Last Judgment Posthumous (Rogers)

1. [1.] THE LAST JUDGMENT

[posthumous]

The English

The English appear a little to the right, toward the front, on a plane just above the head. The light in them seems more interior than that in others in the Christian domain, and it is by means of this light that they receive spiritual influx flowing in from above. They instantly perceive what flows in and at once accept it, and they do not let it descend as grossly into their natural self as others do. So it is that the spiritual element in their natural self also appears clear, whereas in others more dim. But they who are of such a character are those who loved rectitude and honesty, and acted uprightly and honestly, and who at the same time thought about God in accordance with religion.

2. [2.] When the Last Judgment was taking place, Protestants were then brought into the middle, and they then appeared in this order: the English in the center, the Dutch toward the east and south, Germans more toward the north, and Swedes toward the northwest. All then appeared in accordance with their general character in regard to their reception of good and truth.

3. [3.] Few of the English become evil genii (whose character may be described),* since they do not depend much on their own thinking but on some voice of authority. For they are ready to accept, provided they have been persuaded that a man is learned and honest and one of their own nation. Their thinking then appears lucid and interior.
* See Heaven and Hell, no. 579

4. [4.] I perceived that many of the English have accepted the Heavenly Doctrine and in consequence are coming into the New Jerusalem, because they are such as to accept truths of faith more readily than others, and they see them in an interior light.

5. [5.] I have spoken with the English about their acumen, inquiring into the reason for this characteristic in them, that when they hear truths from one worthy of belief among them, they then see those truths and thus readily conform themselves to them, and why it is that in them a snowy whiteness appears over their natural element, and I learned that it is owing to the light of heaven from which they have their intelligence. The same characteristic is found among the Dutch, except that in them that snowy whiteness does not appear, but instead a certain firmness on the border between the spiritual and natural mind, and therefore they are slower to accept.
I was told that the reason for the light appearing in the English is their way of life, which differs from that of all other nations. To enable me to perceive this to be the reason, a comparison was made with present-day Italians, whose system of government is totally contrary to that of the English. In England people have the freedom to speak and write about both political and spiritual matters, but absolutely no freedom to employ guile and cunning in order to deceive others, or to conspire to murder, or to rob and kill; and if they do so, they receive no clemency. The opposite, however, is true in the case of Italians today. People there have the freedom to deceive by cunning and guile, and also to kill-a freedom they derive from the existence of so many places of refuge and of dispensations-but they have absolutely no freedom to speak or write about church or political matters there on account of the Inquisition. As a result the Italian people retain matters of that sort inside them, and thus a fire, which is one of smoldering hatred, vengeance and savagery, a fire like that which after a conflagration lies hidden for a long time beneath the ashes and consumes.
But not so the English people, because they are allowed to speak and write freely. Therefore such a fire is not concealed within but instantly dies down, and the people are kept in the practice of honesty and justice by their not being permitted to deceive, rob or kill, since no dispensation is available then, nor anywhere a place of refuge.

6. [6.] The English have a quite keen perception that a matter is so when it is stated reasonably. They have an inner sight in regard to religion, but it is a receptive sight and not one so active that they themselves see a thing before it has been affirmed by a celebrated church dignitary among them.
Their inner sight is called an intuitive, receptive, and affirmative one, and also confirmatory, but it is chiefly in consequence of elegant phrases composed in a spiritual style that it descends and emanates from that snowy whiteness of theirs. This whiteness appears in them in the spiritual world, which is also the reason that they are in the center among Christians, for those are in the center who possess an interior light.

7. [7.] I was shown how a book or piece of writing appears to them when it has been approved by a man in whom they have placed their faith as being learned, and how a book or piece of writing appears which has not yet been approved. When reading writing that has not been approved, they see as though only the letter or literal meaning, whereas in writing that has been approved they see the sense of the matter and not the literal meaning, because they are then in a state of enlightenment from a faith that the material is true, so that their approbation grants enlightenment. Consequently they acquire no piece of writing, no matter how exceptional, before it has been praised by a man worthy of belief.

8. [8.] Because the English are of such a character, therefore priests are set over them, and also magistrates, in whom they have faith as being intelligent and wise, and they then favor these priests and magistrates with their assent in everything they say and teach. By this the people are held in a state of obedience and at the same time in fidelity to doctrine. Moreover, those who are rebellious and those who are impious are banished from their society, because they would undo the bond of unanimity.

9. [9.] I have had many conversations with Anglican priests, including as well some bishops, on the subject of faith. They have insisted (because it is a tenet of their doctrine) that faith alone produces an endeavor toward good. But when asked whether by “endeavor” they meant a person’s conscious will, they refused to acknowledge it, because, they said, everything that emanates from a person’s conscious will is in itself not good and is merit-seeking. Therefore by “endeavor” they meant an internal operation, of which the intellect is little aware. Consequently such an endeavor exists within faith inwardly, they said, and is not manifested except through an inclination to act.
They were so dogged in this opinion and in the opinion that faith produces the good called charity that they would not be turned from it, even though it was told them from heaven that faith does not produce anything of charity, but that charity produces faith, and that the faith preceding charity is not a living faith but simply knowledge. They were told also that a person ought to do good as though of himself, and that otherwise no element of good takes root or is implanted. But they closed their ears to this.
When they were told that one of the most brilliant of them had thought up as many as a hundred reasons and ways to confirm the idea that faith is what produces, and that he had traveled along each of these paths (as happens in the spiritual world), thinking it to be the way, but yet, when he arrived at the end of each path, he saw from an enlightenment granted him that he had erred, which he also every time confessed; and when they had their formal prayer at the Holy Supper recited before them, which contains the following declarations,* they thought (not wishing to say) that it was for the laity, and the doctrine for the clergy. Therefore it was announced to them that a life according to the faith of the laity saves, while a life according to the doctrine of the clergy condemns, since there is no life in the faith of the clergy, nor any faith in their life, but only in that of the laity.
* “The way and means to be received as worthy partakers of that Holy Table is First, to examine your lives and Conversations by the rule of God’s commandments, and wherein soever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended either by will, word or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life; and if ye shall perceive your offences to be such, as are not only against God, but also against your neighbors, then ye shall reconcile yourselves unto them, being ready to make restitution and satisfaction according to the utmost of your power, for all injuries and wrongs done by you to any other, and being likewise ready to forgive others that have offended you, as ye would have forgiveness of your offences of God’s hand, for otherwise the receiving of the Holy Communion doth nothing else but increase your damnation. Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, or hinderer or slanderer of His word, or adulterer, or be in malice or envy, or in any other grievous crime, repent you of your sins, or else come not to the Holy Table; lest after the taking of that Holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you, as he entered into Judas, and fill you with all iniquities, and bring you to destruction both of body and soul.” (From The Doctrine of Life, no. 5.)

10. [10.] In the spiritual world, images and many other things can be formed from mental ideas and be presented to sight, a phenomenon peculiar to that world. Therefore these same English priests set themselves to forming an image in the likeness of a person in accordance with the ideas of their thought regarding faith alone or faith separated from charity; and when the image was completed, it appeared monstrous, so that it was not unlike Dagon, the idol of the Philistines in Ashdod, on which account it was cast into a certain lake.*
* See also no. [213] below.

11. [11.] The English are told in the spiritual world that they love elegant phrases in their discourses, and that such elegant phrases indeed have a delightful sound in their ears, but yet teach little. This is especially the case when they are dealing with faith and justification by faith. They then so compose their words that scarcely anyone knows whether any amount of good is to be done or not. They so weave their series of conclusions as to make it sound as though good ought to be done, even while inserting that it is faith which produces it without their knowing.

12. [12.] The face of the earth in the spiritual world is similar to that in the natural world. One finds both urban and rural areas there. People who lived in cities in our world also live in cities there, and the like is the case with those who lived in rural areas.
Cities in the spiritual world are also similar to cities in the natural world, but only as regards their streets and public squares, not as regards the buildings. Nor do good people and bad live intermingled there, but in the center of the city-where the land is also somewhat more elevated-dwell the best, who are the governors and magistrates. To the east of that dwell those who possess a clear goodness of love. To the west dwell those who possess a hazy goodness of love. To the south dwell those who possess a clear light of truth. And to the north dwell those who possess a hazy light of truth. The people’s goodness of love and truth of faith decrease from the center out to the furthest peripheries.
Since cities in the spiritual world are similar to cities in our world, one finds a London there, too, similar to the London here in its streets, but not similar as regards its houses, nor as regards its inhabitants and their dwellings in the various sections of the city. I was conveyed in spirit into the city, and I wandered through it and recognized it. I also spoke with some of the inhabitants there, saying that people in the world would be astonished and would scarcely believe that those who live in London see London again after death and, if they are good, dwell in their city again, even though that is the case. The inhabitants said that neither would they believe it if they were in the world, because such a concept does not fall within the realm of ideas drawn from the senses, but only within the realm of rational ideas enlightened by spiritual light. Neither did they know at the time, they said, that something spiritual appears to the spirit as something material does to a person, and that everything that exists in the spiritual world springs from a spiritual origin, as everything in the natural world springs from a material origin. “So it is with the houses of our city,” they said, “which are not built as houses are in the world, but which rise up in moment, created by the Lord. So it is with everything else here.”
They were glad to be living now as before in England and its great city. They said there was also another London below, not much different as regards its streets, but dissimilar as regards its houses and inhabitants-namely, in that the evil dwell in the center, and the upright in the outmost peripheries. They said further that into that London come people from London in the world who were without any spiritual love and so without any spiritual faith, but indulged in pleasures of the body and lusts of the heart. Moreover, that city, they said, at the center where the evil dwell, sinks from time to time into a depth below, and the evil are thus cast into hell. The chasm is then closed up again, and again the evil are gathered to the center of the city, and again are swallowed up by hell. This is the case in the world of spirits. It is different in heaven, and different in hell.

13. [13.] The Dutch

The Dutch are quite clear-sighted and firmly steadfast in their religion, not yielding unless completely convinced, and if they are convinced, still they turn their back. They excel in judgment from a natural rational sight, which enables them to view matters in the world justly, especially in business dealings. Their light appears somewhat hazy because their spiritual light is bound together with natural light. That is because they think continually about the conduct of business.

14. [14.] The same snowy whiteness does not appear in the Dutch as in the English, but instead they have something firm, which is a sign that they are steadfast in matters of their religion. But there is this difference between them, that in civic, moral and also spiritual matters they judge for themselves and do not rely on the judgments of others, and they reflect primarily on intellectual concerns and on the interconnection of reasons.

15. [15.] The Dutch appeared at an angle toward the east and south: to the east because they like religion plain, without icons, so that they can regard it in itself and not on the basis of images; to the south because they excel in intellect.

16. [16.] It is a common characteristic of the Dutch people that they excel in judgment from a natural sight, which enables them to view matters very justly, especially matters having to do with concerns of the world. And because they think constantly about their conduct of business, spiritual light conceals itself in their natural light, on which account they are able also to grasp what is true in religion, but until they are convinced they turn their back.

17. [17.] The Dutch are interested not so much in money as in the conduct of business itself. The conduct of business itself is to them the end and their love, and is of first importance, while money is an intermediate end and is loved for the sake of conducting business, so as to be of secondary importance. People who are of this character are loved in heaven, where each is valued according to his useful service. Of a different sort are avaricious people-such as Jews-for whom money is of first importance, so as to be itself the end and their love, while the conduct of business is of secondary importance. Such people possess an avarice that is foul in the measure of their love for money alone.

18. [18.] On the day of the Last Judgment, those of the Dutch who had not done anything good for any religious reason or from conscience, but only for the sake of their reputation in order to appear honest for the sake of material gain, were expelled from their cities, villages and lands. For in the case of people of such a character, when their regard for reputation and material gain is taken away (as happens in the spiritual world), then being such they rush into every kind of wickedness, robbing people they encounter, whomever they happen on, in the countryside or outside cities. I saw a great number of such people thrown into a dark chasm extending at an angle under the eastern tract of land, and also into a chasm extending under the southern tract. This expulsion took place on the 9th of January, 1757, the rest remaining who possessed religion, and in accordance with religion, conscience.

19. [19.] I was in the spirit, and it was granted me then to wander through a rather remarkable city inhabited by the Dutch. All the streets in the city appeared to be roofed over and the wooden gates in the streets shut, so that no one could wander around without permission from some official. But afterward I was granted to speak with magistrates who dwelled in the center of the city, by whom I was examined to discover where I came from and what I wanted; and when they understood that I had come only to look around, in order to make known to their kinsmen who were still in the world what their lot was like and the nature of their dwelling-places,* they then began to tell me many things. In particular they told me that those who lived there were among the prudent and intelligent of that nation; that there are many such cities, distinguished according to the inhabitants’ affections for and perceptions of truth emanating from good; and that they were in the world of spirits, from which, after spending some time there, they are elevated into heaven, where they are introduced into societies and become angels.
They told me, too, that the city is a double or triple city, one city existing beneath others, and when a person descends by stairways, he comes into a new city in which dwell people who differ in their affections. They said that their streets were everywhere roofed over because from the surrounding rocks, which are at a somewhat higher elevation, they are sometimes watched by evil people who are able mentally to pervert minds and to induce inharmonious appetites, and that they know how to bind thoughts, if they should ever penetrate them, causing their victims to be held in a state of anxiety and feeling as though bound, and this even to the point of desperation-a phenomenon which I also had personally demonstrated to me.
* Cf. John 14:2, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling-places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

20. If anyone comes to them who is of a different nature and discordant in affections and consequent thoughts, they order him to leave, and when he goes, he everywhere finds the gates shut, on which account he is taken to other gates in order to find a way out, but nevertheless discovers these shut, too. Meanwhile they inspire in him a desire to leave; and this goes on until he is so vexed that he can no longer endure it, and then finally he is let out; and once let out, he does not return because of the state of distress into which he was driven.
The Dutch know better than any others in the Christian domain what is fantasy and what is real, so that they cannot be deluded as others can.

21. [20.] It is not permissible to speak with the Dutch about anything having to do with religion. Consequently, when someone of another religion comes to them, they do not examine him by spoken utterance and oral responses, but without his being aware they explore his thoughts, thus drawing out what is in those thoughts.
It was also granted me to speak with their priests, and I spoke with them about the Lord in accordance with heavenly doctrine. They then acknowledged the truths and were affected by them, being at the time in a state of enlightenment from the Lord.
As a result of these experiences I was given to discern that the Dutch have a perception of both spiritual and civic truth, surpassing that of others, also that they provide for themselves prudently, and that this is a trait inherent in them.

22. [21.] In the cities of the Dutch the men live on one side and women on the other, and when the men want them, they send for the women and the women come-something which angers the women, that they must thus come at the bidding of a man. Women who in the world exercised control over their husbands, and finding it no longer possible for them to continue to do so, being incensed with indignation, also wish to leave the city. They are, moreover, allowed to go, but when they are outside the city there appears to them everywhere an obstacle and barrier-now a marshy one, now a watery one, now something else. For a long time they keep wandering thus and seeking a place by which to leave, and this to the point of exhaustion, on which account they are compelled to return to the city and go home, and so are corrected.
The reason for this experience is that a desire to exercise control in marriage takes away married love*-a love which exists in married partners to the extent that a love of exercising control decreases.
[As a love of exercising control decreases,] in its stead then comes love, and with love, delight of life, and then it is neither husband nor wife who rules but the Lord. This is the source of happiness in marriage.
* Or, conjugial love.

23. [22.] The Dutch appear dressed in vests and breeches just as in the world, and they are distinguished from others by the fact that their human element draws more of its character from the world than the human element of others, for the spiritual element in them does not shine through as clearly as in others. This characteristic takes its origin from their love for conducting business in the world and their consequent continual thought and deliberation concerning it. Even when they come into the world of spirits they consider in mind the same concerns and look about in every direction to discover where the commerce is and what it is like (for there are commercial transactions in the spiritual world equally as in the natural world, even though the difference is such that it can hardly be described). Moreover, what surprised me, whenever they meet businessmen who wish to investigate their thoughts and intentions secretly by inspecting them (as happens in the spiritual world), the Dutch instantly become invisible, a phenomenon arising from the fact that they were unwilling in the world to disclose their business to others.

24. [23.] All people whatsoever who come among spirits after death are prepared for heaven or for hell, everyone according to his life in conformity to doctrine. In most cases the preparation is accomplished by their being instructed by angels. The Dutch nation, however, cannot be prepared for heaven and for receiving the spiritual quality of heaven (which is the spiritual quality of angels) by information and instruction, for they do not accept it, inasmuch as they remain more steadfastly than all others in their own faith. When informed, they think still in accordance with their own conceptions in opposition to the information and instruction. Consequently they are prepared in a different way. They have described for them what heaven is like, following which it is granted them to ascend into heaven and see it, and whatever accords with their character is instilled in them, so that they return with a thorough desire to enter into heaven. But when they have been sent back, they are driven into states of misery, and their conduct of business is taken from them, until they see themselves reduced to extreme straits; and then they are taken to people who have an abundance of everything and who are rich, which occasions in them then to consider what those others are like, and how they can possess such an abundance and delight of life. Thus they reflect upon those people’s life, seeing that it is a life of mutual love, and upon their doctrine, that it is a doctrine teaching that love, and that all their goods and felicities come from the Lord. At that point then they are not being informed but are themselves inquiring and informing themselves. And so of themselves they begin to think that to escape from their misery they, too, must believe likewise and do likewise; and as they accept that faith, but on their own, by living accordingly, so wealth is given to them, and this progressively. Thus they are prepared for heaven, not by others but by themselves, not realizing at the time that they are nevertheless not prepared in this way by themselves but by the Lord, because their character is such as it is, which they also afterward acknowledge. They also continue after that to be more steadfast than others, so that they may be called personifications of constancy, nor do they allow themselves to be led astray by any guile, or by any craft, or by reasoning, or because of confusion induced by the insinuation of doubts or sophistries, or by any illusion, appearance or fantasy-especially those whose life’s love was the conduct of business and not money, and whose goal was not luxurious living.

