358 FUTURE PUNISHMENT: ITS NATURE AND DURATION. try all things. The possession of such rationality implies also the possession of liberty, that is, the power of choice, and the freedom of acting according to choice; consequently, the power of turning away from God, as well as towards Him. Now, it was the turning away from God to self, which produced the feeling called self-love; and self-love is the root of all evil. It may be said-This, then, was to make evil a necessity of humanity. No! not a necessity,-only a liability, a possibility. The Creator had provided safeguards and warnings enough. But to keep man truly man, there must be left liberty-the freedom to persist in an erroneous choice, if he would; and such persisting against light was what brought about the existence of evil. It was not effected at once; the fall was a slow and gradual decline from one degree of disorder to another, till man reached at length the state of utter disorder and perversion of his nature which now exists. Here, then, are the links of the argument. It was impossible to create a being such as man, that is, one possessed of rationality and liberty, without there being a possibility of his perverting the order of his nature, and thus of falling into evil; though, as before observed, this was not a necessity, but only a liability or possibility. Notwithstanding such liability, God provides that every human being may be regenerated and saved, if he will, and thus become good and happy; if, then, he does not so become, it is because he will not, and thus it is absolutely his own fault. Secondly, time and opportunity sufficient are given to every one to make his choice, and thus to form and fix his character; but when the choice is made and the character formed, it must of necessity so remain; this law of the mind was necessary, for otherwise, as before explained, the good would have no security, there would be no permanent state of happiness,-in other words, no heaven. Thirdly, yet even to those who choose and love evil, in preference to good, the Lord, in His mercy, allows the indulgence of their love and life, so far as it does not disturb the happiness of others; but, inasmuch as evil in its very nature, desires to hurt and torment others, it has therefore to be kept in check by punishments, which punishments and restraints are what are signified by the torments of hell. Thus, it may be seen that the existence of hell, or, in other words, of a state of evil, could not have been prevented, without depriving man of his moral liberty, which would be tantamount to depriving him of his humanity. And for the same reason, its continuance cannot be prevented; for the wicked, after death, still love their evils: they are no more willing to be saved now, than they were while in the world. FUTURE PUNISHMENT: ITS NATURE AND DURATION. 359 The Lord allows them their evil choice: what more can He do? The pity is, that they were and are so unwise as to prefer darkness to light, hate to love, the bitter to the sweet, and thus to form and fix their characters in a state of opposition to Divine and heavenly order, instead of in agreement with it, and thus deprive themselves of the joys of heaven, and subject themselves to the restraints and pains of hell. It is a solemn warning to us, who still live, and still have the power of choice before us, to be careful how we choose to be mindful what we do,-lest our evils, by repeated indulgence, become at length fixed in us unchangeably. London. O. P. H. FREE-WILL, AND SPIRITUAL EQUILIBRIUM. (Concluded from page 304.) THE particular equilibrium in which each angel and devil is held, is, as previously said, one which is effected between an active and a passive. But in order to understand this equilibrium, it is necessary that man's consciousness be taken into account, as well as the inertia of his substance, for it is in relation to consciousness as well as to substance that this equilibrium exists; and also the other equilibrium, which exists between heaven and hell, is to be considered in relation to the principles of which man is conscious, viz., the good and evil thereof, rather than to angels and devils as created beings; for as such, independent of what they have made their own by voluntary appropriation, they are equal, having neither the good nor the evil between which the equilibrium is formed; all this constitutes the difference between angels and devils in relation to which their specific equilibriums exist, having been effected by man's free-will during a life of probation. The particular equilibrium is maintained in the subject of it, by his being held in that state which he has made his own by choice and adoption; the state so acquired being that in which he experiences his proper life, and in which he has his freedom, whether he be an angel or a devil. This equilibrium is such as is formed in one individual, and could be maintained if there was no other in existence. Angels and devils are preserved in this state, not only because they have chosen it, but because those states are really themselves; the state formed being nothing less than the subject itself as a substantial form in that state, the subject and its state are one, as the body and its health and delight, or its malady and pain, are one. The passive, between which and the active the particular equilibrium exists, is not simply inertia, or inactive substance, but an organized 360 FREE-WILL, AND SPIRITUAL EQUILIBRIUM. subject recipient of life, in which there are various degrees of substance, and which by virtue of influent life possesses various inherent powers,— the more superior the degree, the more exalted the power. The life of the highest degree is love to God; the life of the middle degree is love to the neighbour; and the life of the lowest is the love of obedience or usefulness, without higher perceptions of life. The inferior of these degrees is reception of the life of the superior, though not in the same perfection as it is in the superior itself, yet it can receive it in its own degree, and by virtue thereof become of the quality of the superior, when this is opened by regeneration. (D. L. W. 256.) This can be effected whilst man is in this world; and according to the degree which is opened, and its life induced upon the natural, and there rendered habitual, the natural is capable of being elevated in the spiritual world after death. If the lowest degree be developed by actual life, man becomes an angel of the first heaven; if the second degree be developed, he rises to the second heaven; if the third degree, he ascends to the highest heaven. Now by the development of those degrees in man they become his own; they were previously his by birth, but by development they became his by appropriation, and he, even as to the natural degree, becomes of the quality thereof. When this is the case, the life of the developed degree is his life, and in the spiritual world he can have no other, voluntary appropriation causing assimilation and identification. And as man is immortal, his immortality must consist