LORD SAITH, JUDGE NOT, THAT YE BE NOT CONDEMNED, Matt. vii. 1;
which cannot in any wise mean judgement respecting any one's moral and
civil life in the world, but respecting his spiritual and celestial
life. Who does not see, that unless a man was allowed to judge
respecting the moral life of those who live with him in the world,
society would perish? What would society be if there were no public
judicature, and if every one did not exercise his judgement respecting
another? But to judge what is the quality of the interior mind, or soul,
thus what is the quality of any one's spiritual state, and thence what
his lot is after death, is not allowed; for that is known only to the
Lord: neither does the Lord reveal this till after the person's decease,
to the intent that every one may act freely in whatever he does, and
thereby that good or evil may be from him, and thus be in him, and that
thence he may live to himself and live his own to eternity. The reason
why the interiors of the mind, which are kept hid in the world, are
revealed after death is, because this is of importance and advantage to
the societies into which the man then comes; for in them all are
spiritual. That those interiors are then revealed, is plain from these
words of the Lord: _There is nothing concealed, which shall not be
revealed, or hidden, which shall not be known: therefore whatsoever
things ye have said in darkness, shall be heard in light: and that which
ye have spoken into the ear in closets shall be preached on the
house-tops_, Luke xii. 2, 3. A common judgement, as this for
instance,--"If you are such in internals as you appear to be in
externals, you will be saved or condemned," is allowed; but a particular
judgement, as this, for instance,--"You are such in internals, therefore
you will be saved or condemned," is not allowed. Judgement concerning
the spiritual life of a man, or the internal life of the soul, is meant
by the imputation which is here treated of. Can any human being know and
decide who is in heart an adulterer, and who a conjugial partner? And
yet the thoughts of the heart, which are the purposes of the will, judge
every one. But we will explain this subject in the following order: I.
_The evil in which every one is principled is imputed to him after
death; and so also the good._ II. _The transference of the good of one
person into another is impossible._ III. _Imputation, if by it is meant
such transference, is a frivolous te