The fall brought in spiritual death only, and not jihys- ical death, which was a law of organized bodies from the first. At the decease of the mortal part, men have in all ages risen almost immediately into the spiritual world, and to life and consciousness among the de- parted. That world is not a locality in some part of the material nniverse, but a plane of being above, and per- petually distinct from it. The spiritual body is a jiart of the man here, contained within the material body, the living form which gives life and shape to the out- ward body; consequently, when the outward body is laid aside at death, the man comes consciously into the spiritual world in perfect human form, as the blade of new grain comes forth from within the kernel of seed- corn cast into the ground, and so lives to eternity. Hence all spirits and angels are in human form, with indestructible bodies fitted to their mode of existence, and to the substances of their Avorld, with every sense and faculty in full development. No deceased person ever returns to this world, or resumes a ])hysical body. 3. The Spiritual Il'o/W. — This is distributed into three great divisions: heaven (oiiranos), the world of spirits (hades), and hell (r/eherma'). At death all at first go into the world of spirits (hades), intermediate be- tween heaven and hell, where all are together luitil the judgment, when a separation between the good and evil is effected, the good being elevated into heaven, the wicked finding their abodes in hell.
Heaven and hell are constituted by corresponding states of mind and life. The heavens are founded on obedience to divine truth as expressed in the precepts of the Word of (Jod— a life of love to God and one's neigh- bor; while the communities of the wicked are founded
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on the principles of selfishness and disorder. The bless- edness of the former is communicated from the Lord through the medium of their orderly and obedient states of life ; and the miseries of the other all flow as natural results from their evil states of life and companionship. The divine mercy extends even to those in hell, desir- ing to elevate all to itself, but the bad quality of their life and disposition constantly prevents.
Judgment in the world of spirits is not effected at once ; the verj' good go sooner to heaven, the very bad sooner to hell. The mixed classes often remain in the intermediate state for long periods, accumulating there sometimes in immense numbers. At the end of each dispensation there is a judgment, which divides this multitude, and for the time empties the world of spirits of inhabitants. At the close of the antediluvian period there occurred such a judgment, at the time of the deluge, and another at the close of the Jewish dispensa- tion, when our Lord was on earth. Many of the scenes depicted in the Revelation b)' John are incidents of such a judgment, the last one — foretold by Daniel, and coin- cident with the Lord's second advent.
The association between the spiritual and natural worlds is so close that the state of the world of spirits powerfully affects the state of the world of men. When wicked multitudes accumulate there, supernatural in- fluences of the worst kind flow back into this world and grievously afllict mankind. This was the condition of things in an eminent degree before Christ came. Man- kind were almost entirely given over to wickedness. The world of spirits was full of demons, trjang to gain full possession of men. The powers of hell abounded, usurping the whole field to themselves in both worlds. "A universal destruction stood before the door and threatened." Without divine interposition, all mankind would have perished, both as to soul and body. No flesh could have been saved, the race at length would have been swept from the earth and gone into hell.
4. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ. — Jehovah him- self descended, the Lord, our Father, and assumed the human nature, that he might redeem and save men. This was accomplished by the miraculous conception in the womb of the Virgin. In Jesus Christ the fulness of the entire Godhead dwells bodily. The divine Trinity, of essential constituents, is all in him in one person. The two natures, divine and human, are together in him in perfect union; his divine part he calls " the Father," the human part, assumed in order to appear in the world, and born in time, is called " the Son." The angel said to Mary, " that holy thing which shall he born of thee shall be called the Son of God," and this is " the only hegotteu of the Father." The Holy Spir- it, the Comforter, is the new divine influence which the Lord sheds upon the believer and the Church through his glorified human nature.
The glorification of the humanity thus assumed by the Lord is believed to be a doctrine peculiar to this system. This was a progressive work, effected by temp- tations admitted into his human part. The divine could neither suffer nor be tempted. There was human parentage on one side only, hence the strictly human elements naturally derived in ordinarj- generation, liable to temptation, and of disorderly bias, existed in him as coming from the mother only, forming thus only an ex- terior clothing or covering to his interior soul, which was the very indwelling of the Father. The external human elements were one by one successively removed and rejected; while the divine elements from within as successively came forth, and down, occupying their places, until every part of his humanity was glorified and made over anew. Thus God became IVIan, and Man God, in one person. Thus the two natures became and remain perfectly united; Father and Son became one. Hence, since his resurrection and ascension above all the heavens, the Lord's humanity is no longer like the humanity of another man, but essentially divine in all its constituents; a glorified, transfigured form, in