Benjamin Fiske Barrett

“ All are constrained to acknowledge that the New doctrine upon the subject we have been considering, is reasonable, good, and beautiful. Some say it is too good and too beautiful to be true. Too good and too beautiful to be true! Is there any thing too good or too beautiful for God to do?—God, who is Himself the fulness and perfection of all goodness and all beauty? ”

“ While we recognize in the one the brightness and beauty of heaven, the other bears upon its face the blackness and deformity of hell. Had Emanuel Swedenborg, in all the ten thousand pages that he wrote, anywhere taught a doctrine so unreasonable and monstrous as the Old, and once popular, doctrine of infant damnation, we never would have taken our pen nor spent our breath in vindication of him or his teachings against the charge of madness. ”

“ For the Lord's end in the creation of the universe, was none other than a heaven of angels from the human race; and all who depart this life in infancy and childhood, are sure to attain the great end of their creation. Then how much of sickness and sorrow, of disappointment, and trial, and sore bereavement, do those escape, who are called away in the spring-time of life! And how consoling to all spiritually-minded parents, must be the reflection, that they have been instrumental, under the Divine Providence, in adding one or more to the kingdom of heaven! ”

“ It is a most wise, beautiful, and beneficent provision—one worthy of a Being of infinite love and mercy—to send us in our low estate such ministering angels as little children, with all their innocence and tenderness, their helpless dependence, their guileless simplicity, and their confiding love; and when they have entwined themselves closely around our hearts, then to remove them to a higher sphere, there to become to us a still more sure and constant medium of angelic influences. ”

“ For in all normal conditions of things endowed with life, the form must correspond to the essence; and to suppose that the perfection of angelic life might exist and manifest itself under the feeble and immature form of a little infant, were not less absurd than to suppose that all the delicious qualities of the full-grown and full-ripe orange, might be imparted to the tender germ of that fruit as soon as the blossom has fallen. ”

“ There, unspeakable kindness, tenderness and forbearance, meet them at every turn. So wisely and tenderly are they governed, that their hereditary evils remain dormant— are not excited, or aroused into activity. Here, they are often forced to be spectators of shocking scenes—scenes in which the very malignities of hell pour themselves forth in obscenity, vulgarity, profanity, cruel calumnies, stinging taunts, and acts of violence, hatred and cruelty: There, they witness no exhibitions of turbulent passions or evil feelings in those around them; they hear no vulgar, profane or angry words ”

“ Did He not create man for heaven, and is it not the constant effort of His love to bring all human beings into heaven? What is there, then, in the nature of the case—what is there in the revealed character of God, in the known laws of His providence, or in the character of little children themselves, to hinder their lot in the other world from being precisely what Swedenborg has declared that it is? ”

“ They know that they have opened to their longing vision new views of the divinity and inspiration of the Word—new views of life, death, and the resurrection—new views of the nature and the way of salvation—new views of heaven and of heavenly joy—new views of hell and of the nature of its torments—new views of the wisdom, love, and providence of the Lord—new views, in short, of every subject which concerns us as spiritual and immortal beings ”

“ It is quite true that children do carry with them into the other world all the perverse tendencies of their nature—all the hereditary dispositions to evil, having their origin in a supreme love of self, with which they are born. ”

“ Who does not here adore the admirable judgment of God, in that it has been ordered that some should be born at Jerusalem, whence they presently pass to a better life, and that Sodom, the entrance of hell, should be the birthplace of others? ”

“ But the New doctrine, on the contrary, while it accords with reason, and Scripture, and God's matchless love, is full of sweetest consolation to the afflicted. It ministers support and comfort to bereaved parents, as no other doctrine can. It tells that fond and weeping mother, as she bends for the last time over the body of her darling child, that her little one is still alive—ay, and happier, too, than ever before; that it has gone, from the cold dull earth to the warm bright heavens—gone to dwell with the angels, and that in due time it will itself become an angel ”

“ On the contrary, they are encompassed with an atmosphere of tenderest love and purest wisdom. Love prompts, and wisdom directs, all that is done to them and for them. Love breathes in every tone they hear; love beams in every face they see; love moulds the forms, and prompts the words, and shapes the deeds of all around them. ”

“ There is but one Source of the beautiful, the good, and the true; for all the beauty, goodness and truth there are in the world, are only finite expressions—faint images, as it were—of the One Infinite Goodness. ”

