material
impediments, and are united or separate, reciprocally visible or
invisible, mutually conscious or unconscious, according to their
own laws of kindred or alien adaptedness.

The soul the true man is its own organized and deathless body, and
when it leaves its earthly house of flesh it knows the only
resurrection, and the cast off frame returns to the dust forever.
Swedenborg repeatedly affirms with emphasis that no one is born
for hell, but that all are born for heaven, and that when any one
comes into hell it is from his own free fault. He asserts that
every infant, wheresoever born, whether within the Church or out
of it, whether of pious parents or of impious, when he dies is
received by the Lord, and educated in heaven, and becomes an
angel. A central principle of which he never loses sight is that
"a life of charity, which consists in acting sincerely and justly
in every function, in every engagement, and in every work, from a
heavenly motive, according to the Divine laws, is possible to
every one, and infallibly leads to heaven." It does not matter
whether the person leading such a life be a Christian or a
Gentile. The only essential is that his ruling motive be divine
and his life be in truth and good.

The Swedenborgian doctrine concerning Christ and his mission is
that he was the infinite God incarnate, not incarnate for the
purpose of expiating human sin and purchasing a ransom for the
lost by vicarious sufferings, but for the sake of suppressing the
rampant power of the hells, weakening the influx of the infernal
spirits, setting an example to men, and revealing many important
truths. The advantage of the Christian over the pagan is that the
former is enlightened by the celestial knowledge contained in the
Bible, and animated by the affecting motives presented in the
drama of the Divine incarnation. There is no probation after this
life. Just as one is on leaving the earth he goes into the
spiritual world. There his

11 Philo the Jew says, (vol. i. p. 277, ed. Mangey,) "God is the
Father of the world: the world is the father of time, begetting it
by its own motion: time, therefore, holds the place of grandchild
to God." But the world is only one measure of time; another, and a
more important one, is the inward succession of the spirit's
states of consciousness. Between Philo and Swedenborg, it may be
remarked here, there are many remarkable correspondences both of
thought and language. For exam