ness and truth are applied to him, as will be most likely to develope his good affections, if any exist. Under the guidance of angelic love and wisdom, his ruling affection, if good, is gradually developed and perfected; he is enabled to see and reject what remains of evil and falsity, till at length he finds his eternal home; where all his faculties, unrestrained and unopposed, are exercised in that form of spiritual use, which affords him the greatest delight.
But if, on the other hand, the man's ruling affection, when he leaves the natural world, is infernal, if there is nothing on which the influences of goodness and truth can operate;—if the strongest, the predominant tendency is downwards towards the regions of spiritual death,—then, inasmuch as the divine mercy can operate only through the medium of divine truth, or according to the laws of divine order, there is no power in the universe that can bring him into heaven. His freedom is his own, and divine mercy itself cannot and will not infringe upon it. The influences that are exerted upon him are only those of goodness and truth. No other influences can be used in heaven. There is no such thing there as personal persuasion, or an appeal to the selfish affections. Goodness and truth are presented in every form, as exhibited in the affections, understanding and lives of the angels. But if these heavenly things have no attraction for the spirit, he is still free. He must be permitted to go where he chooses; if hell is the abode for which he has prepared himself, he must go there. If there is any place in the broad circle of the heavens, any form of spiritual use, however comparatively low and external, to which he can be conducted in freedom, thither he is led, and there is his eternal home. But, if no such place can be found for him, he is permitted to withdraw himself farther and farther from all heavenly influences, till at length he plunges himself headlong into some infernal abode, from which he never desires to return. And this voluntary progress, through which every spirit goes, either upwards towards heaven or
