ore unknown in the world, for the reasons just now
mentioned; and, what is surprising, it has been unknown even in the
Christian world, where they have the Word, and illustration thence
concerning eternal life, and where the Lord himself teaches, _That all
the dead rise again; and that God is not the God of the dead but of the
living_, Matt. xxii. 31, 32. Luke xx. 37, 38. Moreover, a man, as to the
affections and thoughts of his mind, is in the midst of angels and
spirits, and is so consociated with them that were he to be separated
from them he would instantly die. It is still more surprising that this
is unknown, when yet every man that has departed this life since the
beginning of creation, after his decease has come and does still come to
his own, or, as it is said in the Word, has been gathered and is
gathered to his own: besides every one has a common perception, which is
the same thing as the influx of heaven into the interiors of his mind,
by virtue of which he inwardly perceives truths, and as it were sees
them, and especially this truth, that he lives a man after death; a
happy man if he has lived well, and an unhappy one if he has lived ill.
For who does not think thus, while he elevates his mind in any degree
above the body, and above the thought which is nearest to the senses; as
is the case when he is interiorly engaged in divine worship, and when he
lies on his death-bed expecting his dissolution; also when he hears of
those who are deceased, and their lot? I have related a thousand
particulars respecting departed spirits, informing certain persons that
are now alive concerning the state of their deceased brethren, their
married partners, and their friends. I have written also concerning the
state of the English, the Dutch, the Papists, the Jews, the Gentiles,
and likewise concerning the state of Luther, Calvin, and Melancthon; and
hitherto I never heard any one object, "How can such be their lot, when
they are not yet risen from their tombs, the last judgement not being
yet accomplished? Are they not in the meantime mere vaporous and
unsubstantial souls residing, in some place of confinement (_in quodam
pu seu ubi_)?" Such objections I have never yet heard from any quarter;
whence I have been led to conclude, that every one perceives in himself
that he lives a man after death. Who that has loved his married partner
and his children when they are dying or are dead, will not say within
himself (if his though