descended intelligence, like some of the great poets, have been qualified to judge of the subject correctly, have here setto their seal, that God is true.

SECTION VI.

HEAVEN AND HELL; AND THE APPEARANCES IN THEM, AND IN THE INTERMEDIATE REGION, OR WORLD OF SPIRITS.

PART V.

Other Circumstances in Heaven, Hell, and the World of Spirits, differing from what is usually conceived.

Out of the important truths established in PARTS II. and III. of this SECTION,-That all the inhabitants of the spiritual world were originally men in the natural world,—That man, after death, is no less a real and substantial man than before,— and, That all the circumstances in which he then finds himself are outward expressions of his inward state; there cannot but arise a great variety of circumstances, in the other life, differing from what is usually conceived. While all real angels and devils are regarded as beings of a totally different origin and nature from man; and while man himself, when divested of his natural body, is viewed as a mere shade or phantom; no distinct conceptions respecting the circumstances in which such imaginary beings exist can possibly be formed; and from the merely negative imaginations thereupon assumed, circumstances which are perfectly natural and rational when all the inhabitants of the spiritual world are known to be real men,— men by origin, men by nature, and substantial men still, though no longer invested with an earthly body,-will be deemed repulsive and incredible. Such is the great truth, of the existence of a marriage-union in heaven, and of an opposite connexion in hell; which, nevertheless, I trust, has been shewn to rest on solid grounds, both Scriptural and rational. It being my desire, in this Appeal, to meet all the principal or most plausible of the difficulties raised by our adversaries, I will now notice the chief of the other general circumstances, attending the state of the inhabitants of the other life, which have been made subjects of obloquy and derision; and I trust it will still appear, when it is known and borne in mind that the inhabitants of the other life are such different beings from what has been

groundlessly assumed, that nothing is stated respecting them by the illustrious Swedenborg, but what is reasonable and probable, being agreeable to the nature of beings who are all of the human race, who are real and substantial human beings still, and who are placed in outward circumstances corresponding to their internal state.

I. The first circumstance that we will here notice, because it has been represented as supremely ridiculous, is That spiritual beings partake of food:-if not to keep them in existence, (since, certainly, they never can die,) to keep them in the consciousness and satisfactory enjoyment of their life.

With respect to the Scripture-testimony on this subject, we have noticed above that it would evidently appear, from the circumstance of Ezekiel and John's eating a roll or book when they were in the spirit, having no senses or faculties in action but those belonging to the spiritual body, and from their tasting what they ate, that eating and tasting are faculties belonging to the spiritual part of man as well as to his natural part; and that if they could be performed by prophets, while in the spirit, they must equally be proper to the spirit itself, when living as a real man after death. Accordingly, we find the Scriptures mentioning explicitly the food of angels, and the bread of heaven. The Psalmist, when speaking of the Israelites being fed with manna in the wilderness, says, that they" had given them of the corn of heaven," and " man did eat angels' food* :" and in another Psalm," He satisfied them with the bread of heaven."+ Now though the corn and bread of heaven might be equivocal expressions, and might only mean, corn or bread rained down from heaven; yet in the expression, angels' food, if that is the proper translation, there is no ambiguity; it literally implies that angels have food of some kind; and this determines the other expressions-the corn and bread of heaven,-to mean the same thing,—the food of the inhabitants. Those then who would abide by the letter of the Word in far more incomprehensible statements than this, cannot consistently deny, that, if the letter of Scripture is to decide this question, there is literally bread in heaven, which is the food of angels. The same would appear from the Lord's declaration, that "many shall come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south, and sit down with t cv. 40.

*Ps. lxxviii. 24, 25.

Of which there seems no reasonable doubt. The word rendered angels literally signifies the strong or mighty ones, and is applied to angels in Ps. ciii. 20. As the manna is meant, which was rained down from heaven,-by the mighty ones, whose food it is called, must certainly be meant the inhabitants of heaven. Accordingly, it is rendered angels in the principal of the ancient versions.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven* ;" for the word here translated sit down, properly means, to recline at table, as was practised by the ancients at their meals. We also read of eating of the fruit of the tree of life.t

Such being the language of Scripture, Milton takes it literally, and applies it to the angels. Of this author much the same remark may be made as was offered above‡ respecting Young. When writing from the erroneous doctrine which he had imbibed, he often falls into great absurdities (of which his work on Christian Doctrine, lately discovered, affords more extraordinary examples than even his Paradise Lost); but when writing from common perception, and admitting the exercise of enlightened reason, he frequently offers the most beautiful sentiments and most important truths. Under the influence of such perception and reason, he makes the angel Raphael say to Adam:

แ 'Food, alike, those pure
Intelligential substances require

As doth your rational; and both contain
Within them every lower faculty

Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste."§

So in his description of a great day of assembly in heaven, he introduces a feast:

"All in circles as they stood,

Tables are set, and on a sudden piled

With angels' food, and rubied nectar flows

In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold.

