Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/105

hell—each to the society determined by his own character or ruling love. Thus things were reduced to order in the spiritual realm; the dense clouds of falsity which had been so long gathering in the world of spirits, shutting out the light of the spiritual Sun and producing such spiritual darkness in the church on earth, were dispersed; and straightway there began to be a freer, more interior, and more universal influx of divine truth and good into the minds of men on earth. The old Age was consummated, and the first Christian dispensation had come to its end, according to Divine prediction; and a new Age was inaugurated and a new Christian dispensation commenced;—an Age which was to be characterized by greater freedom of thought on all subjects pertaining to religion and the church, and by a consequent higher degree of spiritual enlightenment. Accordingly Swedenborg says:

"The state of the world and of the church before the last judgment, was as evening and night; but after it, as morning and day. "After the last judgment was accomplished, there was joy in heaven and light also in the world of spirits such as was not before; . . . because the infernal societies that had been interposed like clouds which darken the earth, were removed. A similar light also then arose in men in the world, giving them new enlightenment."—Contin. L. J. n. 13, 30.