the spiritual body. Hence it is, as said above, that the spiritual man is judged, and not the natural.
WHEN IT TAKES PLACE.
The last judgment takes place at the end of the church. The principal reason is, that then the equilibrium between heaven and hell, and man's essential liberty along with it, begin to perish; and when man's liberty perishes he can no longer be saved, for he cannot then be led to heaven in freedom, but is hurried into hell apart from freedom. For no man can be reformed without free-will, and all man's free-will is the result of the equilibrium between heaven and hell.
That the equilibrium between heaven and hell begins to perish at the end of the church, may appear from this: that heaven and hell are from mankind, and that when many go to hell and few to heaven, evil on the one part increases over good on the other; for evil increases in proportion as hell increases, and all evil is derived to man from hell, and all good from heaven. Now since evil increases over good at the end of the church, all are then judged by the Lord; the evil are separated from the good, all things are reduced to order, and a new heaven is established, with a new church upon earth; and thus the equilibrium is restored. It is this, then, which is called the last judgment.
