and are therefore not susceptible of natural measurement; and for the same reason we cannot assign to them any definite location. And what is thus true of the individual spirit and of its affections and thoughts, is equally true of the spiritual world in general,—of heaven and hell. In their real and essential nature they are states of good and evil to which spirits arrive, and not places to which they are sent. It is true, as I have already endeavored to show, that spiritual things have external forms, for without form there can be no existence; and that these forms even resemble the objects that are seen in the natural world, and have the appearance of being located in space. But on the other hand it is equally true that these forms are perceived by the spiritual and not by the natural senses. They do not come down to that plane of the mind which takes cognizance of natural and material things; and they cannot therefore be measured and located.
This distinction may seem at first to be rather more philosophical than practical, but a closer examination will show that it is intimately connected with the most important spiritual principles. It is of the utmost consequence to know that heaven and hell are spiritual states,—the former the state of those who are in goodness and truth, and in the love and practice of a good and useful life; and the latter the state of those who are in evil and falsity and in the love and practice of a corresponding life. To go to heaven is voluntarily to receive spiritual goodness into the affections of the heart, and spiritual truth into the light of the understanding, and to bring these heavenly things into life. To go to hell is, to receive, love and act from the opposite qualities,—evil and falsity. It is still true that each of these worlds is external to the spirit who dwells in it. But it is external because it is first internal. The world without is the effect of the world within.
It will be seen that these views, if received, must very intimately affect the conscience and the life. That heaven
