Notwithstanding this call to a divine work, Swedenborg returned for a season to the duties of his Assessorship with which he combined the study of Hebrew, but in 1747 he sought and obtained permission from King Frederick to retire on a pension which was equal to half his salary. Henceforth the rest of his life was devoted to his imaginary converse with spirits and the composition of his numerous and prolix writings, by which he sought, but in vain, to make known to the world the revelations which he had received.

It would be a task far beyond the limits of our present purpose to follow Swedenborg through the numerous writings of which Mr. White has given us an epitome, and besides this the frequent and ever-recurring repetitions make it easy to ascertain the main features of his doctrine without a very accurate study of all his writings. There was, he asserted, one GoD, not three Persons in one Godhead, but simply one God, the Creator of the world, who revealed Himself to men in the person of JESUS CHRIST, and the HOLY GHOST was nothing but the influence which the Divine Being asserted in moulding the character of men. Adam was not an individual, but a representative of the most ancient Church, which was evolved from a race who lived originally as beasts. Apart from GOD man had no life. He confessed that all virtue was divine, and yet he felt it was his own, but instructed by revelation he knew the feeling was an illusion, and that he owed his being at every instant to the presence of GOD. The seduction of Adam from his integrity consisted in the preference of sense to revelation. This degradation was not sudden but gradual, and its summit was not reached until the time of the flood. All this time the independence of man had been in course of development and the Scripture genealogies were only an allegorical representation of the progress of the downward course. The internal respiration, to which Swedenborg laid claim, gradually ceased, and with it the intercourse which men held with spirits. The deluge was not a flood of waters, but the climax of that infernal delusion whereby the serpent seduced Adam and Eve.

To the most ancient Church destroyed at the flood, succeeded the ancient Church. Under this dispensation the will and the intellect were separated, and its special characteristic was the revelation of the duties of love to GOD and man. This Church, however, degenerated, and its destruction was symbolised in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, the slaughter of the Canaanites, and the drowning of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea. The Mosaic Church succeeded, commencing with Abraham. Selfishness, pride, and avarice, were the distinguishing features of this dispensation, in which the Jewish nation were chosen, simply because they wished to be considered the chosen people of GOD, and therefore God made use of their conceit and selfishness for work

ing out His own purpose. To the Mosaic Church succeeded the

Christian, which was inaugurated by the Incarnation of GOD, who took a body from the substance of the Virgin, in which was concentrated by hereditary transmission all the lust, pride, avarice, and hatred of Judaism. In that body whose every faculty was an avenue to hell, He met as on a battlefield the powers of evil and darkness and subdued them. His whole life was a subjugation of these lusts, and His crucifixion had no other purpose than an exhibition of perfect self-abnegation. When the Christian Church had reached its term the last judgment took place, which was a clearance of the intermediate state, and the New Jerusalem, the last and more perfect phase of the Church was revealed, of which Swedenborg was appointed the first apostle and preacher. The last judgment Swedenborg affirms to have taken place in 1757, and that he was himself a witness of the scene:

"In the middle," says Swedenborg, "appeared Protestants assorted according to their countries,-Germans to the north, Swedes and Danes to the east, Dutch to the east and north, and English in the centre ; surrounding the Protestants were the Papists, thickest towards the west and south. Beyond the Papist to the south-west were Mahometans. Outside of all in vast numbers, forming a circumference as of sea, were Gentiles. This arrangement of nations according to religion was in correspondence with their faculty for the reception of Divine truth."Vol. II. p. 8.

The Gentiles who on earth had worshipped GOD under a human form and had lived lives of charity were conjoined with the Christians in heaven. Papists were instructed in the word by priests from Protestantism, and when duly instructed, received into heaven, whilst others who did not desire to know the truth, were cast into hell. Of the judgment on the Protestants Swedenborg does not tell so much, except that it was of longer duration than that of Gentiles and Papists. He alleges want of space for the minutia of the transaction, but Mr. White attributes the reticence to prudence.

The subjects of the last judgment were neither the bad nor the good, but those who halting between the two were neither fit for heaven nor hell. By these the intermediate state had been glutted and in their dispersion the passing away of the first heaven was fulfilled. (Rev. xxi. 1.) It was called heaven because they who lived in it lived in natural delights, which they fancied heavenly. The last judgment restored the communication between heaven and the world, between the LORD and His Church.

"

"All enlightenment," says Swedenborg, comes to man from the LORD through heaven, and enters by an internal way. So long as there were congregations of undecided spirits between heaven and the world, or between the LORD and the Church, it was impossible for man

to be enlightened. It is as when a sunbeam is cut off by a black interposing cloud, or as when the sun is eclipsed and his light arrested by the interjacent moon."

The advantage gained by the dispersion of the clouds is perpetuated, for it is no longer permitted to form societies below heaven or above hell. As soon as spirits now enter the intermediate state they straightway get ready to join the angels or devils with whom they are in affinity. Whilst man is on earth he is under the influence of four principles: love of self and the world, love of GOD and his neighbour. As the two last predominate affinity with the angels is strengthened, but as the former prevail man becomes like unto the devils. Those who are under the influence of the last may be the most useful on earth, for the good they do is from a love of self-interest, which is usually a more powerful motive than the love of GOD. The love of GOD is not a personal affection, for the angels do not love Him as a person, but they love the goodness which is from Him,-that is, which is in His creatures, for goodness and wisdom are from the LORD alone, and are the Lord with man and angel. No wonder then that if personal affection is eliminated from man's love to GOD, self-love should prove a more potent principle of action than the love of God. According to the preponderance of the rival affections man inclines to heaven or hell. In the intermediate state his condition is ripened, and after this process has been going on for about thirty years he is generally transferred to heaven or hell. The circumstances of the intermediate state are much the same as those on earth. Men of the same nation are collected in the same little circle. They have houses and palaces, parks and gardens; they marry, and are given in marriage. The ill-assorted marriages of earth are remedied in the spirit world. Here marriages are often made by mistake, but hereafter each man will find the wife who was originally destined for him, and therefore the harmony of marriage will be complete. Swedenborg's idea of domestic happiness on earth could not have been very large, since he tells us that husbands and wives commonly meet after death, but possessing slight spiritual affinity, they soon separate, and in their own societies meet and mate with their true consorts. Monks and nuns, and those who had no disposition for marriage on earth are in a very gloomy state, and their presence affects with melancholy the spirits with whom they meet. The materialism of heaven is as gross as that of the intermediate state. Parks and palaces and the indulgence of fleshly appetites are the glories and rewards of the celestial kingdom, and we are told that the angels are particularly fond of punch. Operas and theatres are favourite amusements there. And all this is put forward as a more spiritual interpretation of the glorious scenes of the apocalypse than had ever before been revealed to man.