25. [24.] Calvin*

I was told concerning Calvin that he lived a Christian life and did not place religion in faith alone as Melanchthon** and Luther*** did, and that he is therefore in heaven.
* John Calvin (born Jean Chauvin or Caulvin), 1509-1564, French theologian and a leader in the Protestant Reformation. He first prepared for a career in the Catholic Church but then turned to the study of law and, later, the classics. Around 1533 he converted to Protestantism and began work on his Institutes of the Christian Religion (published 1536). In this work, frequently revised and expanded, he presented the basics of what came to be known as Calvinism. To avoid persecution, he traveled in France, Italy, and Switzerland. In 1536 he was persuaded to stay in Geneva, Switzerland, and advance the Reformation there. He began a thoroughgoing, austere revamping of the life of the city. Opposition to him emerged, and he was banished in 1538, but he was welcomed back in 1541 and remained there until his death. In 1541 his Ecclesiastical Ordinances provided a framework for church and civic life in what came to be called the “Protestant Rome.” Regulation of conduct in Geneva was extended to all areas of life. Economic development was promoted by emphasis on such virtues as thrift, industry, sobriety, and responsibility. Supposed witches and heretics (such as Michael Servetus, who was burned at the stake in 1553) were persecuted. Education was promoted. Calvin split with the Lutherans over the nature of the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and vigorously trained many French refugees to act as missionary pastors in France. He also intrigued with various French nobles in the events that led to the Wars of Religion (1562-98).
** Philipp Melanchthon (born Philipp Schwarzert or Schwarzerd), 1497-1560, a German Protestant reformer, who collaborated with Martin Luther in drawing up the Augsburg Confession, a summation of the Lutheran faith, for whose formulation he was mainly responsible. Endorsed by the Lutheran princes, the statement was presented at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, and it became the chief creed of the Lutheran Church.
*** Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German leader of the Protestant Reformation and founder of Lutheranism. Born a Roman Catholic, he left the study of law in 1505 to become an Augustinian monk, and later became a priest and a professor of theology. He agonized over the problem of salvation, finally deciding that it was not won by good works but was a free gift of God’s grace. Luther’s beliefs led him to object to the sale of indulgences (which remitted penalties for sin) by the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1517 he posted his 95 Theses in Wittenberg. So began a quarrel between Luther and church leaders, including the pope. Luther had hoped to reform the church rather than start a new one, but his doctrines led him to a complete break with the Roman Catholic Church. He believed that the Bible was the sole authority in religion and rejected the supremacy of the pope and the powers of the hierarchy of bishops. He held that grace cannot be conferred by the church but is the free gift of God’s love. He objected to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation – that, in the Eucharist, the bread and wine are actually transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Instead, Luther taught the real presence of Christ “in, with, and under” the bread and wine. Luther declared the Bible to be the true source of authority and renounced obedience to Rome. He maintained his stand in debates with Johann Eck and at the Diet of Worms (1521). For this he was excommunicated, but strong German princes supported him, and he gained followers among churchmen and the people. Thus began the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Luther wrote hymns, catechisms, and numerous theological treatises, and translated the Bible into German. He married a former nun, Katharina von Bora, in 1525 and had six children.

26. [25.] I saw Calvin in a certain society of heaven toward the front above the head, but not in the center of the society, and he said that he maintains the same church doctrine as he had in the world. He spoke with me saying that he did not agree with Luther, nor with Melanchthon, regarding faith alone, since works are so often mentioned in the Word and commanded to be done, and that faith and works must therefore be joined. It was only that Luther felt that if works were accepted, they would not far depart from the Papists, he said; but he believed that faith produces works, as a tree produces fruit.
Calvin was accepted in his society because he is upright and does not cause disturbances. I heard this from one of the officials of the society.

27. [26.] Melanchthon*

I spoke with Melanchthon and with others concerning him. After Melanchthon came into the spiritual world, he confirmed himself more than ever in faith alone, to the point that he was scarcely willing to hear about charity and its goodness. And because he was unable to persuade any others than those who had led very little of a Christian life, he therefore acquired for himself a persuasive power, which is such that the speech of one flows into another’s thought and so binds it that the person is incapable of thinking anything other than what the one is saying, even if it is false. It is a power that enchants minds, on which account it is forbidden in the spiritual world, because it extinguishes all the light of the intellect. Moreover, if he could not convince people by reasonings, he looked into their eyes and infused this persuasive force into their minds, so that they were unable to see his false sophistries and so could not respond, occasioning them to complain about him. He attempted this with me, too, but in an endeavor without effect. A leek and its odor, or garlic, corresponds to this persuasiveness, the odor of which by its pungency hurts the left eye. I spoke with Melanchthon about this persuasive power, and about the nephilim** who possessed it, who could almost kill a person by their persuasive power (concerning which in Arcana Coelestia [The Secrets of Heaven]***).
* Philipp Melanchthon (born Philipp Schwarzert or Schwarzerd), 1497-1560, a German Protestant reformer, who collaborated with Martin Luther in drawing up the Augsburg Confession, a summation of the Lutheran faith, for whose formulation he was mainly responsible. Endorsed by the Lutheran princes, the statement was presented at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, and it became the chief creed of the Lutheran Church.
** Giants mentioned in Genesis 6:4 and Numbers 13:33.
*** See Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven) nos. 557, 567, 580-583, 640, 1673:1, 2, 4454, 7686, et al.

28. [27.] Afterward there came to me from the northern zone toward the west some spirits of the craftier and more malicious kind, and among them one who was distinguishable from the others by his heavy tread, a tread sounding like that of a bear. He committed a number of malicious acts, but I did not know who he was. Later I discovered that it was Melanchthon. In order that I might know his identity, he kept asking where Luther* was, and when he was told, he went in to Luther and began to speak with him, and became recognizable. Luther said that he discussed with him many aspects of faith alone, or of faith separated from good works.
Luther inquired of Melanchthon what his lot was like now, and discovered that he lived sometimes in a stony chamber with a vaulted ceiling, and sometimes in a hell under the supervision of a judge. When in the chamber he wore something resembling a bearskin, he said, by which he protected himself from the cold, and he writes at length about faith alone. When in the hell under the supervision of the judge he is held to be as worthless as the rest. And I heard the judge saying of him that there he is evil, and that he is sometimes punished for his malicious acts.
* Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German leader of the Protestant Reformation and founder of Lutheranism. Born a Roman Catholic, he left the study of law in 1505 to become an Augustinian monk, and later became a priest and a professor of theology. He agonized over the problem of salvation, finally deciding that it was not won by good works but was a free gift of God’s grace. Luther’s beliefs led him to object to the sale of indulgences (which remitted penalties for sin) by the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1517 he posted his 95 Theses in Wittenberg. So began a quarrel between Luther and church leaders, including the pope. Luther had hoped to reform the church rather than start a new one, but his doctrines led him to a complete break with the Roman Catholic Church. He believed that the Bible was the sole authority in religion and rejected the supremacy of the pope and the powers of the hierarchy of bishops. He held that grace cannot be conferred by the church but is the free gift of God’s love. He objected to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation – that, in the Eucharist, the bread and wine are actually transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Instead, Luther taught the real presence of Christ “in, with, and under” the bread and wine. Luther declared the Bible to be the true source of authority and renounced obedience to Rome. He maintained his stand in debates with Johann Eck and at the Diet of Worms (1521). For this he was excommunicated, but strong German princes supported him, and he gained followers among churchmen and the people. Thus began the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Luther wrote hymns, catechisms, and numerous theological treatises, and translated the Bible into German. He married a former nun, Katharina von Bora, in 1525 and had six children.

29. [28.] I was told further that in that chamber of his the walls are of stone only, without decoration or ornament as found elsewhere, so that the place is rude and depressing. For that reason, when people wish to meet him and speak with him because of the acclaim in which he is held in the world, he does not let them in on account of the rude conditions there, because he is ashamed of them.
At times he acknowledges that he entertained falsities and that for that reason is living as he is, and he sometimes prays therefore to be able to write in his chamber about charity and its good effects which are called good works. At those times he then has some statements dictated to him from heaven by angels, and when he writes them his chamber begins to be adorned with various ornamentations. But after he has written the dictated statements and left them on the table, and then goes to review them, he does not see them, and what he does see he does not understand, at which point the ornamentations disappear from the chamber. Such is his lot.

30. [29.] I heard Melanchthon speaking with some Englishmen outside his vaulted chamber, talking about faith alone, and they said they did not know what faith alone is. He said that God the Father sent His Son, who suffered for our sins. They said that was a matter of history. What else? He said that by that faith they have eternal life. They asked whether he had eternal life. To this he could not reply.
The Englishmen went on to say that they hear preachers on the subject of faith alone and justification by that faith, and as they listen the preaching sounds as if full of wisdom, being skillfully and cleverly composed; but when they go home they do not know at all what the preachers said, not comprehending their arcane mysteries.

31. [30.] I later saw Melanchthon among a number of others who, because of their faith alone, were in a place where they are separated, each heading for the place where his kind of life is found. And I heard then a voice speaking to them from heaven, saying that that faith saves no one, because it has no life in it and no truth. They asked therefore what truth is and what life is. They received the reply that truth and life lie in living according to the commandments of the Decalogue, as in not stealing, that is, in not acting dishonorably or unjustly; in not committing adultery; in not killing, thus in not burning with deadly hatred or vengeance against anyone; in not bearing false witness, thus in not lying or blaspheming; that whoever does not do these things because they are sins has life, and afterward is granted many truths as to what evil is and what good is; and that no one else can be led by the Lord and be saved. One knows from this, they were told, that life and truth are one, as love and faith are, because life is connected with love, and truth with faith.

32. [31.] Luther*

There are places where people argue about religious matters. Their arguing sounds, from outside those places, like the gnashing of teeth, and when they are viewed within it appears as though they are tearing each other’s clothes apart, while their atmosphere causes pain to the flesh of the teeth and the gums. A man came to me from one of those places, dressed at first like a monk, and he told me he was Luther. He also spoke with me, saying that he likes to be among the kind of people who argue over what is to be believed, because he has with him from the world a persuasive speech and authority as a result of the consent accorded him by many in his own time. I noticed that he had a communication with those who believe that they know everything and that nothing at all is hidden from them, and who do not wish to learn but to teach, saying often this or that is the absolute truth and cannot be contradicted. Such people take away from others all freedom of speech, by imposing their own opinions as if they were from God, and by assailing all who contradict them, unless it is for the sake of being instructed.
Luther said that he loves to reason about faith and also about the good of charity, but that he rarely finds people with whom he can enjoy this delight. The reason is that he hatched that doctrine out of his own thinking and he is therefore conversant with the connection of the arguments. Not so those who only learn the doctrine and afterward confirm it. They cannot share in the same delight, because they are not so conversant with the connection of the arguments. Luther said that they do not long endure the ardor of his speaking, but withdraw.
* Martin Luther, 1483-1546, German leader of the Protestant Reformation and founder of Lutheranism. Born a Roman Catholic, he left the study of law in 1505 to become an Augustinian monk, and later became a priest and a professor of theology. He agonized over the problem of salvation, finally deciding that it was not won by good works but was a free gift of God’s grace. Luther’s beliefs led him to object to the sale of indulgences (which remitted penalties for sin) by the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1517 he posted his 95 Theses in Wittenberg. So began a quarrel between Luther and church leaders, including the pope. Luther had hoped to reform the church rather than start a new one, but his doctrines led him to a complete break with the Roman Catholic Church. He believed that the Bible was the sole authority in religion and rejected the supremacy of the pope and the powers of the hierarchy of bishops. He held that grace cannot be conferred by the church but is the free gift of God’s love. He objected to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation – that, in the Eucharist, the bread and wine are actually transformed into the body and blood of Christ. Instead, Luther taught the real presence of Christ “in, with, and under” the bread and wine. Luther declared the Bible to be the true source of authority and renounced obedience to Rome. He maintained his stand in debates with Johann Eck and at the Diet of Worms (1521). For this he was excommunicated, but strong German princes supported him, and he gained followers among churchmen and the people. Thus began the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Luther wrote hymns, catechisms, and numerous theological treatises, and translated the Bible into German. He married a former nun, Katharina von Bora, in 1525 and had six children.

33. [32.] It was granted me to speak with Luther about faith and love, truth and good, and of the marriage between these, saying that it is impossible for there to be more of one than of the other, consequently neither more of faith than there is of life. I spoke with him for two hours, employing ideas springing from spiritual light which are full and complete, and at the time he had angelic spirits affiliated with him to provide an interior perception. Being finally then convinced, he said that he would be willing to accept this doctrine, but doubted whether he could until he had first rejected the principles of faith alone, which would be an effort. For this reason, too, when he departed, he returned to his former associates, with whom he reasoned as before.

34. [33.] Nevertheless angels said that there is some hope for him, because whenever he had thought in the world from his spirit, that is, when left to himself in a tranquil state, he thought about good works and made them a matter of religion. That is also why he spoke and wrote so much about goodness of life, they said, even though he did not make it part of his doctrine, or something to be done for the sake of eternal life, on the ground that a person cannot do good of himself, and that if he does it for the sake of heaven, it is merit-seeking. On the other hand, however, when he came from the thought of his spirit into discourse with others, he then spoke as though one transformed about faith alone. He continues to do likewise today. It was for this reason that he rejected from the Word the Epistle of James and also the book of Revelation.

35. [34.] Some people have two states, one when engaged in discourse in the light of doctrinal teaching, another when thinking to themselves. In the first state the person is present in the body and in its conscious awareness, because he is caught up in his lower thought which is connected with speech. At that time he also experiences a pleasure in speaking, prompted for the most part by pride in his learning. But in the second state the person is present in his spirit, and is then in a state of oblivion, because he is thinking withdrawn from the body and above the thought nearest to the natural, sensual plane. This was the case with Luther. Being prompted by the gratification of acclaim, he experienced the pleasure of his life when speaking, and he did this on the subject of faith alone in accordance with his doctrine. However, when he pondered to himself, he thought in support of good works. Thinking in this way when by himself in a state of oblivion remained in him from boyhood, because that was the religion he was born into and in which he became a monk. But because he conceived something novel, he undertook a withdrawal from that religion by separating faith from good works.

36. [35.] Luther related that when he was in the world, he was told through an angel sent by the Lord to stay away from faith alone, because there was nothing in it, and that for some time therefore he did stay away from it and advocated works. But despite this he later continued to separate faith from works, he said, and to make it alone essential and saving.

37. [36.] After Luther had been informed by angels that no one has any faith unless he possesses goodness of life, moreover that faith exists only in the measure of one’s goodness of life, and not the least bit one in greater measure than the other, and having been convinced many times, he repented and labored with all his might to free himself from falsities, because he could not enter heaven until he did. I perceived several times that he had repented and that he was struggling against his principles, but as yet without success. He also prayed to the Lord to be able to retreat from his falsities, and received the reply that the ability would be granted if he could accept it. For that reason he was sent from one society to another in which there were people in whom life was joined to faith, but he was nevertheless unable to stay long, because it conflicted with his life’s delight.
Luther was told that truths of doctrine cannot be accepted in life before falsities have been rejected, because truths cannot enter where falsities fill the thoughts of the intellect, nor can these be easily removed. That is because while a person is living in the world, he joins himself to societies according to principles of his religion, religion for which he has had an affection. Everyone continues to be governed by these principles after death, and everyone’s life lies with those societies, so that it is impossible for him to remove himself and detach himself from them and then introduce himself into new ones. It is indeed possible for him to do so in respect to his thoughts, but not possible in respect to his affections, and yet these must be united. A person enters new societies, therefore, but nevertheless withdraws whenever he feels in the new ones elements undelightful to him.
In short, Luther sometimes renounces faith alone and sometimes defends it. He renounces it when he is in a state of fear, defends it when he is prompted by his love.

38. [37.] Zinzendorf and Moravians

Zinzendorf*

I spoke with Zinzendorf after his death, and at that time his life and life’s affection, and then the principles of his religion, were disclosed; for a spirit can be put into such a state that he conceals nothing at all but reveals everything. Revealed then were the following:
1) He was above all a persuasive man, and he exercised his persuasiveness by claiming to know the mysteries of heaven and contending that no one enters into heaven but a follower of his doctrine.
2) He spoke with others at first in conformity with their religion, thus making pretense and so winning them over, and afterward he sowed in them his mysteries, exploring well beforehand whether they would be accepted and concealed.
3) I was told it had been a mystery of his faith that the Lord was born to be the adoptive Son of God, and that at first he believed the Lord to have been simply the adoptive Son of God, thus that he was an Arian.**
4) He held previously that the Lord’s Divinity was the Divine as it exists in others, now that it is something more.
5) He was scarcely willing to hear of the Lord’s conception from the Divine, according to Matthew and Luke. He turned away and refused to say what he felt, it too being a mystery that he is afraid to make known.
6) He attributed sins to the Lord. He also held that in the Gospels the Lord spoke no better than any other person, calling His utterances obscure. He cares nothing for the Old Testament, nor was he willing to hear what is written there concerning the Lord.
7) He rejected a life of charity altogether, and regarded it as detestable to think of God and salvation from the standpoint of anything having to do with a person’s life-maintaining that faith apart from charity saves.
8) He believed that only he and his followers would enter heaven, and that they alone were really alive and everyone else dead.
9) They say of themselves what the Lord said of Himself, that they are sons of God, that they are without sins, that they are life and truth, because any evil in those who are possessed of faith is not regarded, and therefore they are life and truth; and they call their life blameless because it is alive through faith.
* Count Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf, 1700-1760, a German reformer and organizer of the Moravian Church. Zinzendorf proclaimed a “religion of the heart,” based on an intimate fellowship with the Savior, whose Person, conceived as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of the world, completely dominated his theology. Though forced by circumstances to separate from the Lutheran Church, he continued to maintain a close connection with it. Widely traveled, he founded Moravian communities in the Baltic provinces, Holland, England, the West Indies, and North America.
** An adherent of Arianism, a theological view based on the teachings of Arius (c. 250-336), who taught that Christ the Son was a created being, not consubstantial with God the Father, and thus not Divine.

39. [38.] Nevertheless they love the Lord, because that love is commanded, because He suffered the cross to propitiate the Father, and this is the faith that saves them.

40. [39.] Because he believed that only he and his followers would enter heaven, he was given an opportunity to ascend into the heavens, and wherever he went he was ordered to leave, because the inhabitants sensed falsities emanating from him, together with a delight in acclaim on account of His having established a church. I perceived that in his delight in acclaim was a sense of merit. Moreover, when he spoke with his brethren about heaven, they said that it was not heaven to them.

41. [40.] A spirit appeared to me in a state of vision, looking like a wild stag in chains, but which broke its chains and with fury rushed upon any it met in an attempt to tear them and destroy them; at which point, however, a monstrous dog appeared, which rushed upon the stag and tore it to pieces. After that the stag appeared in human form. It was Dippel,* who appeared as he had because he was not permitted to go around and, in accordance with his life’s delight, refute all and at the same time stir up commotions. Now Zinzendorf said that he liked him, but noticed that he later withdrew. He further said that Dippel’s nature was such that he wished to tear at all with malevolent writings, moreover that he was able to refute ingeniously, as though full of knowledge and wisdom, and that he had a natural gift for this, but that of himself he thought about matters foolishly.
* Johann Konrad Dippel, 1673-1732, German Pietist and alchemist. In the controversy between Lutheran orthodoxy and Pietism, he at first upheld the former, but later became himself a Pietist, writing many controversial works in defense of personal piety in contrast to religious formality and orthodoxy. His opposition to Protestant orthodoxy earned the hostility of Lutheran authorities, who forbade him to issue further theological publications, after which he turned to chemistry and alchemy. He went to Berlin in 1704, but was forced to leave again in 1707 because of his continued Pietist activities. Taking refuge in Holland, in 1711 he received a medical degree at Leyden, but was again expelled for his theological views. In 1714 he moved to an area belonging to Denmark, and after inveighing against the clergy there, was condemned by the government to life imprisonment on the island of Bornholm. Freed again in 1726 and expelled from Denmark, he went to Sweden as a practicing physician, where he encouraged a growing Pietist movement, causing the orthodox Lutheran clergy to secure his expulsion from that country. Returning to Germany, he settled at Berleburg, where he died.

