Now, because of the changes in religious thought here referred to, it is difficult to say what is the present prevailing belief among Christians respecting the condition of the non-Christian world in the Hereafter. But the general belief in Swedenborg's day was, that all the heathen (unless converted to Christianity before dying) must perish everlastingly. Archbishop Cranmer says: "If we should have heathen parents, and die without baptism, we should be damned everlastingly." And Noel's catechism, regarded as high authority in the Church of England, says: "Without the church [meaning outside of the church professing the Christian religion] there can be nothing but damnation and death." This was the declared doctrine also of the Council of Trent, was held by the Roman Catholic Church, and believed, too, by Luther and Calvin. The latter says: "Without her bosom [that is, outside the pale of the Christian Church] no remission of sins or salvation is to be hoped for."—Ed. Harold Browne's Expn. of 39 Articles, p. 447. N.Y. Ed. 1865.
Then, if we read attentively the letters from foreign missionaries and the reports of Missionary Societies, or note the expressions used in prayers and sermons at meetings held in aid of the cause of foreign missions, we cannot fail to see that the belief is still clung to by Protestant Christians, that the myriads in the heathen world, unless converted to Christianity, are all doomed to hell. Besides, this belief is a strictly logical inference
