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1310. [2 Cor. xii. 4.] The atmospheres called ether and air, which receive and transfuse the heat and light of the sun, are dead. These being dead, the whole subjacent earth and all its particular objects are, in themselves, dead also. Yet the earth, its objects and atmospheres, are begirt or belted round with spiritual spheres, which proceed and flow from the sun of the spiritual world. Were not the earth so begirt with living spheres, it could not be actuated or kept in motion; it could not produce those useful forms, its vegetables; nor those vital forms, its animals: neither could it administer the materials requisite for man's existence and subsistence.

See SWEDENBORG's Divine Love, n. 158.

1311. [John iii. 12.] The spiritual world and the natural world are alike. In both there are atmospheres, waters and earths, from which all things exist with an infinite variety. But the natural atmospheres, though receptacles of the fire and light of their own sun, have not within them any thing from the sun of the spiritual world; yet they are surrounded by spiritual atmospheres from that sun, in which angelic spirits breathe, speak and hear, like men in the natural world. Ibid. nn. 173-176.

1312. [Isai. xl. 22.]

High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind,
The God a clearer space for heav'n design'd;
Where fields of light, and liquid ether flow,
Purg'd from the pond'rous dregs of earth below.
GARTH'S Ovid, b. i. l. 83, &c.

1313. [Dan. ii. 39, 40.] Were those four ages mentioned (in Dan. ii. 39, 40) produced successively around our earth by metallic effluvia, lying directly as so many terræ firmæ, in concentric expanses, for the immediate reception of disembodied souls ?" It is not impossible that we may discover, in our atmosphere, certain substances naturally very compact, even metals themselves; as a metallic substance, for instance, only a little more volatile than mercury, might exist in that situation. It is even extremely probable, that, both at the first creation, and every day, gases are formed, which are difficultly miscible with atmospheric air, and are continually separating from it. If these gases be specifically lighter than the general atmospheric mass, they must, of course, gather in the higher regions, and form strata that float upon the common air.

KERR'S Transla. of Lavoisier's Chemistry, 4th edit. p. 78.

1314. [Isai. xl. 22.]

Earth first an equal to herself in fame
Brought forth, that covers all, the starry frame,
The spacious heav'n, of gods the safe domain,
Who live in endless bliss, exempt from pain.

COOKE's Hesiod, the Theogony, l. 206.

1315. [Eph. vi. 12.] If the invisible part of our world (as we may call the air and ether) be peopled with intelligent, though not visible, inhabitauts; it seems not very likely, that all the celestial globes, and all their ethereal vortices should be quite destitute of appropriate inhabitants, earthly and spiritual, inferual and heavenly, in their re|spective orders and degrees.

See BOYLE, on the High Veneration Man's
Intellect owes to God, pp. 72-76.

1316. [Luke xvi. 23.] While the Earth wheels around its axis, were a human being fixed beyond the vortex of its atmosphere, he would behold rivers, oceans, kingdoms, whirling before him with a velocity almost thrice that of a cannon ball. Could his eye sustain the sight, he would behold our Globe also whirling round the sun, as it describes its annual circle, seventy-five times faster than a bullet shot from a cannon. St. PIERRE'S Studies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 21.

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1319.

See St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 51.

The vortices, conceived by Descartes around each planet, are realities almost palpable. These may be proved from the effects which necessarily imply their existence. For instance: the moon keeps up at a certain distance from the earth, instead of being precipitated thereon, because a globular or oval vortex spreading around the earth, stops or lets the vortex of the moon roll over its outside,as an electrical atmosphere round a tube or cylinder causes a bubble or particle of gold to roll over it without letting the gold-leaf bubble precipitate.

See ABBE PLUCHE'S Hist. of the Heav. vol. ii. pp. 212, 214.

1320. [Luke xvi. 23.] In the spiritual (or intermediate) world, hell is under the universal angelic heaven, and our terraqueous globe under both. The hells are around man, and thence contiguous to the earth. Eph. vi. 12.

SWEDENBORG's Div. Love, nn. 106, 343.

1321. [Luke xxiii. 43.] The Bukhârs say, there will be eight different array, or paradises, for the good; and seven hells, where sinners are to be purified by fire, and where those who shall suffer most are liars, cheats, and make-bates. Modern Univer. Hist. vol. v. p. 139.