42. [41.] When Zinzendorf first came into the spiritual world, he began, as he had in the world, to travel around to different societies and preach, but I was told that nowhere was he accepted. He was taken to his Moravian followers,* and he perceived that they are not in heaven but in a state of misery, because they had rejected all useful endeavors of life, which are good works. When they try to accept truths, falsities stand in the way, which cannot be dispelled because they love them exceedingly. They know how to skillfully and adeptly falsify the Word and twist it from its real meaning, which, coming together, they do as a group.
Several attempts were discovered against their comrades who sought to refute their mysteries, or even to reveal them, and Zinzendorf said that for that reason he removed himself from them. They say that the Lord is to be loved because of His suffering of the cross, but that He is not to be worshiped. They call the Holy Supper a commemoration of the suffering.
* Members of the Moravian Church or Moravian Brethren, a Protestant denomination descended from Bohemian Brethren. Called also Herrnhuter from their organization or “renewal” under Count Zinzendorf at Herrnhut, Germany, Moravians hold that the Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice, and in general have stood for a simple and unworldly form of Christianity, dwelling for the most part in rural settlements.

43. [42.] Zinzendorf was caught up in an abstract idea, thinking to himself about the Lord. I observed that he was thinking about the Lord as he would about any other person, and not as God, and that he viewed the Divinity in Him to have been like the Divinity in any other person. He also thought that the Lord spoke in a very simple manner and not wisely, and that Paul spoke more wisely. However, he was shown that all of the Lord’s words were words of life, having in every single element a spiritual meaning, thus that each of His words pervaded heaven because He spoke in terms of things that correspond.

44. [43.] He believed that everything was a matter of mercy. Accordingly, that if a brother commits an immense sin, it is forgiven him, because it is for God a way to show mercy. He also believed that people are altogether damned, and that it were better for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them, if they do good works for the sake of salvation, considering this to be the greatest of sins, because they claim for themselves the merit that is God’s alone.

45. [44.] When Zinzendorf was rejected wherever he went and saw his Moravian followers in an unhappy state, he allowed himself to be convinced that he was immersed in falsities, and he therefore labored and continues to labor with all his might to dispel his falsities and receive truths in their stead. But he confessed that he was unable to free himself from the societies into which he had introduced himself while in the world, since every person is united with such societies and cannot afterward dissociate himself. For this is the meaning of the Lord’s words concerning the five foolish virgins, that they afterward wished to buy oil, and also did so, but still could not go in to the wedding.*
* Matthew 15:1-13.

46. [45.] Moravians*

That Arians** induce pain in the right arm near the shoulder blade, while Socinians*** induce pain in the breastbone.
* Members of the Moravian Church or Moravian Brethren, a Protestant denomination descended from Bohemian Brethren. Called also Herrnhuter from their organization or “renewal” under Count Zinzendorf at Herrnhut, Germany, Moravians hold that the Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice, and in general have stood for a simple and unworldly form of Christianity, dwelling for the most part in rural settlements.
** Adherents of Arianism, a theological view based on the teachings of Arius (c. 250-336), who taught that Christ the Son was a created being, not consubstantial with God the Father, and thus not Divine.
*** Disciples of Laelius Socinus (born Lelio Francesco Maria Sozini). 1525-1562, and his nephew Faustus Socinus (Fausto Paolo Sozzini), 1539-1604, who rejected a number of traditional Christian doctrines, as the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, and original sin, and who held that Christ was miraculously begotten, and that salvation is granted to those who adopt Christ’s virtues.

47. [46.] Moravians conceal their principal mysteries and block avenues of approach to keep them from being known by others, insinuating themselves through such remarks as agree with Lutheran doctrine, and proclaiming themselves to be remnants of the Apostolic Church. They also call themselves brethren and say that they have their origins and certain statutes from the early Christians. As regards the interior elements of their religion, however, they are totally different. They do not acknowledge the Lord’s Divinity, except for that which is found in other people who are possessed of their faith. They disparage the Word of the Old Testament and reject it as not useful. Neither do they care for the Gospels, but only for the Epistles of Paul. Goods of charity or good works, as far as these relate to salvation, they totally condemn, confessing a faith separate from charity more than others. Because they are Arians, I spoke with them about the Lord. They said that He was sent by God the Father to save the human race by His suffering of the cross, and therefore He is acknowledged as the Son and called the Son of God. Their faith is confidence, they said. They love the Lord as the best of men, because He took upon Himself to propitiate the Father by His suffering of the cross. They say that the Lord has power in heaven, and not over heaven. They call Him the Lamb, but never worship Him as God.
When they are told that He was conceived of God, that He says He was from eternity, and that His Father and He are one, they hear these things, but think contrary to them. They do not dare to say that this is what was written, but not what was actually said; and they twist declarations of this kind concerning the Lord in wretched fashion and seem to tear at them. Consequently they take refuge in these words, that they themselves know how the case is, but it is one of their principal mysteries.

48. [47.] Moravians call only themselves who are of that faith alive, and all others who are not possessed of that faith dead. They also believe that they are saved before all others and that they will enter into the third heaven; but when they come into the first or lowest heaven in the company of angels, they cannot endure the heavenly atmosphere there (which draws its character primarily from goods of charity, and in the same measure from faith), and therefore they flee away. I have perceived and felt their aversion to that atmosphere. Moreover, they are also not tolerated in any heavenly society, because they think to themselves that people other than they are dead, so that they entertain an idea of the angels themselves as being dead. If they come into the second heaven, and even more if they come into the third, where love and charity and the consequent works of these constitute the whole character of the heaven, they are seized with pain like those who lie in the agony of death, and a leaden color comes over their eyes, and they make convulsive motions and are inwardly tormented.

49. [48.] Moravians preached a great deal about their having a certain inner sensation, thus a perception, which they say comes from an influx from God the Father through heaven by means of angels or spirits. But they have been told that the sensation or perception comes to them from spirits who were Moravians in the world, and that they are surrounded by these spirits; moreover, that the spirits flow in because of a similarity of principles and confirm them in them-an event which occurs with some force, because Moravians love their religious persuasion and think much about it. This was personally shown to them; also that Quakers are in association with Quaker spirits, religious fanatics with fanatic spirits-every person with spirits who are in harmony with his affections and consequent thoughts or conceived principles, and this without ever any exception. Because of their having personally experienced the fact, they could not but affirm it, even though they did not wish to.

50. [49.] Moravians call any good they do for the brethren in their company the good of friendship, and they harbor some hatred for those who preach good works.

51. [50.] Because they notice that no one is able to enter into heaven but those who acknowledge the Lord’s Divinity, and they are unable to do this, they turn away from love for the Lord because of His suffering of the cross and act in harmony with hellish spirits. Owing to that hatred of theirs, they have it in them almost instinctively to persecute angelic spirits in sometimes fiendish ways, but every time they do they are punished.

52. [51.] Rarely do they have any dealings with others. They appeared at first to the right on a plane with the knees, but from time to time they were diminished in number, driven off and dispersed. They converse among themselves behind closed doors about their mysteries, and they strictly prohibit any revelation of their mysteries except by common consent. Indeed, they make threats. Whether in consequence of their threats any result erupted in the world, this they did not wish to have explored, nor what they did to some.

53. [52.] When confidently caught up in their faith they call all matters among them sacred.

54. [53.] Emanating from their atmosphere is a perception of unspeakable adultery, because they adulterate the Word throughout, and also mock many things in it.

55. [54.] Moravians appeared to the left on a plane with the foot, where it was discovered that they acted in harmony with the evil in opposition to those who possessed goods of charity and acknowledged the Lord’s Divinity, all of whom are angelic spirits who become angels. Therefore they were driven from that site toward the north; but because they were not willing to rest there, either, without plotting evil, calling even Babylonians* to their aid, they were driven still farther into the north and introduced into a cavern which sloped downward beneath the west, to keep them from doing any more harm to others. Wherever they are they form a brotherhood.
* i.e., Roman Catholics.

56. [55.] They were driven to an interior confession of the Lord, and I then heard profanities such that I hardly dare disclose them their denying, indeed profaning, those statements made in the Word about His conception of the Father, saying that He was taken from the tomb by His disciples, that His Transfiguration was a vision induced by beguiling spirits, that He was a person so ordinary as to be more ordinary than others, besides many other unspeakable things; from which it was apparent that they are the worst of all in the Christian realm, and that they hatched their theology out of their own heads and afterward consulted the Word, profaning it because it does not agree with their harebrained pronouncements.
They call evils among them good on the ground that nothing evil is imputed to them.

57. [56.] They were later called together and examined to see whether all were of one mind in confessing these unspeakable notions, and it was found that some of them did not harbor such an unspeakable dogma. They were ones who did not know their secret mysteries. These constituted a third of their number. They were set apart, and the rest, after being separated, were given to some others as servants and forbidden to gather together any more. The others were separated, too, and dispatched into societies with the stipulation that they not be together.
They do not consider the Holy Supper sacred.
Concerning baptism, that they practice it because of orthodox Protestants.

58. [57.] Remaining Moravians were gathered into groups, and after visitation were cast down toward the lower regions and forced to enter a cavern; but finding no food there, and mean quarters, they complained loudly, and were let out and banished into desert areas. This was observed by Zinzendorf.*
* * Count Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf, 1700-1760, a German reformer and organizer of the Moravian Church. Zinzendorf proclaimed a “religion of the heart,” based on an intimate fellowship with the Savior, whose Person, conceived as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of the world, completely dominated his theology. Though forced by circumstances to separate from the Lutheran Church, he continued to maintain a close connection with it. Widely traveled, he founded Moravian communities in the Baltic provinces, Holland, England, the West Indies, and North America.

59. [58.] Quakers

When other spirits try to explore what Quakers are thinking, the latter hide their thoughts in a certain way, saying that it is sufficient that they do not do evil to anyone or openly speak evilly of anyone. But they were told that not speaking evil of anyone is good in earthly society; however, that thinking evilly of others is harmful to societies in the other life, since mental ideas are there communicated.
They are unwilling to be instructed in doctrinal matters. They reply, “I do not understand it. What are you saying?” They have confirmed themselves in their beliefs by the notion that they were taught by the Holy Spirit, and that they continue to be.
They stubbornly resist allowing any of their secret mysteries to be made public.
Spirits who come among Quaker ones, and who suppose them to be the Holy Spirit, are spirits who belonged to this sect in the world. These spirits first flock to them after death, who instill it in them to make nothing public, and therefore they live apart. They are vile spirits.
A communion of some detestable wives was discovered, who at the time were awaiting influx from the Holy Spirit, with a perception of its being by leave permitted. Their secret sacred worship consists in such elements, and by them they also have communicated to them a sense of sanctity.
They do not now experience the same trembling and total agitation as formerly, but only an agitation on the left side of the body and face. When they say something is commanded by the Holy Spirit, no one objects even to adulterous and licentious affairs.
I spoke with the founder,* who said that he never did such things, or contemplated them.
I saw that Quaker spirits live in thick forests like earthly pigs. They become fantasizers.
I also saw some who believed themselves to be born saints, even if born of adultery among them. Of such a one the rest say that he alone drinks red wine in heaven, which they call heavenly wine; but one such looked to me like a horrible person, and turned black, and he looked to angels like mucus of the nose.
Such spirits dwell apart in their own places for centuries, cast off like pieces of bark or the dregs of olive oil. After those centuries they retain little of their life, and they serve societies as a poor connecting link.
I spoke with Penn,** who swore that he was not of such a character and that he himself takes no part in any activities of that sort.
I was told that their leaders were fanatic spirits, who are of such a character that they wish to possess a person. They are seemingly more carnal than others who from density of intellect wish to be called the Holy Spirit saying that they not only speak from the Holy Spirit, but also dine with the Holy Spirit, and that some of them have the Spirit infused into their feasts.

[Marginal Note]
There are spirits, Quaker spirits, who, because of their worship by Quakers in the world, believe themselves to be the Holy Spirit and to have existed from eternity; but in the course of time they come among profane spirits who are called fecal and cadaverous spirits, being abominable excrement.

* George Fox, 1624-91, English dissenter and founder of a body of Christians who called themselves “Friends of the Truth,” which evolved into the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). He taught principally a reliance on the “inner light of the living Christ,” the voice of God speaking to the soul. To spread his views and organization he traveled on missionary journeys to Ireland, the West Indies, North America, and Holland.
** William Penn, 1644-1718, English Quaker and founder of Pennsylvania. Dismissed in 1661 from Christ Church, Oxford, for refusal to conform, in the latter 1660s he converted from Anglicism to Quakerism and began to write attacks on orthodox Anglican doctrines, for which he was imprisoned. During his confinement he wrote No Cross, No Crown (1669), a recognized classic of Quaker practice. Acquitted in 1670, Penn became increasingly interested in founding a colony in America for Quakers and others desiring liberty of conscience, which he finally accomplished in 1682. Returning to England in 1684, in 1692 he was deprived of the Governorship of Pennsylvania. From 1699 to 1701 he was again in Pennsylvania, but spent most of his life in England as a preacher and prolific writer in defense of Quaker principles.

60. [59.] The Papists’ Saints

When Papists, monks especially, come into the other life, they seek out saints, each one the saint of his order, as do Jesuits; and they also find them, but when they speak with them, they find no more saintliness in them than in others. When questioned the saints say that they have no more power than others, and that those who did not worship the Lord, but only the Father, have no power and are among the contemptible, whom their companions regard with disdain. Some of them know that they have been canonized, and when they pride themselves on account of it they are mocked by their fellows. Some do not know. Most of them are in a lower earth. Some, too, are in hell-those who in the world aspired to sainthood-because they did so from the insane love of wishing to be invoked and worshiped as gods, and that love profanes all the sanctity of heaven.
Nevertheless, monks, and especially Jesuits, conceal the fate of these people, and in public they lie, saying, because of their oath and obedience, that they are saints, even though they themselves laugh at them in their hearts.

61. [60.] I heard the Pope who lived in the year 1738* speaking, who turned away from the Babylonish** error, renounced all power over souls and over heaven, and became Christian, worshiping the Lord alone. He related to me that he had spoken with almost all who had been made saints, of both sexes, and that he had seen none of them in heaven except two; and these two, he said, abhor being invoked. He also said that many of them are not aware of their identity, and that some speak foolishly.
* i.e., Clement XII (born Lorenzo Corsini), 1652-1740, Italian ecclesiastic, pope 1730-1740.
** i.e., Roman Catholic.

62. [61.] St. Genevieve.* Genevieve occasionally appears to Parisians at a middling altitude in splendid attire, and displaying at those times a seemingly saintly countenance. She also allows herself to be viewed by the multitude; but when some of them begin to worship her, her countenance then instantly changes, and her clothing, too, and she becomes like any other woman. Moreover, she scolds them and reproaches their foolishness in being willing to worship a woman whose lot is no different from that of ordinary women, saying that she is no more esteemed among her companions than any other woman. She continues to scold them, too, until they are ashamed that people in the world are taken with such nonsense-adding that the reason she appeared to them as she did at first was to have it made known who among them were so deranged.
I heard some angels saying that she sometimes appears as described in order to separate worshipers of people from worshipers of God.
Genevieve also teaches them that she knows no more than others, and that she is not at all aware of her being invoked.
* Also St. Geneivieve or Genovefa, c. 422-c. 500, French nun and patron saint of Paris. Miraculous power was attributed to her because of her influence with the Frankish conquerors of Paris and her diversion from the city in 451 of the hordes of Huns under Attila II. After her death aid continued to be invoked, and the cessation of a fierce pestilence in 1129 was attributed to her intercession.

63. [62.] Genevieve says as well that she is not among the better people, and that whoever wishes to be greater than others becomes more lowly than others. She says, too, that for most people it is harmful to be canonized, because when they hear of it, they become, owing to their hereditary evil, puffed up in heart, and are removed to a place where they are entirely unaware of who they had been in the world.

64. [63.] Agnes.* Agnes lives in a chamber with maidens as her companions, and whenever she is summoned forth by some worshiper, she goes out and asks what they want with a shepherd girl who in herself is a lowly person and engaged with others in her work. At that point her companions come out, too, and she scolds her summoners until they are ashamed. And in order that they may be ashamed and desist from such endeavors, she is guarded to keep pride from entering into her. Now, however, she has been taken elsewhere, nor is she found any longer to the right among upright women, in whose company she is not tolerated unless she replies that she is vile.
* St. Agnes, 292?-304?, Child martyr of Rome and venerated since the 4th century.

65. [64.] People worshiped as saints in the world are of three types. Some are averse to the worship. They are protected by angels. Some reject it verbally, but in heart still harbor a wish to be worshiped. And some accept the worship; but these are profane, miserable and foolish.

66. [65.] Anthony of Padua.* Anthony appeared to me in front and down a little toward the plane of the foot. He appeared in indistinct clothing, and I spoke with him, asking whether he supposed himself to be a saint. At first he replied that he was anything but a saint, but still I perceived that he retained the arrogance of wishing to be one, so that I spoke with him somewhat harshly.
When someone comes to him, he is led to say that he cannot introduce anyone into heaven, and that he knows nothing at all of his being invoked, terming the notion a false one.
When people ask him what heaven is, whether it is the Lord, and whether it is love from Him and toward Him, and mutual love, he does not know, occasioning other spirits to make sport of him, and he tries to get away from them but is unable to.
I noticed an inner craftiness in him. He endeavors in secret ways to be worshiped, but is afraid, for it means his being thrust down into lower regions, where he suffers hardships. He is able artfully to bind the ideas and thought of others.
Anthony maintains a liaison with Jesuits who appear in white.
* St. Anthony of Antony of Padua, 1195-1231, learned Fransciscan friar and celebrated preacher in Italy and France. Possible during his life, and certainly after his death, he was widely regarded as a worker of miracles. Canonized in 1232, he is chiefly invoked for the return of lost property, and is regarded as a patron of the poor, the pregnant, and travelers.

67. [66.] Francis Xavier.* Francis Xavier lives deep down beneath the buttocks. He was a subtle magician, operating through married love** and innocence, doing so covertly.
* St. Francis Xavier (born Francisco Javier), 1506-1552, successful Spanish Jesuit missionary, especially in India and Japan, and titled “the Apostle of the Indies” and “the Apostle of Japan.” One of the seven original members of the Jesuit order, he has been credited with more than 700,000 conversions. Canonized in 1622, early in the 20th century he was named “Patron of Foreign Missions” by Pope Pius X.
** Or, conjugial love.

68. [67.] Ignatius.* Ignatius was in front, above. He was a good spirit. He said that he disliked the fact that he had been canonized, considering himself vile. He detested their making people saints. He knows about the Jesuits, even calling them atheists, and said that he shuns them.
* St. Ignatius of Loyola (born Inigo Lopez de Loyola), 1491-1556, Spanish soldier and ecclesiastic; founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). (Cf. Spiritual Experiences [interim] n. 4571, from which this passage was drawn and where he is called “father of the Jesuits.”) Ignatius laid the foundations of the Society of Jesus in 1534, when he and six others, among them Francis Xavier, made vows of chastity and poverty, intending to devote themselves to lives of piety and defense of apostolic Christianity. In 1537 the seven were ordained priests, and in 1540 the Society was formally sanctioned by Pope Paul III, Ignatius becoming its first general. He was canonized in 1622.

