogether] either in heaven or in hell. Wherefore in order that man may go to one of them, it is necessary that he put off the natural, and be judged in