The meaning is, that the four degrees of Paradise are divided each into two kingdoms, or into an upper and a lower sphere the four degrees of Hades are also similarly divided; except that the upper sphere of the highest degree, is so penetrated and changed by the lowest sphere of Paradise, as to leave only seven subordinate hells, or states of vastation.

1322. [Rev. xx. 13.] Hades, or Pluto was sometimes called by the antient Greeks the infernal Jupiter. Univer. Hist. vol. i. p. 62.

1323.

Achilles' deadly wrath num'rous souls Of Heroes sent to Hades premature, And left their bodies to devouring dogs And birds of heaven.

COWPER'S Iliad.

1324. [Heb. i. 2.] All the inhabitants, or men of every earth, after finishing their life in the world, become spirits, and remain around their own earth.

See SWEDENBORG's Arcana, n. 9578.

1325. [Ps. cxlvii. 10] Those spirits who have not rendered themselves worthy of being admitted into the habitations of the blessed, go (in the elementary spheres around each earth, with their feet towards the circumference) alternately upwards and downwards (for a time, or, till they are cast thence into the hells at the extremity of the solar system).

BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 337.

1326. [Luke xvi. 26.] SWEDENBORG says, there are spirits and angelic spirits on the different spheres around the planet Mars: the spirits, just deceased, are in a spiritual sphere that lies around on the aqueous vapor; the angelic spirits there, are in four concentric spiritual spheres, tha: lie discretely above the iron, copper, silver and golden gas ous spheres, which successively encircle every earth, prob bly, in the universe. These gaseous spheres are elementary; and

intermediate hells for wicked spirits to inhabit, previously to their judgment.

There is a vortex, gulf, or whirlpool, as a boundary to our solar system separating it from the other systems of the starry heavens: this great interstice cannot be passed by spirits, without leave given by the spirits underneath in that (limbo) gulf. (See SWEDENBORG's Arcana, nn. 7482, 9582: also Gal. iv. 3, 9.) —There is a similar gulf or eddy, necessarily around our revolving earth, and every other earth in the universe. Also, between the elementary and spiritual spheres, which encompass each earth.

1327. [Rev. xxi. 1.] The heaven (in the intermediate world) where the men of the external church are, is called sea, because their habitation in the spiritual world (surrounding our earth) appears at a distance, as it were, in a sea; for the celestial angels (there), who are angels of the supreme heaven, dwell as in an ethereal atmosphere, the spiritual angels, who are angels of the middle heaven, dwell as in an aereal atmosphere, and the spiritual-natural angels, who are angels of the ultimate (or lowest) heaven, dwell as it were in a watery atmosphere, which, as was observed, at a distance appears like a sea. SWEDENBORG's Apoc. Rev. n. 878.

1328. [Luke xvi. 22.] SWEDENBORG makes a distinction between a "heaven of Angelic Spirits," and a "heaven of Angels" the former is a distinct spiritual sphere around our earth; the latter, a similar sphere around the throne of God. The Lord's heaven is so immense, as to exceed all belief: the inhabitants of this earth are very few respectively.

The three heavens together constitute the Greatest Man. Heaven, in the proper sense, is the Divine Good and the Divine True, which are (spheres) from the Lord.

Arcana, nn. 3474, 3631, 4805, 4330, 4931.

1329. [Luke xxiv. 39.] An Angelic Heaven (exhibited in the atmosphere of any earth) is in the sight of the Lord as one Man (the New Christian Heaven, as the Man Jesus Christ) whose soul and life the Lord is. This Divine Man is in every particular of his form a man, not only as to his external members and orgaus, but also as to his internal members and organs, which are many; and even as to his skin, membranes, cartilages, and bones. None of these parts however in that man are material, but they are all spiritual. SWEDENBORG's Divine Prov. n. 254.

Thus there is one God, and one Mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. ii. 5.

We are members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones. Eph. v. 30.

He has reconciled us in the body of His Flesh through death, to present us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight. Coloss. i. 21, 22.

1330. [2 Cor. v. 1.] All men, in the universal orb or round of earths, have their situation either in the Grand man; that is, in heaven; or, out of the Grand Man, in hell, as to their souls, or, what is the same thing, as to the spirit which is to live after the body's decease. All are in heaven according to the good of love and truth of faith thence derived; and in hell, according to the evil of hatred and the false thence derived.

SWEDENBORG's Arcana, n. 3644.

