Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/230
good, no longer exists. The good that is then believed to be good is merely natural good which moral life produces. The principal causes of the consummation of truth together with good, are the two natural loves, called self-love and the love of the world, that are diametrically opposed to the two spiritual loves, which are the love of God and love of the neighbor.
The love of self is to wish well to one's self alone, and not to others except for the sake of self; and the love of the world is similar; and these loves when once established, spread through the body like gangrene, and gradually destroy the whole of it.
That such love has invaded the churches is manifest from Babylon and the description of it in Gen. xi. 1-9; Isa. xiii., xiv., xlvii.; Jer. l.; Dan. ii. 31-47, iii. 1-7, v., vi. 8-28, vii. 1-14, and Rev. xvii. and xviii., both from beginning to end. And this love finally exalted itself to such a degree as not only to transfer the Lord's Divine power to itself, but also to strive with the utmost energy to grasp all the wealth of the world.
That similar loves would break forth from the leaders of the churches outside the pale of Babylon, if their power were not limited and so curbed, may be inferred from certain signs and appearances not altogether without meaning.
All the things which the Lord said to His disciples (Matt. xxiv. chap.) were spoken concerning the last time of the Christian church. This is very manifest from the Revelation where similar predictions are made