here. If his ruling motive is heavenly, he must continue to search out and voluntarily put away from him, those evil affections and habits which are in any way opposed to his ruling love. The associations which were commenced in the natural world,and which will be continued into the spiritual, must also be gradually reduced to a spiritual basis.—These associations were at first formed on the basis of natural affection, which, before regeneration, is essentially selfish and evil. But as heavenly love becomes developed and confirmed, the natural affection, which once bound the man or the spirit to the father, the son, the brother, or the companion, gradually becomes subordinate, until at length the natural relationship, is lost sight of, and a spiritual one is substituted. Those are brothers, and those are companions, who love the same or similar forms of goodness and truth. Such, manifestly, must be the spiritual state of those who dwell in heaven. But, it is equally manifest, that in order that such a state may be arrived at, even the best of men must experience many important changes in their affections and social relations, after they shall have left the natural world. Many a long cherished attachment, even for those who were nearly related by the ties of kindred and friendship, must be broken off, when it is discovered that the bond of sympathy was only external and natural, not internal and spiritual. And though these and other changes necessary to the perfection of the spirit, will, no doubt, go on, much more rapidly in the spiritual world than they do in the natural, yet there, as well as here, they must be gradual, or they cannot be voluntary and real.
Similar remarks might be made, in regard to the spirit, whose ruling motive has been the love of evil. He enters the spiritual world and has the same affections still. The change in his external relations, from natural to spiritual, changes not the internal state. The love of evil or falsity, in some form, is still his life; and this infernal fire will continue to increase in strength and fury till the last remnant