1331. [Heb. i. 2.] The spirits of other earths appear not within the sphere, where the spirits of our earth are; but out of it (in the spheres encompassing their own respective earths); some at a greater, some at a less distance; and also in different directions. But in the inmost heaven (which is immediately around the Lord) they do not appear separated from each other (but united into ONE BODY in that Eternal Son, the offsprung Glory of the Father's Substance, the Heir of all.)

Departed spirits appear near their own planet, but out of it. The spirits of every planet are separated from each other; and are near their own orb.

Wherever in the universe there is an earth or moon, there human inhabitants exist; for man is the end for which every earth was created, as a supply for heaven.

Ibid. nn. 7078, 7171, 7800, 9237.

1332. [Luke i. 79.] In hell, there is not darkness but an obscure luminousness, like what proceeds from a coal-fire; in which they see each other: they would not otherwise be able to live. This luminousness with them has its rise from the light of heaven; which, when it falls into their wild notions, that is, into their falses and lusts, undergoes such a change. The Lord is every-where present with light, even in the hells otherwise the inhabitants would not have any faculty of thinking and thence of speaking: but it is made a light, according to the reception. This luminousness is what is here (Luke i. 79) called the shadow of death, and is compared to darkness. It is also turned by them into darkness, when they approach the light of heaven when they are in darkness, they are in stupidity and infatuation.

SIGNS OF THE JUDGMENT.

Ibid. n. 4531.

ness visible,' it suddenly appeared all ou fire: not exhibiting the stream or character of aurora-borealis ; but an immensity vivid and clear, through which the stars, detached from the firmament, traversed in eccentric directions, followed by trains of light of diversified magnitude and brightness. Many meteors rose majestically out of the horizon: and having gradually attained an elevation of thirty degrees, suddenly burst; and descended to the earth in a shower of brilliant sparks, or glittering gems. This splendid phenomenon was succeeded by a multitude of shooting-stars, and balls and columns of fire; which, after assuming a variety of forms (vertical, spiral, and circular), vanished in slight flashes of lightning, and left the sky in its usual appearance and serenity.

1334.

According to the observations of Messrs. Benzenberg and Brandes, many of the falling stars seen in Europe were only sixty thousand yards high. One (fall) was even measured, which did not exceed twenty-eight thousand yards, or 15 miles. These measures, which can give no result but by approximation, deserve well to be repeated. In warm climates, especially under the tropics, the falling stars leave a tail behind them, which remains luminous 12 or 16 seconds; at other times they seem to burst into sparks, and they are generally lower than those in the north of Europe. We perceive them only in a serene and azure sky they have, perhaps, never been seen below a cloud. Falling stars often follow the same direction for several hours; which direction is then that of the wind. These meteors, most frequently seen in the vicinity of volcanoes, are perhaps modified by the nature of the soil and the air, like certain effects of the looming, and the terrestrial refraction peculiar to the coasts of Calabria and Sicily.

1335.

See HUMBOLDT's Trav. in S. America. Or Suppl. to Month. Mag. for Jan. 1815.

From the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, it appears, that light takes 8 minutes and 13 seconds in passing across the semidiameter of the earth's orbit. Thus, moving at the astonishing rate of about 167,000 geographical miles in one second, it passes from the sun to the earth in little more than eight minutes. Consequently, from its leaving the nearest of the fixed stars, which is, at least, four hundred thousand times more remote than the sun, it is nearly six years in its progress to our eyes; so that a star

1333. [Matt. xxiv. 29.] Immediately after the tribula-placed at that distance would be still visible for six years tion of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the after its destruction (or fall), supposing that process actually moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall to take place. from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken.

In ASHE's Travels in America, (Vol. i. p. 16.) we are told that, one night after the heavenly vault had been for some time shrouded in the intensity of a 'dark

See ACCUM's Chem. vol. i. p.

140

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST.

1336. [Matt. xxiv. 30.] Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Although there are many places of the earth to which the sun is vertical at noon, and, consequently, his rays can suffer no refraction at that time, because they come perpendicularly through the atmosphere; yet there is no place to which the sun's rays do not fall obliquely on the top of the atmosphere, at his rising and setting; and, consequently, no clear day in which the sun will not be visible (as to his refracted image, the emblem of the Son of man in heaven) before he rises in the horizou, and after he sets in it: and the longer or shorter, as the atmosphere is more or less replete with vapors. FERGUSON'S Lectures, the vii.