They eat, they drink, and, in communion sweet,

Quaff immortality and joy; secure

Of surfeit, where full measure only bounds

Excess; before the all-bounteous King, who showered
With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy."||

The same author represents the appetite for food among the infernals to be at times made an occasion of punishment, leading them eagerly to devour fruit of fair appearance but loathsome substance:

"They, fondly thinking to allay

Their appetite with gust, instead of fruit
Chewed bitter ashes, which the offended taste
With spattering noise rejected: oft they assayed,
Hunger and thirst constraining,” &c.¶

And Watts, in sober prose, suggests a similar thought. "What" says he," if the creatures which they have abused should be made instruments and mediums of their punishment? Wine may be rendered a frequent means of sickness, agony, and *Matt. viii. 11.

§ P. L. v. 407, &c..

Rev. ii. 7; xxii. 2.

|| Ib. 631, &c.

Pp. 300, 301. ¶ B. x. 564, &c.

pain, to the drunkard, and meat and other dainties to the glutton." Addison, also, in a beautiful paper in the Spectator,† supposes that in heaven all the senses will be gratified, not excluding, though not expressly mentioning, that of taste. "I have only," he observes," considered this glorious place with regard to sight and imagination; though it is highly probable that our other senses may here likewise enjoy their highest gratifications," &c. In some form then, and as applied to some purpose or other, our greatest writers have entertained the belief, that food is not unknown in the spiritual world : when proposed by them, it is read as a sublime thought or reasonable suggestion: why then, when read in Swedenborg, is it turned into ridicule ?

But whatever of the ridiculous might be thought to attach to such a circumstance, will altogether vanish, when it is known, that the food which they thus eat is but an outward appearance, expressive of that food which supports the life of their minds. What is truly spiritual food, but that which nourishes the mind? Hence, how common it is to draw a metaphor from the subject in common discourse; to talk of our intellectual appetite, to speak of knowledge as mental food, and to call the communication of kind feelings and elevated sentiments in conversation "The feast of reason"

as well as

"the flow of soul."

The true nourishment of angels, then, is nothing but that goodness and truth which is continually imparted to them from the Lord; and of nothing else do they think when engaged in taking the spiritual substance which is furnished them for outward food. This is purely a development, in outward form, of the spiritual gifts with which their minds are continually recreated. But as the mind is not anything except there be some substantial form in which it may exist, so that the form of an angel, though the express image of his mind, is something distinct from the mind itself; therefore, as the mind requires to be continually nourished and fed by the communication to it from the Lord of affections and perceptions of goodness and truth, or love and wisdom, so does analogy require that the personal form, in which the mind dwells, should be nourished, and kept in order for acting as the proper instru ment of the mind, by corresponding means. But the latter is never separated from the former in the idea of an angel and throughout the spiritual world, it is only as the spiritual nourishment of the mind is received from the Lord, that the other food is afforded; because this is merely the outward image of * Works, Ed. Leeds, vol. vii. p. 261. ↑ No. 580.

the former, an appearance corresponding to it. Hence it is stated by our author in one of the extracts quoted by the adversary whose steps I chiefly follow, respecting those who are in hell, who cannot receive anything of goodness or truth in their minds, that they are compulsively made to do something that is of some use; and, as they do this, they receive the other food also: but as they cannot will to do anything useful, their outer food is of a wretched and disgusting nature; -as we read of the prodigal, who was fain to feed upon husks.

2. Almost as objectionable as the idea of spirits eating, is, in this opponent's estimation, that of their sleeping; and he is particularly indignant that such a refreshment should be allowed to infernals. He quotes three or four texts to support his notion, that nothing like sleep can ever enter hell: but the only one of them which even appears at all applicable to the subject is this: "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name."* But if rest here means sleep, and this text proves that there is no sleep in hell, there are many which will prove that there is eternal sleep in heaven; for heaven is constantly represented as a state of eternal rest. Evidently then, rest in the Scriptures, is not mentioned in contrast with waking, but with the intranquillity which ever attends the presence of evil lusts and their accompanying false persuasions; from which they who are in heaven are for ever delivered, and by which they who are in hell are for ever actuated and agitated; whence it may be inferred that even their sleep cannot bring peace, their life being still the mere life of lusts, but must be disturbed and unrefreshing; but it will not follow that they have no sleep, or not anything analogous to sleep, at all. Even this text, if it proves any thing on the subject, proves the reverse of that for which it has thus been cited for it speaks of day and night, that is, of changes of state analogous to day and night, as existing in hell; and the same book uses the same phraset to describe the changes of state existing in heaven; and surely it is to be inferred that, in one of those states, something is experienced approaching to the nature of sleep. We are told, indeed, that "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." Of the Infinite, this is doubtless a proper attribute; and as exclusively so, most probably, as Infinity itself: for it is much to be questioned whether any inferior nature can keep all its faculties forever on the stretch, and never need a refreshment analogous to that which we denominate sleep. They who have exercised their reason upon *Rev. xiv, 11. † Ch. iv. 8.