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 what I have myself seen and heard,—which I do, in the hope that ignorance may thus be enlightened and incredulity dissipated. The reason that such immediate revelation is made at this time, is, that this is what is meant by the coming of the Lord. (H. H., n. 1.)

That there is a spiritual world inhabited by spirits and angels, distinct from the natural world inhabited by men, is a fact which, because no angel has descended and declared it, and no man has ascended and seen it, has been hitherto unknown even in the Christian world. Lest, therefore, from ignorance of the existence of such a world, and the doubts respecting the reality of heaven and hell which result from such ignorance, men should be infatuated to such a degree as to become naturalists and atheists, it has pleased the Lord to open my spiritual sight, and, as to my spirit, to elevate me into heaven and let me down into hell, and exhibit to my view the nature of both.

It has thus been made evident to me that there are two worlds completely distinct from each other; one of these is called the spiritual world, because all its objects are spiritual; the other is called the natural world, because all its objects are natural:—also that spirits and angels live in their own world, and men in theirs; and further, that every man passes by death from his world into the other, in which he lives to eternity. (I., n. 3.)