1337.

On Feb. 5th, 1674, near Marienburg in Prussia, I saw the sun, says HEVELIUS, in a sky every where serene enough, being yet some degrees above the horizon, and shining very bright, yet lancing out very long and reddish rays, 40 or 50 degrees towards the zenith. Under the sun towards the horizon, there hung a somewhat dilute small cloud, beneath which there appeared a mock sun of the same size, to sense, with the true sun, and under the same vertical, of a somewhat red color. Soon after, the true sun more and more descending to the horizon, towards the said cloud, the spurious sun beneath it grew clearer and clearer, so as that the reddish color in that apparent solar disc vanished, and put on the genuine solar light, and that the more, the less the genuine disk of the sun was distant from the false sun: till at length the upper true sun passed into the lower counterfeit one, and so remained alone.

Abridg. Phil. Trans. vol. ii. p. 130.

1338. [Ezek. i. 26-28.] "At day-break," says ULLOA, "the whole mountain of Pambamarca, where we then resided, was encompassed with very thick clouds; which the rising of the sun dispersed so far, as to leave only some vapors, too fine to be seen. On the side opposite to the rising sun, and about ten fathoms distant from the place where we were standing, we saw, as in a looking-glass, each his own image; the head being, as it were, the centre of three circular rainbows, one without the other, and just near enough to each other as that the colors of the internal verged upon those more external; while round all was a circle of white, but with a greater space between. In this manner these circles were erected, like a mirror, before us; and as we moved, they moved, in disposition and order. But, what is most remarkable, though we were six in number, every one saw the phenomenon, with regard to himself, and not that relating to

others. The diameter of the arches gradually altered, as the sun rose above the horizon; and the whole, after continuing a long time, insensibly faded away. In the beginning, the diameter of the inward iris, taken from its last color, was about five degrees and a half; and that of the white arch, which surrounded the rest, was not less than sixty-seven degrees. At the beginning of the phenomenon, the arches seemed of an oval, or eliptical figure, like the disk of the sun; and afterwards became perfectly circular. Each of these was of a red color, bordered with an orange; and the last bordered by a bright yellow, which altered into a straw color, and this turned to a green; but, in all, the external

color remained red."

1339. [Matt. xxiv. 29, 30.] In the spiritual heavens above and around our earth, the Lord appears to the angels, in their Sun, as a Man encompassed with a solar fiery sphere. These angels have all the light of their respective heavens from that sun. Its heat is the Divine Good Sphere; and its light, the Divine True Sphere: each from the Divine Love, which is a fiery emanation appearing around the Lord. But that sun, or solar sphere, appears only to the upper angels there, not to the spirits beneath; these being more remote from the reception of what is the good of love and the true of faith, than the angels in the heavens above. As to the natural sun of our world, it appears openly to no one in the other life; yet it is presented in idea there as a dark obscure, opposite to the Lord, the sun of heaven.

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SWEDENBORG's Arcana, n. 10,809.

1340. [Matt. xvi. 27.] In the spiritual atmosphere of an earth beyond our solar system, "there was seen," says SWEDENBORG, an obscure cloud towards the east descending from a certain altitude. In descending it appeared by degrees lucid, and in human form. At length this form was in a flaming radiance: around which were little stars of the same color. Thus the Lord exhibited Himself present with the spirits there (as the sun appears to lie on an elevated, intervening cloud; and would apparently come down in such a descending medium, as stars seem to fall in precipitated hazy flakes of the partially condensed aqueous vapor). To the presence on this occasion were gathered together (for judgment) from all parts, all the spirits belonging that earth. When they came near, the good were separated from the evil; the good to the right, the evil to the left: and this, instantly as of their own accord. Those to the right were arranged in order according to the quality of the good, those to the left according to the quality of the evil, appertaining to each respectively. The good were left to form a heavenly society among themselves; but the evil were cast into hells. I saw afterwards that the flaming radiance descended into the lower spheres of that earth to a considerable depth; appearing at one time lucidly flammeous, at another obscurely lucid, and occasionally quite obscure. Such varied appearance, I was told by the angels there, is according to the reception of what is true from good, and of what is false from evil, with those who inhabit the lower spheres of that earth; but not at all owing

to that flaming radiance, undergoing such varieties. They said also, that the lower spheres of that earth are inhabited as well by the good as by the evil; but that the good are entirely separated into distinct degrees above the evil, in order that the latter may through the former be governed by the Lord. They added, that the good are by turns thence elevated into heaven by the Lord, while others succeed in their place, continually. After a similar manner, in that descent the good were separated from the evil, and all things reduced to order; for the evil by various arts and cunning devices have there introduced themselves into the abodes of the good, and infested them: this caused the visitation we are describing. That cloud, which in descending appeared by degrees lucid, in human form, and afterwards as a flaming radiance, was an angelic society; in the midst of which was the Lord, as he predicted He would come to judgment in the superior regions above and around our earth, and as John the Kevelator saw Him come, "in the glory of his Father with his angels."