69. [68.] The Virgin Mary.* I saw Mary, the mother of the Lord. She appeared in snow-white attire to the side as if just passing by; and then, pausing a little, she said that she had been the mother of the Lord, that He had indeed been born of her, but that He had become God and put off all His maternal humanity. Therefore she now worships Him as her God, she said, and does not want anyone to acknowledge Him as her son, because everything in Him is Divine.
* Regarded by Roman Catholics as preeminent among the saints.

70. [69.] Muhammad and Muslims

Some observations regarding the Judgment upon Muslims, and the fact that there are two surrogate Muhammads beneath the Christian heaven, may be found in the small book The Last Judgment,*10 no. 50.
* The Last Judgement and Babylon Destroyed, published by the writer in its original Latin in London, 1758, some five years before the present work was written.

71. [70.] What a choir is, and the observation that by choirs spirits are introduced into a state of unanimity (as is the case when many speak and act together at the same time in unison), and that there is a harmony of sounds in their speech, may be found in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), nos. 1648, 1649, 2595, 2596, 3350, 5182, 8115.

72. [71.] Muhammad

I spoke with a surrogate Muhammad who substituted for him, who had his abode beneath the Christian heaven. I saw that the glory of the Lord was shown to Muslims, and that they then prostrated themselves in obeisance, as did their Muhammad also.

73. [72.] I heard Muslims speak so astutely and prudently that it embarrassed some Christian spirits-acknowledging Muhammad but worshiping the one and only Lord of the universe. At the same time Muhammad also swore that he had no power, and then he, too, worshiped the Lord.

74. [73.] Several times I have seen Muhammad driving away from him a crowd that was worshiping him, telling them to go to the Lord who rules the universe.

75. [74.] Some spirits were sent to me from Muhammad who were able to induce in me the appearance of being in a bath, pleasant because of the pattern of its flow.

76. [75.] Both Muhammads have confessed that the Lord is the source of all qualities of good and truth.

77. [76.] That the spirits who surround Muhammad are introduced by angelic choirs into a state of unanimity and concord in order that they may allow themselves to be acted upon and think, will and speak from the Lord through angels. (Regarding choirs, see above.*) I both saw and heard them produce through these choirs beautiful representations relating to the Lord, the Savior of the world. That choirs were presented by Muslims to much acclaim. Muslim choirs became more familiar to me than any others.
Because I spent considerable time with Muhammad, on one occasion, too, when I was in Amsterdam and in the court there (which he saw through my eyes and praised), he was taken with delight by the works of marble there, marble objects corresponding to the affections of Muslims who are in some degree spiritual. For all things are correspondent forms. Articles of gold correspond to affections of angels of the third heaven; articles of silver to those of the second heaven; articles of copper to those of the first heaven; and articles of oriental porcelain** to the lowest affections in heaven to Muslim affections, articles of marble.
* No. [71].
** Literally, “Indian porcelain.”

78. [77.] The two surrogate Muhammads were once taken up into heaven because that was their desire, and they then spoke with me from there. They said that from where they were they saw countless elements in one idea of thought, which they had believed when they were beneath heaven to be a single unit. This took place in order that they might know how the Lord leads a person, namely, by countless elements which in his natural state appear to a person as a single entity, when in fact each one has in it elements beyond description. It may be compared to a tiny little organism which to the naked eye looks like a single, indistinct dot, but which when viewed under a fine microscope is nevertheless a creature endowed with appendages, and also organs, and having within it muscles, fibers, heart, brain, and many other components. So it is with any single idea of a person’s thought.
Consequently, no one knows but the Lord alone what the character of a person’s thought and affection is, or how much living quality he has in him, that is, how much heaven; for a person has in him from the Lord as much humanity as he has heaven. This is what the two Muhammads learned by their elevation into heaven.

79. [78.] There were Muslims in the western zone living on rocks, who had been rejected by the surrogate Muhammad in the Christian domain because they worshiped Muhammad and revered him instead of God, something forbidden to them; and it was discovered that they entertained no thought at all of the Lord then, not thinking of Him as the greatest prophet or the Son of God. Moreover, when they were asked what idea they had of God the Father, they were found not to have the idea of a person, but no idea, and without an idea of God, no conjunction with any heaven is possible. They were told that they could have had rather an idea of God from the Lord, because He was a very great prophet and the Son of God. But they said they were incapable of this, for they were a promiscuous people.
Since they kept worshiping Muhammad, Muhammad himself-who wrote the Koran and was buried in Mecca-was brought up from his place, which was deep down to the right, a little behind the right foot, and having been raised up above ground level, he was shown to them. He appeared gross, in black apparel, altogether like carnal spirits who have little life. He spoke with them, confessing that it was in fact he and that he was as he appeared. Then, after he had been shown to them, he was conveyed back down to his place. But those worshipers of Muhammad were dispersed.

80. [79.] I later discovered where the two surrogate Muhammads came from who gained an abode beneath the Christian heaven. One of them, I learned, was born in Saxony, was captured by Algerians, and in Algeria took up the Muslim religion, and becoming a ship captain, after that was captured by the Genoese, and in Genoa accepted the Christian religion. [83.] Being as a consequence attached to both religions, and because he acknowledged the Lord and was impelled by a love of ruling, he was therefore in that place beneath the Christian heaven taken for Muhammad, and he inspired in Muslims the belief that he was in fact Muhammad. He was clever.
[Marginal Note] I heard the real Muhammad saying that he acknowledges the Lord as the one and only God, in whom is the Father, who is one with the Father, and that the holy atmosphere emanating from Him is the Divine atmosphere filling the heavens and forming the heavens.

81. [80.] The other surrogate Muhammad, however, I discovered was a Christian from Greece. He, too, was acknowledged as Muhammad by those who in the world had entertained the thought of there being more than one Muhammad.

82. [81.] Appearing in the first surrogate Muhammad is a luminous glow, like the glow of a torch, and when Muslims look in his direction, it flows from him into them through the agency of spirits. For separating distances in the spiritual world are only appearances, and when someone thinks about another, the distance vanishes and becomes presence. Muhammad is skillful in instructing those who question him.
It was granted me to perceive the atmosphere of their life. Outwardly pleasant, it inwardly harbored a lasciviousness which they have from their matrimony contracted with several wives and concubines. It contained a filthy heat, but a heat which to Muslims is pleasant.

83. [82.] Surrogate Muhammads are continually being substituted, one in place of another, and the reason is that each person after death is brought into the religious persuasion that he had in the world, death being a continuation of life; but afterward he is gradually led away from it, either to good spirits or to evil ones, depending on his life, in accordance with which he also accepts either truths or falsities.

84. [84.] Muslims

I was taken to a region inhabited by Muslims-a region which lay toward the right on a plane with the sole of the right foot-and while I was there I was kept in a state of thinking about the Lord, that the Father is in Him and He in the Father, and that the Holy Spirit emanates, thus in a state of thinking that He is the one God, who has in Him a trinity. All the inhabitants there then had the same idea, and acknowledged it altogether, and this throughout that whole district. It was granted me to know from this that among Muslims there are many who accept the belief about the Lord that He is one with the Father.

85. [85.] As I was being led around by the Lord through various localities in order for me to learn what the people were like from their own particular nation there, I came also to two mountains inhabited by Muslims. On one dwelled people who lived morally and well. They said that their goodness was due to the fact that they obeyed their officials.
On the other mountain dwelled people who were quite perceptive in spiritual matters. They told me to begin with that no others can come to them but those who are of a similar character. Thus Christians cannot come, they said, and if they do, it seems to them as though they are being swallowed up by wolves. Moreover, if any continue to approach, they put them into prisons and treat them badly, and afterward send them away. There are monks who are able to insinuate themselves by craft and art, but they are detected.
I spoke with these Muslims about their having several wives, and they listened to the reasons why it is according to Christian doctrine that a man should have only one wife. They perceived the justice in these reasons, but replied that they are still not able to give up matrimony with several, since it was granted to them by their religion in the world, and this because they are orientals, who, if not allowed more than one wife, would have erupted into adulterous affairs and so perished.

86. [86.] I spoke as well with some who serve as the military guards of their sultan, called Janissaries,* who had been first born of Christians, and became Muslims. They said that they were still Christian at heart, and that others were in between, and some Muslim.
* Members of an elite military unit of the Turkish army established in the 14th century by the sultan Orkhan and recruited originally from Christian youths and other war captives who were converted to Islam. They eventually made and unmade sultans, became ungovernable, and in 1826, after revolting against the sultan Mahmud II, were massacred by his agents in their barracks and the unit abolished.

87. [87.] When I spoke with the people on the second mountain, citing something from the Word, I perceived a reverence emanating from them. As, for example, when I said that the Lord was conceived of Jehovah, and that for that reason He called Him Father, and that it is because of that that He is the Son of God, and that therefore the Divine is in Him; moreover, that the Lord could for that reason glorify His whole body, so that the element of the body which is cast off by those who are born of human parents and decays, in His case was glorified and became Divine from the Divine in Him, and He rose with it, leaving nothing in the tomb, differently from what happens in the case of any other person. They listened attentively, and said they were surprised that they had not heard such things before.

88. [88.] In one city I saw a persecution of Muslims by Christians, a persecution from which they could hardly be rescued. It was carried on by cunning arts, of which there are many in the spiritual world. I then saw their city sink down a little at the center, and a wall was built around it, although the depression was so small that the people could climb up and down, and thus they were protected and delivered from their persecutors, who departed.

89. [89.] I was taken to Muslims in the eastern zone, and it was granted me to speak with them. They said that some Christians of the Roman Catholic religion come to them, and that they notice these do so only for the sake of material gain and dominion, and furthermore that they wish to possess all the goods of the world and also to exercise dominion over all the people there.
I had a conversation with them about God. They said that they could not comprehend how Christians can have a perception of one God when they name three and call these persons, even though there is but one God, and yet they have heard from Christians that they also say one God. Because this is a contradiction, they asked me what I knew concerning God. I said that in the Christian heaven they do not have the same belief or speak of it in same way, but believe and say that there is a Trinity in one Person, a Trinity which is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This Trinity exists in the Lord, they say, in whom the inmost element-which is the very being of life-is called the Father, in whom the second element-which is the expression of life from that being-is the Son, and in whom the third element is what emanates and is called the Holy Spirit. Moreover they say that such a union was brought into being by God the Father through His advent in the world, and that Christians can also be enlightened in regard to it since the Lord openly teaches that the Father is in Him,* that His Father and He are one,** and that the Holy Spirit does not speak of itself but from Him.*** But those of the Roman Catholic religion do not accept this, they say, for they maintain that they are the Lord on earth; neither do Protestants accept it who are caught up in a religion of faith alone.
This the Muslims comprehended. They said that they were thinking about it, desirous of enlightenment, an enlightenment which was afterward granted them, since it is a subject which cannot be comprehended without instruction from the Word.
* John 10:37, 38, 14:7-11, 17:20, 21
** John 10:30, 17:11
*** John 14:26, 16:13-15

90. [90.] I spoke with some Muslims about the resurrection, telling them that Christians believe the resurrection will first take place with the destruction of the world, at which time their bodies will be united with their souls, and will be gathered from every direction in which they were dispersed. But in the meantime, according to them, they are spirits, which they imagine to be like puffs of wind, particularly puffs of breath, which they picture therefore as flitting about either in the upper atmosphere or in outer space, without hearing, sight, or any other sense. There they wait in expectation of the Judgment, they say, and so, too, those who have died from the first dawn of this earth, who have thus been flitting about in the universe now for six thousand years. Moreover, some think these spirits are together somewhere, in what is not so much a place but some limbo or other, and also that angels are of a like character. Christians can scarcely comprehend that after death a person lives as a person as he did in the world, I said, for they are unable to entertain the idea of a spiritual body; but still, when not thinking in accordance with their doctrine, they think of themselves after death as living as people, as they do when they are close to death. So it is, I said, that those who eulogize the dead write openly of them as being among the angels, as speaking with them, clothed in white garments, living in paradises. But as soon as they approach ideas from doctrine, they think as I said, of a person after death and of an angel as being like a puff of wind.
After I finished speaking, the Muslims then replied that they were surprised it was possible for such a misconception to prevail among Christians, who claim to be more enlightened than the rest of mankind, saying that as Muslims they knew they would live after death, would live in a happy state of marriage, and would drink wine, and this after they had cast off the integuments which as their outmost clothing in that gross sphere had served them there as a body.

91. [91.] There are many Muslims who become Christians, acknowledging the Lord as the one and only God because the Father is in Him. When these are taken into heaven, they are conveyed first to the east, and then to the north, and from there they ascend higher and higher to the west, where they are at a quite lofty height. But still this is accomplished by a circuitous path or roundabout route according to their location below. Some of them appeared to ascend toward the south, being ones who had confirmed themselves in an acknowledgment of the Lord’s Divinity.

92. [92.] Owing to a natural sight, many Muslims have a better grasp of spiritual matters than Christians, because they think a great deal and desire truths. They understood well that all things in heaven and in the world relate to goodness and truth; that when truth is believed, it is a matter of faith, and that when a person is affected by goodness, it is a matter of love; that for this reason a person is given two faculties, intellect and will, the intellect for receiving truth, thus faith, and the will for receiving goodness, thus love; and that goodness and truth must be united, consequently the intellect and the will, for a person to be truly human, and so also faith and love. They clearly perceived from this that people who are possessed of goodness of life enjoy a perception of truth, because good seeks out truth and wills to be joined to it and to be as though nourished by it, truth being as spiritual food for good. Conversely, they also perceived that truth desires good in order for it to be anything, because without good truth has no life in it. Thus they perceived that there is a reciprocal desire of one for the other, and that this is what makes a person human.

93. [93.] The Judgment. I saw the judgment in which Muslims were conveyed from the west and led round about in their circuitous route, around the Papists, along a way toward the north and to the east, in what appeared to be a circular path. I saw also that on the way the evil were cast out of the compass of that route where there was a widely extended area, some into deserts there, some into swamps and marshes, some into dark forests. These places lay behind their mountain. To the side of that area of theirs in the north lay an immense and extensive gulf, into which many who had led an evil life were cast.
The rest continued by a roundabout way toward the east and there spread out into a large area extending further to the rear. Those brought there were ones who acknowledged God the Father, and the Son as a very great prophet, who is with the Father. The area was large, divided into mountains, hills, and valleys, over which they were distributed, and it is well with them there.
Those who were better still, enjoying an intellectual sight beyond that of the rest, were conveyed also to that place, where they had communication with the Christian heaven, although with a space intervening that separated them. They were ones who, having been instructed, accepted the Lord; and those who well accepted Him were conveyed into the south, where they found their heaven behind Christians there.

94. [94.] There were some who pretended to be Christian by feigning a belief in the Lord’s Divinity. These insinuated themselves among the others by cunning and guile, but being immediately detected, they were separated, and some were cast into a desert and an adjoining chasm, while others were taken back and dispersed.

95. [95.] There were some Muslims who, like the rest, acknowledged the Father only, and the Lord as a very great prophet, saying that they could not understand a distinction of the Divine into three persons, thus into three gods. They said that the Holy Spirit was God speaking through spirits and angels. A certain Christian known to me went over to them, asking why they do not acknowledge the Son of God as God. They said that One is God, and if they acknowledged the Son of God as God, too, there would be two gods. They inquired of him, therefore, how many gods he worshiped.
“One,” he replied, “because there is one God.”
However, when they examined the ideas in his thought (which is easily done in the other life), they found that he did not think of one God but three. They said that they saw him say “one God” with his mouth, while in heart and faith believing in three. And yet a Christian ought to speak as he thinks, they said, and not separate his mind from his speech as sycophants and liars do. Then, as he was unable to deny this, they said that Christians ought to be ashamed of thinking of three gods when no gentile having any intelligence thinks like that-having an idea of three while naming one. The Christian tried to say that the three are a one through unanimity, but it was impossible for him to mention even unanimity without an idea of three beings conversing with each other and concurring. (Besides, there cannot exist three essences which form one being unless they are a one as to person. One and the same essence belonging to three beings is not possible, still less in God who is indivisible. Furthermore, what person can be thought of by ordinary people on the basis of his essence, as the term is used in metaphysical philosophy, when he cannot be so thought of by one who is learned?)
Consequently the Christian was filled with shame, saying he would never return to them, and that he was going to ask someone about God’s being triune.
Later some angels spoke with the Muslims, teaching them that God is one both as to person and as to essence, in whom is the Trinity, and that the Son of God, whom they regard as a very great prophet, having been sent by the Father, cannot but be God, because He was conceived of God Himself as the Father. Thus the Divine itself was in Him from conception, and the Divine is indivisible.

96. [96.] The abodes of Muslims who remained settled after death are for the most part in the western zone. After the Last Judgment there came anew into that zone many who thought little about the God of the universe, and not at all about the Lord, but worshiped Muhammad as God; and because they did not find him, they chose another on a mountain overlooking the Christian domain, with whom they consulted and whom they obeyed. Moreover, by order of their new Muhammad, they then invaded the Christian domain and plagued the Christians in various ways. But after a visitation, in which it was discovered that they were a promiscuous people delighting in idleness, who were unwilling to do anything useful, they were cast into their hells.
They also affiliated themselves with Babylonians* and knew how to make themselves invisible. Finally the earth on which they stood was turned upside down and they with it, and they were cast into hell. There in their hell I saw a fiery glow.
* i.e., Roman Catholics.

97. [99.] The Judgment extended still further upon those in the west, over a long stretch of land and also toward the north, where they intermingled themselves with evil Papists; and I saw them cast into hells there and into gulfs.

98. [97.] After they had heard numerous reports about the Lord, many of the Muslims wanted to join the Christian Church in heaven; but they were told to remain as yet in their own religion, or in adherence to the doctrine they had from the Koran, that the Lord was a very great prophet, the Son of God, the wisest of all men, sent to teach the human race. They were told this because they are unable to acknowledge the Lord’s Divinity with the heart but only with the lips, since they have been imbued with the ideas of their religion from early childhood, and their spiritual goodness has been formed in part in accordance with such tenets as were articles of their faith, a goodness which cannot be extinguished so suddenly by a new article of faith. Let them only live lives devoted to honesty and justice, and thus to the goodness they know, because all honesty and justice are in themselves something Divine emanating from the Lord. In so doing, they were told, they may yet in their own way live faithfully and be led progressively to the Lord.
They were informed that many Christians do not think of the Lord’s Divinity, either, but only of His humanity, which they also do not consider Divine. So, for example, many Roman Catholics, and also Protestants, who therefore go to the Father that He may have mercy for the sake of His Son, and rarely to the Lord Himself. Because of that belief and prayer, they continue to retain an idea of the Lord as being a person like any other.

