A Hindu Gentleman's Reflections Respecting the Works of Swedenborg and the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878. Excerpt: ... III. THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS THEIR NATURE AND DESCRIPTION. fTlHE idea of the eternity of rewards and punishments, as--it is alleged by trie Christians as their future destiny, in my opinion militates against all our notions of the justice and mercy of the benevolent Creator and Preserver of this universe. This difficulty is greatly increased when viewed in connection with the extreme narrowness of the path which, according to the Christian doctrine (Matthew vii. 13-14) as it is usually preached, leads to man's salvation and final beatitude. It is a matter of great wonder to me that it does not strike with sufficient force every Christian clergyman and prelate, when he complacently preaches from his pulpit on that subject, more to enforce the peculiar doctrines of the Church to which he belongs, and on which he is called to preach to his congregation, than to see for himself, or teach others to do so, the most awful, nay, untenable nature of the doctrine of eternal rewards and punishments. The Christian, accustomed as he is to read and hear of the doctrine of eternal rewards and punishments as a tenet of his belief and matter of faith, is apt naturally to treat and view it in no other light than that, and consequently fails to discern in it the awful injustice and inexorableness of God, which are involved in it. Whereas, to a Hindu, who is fully reconciled to the promptitude and adequacy in the distribution of God's justice, which he sees at once clearly enough in the doctrine of metempsychosis, which he is taught to believe from his infancy. This teaches him that, no sooner does a simple but virtuous and dutiful Sudra die, than his soul enters into the womb of a Brahmani, to be born, brought up, and educated as a Brahmin, well verse...