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447. That the friendship of love may be detrimental after death, will appear evidently from the state of heaven, the state of hell, and the state of the spirit of man respectively. With regard to the state of heaven, it is distinguished into innumerable societies, according to all the varieties of the affections of the love of good; hell, on the other hand, is distinguished into societies, according to all the varieties of the affections of the love of evil; and man, after death, being then a spirit, is immediately, according to his former life in the world, attached to that society where his ruling love prevails; to some heavenly society, if love to God and towards his neighbour had constituted the head of his loves, and to some infernal society, if that head had been constituted by the love of self and of the world. Imme- ! diately on his entrance into the spiritual world, (which is an effect consequent on death, and on the burial of the material body,) man is kept some time in a state of preparation for the society to which he belongeth, and this preparation is wrought by the rejection of every love that is not in agreement with his principal love: during this time, therefore, a separation is made of one person from another; friends are separated from friends, clients from their patrons, parents also from their children, brothers from their brethren; and each of them is inwardly adjoined to his like, with whom he is to live a life suited to his state, and such as is peculiarly his own, to eternity. But at the beginning of this preparation they meet together, and converse friendly with each other, as they used to do in the world; by degrees, however, and in a manner unperceivable to themselves, they, are separated.

448. But they who, during their abode on earth, have contracted friendships of love with one another, are not capable, like the rest, of being separated according to order, and of being consigned to the society corresponding to their life; for they are connected interiorly as to their spirits, and

cannot be plucked asunder, because they are like branches of trees joined to each other by grafting; wherefore in case one, as to his interiors, is in heaven, and the other, as to his interiors, is in hell, they cohere together, much like a sheep and a wolf, or a goose and a fox, or a dove and a hawk tied to each other; and he whose interiors are in hell, inspires his infernal influences into him whose interiors are in heaven: for amongst the knowledges familiar in heaven this is one, that evils may be inspired into the good, but not goods into the evil; the reason of which is, because every one is by birth in evils; the consequence is, when the good so cohere with the evil, that their interiors are closed, and both are plunged down into hell, where the good suffer very severely; but at length, after a certain space of time, they are taken out, and then first begin to be prepared for heaven. I have been permitted to see such connections, particularly between brothers and relations, and also between patrons and clients, and between well-disposed dupes and their flatterers, being persons whose affections were opposite and their genius dissimilar; and I have seen some consorting together, like kids with leopards, and then embracing each other, and vowing fidelity to their former friendship; and I have perceived at such times the good imbibing and sucking-in the delights of the evil, and both walking hand in hand, and entering together into caves where troops of evil beings appeared in their horrid forms, which yet by an illusion, of phantasy, seemed pleasing to themselves; after some time, however, I have heard the good uttering lamentations of fear, as if in dread of snares laid for their destruction, and the evil triumphing with joy, like hostile troops exulting over the spoil; not to mention other sad and tragical scenes. I have been informed, that the good, after they are taken out of those dens, are prepared for heaven by the appointed means of reformation, but with greater difficulty than others.

449. The case is altogether different with those who love the good in another, that is, who love justice, judgment, sincerity, benevolence grounded in charity, particularly who love faith and love to the Lord: such, by reason that they love what is within a man, abstracted from what is without him, if they do not observe those virtues in his person after death, immediately break off all friendship with him, and are associated by the Lord with those who are in similar good with themselves. It may be objected, that no one is capable of exploring the interiors of the minds of those with whom he is engaged in commerce and connection; but this is not necessary; only let him be cautious how he connecteth himself with any person indiscriminately in a friendship of love: external friendship, contracted for various purposes, is not hurtful. XVI. THAT THERE IS SPURIOUS CHARITY, HYPOCRITICAL CHARITY, AND DEAD CHARITY.

450. There can be no such thing as genuine charity, which is living, unless it make a one with faith, and unless both in conjunction look towards the Lord; for these three, the Lord, charity, and faith, are the three essentials of salvation, and when they make a one, charity is charity, and faith is faith, and the Lord is in them, and they in the Lord, as may be seen above, n. 363 to 372; but when these three are not joined together in one, charity then is either spurious, or hypocritical, or dead. Divers heresies have arisen in the Christian church since its first establishment, and still exist in it, in all which these three essentials, God, charity, and faith, were and are acknowledged, for without these three there can be no religion. As to what regards charity in particular, it may be adjoined to any heretical faith whatsoever, as to the faith of Socinians, of enthusiasts, of Jews, nay, even to the faith of idolaters; and by all of them it may be supposed to be charity, because in its external form it appears like it; but still it changeth its quality according

to the faith to which it is adjoined or conjoined*, as may seen in the chapter on faith.

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451. All charity, which is not conjoined with faith in one God, in whom is a Divine Trinity, is SPURIOUS: such is the charity of the present church, whose faith is directed towards three persons of the same divinity in successive order, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and consequently towards three gods, inasmuch as each of those persons is supposed to be a self-subsisting God: to such faith charity may be adjoined, as is actually the case with the maintainers of that faith, but it can never be conjoined, and charity only adjoined to faith is merely natural and not spiritual, and consequently is spurious charity. The case is the same with the charity of many other heresies, as that of those who deny a Divine Trinity, and therefore approach God the Father alone, or the Holy Ghost alone, or both without God the Saviour: to the faith of such persons charity cannot be conjoined, and if it be conjoined or adjoined, it is spurious. It is called spurious, because it is like an illegitimate child, such as the son of Hagar by Abraham, who was cast out of the house, Gen. xxi. 9. Such charity is like fruit not growing naturally on a tree, ficially; or it is like a chariot, to fastened only by the reins which the driver holds in his hands; the consequence is, that when the horses set off, they pull the driver from his seat, and leave the chariot behind them.

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452. HYPOCRITICAL charity is chargeable on those, who in public and private worship bow themselves almost to

* The author here distinguisheth between charity as adjoined and conjoined to faith. By being adjoined, he means a sort of external connection only, as of fruit, for example, fixed artificially on a tree, but not growing thereon naturally; whereas by being conjoined he means a real internal connection, as of fruit with the tree that produceth it, or as of heat with the light that it generates, or as of the will with the understanding, &c.

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the floor before God, pour forth long prayers with great devotion, put on a sanctified appearance, kiss crucifixes and the bones of the dead, and sometimes kneel down at sepulchres, and there mutter words expressive of holy veneration towards God, and yet in their hearts nourish self-worship, and seek to be adored like so many deities. Such persons are like those whom the Lord describes in these words: "When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hyprocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men," Matt. vi. 2, "Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Wo unto you, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves. Wo unto you, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of rapine and excess," Matt. xxiii. 13, 15, 25: "Well hath Esaias prophesied of you, hypocrites, saying, this people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me," Mark vii. 9: "Wo unto you, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them," "Luke xi. 44; with many other passages to the same purpose. Such persons are like flesh without blood; or like jackdaws and parrots taught to speak the words of a psalm; or like birds taught to sing the tune of a sacred hymn: the sound of their words is as the sound of a bird catcher's pipe.

453. DEAD charity is their's, whose faith is dead, inasmuch as the quality of charity depends on the quality of faith; and it was shewn in the chapter on FAITH, that they make a one. That faith is dead in all such as are without

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