99. [98.] I was told that Muslims have a book among them which is in their hands and in common existence, in which some pages have been written in terms of things that correspond, as the Word was with us, from which they have some light in their heavens.

100. [100.] I had with me a number of spirits from Greece who in the world lived with Muslims, complaining that the Muslims used to then and continue now to accuse them of worshiping three gods. We reply that we worship one God and that the three are one, they said; but still they insist that we worship three since we name three, and they ask which god of the three we worship primarily. Then when we answer that we worship all three at the same time, they say that in that case one is God, and the other two minor deities, and that we are only calling them one. When they hear us say, however, that the three are equal, they give up and hold Christians in disdain as having little or almost no judgment in spiritual matters. They complained that the Muslims do not cease their harassment of them until they say that the three names are names of one God. Then they desist.
The Muslims later asked about the one God’s having three names. They were told from heaven that Christians took those names from the literal sense of the Word where three names for the one God are used; and that by the Father there is meant the Creator of the universe, by the Son the Savior of the human race, and by the Holy Spirit its Enlightener. Moreover, these three aspects exist in the Lord alone, they were told, and in Him the three are one-something He Himself teaches in the Word, but which is not known because of the Papist crew, who do not want the Lord’s humanity to be Divine, because they have claimed all His power for themselves (not wishing it to be called Divine power), and this that they might be gods on earth.
Furthermore, when the Muslims had it read to them from Matthew and Luke that the Lord was conceived of God the Father, so that the Divine was in Him, as that from which He was, they said they had supposed Him to have been the son of Joseph. And when they were told that He did not come into the world to reconcile the human race to the Father, but to conquer the devil, that is, to subdue the hells, in order to reduce all things into order in the heavens also, and at the same time to glorify His humanity or unite it with the Divine which was the very soul in Him from conception, and that in this and no other way could the human race have been saved, having listened to these things they fell silent, and many of them allowed themselves to be persuaded.

101. [101.] They were told that there are Muslims who have accepted the belief that the Lord is one with the Father, also that these Muslims have a heaven in which they enjoy every felicity, and that they live there from the Lord in a spiritual marriage of goodness and truth.

102. [102.] Some Observations Regarding Papists

The Pope who was pontiff in the year 1738* and who at the end of his life was then blind the same, while the Last Judgment was going on, lived at a height near a city in the northern zone, and I saw him at that time brought out, seated on a litter and carried, and conveyed into a secure place. Now because everyone after death is led first to his own religion and only afterward is withdrawn from it as far as possible, therefore Papists also seek the Pope, on which account someone is always set over them who takes on the name and function of Pope. The aforementioned pontiff served in this capacity for a long while after that; but when he noticed that he had no power to forgive sins or to open heaven, and realized that that power was Divine and so the Lord’s alone, he therefore began to turn away from that doctrine and afterward to abhor it, and he resigned from that position and took himself among Christians who worship only the Lord, and he is with them in heaven. I have spoken with him quite often, and he calls himself blessed to have embraced those truths and to have removed himself from an idolatrous religion.
He has told me that he entertained similar thoughts in the world, and that he acknowledged in heart that the Word was holy and that the Lord should be worshiped; but he could not then recant, he said, for reasons which he also enumerated.
* i.e., Clement XII (born Lorenzo Corsini), 1652-1740, Italian ecclesiastic, pope 1730-1740.

103. [103.] A different result occurred, however, with his successor, Benedict XIV.* He declared that he had confirmed in his heart that because the Lord had transferred all power over the heavens to Peter, the Lord had no power left, and consequently no longer any holiness. I saw him speaking with Sixtus V,** who was summoned up from below, but afterward sank down again. I heard him saying something about the Word and still more about the Bull Unigenitus,*** but we do not have the space here to present what he said.
Benedict was a clever man, and I found him at first civil, then perceptive. He loved the Jesuits more than other orders. He also descended to Jesuits in their hell, and have I not seen him ascend from there as yet. Neither do I much suppose he will ascend, as he said he had confirmed and supported the Bull Unigenitus, because to his mind, he said, the Holy Scripture was not equal to papal dictate but lesser. When it was shown to him that the Word was sacred in every one of its expressions, and that these constituted an end less series of correspondent forms, and that the Word consequently served the whole of heaven, he regarded this as of no account, saying that a papal dictate had the same sacred character. However, he was told that in every pronouncement that the Pope makes in Consistory there is something which draws its character from an infernal love of ruling over heaven and earth, and of claiming Divine power for self and so of being worshiped in place of God, and such a pronouncement has in it hell and not heaven. He was also shown what kind of spirits dictate the pronouncement, and who then swell and stir the breast, namely, that they are hellish spirits who in heart wish to be hailed as the Holy Spirit. But he reasoned in opposition to this.
* Benedict XIV (born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini), 1675-1758, Italian ecclesiastic, pope 1740-1758, remembered as a scholar and patron of the arts.
** Sixtus V (born Felice Peretti), 1521-1590, Italian ecclesiastic, pope 1585-1590.
*** A papal bull issued by Clement XI on September 8, 1713, a well-known and controversial document in the 18th century, condemning 101 propositions extracted from Pasquier Quesnel’s Reflexions Morales. Quesnel (1634-1719) was a French Jansenist.

104. [104.] Louis XIV,* king of France, is today among the happy, having been made governor by the Lord over the best society of the French nation in the spiritual world, formed of those arriving from the world. He acts uprightly and justly, and is zealous in providing whatever may be useful to his subjects there. He acknowledges the Lord and the fact that the Lord has power over heaven and earth. He reads the Word and shuns guileful and cunning practices. He told me that he had been of the same character in the world.
On one occasion when I was speaking with him, he suddenly descended, as though by steps, it seemed, to a place below me and a little to the fore, and I perceived that he was then in appearance as though at Versailles. I also then perceived that he had entered into a kind of trance, and instantly a silence surrounded him, and me as well. This lasted for two hours, and after that he ascended and said to some bystanders that he had spoken with the king of France, his grandson,** who reigns today, and that he had urged him to refrain from confirming the Bull Unigenitus.*** He also said that he would otherwise meet with misfortune. He did not know whether he perceived this in a clear vision, he said, or in a vague one, such as occurs in the thought with some emotion of the heart. This took place on the 13th day of December, 1759, about 7 or 8 o’clock in the evening, approximately.
* Louis XIV (called also “Louis the Great,” “the Sun King”), 1638-1715, king of France 1643-1715.
** Louis XV, 1710-1774, king of France 1715-1774, actually the great-grandson of Louis XIV.
*** A papal bull issued by Clement VI on January 27, 1343, which gave official approval to the teaching of the Schoolmen that indulgences owed their efficacy to the Pope’s dispensation of the accumulated merit of the Church.

105. [105.] Babylonians* since the Last Judgment continue to gather daily upon mountains in the west as before. The reason is that a spirit after death cannot go anywhere else than to the place where his life is found. Thus Babylonians are upon mountains, where some of their predecessors had made for themselves what appeared to be new heavens. But as soon as the number gathered there reaches about two hundred, they are cast down into hells as previously. Moreover, this continues until everything has been reduced to such a state of order that no one can go anywhere else after death than to his own hell, and none of them are able to remain on the land there; and this is the case when those places are occupied by societies in which the people acknowledge and worship the Lord.
[106.] The southern zone where the richest people were and where Jesuits had a great city-a zone which was completely overthrown, as may be seen from the description of the Last Judgment** is still a wasteland; and I have seen monks there sometimes, who, because they have heard of treasures having been buried there, still flock in to search for them, but in vain.
* i.e., Roman Catholics.
** See The Last Judgment and Babylon Destroyed, no. 61.

106. [107.] They also do not cease still to send out emissaries into the Protestant Christian domain in order to seduce them as they did in the world. They are monks who yearn only for material gain, and who aspire to supreme, even Divine, power; and they are so mentally barren as to know nothing of Divine truth, but yet prevail over others by their guile. Nevertheless they are searched out, and having been found are miserably punished.

107. [108.] I had it personally shown to me why Babel or Babylonia* was called Lucifer, son of the morning, in chapter 14 of Isaiah. That Babel is meant by Lucifer there** is apparent from preceding and following verses in that chapter (regarding which, cite what is said there), and from the fact that in the beginning Babel worships the Lord and observes His commandments more than others, with a view to dominion, but that in the process of time dominion takes priority, until at last it thrusts even the Lord from the throne and places itself upon it.
* A symbolic reference here and in the Word to the Roman Catholic Church.
** i.e., in Isaiah 14:12.

108. [109.] That women and maidens who lived in convents and entertained lascivious thoughts, and still more those who committed lascivious acts, are cast into hells where they suffer dreadful torments. Moreover, those who devoted themselves to piety alone and did not do any work are split up among adherents of their religion to act as maids, learning that mere piety in a state of idleness does not contribute to salvation. But those who were industrious and loved to work-they are allotted places among women in the churches with whom all is well.
Those who in their convents were diligent, serving others there in various ways in attending to food, clothing, and other employments in their community, and who did these things out of charity and affection-such are conveyed out of that territory to a region on the border between the south and the west, where they form a society which is secure from persecutions and men, and they are sent to instructors who teach them truths of faith, for they are more capable of being taught than the others.

109. [110.] There was a vast multitude of Papists dwelling to the east, occupying that whole territory all the way from the eastern zone to the southern one, and extending to gentiles there upon its mountains and plains. That entire multitude was transferred by a direct route into the west, where they were given abodes on hills and plains over a widely extended area. They were people who had lived intent on good, even though lacking in truths, who had performed good works in accordance with their religious belief, and who were of such a nature that they would not harm others or employ artful schemes. It was apparent that they desired truths from the fact that as they traveled along the route, it appeared as though they were asking each other for silver and clothing, as the children of Israel did from the Egyptians, which symbolized their desire for truths and their reception of these from them-from such as do not do anything good.

110. [111.] The vast multitude was examined to discover what affection the people had for truth arising from good, and whether at the same time they lived intent on the goodness of charity. That examination took the appearance of a sudden and instantaneous transferral to various zones. Those who were at the center remained there, because they possessed an affection for truth and wished to be imbued with truths of faith. The rest were sent back to be instructed first in some doctrine of truth by instructors of their own who had been upright monks, and at the same time from the Word; and afterward they were conveyed to those of the Protestant Reformed who, because of their having lived according to truths of the Word, were now angelic spirits.

111. [112.] I also saw of the Catholic population a vast multitude of spirits who had been hidden away by the Lord and for a long time kept apart so as to be preserved from being infected by the idolatry of the rest, because they lived well and acknowledged the Lord. And these were conveyed, some to the south, some to the east, some to the west, and some to the north, in order to form some sort of heavenly society and be further instructed. To this end angels were sent to them, not only to instruct them, but also to protect them from cunning and guileful persons of their denomination and from the influx emanating from their hells.
In short, many great societies have been established out of Catholics, and some of their number introduced into societies where the Word is freely read and the Lord worshiped. Then, after they have been instructed and have accepted truths of faith in the goodness of love, they are elevated into heaven; for it is not their fault that they were born into that denomination.
All their little children are in heaven. But these are unaware of the falsities of their parents, not knowing that they are their parents. They are reared under the Lord’s guidance by angels.

112. [113.] The most malicious of Roman Catholics become the stupidest, for the reason that when malice permeates all the inner elements of their minds and destroys every spiritual truth, they become then first insane and afterward stupid. They are sent underground between the west and the north. When anyone arrives at that site, a great stupor seizes his thinking and lethargy his body.
Many of them were devil-worshipers and had books which contained the doctrinal tenets of their worship. One or two of the books were taken from them and read in the presence of others, in which was found a doctrinal declaration to the effect that they petition God the Father to excuse them for turning to the devil, because they had sought and had not received aid from God the Father; and knowing that they do receive aid from the devil, they therefore turn to him, calling him their benefactor.
The second book, inscribed with nothing but symbols and squiggly lines, on being opened and deciphered, taught that they have nothing from the Divine, but everything from the devil. When asked the reason, they said that they do not obtain from God by their prayers their wish to exercise dominion over the souls of people and over the goods of their land as they did in the world. They were told that no one obtains this by prayer. Upon being exposed, they became at first insane, and presently they rushed from the mountain they were on, down the southern side of the mountain, into a dreadful hell where devil-worshipers dwell, and their houses collapsed into heaps. One of them ran over to me, and he was dark like a devil.

113. [114.] Those of them who are upright by nature cannot live together with those who have acquired a spiritual uprightness in consequence of an affection for truth; for upright people without that spiritual uprightness are easily led astray, believing everything, even cunning lies, and worshiping idols. Therefore they are among those who serve others as maids and servants, by whom they are protected from being approached by monks.

114. [115.] Africans

Among the blackest Africans are some who like to be punished and to be treated harshly in order to enter heaven, saying afterward that they detest their blackness because they know that their souls are white and only their bodies black.

115. [116.] I have heard it reported that the Church today is being established among many in Africa, that they are currently receiving revelations, and that they are receptive of the doctrine of heaven, especially as regards the Lord.

116. [117.] I was led through several regions in front of me toward the left. After that I saw a large palace, having a spacious courtyard. Someone spoke with me there, saying that a revelation had been promised and that he was awaiting it. Moreover, a luminous glow appeared then surrounded by darkness, which was a sign that a revelation was now to be made. Then, as I was waiting attentively, I heard that the people were anticipating a revelation concerning the Christ, whom they call the one and only man, in consequence of whom every person is human. And then one of the angels spoke with them and instructed them concerning the Lord, telling them that He is the one and only God. They said that they perceived this, but not as yet that He was born a man; but after having been instructed by angels they understood this, too, saying that it happened for the salvation of the human race. They knew in addition many other things about heaven and hell, things of which Christians are unaware. I was told that they were Africans.
I was afterward led from there toward the right, where I heard people saying that they had awaited a revelation, and that angels from the Lord were now speaking with them and instructing them about the Lord, with the promise that they would receive the doctrine of heaven. These people said that it had to have happened that God, the creator of the universe, should appear in the world, because He created them and loves them, and that this appearance had to be made even to the sight of the eyes in human form.

117. [118.] I was subsequently shown in a hazy vision how the doctrine of heaven was spreading in Africa, namely, toward the interior parts even to the center, and then continuing toward those who live on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, but not reaching the coast, and then after a time turning around toward Egypt.
Angels rejoiced on that account, seeing that the Lord’s advent was now at hand once again, and that a new church was now being established with which they could be affiliated.
That doctrine does not reach all the way to Africans living along the coast, since Christians come there who introduce obstacles to its reception, and who have a human concept of the Lord and not a Divine one.
Africans are more receptive of the doctrine of heaven than others on this earth, because they willingly accept the doctrine concerning the Lord. They have as though instinctively in them the idea that God must altogether appear as a person. They have a capacity to accept truths of faith, and especially the goods it teaches, because they are of a celestial disposition.
They were told that the Lord had foretold His advent, and the establishment of a new church to follow the old one, and that His appearance is made through angels who teach.

118. [119.] I was taken again to Africans by a way leading first to the north and then to the west. I saw there what appeared to be a palace with some people about it, and afterward traveled on beyond, where I stopped; and I heard that a great number of emissaries were being sent from the Christian heaven to the people there, who were Africans, and who in that place were ones who in the world had lived according to their religious faith and acknowledged one God in human form. These Africans were told that a person who lives intent on good in accordance with religion possesses as well an affection for truth, because goodness of life desires nothing more than truth, inasmuch as it desires to know how one is to live well. Persons of that character consequently rejoice on being instructed. Moreover, all such persons receive truths from the Lord, they were told, and are enlightened according to the nature and extent of the goodness of their life. The Africans acknowledged this and were delighted by it.
The African people are more capable of enlightenment than all other peoples on this earth, because they are of such a character as to think interiorly and thus to accept truths and acknowledge them. Others, such as Europeans, think only externally, receiving truths in their memory, but not seeing them interiorly in any light of the understanding-a light which they also do not acknowledge in matters of faith.
I told them that few Christians live in accordance with religion, but in accordance with civil laws, and morally and well for the sake of reputation, honors and opportunities for material gain, and that they rarely think to live in accordance with doctrinal precepts, even believing themselves to be saved by faith in their doctrine, and not by an accompanying life. Consequently they also do not have doctrinal precepts governing life.
The Africans were very astonished at this, not wishing to believe it to be so, believing rather that there is no one who does not live in accordance with his religion, and that if he does not, he must inevitably become stupid and evil, because he then does not receive anything from heaven.

119. [120.] All people are examined after death to discover what idea they have of God. This idea is the principal one of all, because conjunction with the Lord and conjunction with heaven are formed in accordance with it, and every element of love and faith connected with the church is therefore formed in accordance with it, because every element of the church is Divine, indeed is God. Consequently every element of the church in a person flows from his idea of God. Thus the character of that idea in a person determines the character of his heaven.
Africans, too, differ from each other according to their idea of God. Some of them worship an invisible God and a visible one. Some make of these two separate beings; some make them one and the same. Some have been taught by Christians that God was born a man, and they accept this; but when they hear Christians distinguish the Divine into three persons, they go away, believing nevertheless that even if Christians say three, they must still think one; for they do not comprehend what a Son born from eternity is.
Some of the best among them believe that God is altogether a person. They say that those who believed that God was born a man had once seen a bright star in the sky.
The wiser of them believe that God was born in the world as a man and thus manifested Himself.

120. [121.] I was told that in a certain region of Africa they have handed down from ancient time a book which they hold sacred, written in terms of things that correspond in a similar manner as the Word among us.

121. [122.] A certain priest, who had supposed no one to be capable of an idea of the Divine Human, was transported into societies of Africans, and he found that they had no other idea than that of a Divine Human.

122. In African Ethiopia they have several psalms composed in a style similar to that of our Word, and I was told that they sing them in their temples and that spirits experience a resulting communication. In the spiritual sense they have as their theme the one God, the Redeemer of the human race. But we have recounted this already, in dealing with the Word, no. [18].*
* See De Verbo, no. 18:2.

123. [123.] It was granted me to speak with African spirits about various matters, and they absorbed all the truths of the Church with a clear perception. Moreover, when the Word was presented to them, they understood it in its inner, spiritual meaning, and they gave it to their elders, who said that they have the Word in their possession, and that it is most sacred.

124. [124.] They afterward showed me what the people are like in Africa, which they know from societies of that race in the spiritual world; namely, that in the interior of Africa are found the best and the wise; that those who are not good dwell along the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in the vicinity of Egypt and toward the Cape of Good Hope; and that there is a region inhabited by good people extending from Ethiopia toward the center, into which foreigners from Europe are not admitted, and if they make their way in and are unwilling to serve, the people sell them to Asians.
The spirits also said that some of them currently speak with Africans in the world and instruct them orally, that their speech with them descends chiefly into their inner perception, and that they sense the influx, thus receiving the revelation with enlightenment. They speak in this way with their teachers, they said, in whom the people have confidence.