of a continuation of that life which is identified with himself, or, what is the same thing, his immortality consists of the never-ending duration of himself; and the equilibrium of each angel is the maintaining of him in that particular state which he has thus made his own, so that he may be in freedom, and enjoy his own life with its proper delights and happiness. But if instead of living orderly and cultivating heavenly life in himself, man lives disorderly, and perverts the life of heaven, he, as a consequence, becomes a subject of perversion and disorder, and his proper life is infernal. All such, when they enter the spiritual world, where similarity of life conjoins, and dissimilarity separates, and causes distance, cannot become inhabitants of any heaven, and be associated with angels, but they are spontaneously removed to a distance from them proportionate to their difference of state. And as infernals are equally immortal with the angels, all being constituted alike, but differently developed, their equilibriums will consist in their being preserved in those states which they have made their own, so that each may live his own life for ever. But though the equilibriums of infernals are preserved, and they held in them, yet they do not live in freedom; and here is a great difference FREE-WILL, AND SPIRITUAL EQUILIBRIUM. 361 between the lives of angels and of devils, though both are immortal, and both are held in their own equilibriums, yet one lives in freedom, and the other in slavery. Whilst Omnipotence preserves the equilibriums of all intact, it at the same time preserves order in external life; and were it possible that infernals could enjoy freedom without annoyance or injury to others, it is probable that they would be permitted to enjoy it; for God does not suppress their freedom from any vindictive feeling, but from love; He seeing that, because they are infernal, the exercise of hatred, revenge, and cruelty would be the result of their freedom, and they would dreadfully torment each other,-infernals being their own tormentors. Seeing this, God out of pure mercy suppresses the freedom of infernals, and enforces order by external laws and restraints, in order to prevent that awful suffering which would necessarily attend their liberty. It is quite evident that if the Almighty did not give laws for the government of the hells and the regulation of the lives of infernals, they could not enjoy liberty; they themselves would destroy their own freedom; their excessive desire for inordinate rule, and their oppressive dispositions, would prevent a life of freedom. Whosoever gained power would be a tyrant, and would enslave and torment the rest; to prevent which the Lord holds the government of the hells, which He effects through the medium of angels. The equilibrium which is formed between an active and a passive, is that which results from the tendency of the one and the resistance of the other; the active operating in the passive endeavours to bring it into conformity with itself, by causing it to act with it in its own order; and so far as it can be induced to submit, it becomes subject to the active and receives its life. Although man, as a form consisting of created substance, is passive, yet he possesses, by virtue of influent life, the capability of conforming to the order of the active, and this capability is always according to the perfection of his form. With man, as a living subject, the active and the passive appear to be identical, there being no human life without human beings, the subject giving life its specific denomination. Life and its operation in the human form produces a consciousness, in which there is an appearance of self-existence; this appears to be identical with the subject, and is felt by it as its own and one with itself; and from the active there is always produced in the passive the power and option to act or not to act. An active and a passive are essential to the existence of everything; by life alone there could be neither reception nor re-action, and by a form without life there could be no existence; passivity is essential to re-action, and re-action is essential to human life. Had angels not the power and option to act or not to 362 FREE-WILL, AND SPIRITUAL EQUILIBRIUM. act, life with them would be a continuous and uninterrupted flow; but having that power and option, their action will be always according to the perfection of the degree which is the ground of their life's love; hence when they choose not to act, they exercise their prudence, and when they choose to act, they exercise their love for the comfort, benefit, and delight of others. Their choosing not to act is simply the suppressing of such feelings as might be unjoyous, unaiding, or unpleasant to others; and their choosing to act is a giving of freedom to those, which would delight, condole, or assist them. But with the infernals, though their freedom would be in the exercise of their life's love, yet they are prevented for their own sakes, and also for the benefit of others; their choosing to act or not to act is not done disinterestedly, but with a view to themselves; and when they choose not to act, it is because they see before them either the certainty or a probability of punishment and grief following; and when they choose to act, it is cunningly to promote their own selfish interest. The re-action of ultimate substance is the ground of all organized and existing things; and as the ultimate acts against the operation of life, so each inferior degree, from its own nature, re-acts against the superior degrees; hence Swedenborg says “The natural mind is a re-agent;” “and if the superior degrees are not opened, it acts against them; but if they are opened, it acts with them." (D. L. W. 260.) The natural degree acts against the spiritual, the spiritual against the celestial, and the celestial against the Divine. The re-action of an inferior against a superior does not imply the existence of evil, nor of disorder; for though the inferior be perfect, yet its very nature or mode of existing, being different from that of a superior, would cause a re-action; and when it is in connection with a superior degree, its nature is still the same, and its effort is to live its own life rather than submit to the order of another; this constitutes its resistance, and it is the ground of its re-action. Man's natural mind, in its fallen state, is perverted, and therefore evil; and it, by reason thereof, acts against the spiritual, not only from the nature of its substance, which is an orderly re-action, but it acts against it from its connate and hereditary state, which is disorderly. Originally re-action was from relative degrees of substance and their difference of nature, all of which were orderly; but now it exists from opposites; not by reason of things being brought into existence consisting of evil substances, which stand in opposition to the original good things, but it exists between things which stand in the order in which they were created, and things perverted. Now as man is born with |