“ It was at God's sovereign election,—to give every child of Adam born in a Christian land, opportunity, by living, to hear the glad tidings, or only to grant this to some, while others die in infancy, and never hear. Those who die in infancy, may as justly be held under law in the next world, as those that live may in this. God is under no more obligations to save those that die, than he is to save those that live ”

“ Again—"Touching punishment in hell, it is either spoken of Infants, or Men of ripe years. If of Infants departing in infancy, if guilty of eternal death, 'tis no injustice to inflict it; and though he be slow to anger toward some, yet it is not necessary he should be so to others." Again—"It is true many infants we say perish in original sin only, not living to be guilty of any actual sin of their persons." Once more—"Every man that is damned, is damned for original, as well as actual sins, and many thousand infants only for original." ”

“ And the fact that the Old doctrine of infant damnation is now perceived by almost every intelligent Christian to be false, and is almost universally rejected as a dead and loathsome thing, proves that new light has come into the world during the last century. For what else but light could enable people to see this doctrine as almost everybody now sees it? What else but light can make manifest the things of darkness? ”

“ Truth never looks so lovely—never shines with such heavenly lustre, as when contrasted with the dark shades of ignorance or error. Every good artist understands this. Hence poets, painters, and sculptors, in seeking to present us with their highest conceptions of the beautiful, the good, and the true, almost always avail themselves of the power that exists in contrasts. ”

“ As to what you object, that no one is justly damned, unless on account of transgression, and after transgression; on the first point we have no dispute, since I everywhere teach that no one perishes except by the just judgment of God. Yet it cannot be dissembled that a hidden poison lurks in your words; because, if the similitude you propose is admitted, God will be unjust in that he involves the whole race of Abraham in the guilt of original sin. You deny that it is just in God to damn any one, unless on account of transgressions. Persons innumerable are taken out of life while yet infants. ”

“ They are only in rudimental states introductory to the angelic; for infants are not angels, but become angels. Every one, on his decease, is in a similar state of life to that in which he was in the world; an infant in a state of infancy, a boy in a state of boyhood, and a youth, a man, or an old man, in the state of youth, of manhood, or of age; but the state of every one is afterwards changed. The state of infants excels that of all others, because they are in innocence, and evil is not yet rooted in them by actual life ”

“ It is manifest that a different light now shines upon men, from that by which they saw two centuries ago. Else, why does the doctrine we have here been considering, appear so different to people now, from what it did to Christians of former times? And what is this new light, so manifest to all eyes, but a new and spiritual advent of the Lord? ”

“ The sphere of angelic love and wisdom with which they are encompassed, exerts a restraining influence upon the evil tendencies of their nature, at the same time that it quickens into life and action every good and innocent affection. It is this encompassing sphere of love in which they are embosomed, that keeps their hereditary evils in a quiescent state, and prevents their ever becoming actual sins. ”

“ Nor is the instruction which the New doctrine imparts, less important than the comfort which it yields. Not only does it enable us to give up our little ones with more resigned and cheerful hearts, when God is pleased to take them from us, but it impresses upon us the importance of guiding, governing, and instructing them aright, while they remain with us. It shows us, that, if we would educate our children for heaven, we must seek to become heavenly-minded ourselves—must strive to be like the angels—must imitate their example. ”

“ No one in the other life ever suffers punishment on account of hereditary evil, because it is not his own, and is therefore no fault of his; but he is punished on account of the actual evil which is his own, and thus in proportion as he has made hereditary evil his own by actual life. Infants are let into a state of their hereditary evil when they become adult, not that they may suffer punishment for it, but in order that they may learn, that of themselves they are nothing but evil; that by the mercy of the Lord they are withdrawn from the hell which cleaves to them, and introduced into heaven ”

“ But it is a doctrine of the New Church—a doctrine whose truth Scripture, observation, and each individual's own experience, abundantly confirm—that we are all born with a certain hereditary evil taint. We are born with a perverse nature, or with tendencies to all kinds of evil; and this, on account of the moral disorder of the race. When we arrive at maturity, we find a supreme selfishness to be the overmastering force within us ”

“ And yet the interest which most men feel in the beautiful, the good, and the true, is often enhanced by contrast with their opposites. Beauty never appears so attractive, as when exhibited along with deformity. Virtue never has such winning charms, as when seen by the side of vice. ”