See SWEDENBORG's Arcana, nn. 10,810, 10,811.
And Rev. i. and xiv.

1341. The Indian philosophers enumerate five principal places for the more or less elevated reception of departed spirits. The lowest, situated on and above the common atmospheric air in the "sublimed aqueous vapor," they represent as a first and common receptacle for all. The highest they describe as a heaven from which souls have no need of again descending towards the earth; for in it they are already cleansed, having attained there the highest perfection on this side the heaven of heavens or the immediate throne of the eternal God. From all the subordinate spheres they are now and then sent down; but they again ascend to them or not, according as their past conduct in life has been meritorious or deserving of punishment.

See BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 339.

THE BOOK OF LIFE.

1342. [Rev. xx. 12.] I saw the dead, small and great, stand before GOD: and the books were opened; and another book was opened which is the book of life.

In the four spiritual spheres, of Love, Wisdom, Goodness and Truth, God beholds the images of earthly objects, as we see ideas of things in looking on their names in books of different languages. Hence those spheres, when the under-strata of their opposites are removed, are the books opened.

1343. [Luke x. 20.] The shadows of things floating in water, a little below its surface, are reflected from the air above the water, more strongly than objects above the surface of the water are reflected from the water consequently, fishes playing beneath the surface of a still water may see their images distinctly playing in the air, with this advantage over men who view their faces in the

water; for things in air that are reflected from the water, must have, when placed over the water, their dark or shadowed sides reflected from it, which renders the images obscure. On the contrary, the inhabitants of the waters have almost a hemisphere of light falling on their upper sides which are the sides that are reflected from the air, which consequently renders such images lighter, and more striking to the eye, than reflections of obscured things in air, when reflected from the water. Abridg. Phil. Trans. vol. xii. p. 4.

1344. [Rev. xvii. 15.] As upon viewing the bottom of the ocean from its surface, we see an infinity of animals moving therein, and seeking food; so were some superior being to regard the earth at a proper distance, he might consider us in the same light: he might from his superior station, behold a number of busy little beings, immersed in the aerial fluid, that every where surrounds them, and sedulously employed in procuring the means of subsistence. This fluid, though too fine for the gross perception of its inhabitants, might, to his nicer organs of sight, be very visible; and, while he at once saw into its operations, he might smile at the varieties of human conjecture concerning it: he might readily discern, perhaps, the height above the surface of the earth to which this fluid atmosphere reaches: he might exactly determine that peculiar form of its parts. which gives it the spring or elasticity with which it is endued: he might distinguish which of its parts were pure incorruptible air, and which only made for a little time to assume the appearance, so as to be quickly returned back to the element from whence it came. But as for us who are immersed at the bottom of this gulph, we must be contented with a more confined knowledge; and wanting a proper point of prospect, remain satisfied with a combination of the effects. GOLDSMITH'S Hist. of the Earth, &c. vol. i. p. 298.

1345. [Rev. iv. 1. Come up hither] Objects must appear to rise in the elevation of a sphere, equally as in the ebullition of a spring. About six miles from Lake George in America, there is a crystal fountain which incessantly throws up, from dark, rocky caverns below, tons of water every minute, with such amazing force, as to jet and swell perpendicu larly upwards two or three feet above the common surface. In its transparent waters are seen innumerable bands of fish, some clothed in the most brilliant colors: you imagine the picture to be within a few inches of your eyes, and that you may without the least difficulty, touch any one of the fish, when it really is twenty or thirty feet under water. See BARTRAM's Trav. p. 163.

1346. [Rev. xvii. 8.] At a clear break of day, persons standing on the top of Etna, which is considerably raised above the region of common air, may plainly see the whole island of Sicily, and all the towns thereof, as if it were elevated and hanging in the air, near the eye, just as, by retrac

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