Moreover, all of the same religion in heaven are arranged in societies, according to the affections of love to God and towards the neighbour; and in hell, in congregations, according to the affections opposed to these two loves, thus according to the lusts of evil. In the spiritual world,—by which we mean both heaven and hell,—all things are most distinctly organized, in the whole and in every part, or in general and in every particular. Upon the distinctive organization there the preservation of the whole universe depends; and there could not be this distinctiveness unless every one after he is born were known by some sign, [showing] to what religious body he belongs. For without the Christian sign, which is Baptism, some Mahomedan spirit or one of the idolaters might attach himself to Christian infants newly born, and also to children, and breathe into them an inclination for his religion, and so distract their minds and alienate them from Christianity; which would be to distort and destroy spiritual order. (T. C. R. 678.)
The Mahomedans, as all the Gentiles, who acknowledge one God, and love justice, and do good from a religious motive, have their heaven; but outside of the Christian heaven. (ib. n. 832.)
Infants and children born without the Christian church, [who depart this life in infancy or childhood] after reception of faith in the Lord, are designated for the heaven of their religion by other means than baptism; but they are not intermingled with those who are in the Christian heaven, (ib. n. 729.)
Every man as to his spirit, although he does not know it, is in society with spirits while he lives in the body. Through them a good man is in an angelic society, and an evil man in an infernal society. (H. H. n. 438.)
This first use of baptism is, that it is a sign in the spiritual world, that the baptized is a Christian,—where every one is inserted in the societies and congregations there, according to the quality of the Christianity within him or without him.[1] (T. C. R. n. 680.)
- ↑ What the author means by the Christianity without a man may be gathered from the following in the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture:—"The church is in man; the church which is without him is the church among the many who have the church in them." (S. S. n. 78.)
similar, although less perfect, in this world. Christians here are in the centre,—the centre of light and civilization; others are grouped around them, and, in a common and important aspect, are considered nearer or more remote from Christendom according as they have more or less of the light and life which characterize it.
