ON THE IMPUTATION OF BOTH CONJUGIAL AND SCORTATORY LOVE

The Lord says 'Judge not, for fear you are condemned' (Matt. 7:1). This cannot possibly mean a judgment about anyone's moral or civil life in the world, but a judgment about his spiritual and celestial life. Anyone can see that, if it were forbidden to make judgments about the moral life of those who live with us in the world, society would collapse. How could we have a society without public judgments, or if everyone did not make his own judgment of others? But judgments about the nature of the inner mind or soul, and so the spiritual state, and thus their fate after death, are not permitted, since these are known only to the Lord. Nor does the Lord reveal these to anyone except after his death, so that everyone may be free to act as he does, and thus be the source and seat of good or evil, so making his own life for himself for ever.

The inner levels of the mind, which are hidden in the world, are revealed after death. This is because this is important and suitable to the communities into which the person then comes, for all there are spiritual. These words of the Lord make it plain that they are then revealed:

There is nothing concealed which shall not be revealed, or hidden which shall not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in darkness shall be heard in light; and what you whispered in inner rooms shall be proclaimed on the rooftops. Luke 12:2, 3.

It is allowable to make general judgments like this: if you are inwardly what you seem to be outwardly, you will be saved, or damned. But not particular judgments like this: this is what you are like inwardly, therefore you will be saved, or damned. The imputation which is the subject of this chapter is a judgment of a person's spiritual life or the inner life of his soul. Is there anyone who knows if a person is at heart promiscuous or is at heart a husband or wife? Yet it is the thought in a person's heart, the intentions of his will, which judge him. But these subjects will be disclosed in the following order:

(i) Everyone has imputed to him after death the evil in which he is, and likewise the good. (ii) It is impossible for one person's good to be copied into another. (iii) If imputation is taken to mean such a copying, it is a fatuous expression. (iv) The evil imputed to everyone depends upon the nature of his will and on the nature of his intellect; and likewise the good. (v) Thus everyone's scortatory love is imputed to him. (vi) Likewise his conjugial love.

An explanation of these points now follows.