125. [125.] Gentiles

Concerning the lot of gentiles and people outside the church, see what I wrote in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven), nos. 2589 to 2604, and in the book Heaven and Hell, nos. 318 to 328. Something on the subject may be seen also in the small book The Last Judgment, nos. 47 to 51. That a new heaven was formed of both Christians and gentiles, and that the Lord’s Church exists among them on earth, may be seen in The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, nos. 3, 244-246.

126. [126.] About the time of the Last Judgment Christians in the spiritual world appeared there in the middle, arranged at various distances from the center to the peripheries and also in the directions of the points of the compass according to their light of truth from a love of good. Around that middle area appeared Papists in front, then Muslims, similarly arranged in the directions of all the points of the compass, in proximity to the Christians according to their light of truth from good. Beyond that perimeter appeared gentiles, arranged in groups according to their religious persuasion and according to their life in consequence of it. They all have similar lands, distinguished into mountains, hills, rocks and valleys, and extending over these are expanses in which the best of them dwell, who have received from angels truths of doctrine regarding the Lord and life. Beyond those peoples appeared as though a sea, which constituted the final boundary.
All those circular bands taken together do not stretch out into a flat plane but into a globe, like the earth. Consequently, when I was taken to gentiles, after passing through Muslims I descended at an angle.

127. [127.] While the Last Judgment was going on, gentiles who dwelled in the western zone beyond the Muslims were then conveyed toward the east, not by a circular route, however, but over the northern plane of Christians and, what surprised me, at a height, so that they were transferred by a route above the Christians, and yet they did not communicate with them. They were then allotted places around the Muslims in the east and also in the south.
Over where the Muslim heavens are, on either side of them, appeared chasms sloping down to a depth. Into these were cast the evil among them who worshiped idols and entertained no thought of God, and who at the same time lived an evil life.
[128.] There is also a similar chasm on the northern side of the Muslim desert. Into it were cast the worst of them. So, too, many of the Roman Catholic religion who worshiped images of the saints and thought not at all of the Lord. The latter were gathered from the northern zone beneath mountains there and mixed with gentiles, because they are of a similar character.
After that I saw the whole northern valley, reaching to the mountains there, completely torn up and all who were there scattered; and there appeared then as though a cloud of smoke.

128. [129.] I was later taken beyond the Muslims to some gentiles who dwelled in the eastern zone, and it was granted me to speak with them. They said that they were sorrowful that the Divine does not appear to them, even though they think about the Divine and talk about Him, hoping therefore that, if there is a God, He would send them someone to teach them. But they had long waited for this in vain, they said, lamenting that He had perhaps deserted them, and thus they saw no other outcome for them but to perish.
However, I then heard angels speaking with them from heaven, saying that God could not be shown to them because they were unwilling to believe that God was born a man in the world or that He assumed a humanity, and until they believed this, God could not be shown to them, nor could they be taught, because this is the primary tenet of all revelation.
The gentiles said that they did in fact believe that God is a person, but that they could not comprehend His having been born a man in the world. They received the reply, however, that He was not born a man like any other, since He was not born of a human father but of Jehovah as the father, and this by means of a virgin, and consequently He was not like any other person; for a person’s soul from a human father is a vessel recipient of life, while the Lord’s soul from Jehovah as the father is life itself, which gives life to all others. The difference is as that between the human and the Divine, between the finite and the infinite, or between the created and the not created, they were told; and because the Lord was such in respect to his soul, His body could not help but become like the soul after He cast off that element of His body which He had from His mother. Therefore He also rose in respect to His whole body, neither did He leave anything of it in the tomb, as happens in the case of all other people, who rise only in respect to their spirit, and never in respect to their material body.
These gentiles were told further that the Divine itself, as it is in itself, which is infinite, could not but cast off the finite element which came from the mother and put on the infinite one from the Father, thus the Divine.
They said that they had not known anything else than that He was, like any other person, born of a human father, and thus had died, and had afterward been accepted by people as God, and that they now knew that the Lord was not such a person as others are.
After receiving these explanations they were divided, and those who accepted the belief were instructed by angels in regard to the other constituents of faith and love.

129. [130.] I was conveyed to some who knew nothing of God in the world and were said to live on a certain island, but who nevertheless led a well-behaved life with each other. They appeared to me not as human beings but as apes, yet having still a human face. They so appeared because they knew nothing of God, and the Divine is in the likeness of a human being. One of the Christians was put in charge of them by the Lord. I spoke with him, and he said that they obey him and love him, that they are unassuming and carry out their tasks, but that at first they could hardly grasp matters having to do with religion. After some time, however, they were granted a closer communication with Christians, he said, and they began to receive some measure of religion; and he cherished the hope that they could be reformed, because they had led a well-behaved life and were obedient and hardworking.

[Marginal Note] on similar matters elsewhere, see below, page 129 [no. [191]

130. [131.] I saw others appearing similarly, who had lived on an island in the west Indian Ocean, who did not have any thought of God, either, thus no religion, and who yet lived with each other honestly and amicably. I was told that at first they seemed devoid of rationality, but because they had not adopted any principles of falsity contrary to religion, some of them nevertheless allowed themselves to be instructed like little children, and are becoming much improved.
It was shown me that their life’s delight was to willingly serve in the service of others. They were once given some possessions of value, but they offered them to the angel who instructed them, in order that he might accept them as his servants and so teach them how to live. One of the delights of angels is to instruct such people and lead them to heaven.

131. [132.] I was once in a serene sleep, and when I awoke, I saw around me several Chinese people, who I realized were sitting with their legs crossed. They were speaking among themselves, and I discovered that they were sent to me by the Lord in order that I might know what many of them are like. Some angels said that the pleasantness of my sleep had flowed from the fact that angels had been speaking with these Chinese persons about God and the wonders of His wisdom, and that the Chinese were so delighted at this that they experienced the tranquillity of a heavenly state of peace. Moreover, evil spirits could not approach, they said, because the Chinese were of a spiritual-celestial character.

132. [133.] I had with me some spirits from Tartary* who used to live outside the Great Wall of China, saying that their land is a populous one and that they knew nothing of war; saying also that they have no love of ruling, and that they give the government to those who say they are able to rule or govern, and if anyone is not able, he is fined and dismissed, while those who do what is right and just are loved; and saying that they are all engaged in some work, and that they cast out any who are idle.
They say that Christians sometimes come to them, and they wonder at their saying that God is a person, because they believe all people know this. They also say that they have the precepts of the Decalogue, and that they live according to them because it is God’s will. They said that they have a sacred book, which others do not know about, and which they understand. I then inquired about it. It was the Psalms of David.
They call the Chinese their friends because they have the same national heritage, and they do not think about war. If any foes should come, they would all leave with their possessions without the others’ knowing. I also saw a Christian priest among spirits from that region. They have a tranquil disposition.
* The historical name of a region of indefinite extent in east Europe and Asia, designating the area overrun by the Tartars in the Middle Ages.

aRef Rev@21 @1 S0′ 133. [134.] The Last Judgment on Protestants or the Reformed

1. Prior to the Last Judgment, which was a general judgment, there preceded judgments less general, which could be called preparatory ones, by which those who were more outwardly evil were cast into hells.
It should be known that between the time of the judgment executed by the Lord when He was in the world and the judgment which has now taken place, spirits who then lived a moral life outwardly and confessed God with their mouth, but did not do so inwardly or with the heart, ascended upon mountains and hills, and there made for themselves seeming heavens. They ascended upon mountains there by various arts, of which there are many in the spiritual world, all unknown in our world, so that the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, was filled with such heavens, and consequently communication of the Lord and heaven with the human race was interrupted. This also was the reason that the spiritual contents of the Word and doctrines emanating from it were not disclosed until after the Last Judgment; for by that judgment the world of spirits was purified and communication with mankind opened. If they had been revealed sooner, the spiritual contents of the Word and doctrines emanating from it would not have been accepted or understood; and if accepted and understood, still hell, which prevailed at that time, would have stolen them from people’s hearts and profaned them.
Those counterfeit heavens are the ones meant in the book of Revelation by the heaven and earth which passed away.* They could pass away, but our visible heaven, which is the firmament containing all things, has been so created that it cannot pass away; for if it were to pass away, the angelic heavens would pass away also. It would be like taking away the foundation of a palace or the base of a column, which would cause the building or column to fall. For there is a connection of all things from first to last, from the Lord Himself to the final element of His work, which is the visible heaven and the habitable earth. The same thing would happen if the human race were to perish. In that case also the angelic heavens would collapse, for the same reason.
* Revelation 21:1.

134. [135.] 2. Before the Last Judgment I often saw societies which they had made into seeming heavens for themselves purged and also destroyed.
There was a certain rock on which stood a quite large city, inhabited by people who were caught up in faith separated from charity, believing as they had in the world that faith alone saves, and this out of mercy alone, whatever kind of life they had led. They were prompted by a lust to command, and therefore they stood at the edges of the rock and in various ways would torment those who were below. When the visitation took place, and all there were found to be of this character, I saw that rock sink down deep into the earth with the city and its inhabitants.
Similar occurrences took place elsewhere. Prior to such an occurrence, however, the good are separated from the evil, and the evil placed at the center, and then the center sinks, the surrounding area remaining. In the surrounding area are those possessed of the goodness of faith, that is, those who are in a state of charity.

135. [136.] 3. All people who have not denied God with the mouth, even though denying Him at heart, and who have led a moral life because of the civil laws, when they come into the other life, then, for the sake of their reputation and consequent honors and material gains, convey themselves into societies where there are cities, and there, as in the world, live morally and well, owing to a fear of punishment and the loss of honor and material gain. But when their outward pretenses are stripped away and they are brought into their inner qualities, they rush into villainous evils. However, as the malicious among them grow in number, the society is then corrupted, on which account angels are sent there to examine their condition and to separate the good from the evil, and the good are either sent to the fringes of the society or removed. Then the city sinks with the evil into hell, to a depth commensurate with their malice.
I once saw four angels sent to such a city, and when they arrived there they entered one of the houses; but the wicked inhabitants of the city, incited by their presence into a profound state of malice (as happens), rushed to the house where the angels were, crying out whether they did not wish to come out to engage in licentiousness, which they tried to urge them to do, and they attempted almost to do violence to them, but in vain. The event, in short, was like the event at Sodom, and the city was entirely destroyed and its inhabitants cast into hells.
The reason they tried to draw the angels out to engage in licentiousness was that the people gathered there were ones who in the world had regarded adulterous affairs as allowable. They also were ones caught up in doctrinal falsities, because they paid no attention to the way they lived, and because they falsified the Word to confirm those falsities; and all who falsify the Word to confirm evils of life and doctrinal falsities regard adulterous affairs as allowable and are swept along into them.

136. [137.] 4. I also saw a rock having such a city upon it plucked up from its location and transferred to another site a considerable distance away. It looked like a passing cloud, and when it arrived at its destination I saw it also sink, because that was where the inhabitants’ hell was. The inhabitants had first been impelled into a state of stupor.

137. [138.] 5. People who settle themselves on rocks are mostly ones caught up in faith separated from charity, and those who settle themselves on mountains that are higher than rocks, ones caught up in love of self. So it is that in the Word a rock symbolizes faith, and a mountain, love. Moreover, when the evil had been thus gathered onto rocks and mountains prior to the Last Judgment, they experienced suddenly then first quakings and movements of the earth, by which are meant perversions of state in respect to the Church; and this was followed by everything being then overturned, which was occasioned either by their sinking down, or by their being transferred, or by their being cast out, and so thrust down into hell.
As for the mountains and hills on which angels dwell, the wisest are at the center and the less wise on the peripheries. But on those on which the evil dwell, the worst are at the center and the better ones on the peripheries.
The sinking occurs at the center and looks like a swirling vortex, but spiraling down.

138. [139.] 6. There was a level stretch of land somewhat more elevated than a valley. Gathered there was a multitude of spirits who had learned how to accomplish evil ends by cunning and guile, and to place themselves invisibly behind other people and impel them to think and say what they wished them to, thus evil and falsities. They developed these arts in consequence of their possessing an insane love of ruling over others.
Because it was also discovered that their malice was complete, their destruction occurred. That whole plain was overturned, and in another place the earth then opened and good spirits rose up, spirits who had been hidden away by the Lord in a lower earth and protected from being infested by the evil. These then replaced the first spirits and came with all their number into possession of their land. Such events were represented by the children of Israel who were given the land of Canaan after the malice of the nations there was complete.

aRef Rev@21 @1 S0′ 139. [140.] 7. After numerous destructions and quasi-judgments had been accomplished, which were forerunners of the general destruction and judgment, and companies of spirits who were impure had been cast into pools, lakes, swamps and gulfs, that is, into hells, others then came there who were skilled in the art of inspiring and inciting others to evils in their inner thought. These stirred up their hearts against the Lord, and against the Divine truth issuing from Him, causing a multitude to begin to rise as one whole mass in ferment. The tumult then spread from there in every direction, as when a rebellion is begun by a few and yet at last incites a mob-in this case spreading onto a number of rocks and mountains, extending to their peaks and from there to the sides, and descending even to their foundations. I saw the mob stretching far and wide. Their intent was to destroy those who acknowledged the Lord and also worshiped Him, and who were in possession of Divine truths from Him.
When it was noticed how broadly the contagion had spread, then the Lord’s advent took place for the general judgment. This advent was a flowing in of the Lord through the heavens into those people, an influx which looked like a misty atmosphere enveloping those mountains and rocks, and it carried off the inhabitants there-not casting them down but bearing them away. That Divine atmosphere entered into their interior elements and laid them open. Thus what lay hidden in their will and heart became apparent, and this carried them away and bore them down into hells in accordance with the evils of their life. I saw that Divine atmosphere swirling around in circles, sometimes reversing course, and it also drew those people from places where they had hidden themselves. This was accomplished with tens of thousands within an hour’s time.
At the conclusion of these events, the tops of the mountains began to subside, and the mountains themselves sank down all the way to level ground, and a solitude appeared.
Such phenomena are meant in the book of Revelation by the first heaven and the first earth which John saw pass away,* for mountains in the spiritual world, with their rocks and valleys, look there like our earth in the world, and they call their habitations on mountains there heavens. The people who were thus carried off and cast down are those meant in the book of Revelation by the dragon and its two beasts (chapters 12, 13), and by the false prophet, who were cast into the lake of brimstone and fire (chapters [19, 20]).**
* Revelation 21:1.
** See Revelation 19:20, 20:10.

aRef Rev@21 @1 S0′ 140. [141.] 8. The Judgment on Protestants or the Reformed took place as follows: Those who had led a life of charity-which can also be called a life of faith-were all taken up into heaven long before the universal Judgment, and those who in heart had rejected heaven and had led an evil life were all by turns cast into hell as they came from the world. The Judgment was executed solely on those who professed religion and acted as though in accordance with religion, but did so only hypocritically. It had been granted them in the world of spirits to gather in many places and to make a pretense of religion as they had in the world, although in fact they had no religion. These were the ones who made heavens for themselves, and who are meant by the first heaven and the first earth,* who by arts unknown in the world were able to create splendid surroundings and also to persuade people like themselves that they were in heaven. Their outer elements communicated with the lowest heaven, but their inner ones with the hells, and because of their communication with the lowest heaven they were tolerated, in accordance with the Lord’s words regarding the rooting up of the tares.**
The angels of the lowest heaven were first separated from them and the communication broken-as happens comparably with the seeds in fruits when they have ripened, the seeds then separating themselves of their own accord from the flesh of the fruit when it is time to produce a new tree.
* Revelation 21:1.
** Matthew 13:24-30,36-43.

141. [142.] 9. All Protestants or Reformed for whom there was still some hope were gathered in the center, where all were arranged according to their kingdoms in the world, because these in turn made for diversities in their dispositions or affections. Above them and also around them, however, were those who read the Word, went often to churches, but yet made evils of life of no account, loving themselves and the world above all else. They formed a great multitude there. Surrounding the central area, containing Christians possessing the goodness of faith and charity, were black caverns slanting downward into the hells, which occupied a broad space below, where there were hells beneath hells. Such chasms and gulfs existed on every side of that center area-to the east, west, south, and north. The hells extended also under the circular band formed by the Papists around the Reformed.
All the inwardly evil were arrayed around the Christian center, and they were taken from every point to those gulfs and cast into them. Thus into the gulf in the east were cast those gathered from the east, who were people caught up in love of self, especially in a love of ruling, and who knew nothing other than that faith alone saves. Into the gulf in the south were cast those who were versed in the doctrinal teachings of faith; into the gulf in the west those who were caught up in love of the world; and into the gulf in the north those who were without understanding, but who simply listened to sermons and did not afterward take away any instruction.

142. [143.] 10. First to be taken were those from the south, then those from the west, and finally those from the east. This happened at the same time that the Papists in the east were taken beyond the northern district.

143. [144.] 11. When this was done, their habitations were laid waste and destroyed.

144. [145.] 12. I afterward saw a great number of people who peddled faith alone and yet had none themselves, because, whether educated or uneducated, they paid no attention to evils in their life, saying that they have the Word and the true doctrine, that they know the Lord, and much else, and that therefore they would be saved before all others. They were taken in a horde first toward the west, and afterward toward the south on the other side of the devastated Babylonian* district there, and on again toward the east, and so beyond, at which point some were separated and scattered toward the north, never to be seen again, and many were driven back, only to go forward again and then back again. This transferal took place in order to explore whether they had any of the faith they boasted of-namely, to see whether their faith was only a matter of knowledge, which is not faith, or whether there was some life in it, which is faith; and it was given them to perceive themselves that they had no faith, but only knowledge without life.
* i.e., Roman Catholic

145. [146.] 13. When these people were in the southern zone, then, near a gulf there, a multitude emerged which had been hidden away there from early times, who like the others said that they had faith and would be saved because of faith alone, and yet gave no thought to their life. This multitude then went over to them and mingled with them.

146. [147.] 14. From a certain mountainous region was brought a multitude who led a moral life, not because of any religion but only for fear of the law or fear of the loss of reputation, honor and material gain, being thus without any Christian life, and who therefore perpetrated evils to the extent that they could do so without being exposed. Since they had not gained for themselves any communication with heaven by a life in accordance with religion, they were led around to the southern and western zones in order to explore whether they had any religion in their life, and because they did not, they were rejected.

147. [148.] 15. Finally there came some who were versed in the doctrinal teachings of the church and likewise led a moral life, only not a Christian one, because they did so not in compliance with doctrine or the Word but for the sake of their reputation, thus doing so in the sight of men and not in the sight of God. And on being examined they were found to have no conscience because they had no religion in their life. These, too, were expelled from that mountainous region.

148. [149.] 16. All these people, who had been divided into the three classes, were driven so far away that they appeared only as a cloud, and were dispersed. I was told from heaven that they were cast down into uninhabited and desert places, and were separated thus to keep them from associating with each other.

149. [150.] 17. The dispersal of these three classes scattered them to all the points of the compass-west, south, east, and north-from which they can never return, and this all the more because all concept of religion was taken from them. (Their life in the deserts to be described elsewhere.)

