To speak of it, first, as denoting the last time of the church.
It was the last judgment of the Most Ancient Church, or that before the flood, when their posterity perished, whose destruction is described by the flood. It was the last judgment of the Ancient Church, or that after the flood, when almost all who belonged to that church became idolaters, and were dispersed. It was the last judgment of the representative church which succeeded among the posterity of Jacob, when the ten tribes were carried away into captivity, and dispersed among the nations; and afterwards when the Jews, after the coming of the Lord, were driven out of the land of Canaan and scattered over the face of the whole earth. The last judgment of the present church, which is called the Christian Church, is what is meant, in the Revelation of John, by the new heaven and the new earth.
That the last time of the life of every man, when he dies, is to him the last judgment, is not unknown to some; but still few believe it. Nevertheless it is a certain truth, that every man rises again after death into another life, and undergoes a judgment. This judgment is accomplished in the following manner:
As soon as the corporeal organs grow cold, which happens a few days after the man's decease, he is raised again of the Lord by celestial angels who at first are attendant on him. But if he be such that he