“ For the light of the New Jerusalem, which is a glorious light from the Lord out of heaven—a light breaking forth from the spiritual or heavenly sense of the Sacred Scripture—is now shed abroad with greater or less effulgence in the minds of multitudes, who have never heard of Swedenborg or the church of the New Jerusalem by name. ”

“ Nothing more unjust than to deny unto God an absolute Dominion to dispose of the Creature made by him as it pleaseth him. And that God DID, DE FACTO, inflict the highest torments on an innocent, pure, spotless Creature, even the Human Nature of His own Son, is most evident." [1]
And now the question comes, Why is it that this doctrine of infant damnation, which once stalked abroad so boldly, and was treated everywhere with such cordial respect and affection, has become so disagreeable and unpopular of late? ”

“ But those who go from the World of Spirits to heaven, and those who thence go to hell, afterwards neither see nor know each other any more, unless they are similar in disposition and similar in love. The reason that all who had been acquainted see one another in the World of Spirits, and not in heaven nor in hell, is, because, while they inhabit the world of spirits, they are brought into states similar to those which they experienced in the life of the body, passing from one into another. But afterwards all are brought into a permanent state, similar to that of the governing love ”

“ Why, but because the heavens have been opened, and the glad beams of heavenly light have begun slowly to penetrate the dark corners of the earth, and to drive to their hiding places the creatures of the night? ”

“ Intelligence and wisdom constitute an angel; and so long as infants are without intelligence and wisdom, although they are associated with angels, they are not yet angels. When they become intelligent and wise, then they first become angels. I have, indeed, been surprised to see that they then no longer appear as infants, but as adults, for they are then no longer of an infantile disposition, but of a more mature angelic character. Intelligence and wisdom produce this maturity. ”

“ Those who deny or doubt his claims, are always persons least familiar with his writings, and who are not qualified, therefore, to pronounce an intelligent opinion. Those who have studied his writings most, discover in them such stores of wisdom, as could not have come elsewhere than "from God out of heaven." They know that these writings have opened their eyes to new and higher views of God and duty. They know that they have been a means of drawing them nearer to the Lord and the angels. ”

“ Thus, the lot of infants and of all little children in the spiritual world, is altogether preferable to the lot of those in this world. They are in far better company, and under far better influences, there, than here. All their spiritual wants are better provided for; for the angels who have the care of them are much wiser than even the wisest and best of earthly parents, and love them with a purer spiritual affection, that is, with an affection which looks more steadily at their eternal well-being. ”

“ From which it is plain that Edwards believed the infants who perished at the destruction of Sodom, are now "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
And even Dr. Watts, whose natural tenderheartedness led him to plead most earnestly and touchingly for the rescue of little infants from everlasting torments, and who would fain, as he says, "find out some milder punishment for their share of the guilt of Adam in the Bible," even he supposes them to be reduced after death to a "state of non-existence," which he designates as "a sort of endless punishment without pain." ”

“ For though baptism is to be administered to all the infants of Christian parents, as we are to preach the gospel to all persons without distinction, yet it is (as preaching) effectual to none but those that are chosen of God, and predetermined to life and salvation. But all are to be admitted to it, because we cannot distinguish between them: we do not know who are elect and who are reprobates."
This passage leaves us in no doubt that Edwards was a believer and defender of the dreadful doctrine of infant damnation. ”

“ Be it known, therefore, that every infant, wheresoever he is born,—whether within the church or out of it, whether of pious parents or of wicked parents,—is received by the Lord when he dies, and is educated in heaven. He is there instructed according to divine order, and is imbued with affections of good, and by them with knowledges of truth; and afterwards, as he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom, he is introduced into heaven, and becomes an angel. ”

“ And even the gardens, trees and flowers, and all the innocent and beautiful objects which greet their senses and fill their souls with exquisite delight, are but the embodied and substantial forms of those angelic affections, which are poured forth in a constant, fresh and living stream, into their innocent and tender hearts. ”

“ That infants, being corrupt by nature, and therefore obnoxious to condemnation, contain within themselves the root of all sins and so of all the evils which flow from it, so that guilt and punishment cannot but be naturally and necessarily connected with that sin. And then that the infants of believers are punished with eternal punishment we by no means hold, since they are considered as standing in the faith of their parents. ”