A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 46
XLVI. The probable state of the World and Church hereafter.
IT may be thought, that after so great a change as that produced in the spiritual world by the last judgment, the second advent of the Lord, and the commencement of the New Jerusalem, some extraordinary convulsion of nature, or some different order of civil society among mankind, was to take place, and, by an overwhelming evidence in favour of the new dispensation, leave no room for a doubt on the subject. But, on mature deliberation, there appears to be no just ground for such an expectation: and there is every reason to believe, that the external face of nature will continue the same as before; and likewise that the same order will prevail in civil concerns as before; that there will be empires, kingdoms, and states, as before; that there will be treaties of peace and alliance, and also wars, between nation and nation, as before; and other things, which relate to the general and particular government of societies. By the Lord's saying, that in the last times there would be wars, and then nation would rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and that there would be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places, Matt. xxiv. 6, 7, is not however signified, that such things would take place in the natural world, but events corresponding thereto in the spiritual world: for the prophetical parts of the Word do not treat of the kingdoms and nations on earth, nor consequently of their wars; neither do they treat of famine, pestilence, and earthquakes in this world, but of such things as correspond thereto in the spiritual world, the nature of which may be seen explained in art. XLIV. on the Divine Science of Correspondences.
But with regard to the state of the church, that will not be exactly the same as heretofore: it will be similar indeed as to external appearance, but dissimilar as to internal. In respect to the external appearance, there will be distinct and separate churches as before, their various doctrines will be taught as before, and there will be the like religious worship among the Gentiles. But men are and will hereafter be in a freer state of thinking about matters of faith, consequently about the spiritual things of heaven, inasmuch as spiritual liberty is now restored; as must be evident to every person, who will take the trouble of comparing the present state of religious society with what it was some years ago, that is, previous to the accomplishment of the last judgment, and the commencement of the New Jerusalem. Neither is it likely that any body of men, calling themselves ministers and propagators of the gospel of Jesus Christ, would at this day sit down, and deliberately draw up, and afterwards publish to the world, such detestable doctrines concerning the worship of the Lord, and concerning predestination, as was done formerly in a book entitled, Formula Concordiæ, which is received as the standard of faith and orthodoxy by the Calvinists, who form a great proportion of the Reformed or Protestant churches. Or were such an attempt to be now made, it is highly probable, that it would be resented with indignation by the good sense of mankind as an insult and outrage upon the understanding and best feelings of the human heart. Concerning the worship of the Lord, it is therein stated, "That it is a damnable idolatry, if the trust and faith of the heart be placed on Christ, not only according to his Divine, but also according to his Human Nature, and if the honour of adoration be directed to both." And on the subject of predestination, it is asserted, That Christ did not die for all men, but only for the elect. That God hath created the greatest part of mankind for eternal damnation, and is unwilling that they should be converted and live. That the elect and regenerate cannot lose faith and the Holy Spirit, although they commit every kind of the most enormous sin and wickedness. But that they, who are not elect, are necessarily damned, and cannot possibly attain salvation, even though they should be a thousand times baptized, and should come every day to the holy supper, and should besides lead as holy and unblamable lives as it is possible to do." This extract is taken from p. 837, 838, of the above-mentioned Formula Concordiæ, published at Leipsick in the year 1756.
We have already observed, that a great change has taken place in the minds of Christians since the commencement of the New Church in the year 1757; not a change as to creeds and written doctrines, but a change in the state of spiritual liberty, by virtue of which men are now more capable than heretofore of discerning the truth when presented to them, and of receiving it in heart and life. For such is the order induced by the Lord in the whole spiritual world by the judgment lately accomplished there, that a most exact equilibrium between good and evil, or between heaven and hell, is established; and man being placed, as to his spirit, in this equilibrium, he can therefore freely turn either to the one, or to the other: whereas before the judgment the equilibrium was destroyed by the ascendency and continual increase of the power of evil. If the change here spoken of cannot readily be perceived under the idea of spiritual liberty, by reason of it's very interior operation, it certainly may under that of liberality, one of it's first visible and manifest effects, which gives to the present age a character unknown to any of the former periods of Christianity, and prepares the human mind for the reception of those divine truths now revealed, of which the internal sense of the Holy Word consists.
To know what will be the state of the church hereafter as to particulars, is indeed beyond the wisdom even of angels in heaven: for they know not future events, unless revealed to them, these being known only to the Lord. But this is capable of being ascertained, because it is already a fact, that that servitude and captivity, in which the human mind has heretofore been involved, is removed; and that now, by virtue of the spiritual freedom which is restored, man is enabled to perceive interior truths more clearly and distinctly than before, if desirous thereof, and thus to become more and more internal, if he is so disposed. Slender however as may be the hope of seeing the New Jerusalem established among the present race of professing Christians, we have an assurance given us in the book of Revelation, that it will come to it's appointed state of fulness and maturity in some region or regions of the earth. But whether this shall be in Europe, or among some of the Gentile nations, (as there is reason to believe,) the benefits to mankind at large will be the same, because in either case it will be the direct medium of communication between heaven and the world. Yet, like light and heat propagated from a centre in all directions, the rays of divine light and life will be transmitted from such favoured nation to men of every religious denomination, and be received by each according to the state and quality of his life. Or again, as the vital fluid in the human bodv, which, issuing from the heart, visits the remotest parts of the frame, every where diffusing, as it passes, animation, health, and vigour, so a certain spiritual influence from the divine truths of the Holy Word, first received and cherished in their purity by the New and True Christian Church, will thence spread and circulate through all the members of the Church Universal, wherever situated, and however distant they may be from each other, or from their common centre.