Swedenborg received Scripture, or at least such parts of it as he chose, as the word of GOD. The Acts of the Apostles and all the Epistles are excluded, for he and S. Paul were mortal enemies; but he asserted that there was a spiritual sense which had been revealed only to himself; and the constant assertion, "It was revealed to me," is intended as an answer to the objection which would naturally arise, that the spiritual sense is diametrically opposed to the literal meaning. It was objected that if he was the herald of a new dispensation, why did not miracles attest his mission, as had been the case with Moses and our Blessed LORD? but his reply was, that miracles could only convince the understanding without producing any effect upon the heart. The internal evidence of the adaptability of his teaching to the yearnings of men's hearts and its consequent reception, was all the evidence necessary for the establishment of the New Jerusalem. But Swedenborg waited long, and his patience must have been sorely tried. In London, where his works were mostly published, they attracted little notice; and in his own country, where his patent of nobility was an introduction to society, his company was sought, not in the search after truth, but for the satisfaction of curiosity, and the amusement afforded by his very extraordinary revelations. The seer's summer-house in the Sudermalm at Stockholm, was visited much as the séance of the spiritualist medium would be in the present day; and if his books had been read at all, they would have been read for the amusement of an idle hour, and produced the same amount of credulity as Mr. Kingsley's "Water Babies" would do now, parts of which we think must have been suggested by Swedenborg.1

We give the following narrative from the "De Amore Conjugiali," as a specimen either of the manners of heaven, or the insanity of Swedenborg.

Ten spirits recently arrived from earth, paid a three days' visit to a heavenly society, when they were instructed in the true character of celestial joy, and witnessed the marriage of two young angels :

"Towards evening there came a messenger clothed in linen to the ten strangers, and invited them to a wedding next day. They went out to supper, and returning to the palace where they lodged, each retired to his own chamber, and slept till morning. When they awoke, they heard the singing of virgins and girls; they sang that morning of conjugal love, the sweetness of which affected the hearers with blissful serenity. At the appointed hour their conducting angel said,

1 We should be sorry to detract from the originality of Mr. Kingsley's genius ; but we cannot help suspecting that he was directed by Swedenborg in finding Mr. Grimes stuck in the chimney in "the other end of nowhere." The powers of Mr. Kingsley's imagination in dealing with matters of history, as in Hypatia, we do not, however, for a moment deny.

"Make yourselves ready, and put on the garments which the prince of the society has sent you.'

"As they did so, lo, they shone with light.

"How is this?' they asked.

"Because you are going to a wedding. On such occasions our garments always shine.'

"The angel then led them to the house where the nuptials were to be celebrated. The porter opened the door, and they were received and welcomed by an angel sent from the bridegroom, and were shown to seats appointed for them. Soon after they were invited into an antechamber, in the middle of which was a table, and on it a magnificent candlestick with seven branches and golden sconces. Against the wall were hung silver lamps, which, when lighted, diffused a golden hue through the atmosphere. On each side of the candlestick were two tables, on which were set loaves in three rows. In the four corners of the room were tables set with crystal cups.

"Whilst the strangers were looking at these things a door opened, and in walked six virgins, followed by the bridegroom and the bride, hand-in-hand. They sat down opposite the candlestick, the bridegroom on the left, and the bride on the right, whilst the six virgins stood near the bride.

"The bridegroom was dressed in a robe of bright purple; and a tunic of fine shining linen, with an ephod, on which was a golden plate set round with diamonds; and on the plate was engraved a young eagle, the marriage ensign of that heavenly society; on his head he wore a mitre. The bride was dressed in a scarlet mantle, under which was a gown which reached from her neck to her feet, and ornamented with fine needlework; beneath her bosom she wore a golden girdle; and on her head a golden crown set with rubies.

"When they were thus seated, the bridegroom turning himself towards the bride, put a golden ring on her finger, clasped bracelets about her wrists, and drew a pearl necklace round her neck, and said,—

"And as she accepted them, he kissed her and said, 'And now thou art mine,' and called her his wife.

"Whereon all the company cried out,—

666

May the divine blessing rest upon you.'

"This benediction was first pronounced by each separately, and then by all together; also in turn by a representative sent by the prince.

"At that instant the chamber was filled with an aromatic smoke, which was a token of blessing from heaven. Then the servants in waiting took loaves from the tables near the candlestick, and cups filled with wine from the tables in the corners, and gave to each of the guests his own cup and loaf, and they ate and drank. After this the husband of the wife arose, and the six virgins attended them with the silver lamps alight to the threshold of their chamber, when the door was shut."-Vol. II. pp. 254—6.

Some sought his aid to obtain information from departed spirits, as when, for instance, a document had been mislaid, and the only person who knew where it was had died, and it was found by