150. [151.] 18. Angels marveled that there was in the Christian domain such a multitude of people totally ignorant of the fact that religion is a matter of life, supposing religion to consist in thinking this or that and in being absolved from every obligation of life by what they thought, a conclusion that they came to by the idea that they had been set free from the yoke of the law by the Lord’s merit, that no one can do good of himself, and that if one does, it is merit-seeking-and this even though it is so far removed from a religion of life as to be no religion at all.

151. 18 1/2. On the other hand, all those who thought to themselves that evil ought not to be done because it is a sin and is against Divine laws, and therefore to the extent of their ability refrained from evils-all those acquired as a consequence some degree of conscience, and by the tenets which formed their faith, even if these were few, they had life and were saved.

152. [152.] 19. Concerning the purging of the central area occupied by Protestants, that it continued for a long time, and that those who were in the church without having the church in them, or who entered into doctrine and religion without the doctrine and religion entering into them, were periodically cast into the gulfs surrounding the central area, and many into deserts. The purges continued for so long a time after the Judgment.

153. [153.] 20. I once saw several people in a certain house sitting around a table. They looked like merchants-men of wealth-and still others began to arrive, so that there was a number of them. They appeared by their visage to be upright, and they were dressed as though they were angelic spirits; but I saw all of them cast into desert places and forests, thus outside the sphere of upright societies. I was told the reason, that in their outward conduct in the world they had lived like Christians and behaved well, but only to gain a reputation for being honest and honorable in order to profit by it; that they had done not the least thing for the sake of God or the neighbor but only for their own benefit; and that therefore they had no communication with heaven. That is why they were cast out into those places, where they wander among bandits and become bandits themselves; for such as these become bandits when external bonds are removed. They also would have been bandits in the world if they had not been held in bonds by external considerations, which are fears for the loss of reputation and consequently of material gain.

154. [154.] 21. In the western zone I saw a multitude whose speech sounded sincere, so that they would be believed from their speech to be models of honesty. By their speech and deliberations regarding honesty they were able to induce simple people to believe them honest; but still they were discovered to be inwardly like wolves, being without religion and therefore without conscience. I heard them considering ways by which to deceive the simple and rob them of their possessions, some in order to thus gain dominion; and then they assailed them from behind and infused evils. Thus they were able to subjugate them. However, this was seen in heaven, and they were cast into a hell around the western district of the central area; for they were embodiments of dishonesty and also of malice, devisers of stratagems for the sake of profiting and gaining dominion.

155. [155.] 22. Those of the Protestant faith were afterward explored to discover, 1) what idea they had of God; 2) who of them led a life of piety only; 3) who of them went often to churches and made them selves guilty of every sin but did not examine themselves; 4) who of them believed they had led a Christian life by their having lived morally and well because of the civil laws; and 5) who of them were hypocrites.

156. [156.] 23. On being explored to discover what idea they had of God, they were found to have thought only of God the Father, and of the Lord as being like themselves-this in accordance with their faith, that the Father is merciful for the Son’s sake-and they then thought not at all of the Lord’s Divinity. Secondly, it was found that when they thought of one God, they did not think at the same time of the Lord, even though the Father cannot be approached, because no one sees Him but the Son alone,* and seeing that the Lord is the way, that the Father must be approached therefore through Him,** and that one must believe in Him and not the Father.*** Consequently they could not have a distinct idea of God except as a puff of wind or billow of cloud, or as nature in its least elements, and a Divine idea of the Lord is not possible when one thinks of Him as an ordinary man.
Angels complained that they were distressed by that idea of theirs which was being communicated to them. On that account, therefore, the people were carried off into surrounding regions, and the places they then came to appeared murky, because it is a true idea of God that causes real clarity. Some of the people were carried down into places below in accordance with their life, some to be further instructed, and only those who lived well accepted then a Divine idea of the Lord.
I saw that there followed in their stead some who had been hidden away by the Lord to keep them from being infected by them and harmed, people meant in chapter 20 of the book of Revelation by those who were slain and delivered up out of their tombs.****
* John 1:18, 5:37, 6:46.
** John 14:6.
*** John 3:16, 18, 36, 6:29, 14:1, 12.
**** Revelation 20:4, 5, 12, 13.

157. [157.] 24. Afterward I saw removed from the rest those who led a life of piety only, in a state of idleness, who spent their time continually engaged in prayers and placed no value in truths, knowing only that salvation comes of mercy and that sins are forgiven, not knowing at all what sin is, who despised others in comparison with themselves and also condemned them for their worldly concerns, and who for the most part set merit in prayers. Angels complained about these, too, especially because they induced in them a state of depression. These people dwelled to the side of them, and therefore they were driven off into their own places, where they retain their worship but are forced to work. They were carried off into a northern plain, because they were in a state of ignorance regarding the means that lead to heaven.

158. [158.] 25. Hypocrites who spoke well of God, the neighbor, and their country, but within themselves entertained thoughts of a contrary nature-they, too, were explored and cast into hell. They endeavored to speak well of the Lord’s kingdom and heaven, because this then was their country, but their interior thought was examined and found to be for themselves alone and against the kingdom of their country, and when they were admitted into their interior qualities, therefore, they committed criminal acts. They were cast into hells, after first being divested of everything they had drawn from the Word and doctrinal teachings, which they had used to delude others.

159. [159.] 26. Preachers who know something of the doctrine of their church, and who, after they have been instructed in schools and enter into their functions, no longer care about it or the Word except as it enables them to preach and to be promoted to higher positions or gain wealth, and who thus live in idleness and are merely worldly and not Christian-these are sent into a hell in the northern zone toward the west, far from the center, where a cloudy mist appears, and they then become stupid.

160. [160.] 27. People are separated, all according to their life, thus in accordance with their affections-not according to their outward life but according to their inward life, for this is the life of their thought arising from their will or affection-and no one has any inward life except as a consequence of religion. One’s outward life is shaped by the morality in the civil state and is formed in accordance with its laws. Therefore, unless a person’s moral life draws its quality from a spiritual source and changes its outward expression in consequence of it, the person has no spiritual life, thus no conjunction with heaven; and those who are not conjoined with heaven are conjoined with hell. In that case, then, even if they had not done evils in the world, after their departure from the world they do evils with delight. Thus their state is changed.

161. [161.] 28. Followers of the dragon. (Say who are meant by the dragon,* drawn from the material on the book of Revelation.** And include that by the tail of the dragon is meant faith separated from charity, which has drawn down the stars from heaven,*** which are concepts of truth and good.)
* See Revelation 12:3,4,7-9,13-17, 13:2-4, 16:12,13, 20:1-3.
** The Apocalypse Explained (published posthumously).
*** Revelation 12:4.

162. [162.] Followers of the dragon were separated, many of whom had been priests in the world, who had confirmed themselves in faith separated from charity. They were explored in various ways, including by an examination of the back of the head in the light. Those who are merely natural and therefore infernal have at the back of their head an area that is foul, hollow, and nothing but bone.
Such people are conveyed to places where the outward appearances which they had by arts induced upon their faces are taken away, and their faces are seen in accordance with their affections and consequent inner thoughts. The humanity in their faces then disappears and is replaced by a certain diabolical quality.
Such people are explored also by being turned to the east and so to the Lord, and a spiritual affection from the Lord then flows in from there; and they instantly turn around to the west, like a sinew twisted and springing back. That is also how angels explore new spirits coming into their heavenly societies.

163. [163.] 29. There are also some who wish to hear truths, believing that they are saved if they simply know them; but when they hear that truths look to life, and that only insofar as truths of life are put into practice do truths of faith become living, they then go away. At the mention of life they are totally nauseated, but not so at the mention of truths which are matters of faith, because it is possible for them to talk about these.
(Enumerate truths of faith which are not living unless truths of life are put into practice. Say what truths are truths of faith, and what truths are truths of life.)

164. [164.] 30. That everyone can see that it is charity not to steal from another by artifices or openly, that it is charity not to wish at all to commit adultery with another’s wife, that it is charity not to injure the neighbor out of hatred and vengeance, that it is charity not to slander another, and so on. One who abhors these things as sins has charity, because he loves his neighbor.

165. [165.] 31. I later saw a great number of people sent from the heavens and also rising up below and left to themselves who were allotted dwellings and habitations-in the east those who were possessed of a clear goodness of love and charity, to the west those who were possessed of a hazy goodness of love and charity, to the south those who were possessed of truths arising from good in a state of clarity, to the north those who were possessed of truths arising from good in a state of haziness-all acknowledging the Lord as God of heaven and earth.

166. [166.] 32. Many also were discovered in the Christian domain who had an understanding of truth but not a will for good. People of this character were initially accepted among the upright, because they can articulate many things that are in fact true. In such, too, the intellect is in the beginning enlightened, but the will asleep. These people gathered on mountains in the western zone. They attached themselves to the upright who dwell in the lowest heaven, who do not inquire into matters of the will, but believe that if people speak intelligently, they are also good. However, I saw that these were people without any charity, and that they affiliated themselves secretly with the evil and infested the upright, doing so first by reasoned arguments, and then by arts, until they were conjoined and the upright bound to them. For in this way they prevail against others as well.
There were many like this in the heavens that Christians made for themselves, and they interposed themselves between the Lord and people in the world and obstructed the way, so that the Divine operation could not have its force. Most of these people were caught up in a conceit in their own intelligence from love of self, and in the delight of ruling.
I saw some people of this character on a quite high mountain in the western zone toward the north and all around the sides of the mountain; and they persuaded themselves and others that everyone in heaven is there in consequence of his intellectual light alone and not at the same time his heavenly warmth. Such people, however, are dangerous.
I saw these people cast down from the mountain and from the sides of the mountain, and a chasm opened below and swallowed them up; and having fallen a long way down, they were brought into a state of darkness, for they then accepted falsities as truths and were turned away to their opposites. Such is the character of the intellect that is led by an evil will.
Evil people who had allied themselves with them, having then no longer the power to resist, were cast down into their various hells, some into hells beneath mountains, some into hells beneath level plains.

167. [167.] 33. Those Protestants who were caught up in faith alone rose up in insurrection, inciting an almost universal rebellion. Their learned leaders rose up with their dogma against those who acknowledged the Lord and the need for a life of love from Him. They stirred up all but those in the eastern zone-the latter being protected by the Lord-and their insurrection extended even to certain Muslims who were in the northern zone. They sent out groups of fifty to numerous places, in order to stir up the people, and those who remained and directed the rebellion were divided into groups of ten. Their intention was to destroy all those who acknowledged the Lord alone and regarded works together with faith as saving. They were almost all without religion and therefore without conscience, but as they were engaged in this endeavor and in the attempt to destroy others, a force from on high or from heaven then flowed down by which tens of thousands and more were cast into hells.
They allied themselves also with Papists and their monks who in the world had proclaimed themselves Christs and had given no thought to the Lord’s Divinity.
After the whole crowd had been cast down, their leaders were seized, and they became black devils inside and out, becoming so monstrous as to be scarcely recognizable as human. For a person’s character is the character he has in his life. One who is black in respect to his life becomes black as well afterward from head to toe.
Upon investigation it was found that they had rebelled, not out of zeal for their doctrine of faith alone, but owing to a delight in ruling, and in doing evil because of it.
This event was Michael’s battle with the dragon,* for all of that character who had insinuated themselves into the heavens were removed from there and cast down. Michael stands for those who worship the Lord and regard works in conjunction with faith as saving. For as one is not possible without the other, therefore the two together are saving.
* Revelation 12:7, 8.

168. [168.] 34. The dragon’s battle with Michael afterward was as follows, for it lasted several days. A hand appeared stretched out by the Lord over the heavens. In the western zone toward the north was seen as though the great back of a dragon, raised toward the heaven above the central area. A great number of angels therefore appeared. Followers of the dragon were at the entrance there, and the angels spoke with them about the Lord and about the goods of charity and so of faith. All then turned in their direction to hear what they were saying, and followers of the dragon were forced into thinking about the Lord and about faith alone as they had in the world, most of whom then had no Divine idea of the Lord, nor any idea of charity and works. The angels debated with them wisely on the subject, but in vain-even going on to say that all the angels in the heavens feel the same way, but still in vain. And finally after the battle, when the followers of the dragon wished to reply further, but only off the subject or apart from the truth, and could not, they were sentenced to be cast down from every place where their kind existed. When they said, however, that they would resist, the Lord was seen descending from the sun as though in a white cloud, and He pronounced the judgment that all found to be of such a character be separated and banished; and they were cast down then successively and by turns according to their connection with societies of heaven, a great number of them toward the western zone-thousands of them then appearing as one. I felt within me a severe collision of truth and falsity, which was a state of temptation or trial.
The whole western zone was full of such people who had been cast down from the heavens, and the earth then seemed to open, and they were cast down and covered by a mist. They were all the kind of people who never refrained from thinking and willing evil-only from doing evil because of one fear or another. This took place on April 11, 1757.
Followers of the dragon appeared from the southern zone to the western one along a curved line in the outline of a tail. Those to the south there were ones who were experts in their degrees of justification and had affirmed these in themselves.

169. [169.] The heaven provided by the Lord was taken possession of first by such people as acknowledged Him and lived well, who had heaven in them, but they were later followed by ones who wished to have only heaven around them. It was also granted these to form heavens for themselves, which people called heaven when they saw the magnificent sights, such as palaces, avenues, parks, and numbers of servants; but as their inner qualities did not correspond, those things ceased to exist, and they then acquired for themselves the like through fantasies, correspondences, and numerous arts. However, this did not last long, because they devoted all their energies to indulgences and pleasures of the body, and so became totally external, as they had been in the world; and then came the Judgment.
Continual purifications of societies followed after that, purging them of people of this character.

170. [170.] 35. Because they have no conjunction with heaven but are wholly conjoined with hell, many of those caught up in faith alone are motivated by a love of ruling, and they are detected by the fact that they look down from societies in heaven to regions below, and when they see people walking there, whether many or few, they direct their thoughts, harass them in various ways, and by inducing delusions cause many enticements to appear to the people to which the people are drawn, their joy being to cast these headlong into the hells. Their character is such that they do not wish to be led but to lead. This is their delight, and because of it they cannot be led by the Lord, for the Lord leads through an affection for useful ends, and they lack this affection. A useful end to them is to have dominion, and therefore they gradually reject the Lord and devote themselves to numerous arts by which they gain dominion. They rely on their own prudence and attribute nothing to Divine providence. Moreover, when given free rein they rush at last into such a state that they think there is no God, and yet have settled in them an intention to rule over heaven and to be there in God’s stead. Such a state is inherent in a love of ruling for the sake of self.
I saw that one of these was permitted in a small society to organize those who were there. He arranged them just as a spider arranges its web. He placed himself at the center and made paths leading out in every direction, with the decree that the people all look to him. But that society was swallowed up by the hells which lay below.
All people of this character wish to enter into heaven, and they ascend to elevated sites where they believe life’s delights to be exercises of dominion, when in fact they are useful endeavors. But after they have been examined they are cast down.
Some are wanderers who go from one society to another, always seeking to perform administrative functions.

171. [171.] 36. That they are distinguished according to their ideas of the Divine. As for example: 1) Those who have thought about the Lord’s union with the Father. 2) Those who have thought only of the Lord’s Humanity and not at all of His Divinity, even though they knew about it. 3) Those who have acknowledged three persons and have not made them one God by essence. (These are particularly distinguished.) 4) Those who have thought only of the Father. (These are without any God.) 5) Those who have not believed that the Lord existed from eternity.

172. [172.] 37. All those people were preserved who in the world acknowledged the Lord’s Divinity and refrained from evils as sins-especially those who acknowledged His Divine Humanity and turned to Him. But the rest who thought of the Lord as an ordinary man were rejected as Socinians* and Arians,** being at first beneath the heavens just above the hells, and afterward in the hells.
* Disciples of Laelius Socinus (born Lelio Francesco Maria Sozini), 1525-1562, and his nephew Faustus Socinus (Fausto Paolo Sozzini), 1539-1604, who rejected a number of traditional Christian doctrines, as the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, and original sin, and who held that Christ was miraculously begotten, and that salvation is granted to those who adopt Christ’s virtues.
** Adherents of Arianism, a theological view based on the teachings of Arius (c. 250-336), who taught that Christ the Son was a created being, not consubstantial with God the Father, and thus not Divine.

173. [173.] 38. I was persecuted by people caught up in faith alone. Those who persecuted me attacked me forcibly, putting me into a state like that in which they were by inducing in me a similar respiration and similar pulse, thus impelling me also to a like thought and affection, and I found myself in a foggy murkiness regarding God and salvation, as though immersed in water. I then perceived that I had no communication with heaven, and I was told that their state is similar.

174. [174.] 39. Many of those who are caught up in faith alone and have committed no principle of truth and goodness to life-because they rejected wholly any moral life from a spiritual origin, saying that it does not matter and that evils do not condemn, that the Lord fulfilled the law for them and took away damnation, and that they cannot do good of themselves, still less fulfill the law-[after death] become rebels and introduce various scandals against the Lord, as happens with all who have not lived their religion, even if they did not entertain evil thoughts about the Lord when they were in the world. They were examined and found to have committed no principle of truth and goodness to life, having only some knowledge from the Word which was like any other piece of information, possessing no vitality. They also then appeared without clothing, for garments symbolize truths of life, and at that point they understood absolutely nothing, not even what is right and just. They were told that they had lived without religion, and were cast into a gulf in the south and so removed.

175. [175.] 40. Some of these people were let out of their hells in order to be transferred to another, and it was then permitted them to behave in accordance with their nature. And at that they immediately, in consequence of their delusions, sought to struggle up into higher regions and endeavored to do evil. They were reminded that they had said to each other in hell that if they were allowed to leave they would be just as wise as others. Some others then spoke with them on a matter of intelligence in which there was the light of truth, and on hearing it they were so distressed that they fled. This happened several times in order to convince them that people of their character, having been transformed in state, cannot endure the light of truth, or therefore intelligence. They said that these would do them harm, but received the response that they had told each other otherwise. It was apparent from this that those who are in hell can by no means live in the light of heaven, thus in a state of intelligence, and least of all in the warmth of heaven, which is love.

176. [176.] 41. All societies after the Judgment were arranged by nationality in a marvelous array, an array ordered according to affections in the heavens and lusts in the hells. These societies are continually being purified by communications opened with evil people and the fermentation, so to speak, that ensues, and alien spirits are then cast down as heterogeneous elements. Sometimes the purification is accomplished by the society’s becoming like a single individual; those who are in the body remain, and those outside the body are rejected.
Since the Judgment, it is not permitted thus to ascend into heaven and to be then cast down, but everyone is limited to traveling the path that leads to his society.

177. [177.] 42. Societies have been formed since then in accordance with all the classes and varieties of affections for good and truth in clear distinction from each other, and so, too, corresponding hellish societies. After spirits have been devastated and purged, they are all now conveyed along appointed paths leading to societies that correspond to and are akin to the interior qualities of their life, nor are they allowed to turn in another direction or to tarry in other places, still less to form for themselves societies and seeming heavens according to their life in outward appearances, as was the case before.
It is believed perhaps in the world that a person is saved and enters into heavenly societies in accordance with the thoughts that constitute his understanding of truth; but no one is saved in accordance with these, but in accordance with his affections and the thoughts that result from these, thus in accordance with the goodness of his will and the truth in the intellect proceeding from it. For it is his will and the understanding resulting from it that make a person the person he is, and not the truth in his intellect independent of goodness in his will. The intellect merely teaches how a person should will and act.
The evil are with difficulty guided along their appointed paths, because they want to go aside when they sense good people below or above, whom they wish to harm; for all paths are such as the societies above and below them.

