They are then brought in turn into
those notions about the state of their soul after death, and about
heaven and hell, that they had entertained in the life of the body,
even until they feel indignant at their total ignorance of such
things, and at the ignorance of the church also. Nearly all are
anxious to know whether they will get to heaven. Most of them believe
that they will, because of their having lived in the world a moral
and civil life, never considering that the bad and the good live a
like life outwardly, alike doing good to others, attending public
worship, hearing sermons, and praying; and wholly ignorant that
external deeds and external acts of worship are of no avail, but only
the internals from which the externals proceed. There is hardly one
out of thousands who knows what internals are, and that it is in them
that man must find heaven and the church. Still less is it known that
outward acts are such as the intentions and thoughts are, and the
love and faith in these from which they spring. And even when taught
they fail to comprehend that thinking and willing are of any avail,
but only speaking and acting. Such for the most part are those that
go at this day from the Christian world into the other life.
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