and hell are no arbitrary allotments, not the gift of immediate mercy on the one hand, nor the infliction of vindictive wrath on the other, but the necessary result of a man's own affections, thoughts and life,—this is a truth that goes home to the heart. No man can seriously contemplate such a truth without being moved and affected by it. And even those who are accustomed to ridicule the doctrines of religion will be apt to hesitate at this. "I would like," said such a man, "to know where that hell is of which you talk so much." But when it was replied to him,—'It is in the Spiritual nature, in the affections and thoughts of every unregenerate man,"—he was silent. There was a truth which he did not feel prepared to ridicule.—The principle here stated will be illustrated more fully in a subsequent part of this section.
For the present we will turn our attention, for a few moments, to the question, what is the origin of heaven and hell, or, in other words, what makes these spiritual states. On this point also, the doctrines of the New Church are very full and explicit. It is the voluntary and continual reception of the divine goodness and truth, the divine love and wisdom, that makes heaven; and it is the rejection of these divine things that makes hell. The doctrine of the New Church, in regard to the source from whence heaven is formed, cannot be better expressed than by transcribing the following passages from "Heaven and Hell."
