Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/215

 angels, and they shall gather together the elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other" (xxiv. 31); and again, "All nations shall he gathered together before the Son of Man, and He shall separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on the right and the goats on the left" (#Matthew xxv. 31, 32); which signifies that the Lord will then separate those who are in truths and at the same time in good, from those who are in truths and not in good; for in the spiritual sense of the Word, the right signifies good, and the left truth; and sheep and goats signify the same.

The last judgment was executed upon these alone,—the evil who were in no truths being in the hells already; for all the wicked who have denied the Divine in their hearts, and have rejected the truths of the church as incredible, are cast thither when they die, and therefore before the judgment. The first heaven which passed away, consisted of those who were in truths and not in good; and the new heaven was formed of those who were in truths, and at the same time in good.

The judgment upon the Mahometans and Gentiles, was effected thus: The Mahometans were led forth from their places where they were gathered together in the southwest, by a way round the Christians, from the west through the north to the east, as far as its southern confine; and the good were separated from