33. VI. THE LAST JUDGMENT EXISTS, WHEN THE END OF THE CHURCH IS; AND THE END OF THE CHURCH IS, WHEN THERE IS NO FAITH, BECAUSE THERE IS NO CHARITY.
There are many reasons why the Last Judgment exists when the end of the church is. The principal reason is, that then the equilibrium between heaven and hell begins to perish, and with the equilibrium man's freedom itself; and when man's freedom perishes, he can no longer be saved, for he cannot then be led to heaven in freedom, but from freedom is borne to hell; for no man can be reformed without freedom, and all man's freedom is from the equilibrium between heaven and hell. That it is so, may appear from two articles in the work on Heaven and Hell, where it treats, Of the Equilibrium between Heaven and Hell (n. 589-596): and, That Man is in that Freedom by means of that Equilibrium between Heaven and Hell (n. 597-603); and further, that no man can be reformed except in freedom.