178. [178.] 43. The orderly disposition of Protestants after the Judgment lasted a long time, because they have the Word and among them the Lord is known, and therefore they are at the center and have the greatest light, a light which radiates from that central area to the peripheries where it reaches even gentiles. Consequently the orderly disposition of Protestants lasted a long time.

179. [179.] 44. All those people were kept in the heavens who found delight in some useful endeavor, or in some occupation in order to be useful, or in the honest conduct of some business, or in some other pursuit, as long as they had a delight in useful service and an acknowledgment of God. Such people can be held in order by the Lord, because the Lord flows into useful endeavor. In contrast, those who lived in idleness-spending their time only in social gatherings, engaging in occupations only to gain acclaim for themselves-could not be governed by the Lord; and because they are not members of society as constituent parts of the body, they are rejected.

[Marginal Note]
application regarding the mustard seed [Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:6]

180. [180.] Regarding Goats, Being Those Caught Up in Faith Separated from Charity

45. I had a conversation with some people about the he-goat in Daniel and its fight against the ram,* and also concerning the judgment on the goats and the sheep in Matthew;** and a goat with great horns then appeared below me, and I saw it attacking sheep, abusing them cruelly with its horns and buffeting them this way and that. I asked therefore what that was, and I was told that it was the customary appearance of people caught up in faith separated from charity and of their battle with those who lived a life of charity. I was also told that they do not appear to their own eyes as such, but as people arguing sharply with each other, and that the one who looked like a goat was a person caught up in faith alone, while those looking like sheep were people who lived a life of charity. (For spirits sometimes, and especially from a distance, appear in accordance with their affections, inclinations, and consequent principles. So for example, when someone is thinking with his intellect, he appears as though sitting on a horse; and some appear in other ways. It was apparent from this experience that no others than the aforementioned are meant by the horned he-goat in Daniel and the goats in Matthew.)
It is believed that all evil people are meant by the goats, but only those evil people are meant who have lived evil lives and at the same time professed faith alone.
* Daniel 8.
** Matthew 25:32, 33.

[Marginal Note]
[182.] After the Last Judgment was accomplished, many spirits were seen who were dispersed among others to the rear in the west. They appeared from a distance as goats, and some of them as dragons, who wished to lead the upright astray, and therefore they were removed and driven out into deserts containing scarcely any vegetation.

181. [181.] 46. In like manner afterward, those caught up in faith alone appeared as goats, and those who lived a life of charity as sheep, and their arguing and disputes as combats.

182. [183.] The Dragon

47. By the dragon in the book of Revelation, chapter 12, and its two beasts in chapter 13, no others are meant than those caught up in faith separated from charity, both as to doctrine and as to life. By the dragon are meant all those who have confirmed themselves in that faith; by the beast from the sea, those who have affirmed those principles by arguments springing from the natural self; and by the beast from the earth-which is later meant by the false prophet*-affirmations in support of these from the Word.
That these people are meant by the dragon and its two beasts can be clearly seen from every single thing that has been written about them there when understood in their spiritual meaning. These particulars could be seen for oneself if what I have written on the book of Revelation were published,** for they are all matters confirmed from heaven, including the fact that by the tail of the dragon is meant an affirmation of that faith by their degrees of justification, as described in no. [787].***
* See Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10.
** A reference to The Apocalypse Explained, already in manuscript, but never published by the writer himself. A considerably revised and condensed version later appeared as The Apocalypse Revealed, which the writer published in 1766.
*** See The Apocalypse Explained, no. 787:4. (Compare also Spiritual Experiences, no. 6014.)

183. [184.] 48. The fact is that the book of Revelation has as its subject the two religious systems in the Christian world-the system existing among Protestants, and the system existing among Papists. These systems constitute the whole of Christianity, for they are the prevailing ones. The religious system among Protestants is founded on faith alone, which has devastated the church, and the system among Papists is founded on the vicarious power of the Lord lodged in the popes and its primates and subalterns and extending over the church, thus over people’s souls, and also over heaven. The book of Revelation deals with these two prevailing religious systems, which were rejected by the Last Judgment, a subject we will take up later.

184. [185.] Those Caught up in Faith Alone are Meant by the Dragon and its Beasts

[186.] 49. That by the dragon are meant those caught up in faith alone was apparent from the following events. It is recorded that the dragon stood by the woman about to give birth in order to devour her child.* And the fact that by the child which the woman was about to give birth to is meant doctrine regarding the Lord and the life of charity became evident from this, that when I was writing that doctrine, I had present with me many of those spirits caught up in faith alone, in such a rage that I could scarcely have continued to write if I had not been protected by the Lord through his angels; and it seemed as though they were trying to rip up the doctrine and tear it to shreds. By the woman there is meant the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, and by the child, its doctrine concerning the Lord and the life of charity; and by the dragon are meant those who were caught up in faith alone, because they behaved as reported then, and were those who were about to do as afterward described, namely, to persecute the woman in order to swallow her up by spewing out water like a flood. “Water like a flood” symbolically means falsities.
* Revelation 12:1-6, 13-17.

185. [187.] 50. A certain preacher who was caught up in faith alone appeared to others altogether like a dragon, and he also seemed to be standing around a woman about to give birth, with a desire to devour her child. Yet at the same time he appeared to people near him as standing by those who defended a life of charity and the Lord. He used to be a preacher in The Hague.

186. [188.] 51. Among them are some who correspond to the dragon’s head, some who correspond to its body, and some who correspond to its tail-those corresponding to the tail who are caught up in the conceit of their principles, because the tail is an extension of the spinal cord, and this in turn of the brain. There are some who correspond to its venom.*
* The manuscript contains after this the following brief paragraph, struck through, it seems, to delete it: I have also seen black dragons, each with a long tail, who were people who affirm from the Word whatever they wish.

187. [189.] Regarding the spine or back which appeared in the image of a dragon’s tail, see above, number [168], page [120].

188. [190.] 52. I saw to the left, moreover, an incline upon which many of those caught up in faith alone ascended, and at the top they have there some bearded old man who had been bearded in the world, sometimes of a lowly condition. He persuades them that he is God the Father. It is a rock, with rocky areas surrounding it, and when the people do not wish to be seen, they take themselves behind the mountain.
These people are ones who ambush all who do not believe as they do, supposing this to be permissible. They consider a life of charity of no value. By their interior qualities they are united with the hells. Those whom I saw around the lowest parts of the mountain looked like a great dragon stretching toward the nether regions, and its tail appeared so raised and extended as to reach from the top of the mountain to its base.

189. [191.] Faith Alone

53. That I have perceived the interior atmosphere of spirits as being full of affections-which are designs-to become great, to become rich, and to become wise in order to gain acclaim, and hardly a one if any to promote the common good….

190. [192.] I found that when I confidently believed concepts of truth from the Lord, evil spirits were incapable of refuting them, or even of reasoning about them-such concepts as that the Lord rules the universe; that the Lord alone is life; that a person’s inherent nature is nothing but evil; and other like things. Evil spirits hearing these, even though they did not believe them, still were unable to contradict them, for truth confounds them, because it does not allow their intellectual faculty to think against it. It was apparent from this that those who possess a simple faith in the truth withstand the assaults of the evil; and I also saw some possessed of truths who passed through a number of hells, and all there drew back and could not approach, much less do them any harm. On the other hand, one who believes such matters of faith as are peddled in the church today does not have this power. The evil care not at all about these, because they do not contain any truth from the Lord.

191. [193.] 54. Regarding some who have no spiritual life owing to their ignorance of truth, and the fact that life is infused into them by the Lord through angels:
I once felt a rather intense coldness from the soles of my feet to the knee. It was plain that the coldness was induced by cold spirits. I was told that they were ones who in the world had lived in absolute ignorance of God.
After they were raised up I heard them speaking, and from their speech I perceived in them scarcely any vitality. They spoke as though forcing inanimate statues to speak. I despaired over whether any life would long remain in them. They were like automatons or carved figures making sounds.
However, I heard shortly that they had been brought into a type of activity which appeared as a kind of gyration. Angels had been put in charge of infusing life into them, which they did with such care and attention that it can scarcely be described, nor did they permit themselves to be fatigued. In a word, they swung them back and forth-as is said in the Word of things sacrificed and of the Levites, that they were swung back and forth*-the purpose of which was for them to receive spiritual life.
When this had gone on for some time, the spirits began to be vitalized and to be no longer as they were. Thus they began to hold some conversation with each other, saying that they were in heaven.
This effort was continued by the Lord through His angels throughout the night, and after that they reached the point that they could be introduced or incorporated into some gatherings of others, in which they were then perfected; for they were capable of receiving life, because they had nothing in them to resist it, as those do who confirm themselves in falsities in opposition to truths. How life was progressively infused into them was represented by colors-the first stage of that life by an increasingly white marble color; the second by an increasingly blue color containing the white; and the third by patches of glistening white clouds rising up.
I was afterward shown what their character was by an exhalation from them upon my face and the front parts of my breast. It was chilly, but verging on warmth. This was accomplished by the Lord alone through angels. They may be said to have been restored from no life to some life.
* Rendered in English versions usually as “waved.” See Exodus 29:24, 26, 27; Leviticus 7:30, 8:27, 29, 9:21, 14:12, 21, 24, 23:11, 12, 20; Numbers 5:25, 6:20, 8:11, 13, 15, 21.

192. [194.] 55. There was someone who held as a principle that faith alone saves. He was told that faith is like knowledge or comprehension, which must have as its goal usefulness and good, or else it is only knowledge and nothing more, and that it is insane to believe that knowledge alone saves, when in fact all knowledge and comprehension have good as their goal.

193. [195.] 56. Concerning one who has fought against evils and has come into a love for good and truth from the Lord, that he possesses concepts of truth and good as though of himself, that he sees them in himself, and that they are engraved on his heart, as said in Isaiah and Jeremiah….* At that point his rational faculty is enlightened. Prior to that, however, he does not know those things except as matters of memory, and does not see them except outwardly; and if a person does not see them inwardly they are dry and pass away, that is to say, the life in the truths does; for all elements of truth are engraved on some love, as all things that are of use are on the bodily affection of animals, such as bees, birds, and other creatures. So it is with a person, too, if he possesses a genuine love for truth and good. It is in consequence of this that angels have their wisdom.
* See Isaiah 32:4, 51:7; Jeremiah 31:33.

194. [196.] 56 1/2. I have been taken through the societies or dwelling places of heaven and have spoken with many of the inhabitants; and when I came to the dwelling places of the third heaven, which are celestial, I tried then to speak with the inhabitants there about concepts which are called matters of faith and which in themselves are truths. I was surprised to find that they did not wish to make any response to these. They said that they saw all things in themselves from the love that governed them, which was love toward the Lord and mutual love, saying that truths of faith were inscribed on their life, and that they saw them therefore in the light of truth which comes from the Lord, because good has all truth within it. Moreover, what good are concepts if not they do not look to useful ends, they said, and useful ends are goods, and goods are matters of love. I was told that they are of this character because in the world all the truths that they heard they applied to their life. Their whole love and whole faith consists in doing.

195. [197.] 57. People who are caught up in faith alone believe in instantaneous salvation and pure mercy, and therefore they plead for mercy alone and believe they are instantly saved the moment they receive faith, even if it is in the last hour of their life. They also believe that forgiveness of all sins means a wiping away of all evils. They do not wish for forgiveness through repentance of life, but through thinking those things which they call tenets of their faith. Thus they ignore all the means of salvation. They were shown that such notions are a delusion, which was represented as being inwardly full of venomous snakes. (I was shown by ludicrous displays the nature of their delusion, that they think it to be like trying to eject snakes through their posteriors.)

196. [198.] 58. When they think in accordance with their doctrine about faith alone, and they have it contradicted by the statement from the Epistle of James that they should show their faith by works,* then what looks like a knife appears to fly out to kill those who are of that opinion, and on one side arises an image of Luther, and on the other, in the direction that the knife is flying, an image of James (although they themselves are not there), and this because Luther excluded the Epistle of James [from his canon].**
* James 2:18.
** In his German translation of the New Testament, Luther moved Hebrews and James to the end with Jude and Revelation and left these four unnumbered, unlike the rest of the books, so that they appeared almost like an appendix. His intent was to remove them from the canon, but he was never able to separate them completely.

197. [199.] 59. Below to the left are people who have convinced themselves of faith alone as a matter of doctrine, but yet have lived a life of charity in accordance with the principle that faith produces works of charity. Because they have lived well they are nevertheless accepted. They also have some conjunction with heaven, but still not a direct one, because they cling to the principle that it is faith that produces the works, even though faith is a matter of thought, and thought produces nothing but only teaches what ought to be done. Even if a person then does those works, it is not as a result of any faith, since concepts of truth do not become articles of faith until a person has put them into practice. To suppose otherwise is like believing that the sight operates into the hands to cause a person to perform tasks, or into the feet to cause him to walk without stumbling or tripping, when in fact the sight does not do any of this but only informs and shows.
They were shown that the contrary is the case by its being given one of them to walk along a path and at the same time believe that his intellect was leading him. He then traveled a path from east to west or from south to north, thus moving from truths to falsities, and into a state of darkness. But then the state in him was changed so that he was led by his will or love. He then walked from west to east and from north to south, thus entering into good and into truth, in a state of light.
They were also told that in the case of people who have believed as they do, their state is gradually reversed, and that then for the first time they are regenerated and enter into an angelic life.

198. [200.] 60. People who are caught up in the principle from doctrine that faith alone saves, and yet have lived a good life, form certain societies in which they are at the center, with those toward the peripheries who are of a lesser quality, and finally those who are evil, so that they are surrounded by the evil. They have been told that they are dwelling still among the evil.

199. [201.] 61. Through personal experience I learned that people who were caught up in faith alone and led a moral life formed for themselves heavens in which they seemed to themselves to be in a state of light; but I was shown that it was a wintry light, for when angels looked in their direction, instead of light there appeared darkness. People who go there and are in state of charity feel pain in their chest, stomach, and knees.

200. [202.] 62. Regarding people who continually argue about truths: There are hells where the people do nothing else but argue about truths. One of these lay beneath the groin. In it were some who believe that they know everything and that nothing escapes them, when in fact they know nothing other than that their faith constitutes the whole of the church in a person.
There are some in that hell who, because they believe that they know everything and that they alone ought to speak, despise the laity. They are continually saying that this or that is the absolute truth and cannot be disputed. I heard perpetual altercations and conflicts going on there to the point that they tried to attack their opponents with their fists, but were held back by others. They appear in their hell as though tearing their garments, and from it is heard what sounds like the gnashing of teeth. Thus they go back and forth, and thus they argue, not the least concerned for the truth but driven by pride in their own understanding and an urge to dominate. They are removed from others, because they disturb all peace of mind and take away any freedom to think from the Word by advancing their own opinions as if from the Divine and assailing all who do not accept them. There are at the present time many companies like this from the Christian world, because they have divided the church in accordance with their opinions as to what is to be believed; and they not only reject goodness of life, but even say that they do not know what it is, unless it is giving to the poor and listening to sermons.

201. [203.] 63. Many times I have seen people who claimed to have faith, who, when they were examined, were found not to have any faith other than that described above. They call it the only saving faith and also a spiritual one, and yet have not in any way lived a Christian life by abstaining from evils on the ground that they are sins. They were sent to places where truths constituted the people’s faith and drew their essence from goodness of life, and a communication was opened there as to whether they had any faith; and at that they themselves, from the perception granted them, openly confessed that they did not possess any element of faith, that what they had was factual knowledge like any factual knowledge derived from the world, and that they had not known what faith was, namely, that faith is truth, and that truth is not truth but only an utterance of articulated sound unless it springs from good.

202. [204.] 64. People who are caught up in faith alone and lack any life of charity are mostly sensual, for evils of life-which they do not see in themselves and have not much tried to see-occupy and form their voluntary faculty, and what a person is like in respect to his voluntary faculty determines what he is like in respect to his interior elements. Consequently in them these interior elements have been closed off, and everything that has to do with the church and heaven lies below or outside them, thus in the memory only, where it resides as the traditional faith or as knowledge. The reason for this is that when a person hears something relating to truths-concerning the Lord, the Word, eternal life, heaven, and the state of angels and people after death-he receives them as matters of memory; but as soon as he thinks about them as to whether this or that is so, then the sensual, bodily element in him forms judgments and conclusions. The conclusion drawn is that it cannot be so, because what is first in the memory as a matter of doctrine must be believed, as that the Godhead exists in three persons, that the Lord’s humanity is not Divine, and that angels, being spirits, are like puffs of air, and so, too, a person after death. This happens because it is the sensual element that draws the conclusions, and it is impossible for light to be received from heaven to enlighten it, the inner elements having been closed to the flowing through of that light.
Explore whether this is not the case when any such concept is placed under direct examination, and inquiry is made as to whether it is so. The sensual person is such that he seizes on fallacies and believes appearances and calls them true, while rejecting actual truths which require the light of heaven. Faith alone occasions this, and because of it those people cannot be brought into any understanding of truth.

203. [205.] 65. Some angels said that faith alone is not possible. Spirits who had been caught up in faith alone in the world angrily began running in every direction to wherever angelic spirits were and asking whether faith alone was possible. They ran in this way to ten or fifteen places, and they everywhere received the reply that it was not possible, because faith without love is knowledge, and in their case a knowledge of falsity. Moreover if they wished to call knowledge faith because they have persuaded themselves of it, even though they do not understand whether it is right, still, they were informed, it is only a persuasion because it is what they have been told, not much different from the persuasion that dead bodies and bones and people’s tombs are sacred, when in fact they are waste matter and symbolize damnation and hell. On hearing this they ran about and inquired what love was, asking whether it was not faith alone. The angelic spirits thought them insane, and still more so when they said that faith alone was works, as though they had said that thinking was doing.
They ran about furthermore and asked whether faith was then an empty nothing. They received the reply that faith separated from charity is an empty nothing, because faith is called faith in consequence of the charity that is its soul, and that without charity it is like a body without a soul.

204. [206.] 66. I heard many of the learned arguing about various notions connected with their faith, beliefs which they had held from birth and which were therefore the truths of their religion, and their arguing was acrimonious and vehement, each one refuting another. There were also some angels listening. The angels said that they did not perceive in any of them any affection for truth, and consequently neither any sight of truth, thus no mental delight in response to any truth. They marveled at this, that those people could confirm falsities, and they said that their only delight was in reasoning arising from conceit, and that consequently they cannot progress into any measure of wisdom, for they remain at a standstill. On the other hand, those who possess an affection for truth always progress from one truth to others, and this continually, until at last they come into wisdom and so into angelic happiness. The angels also said that as soon as they hear such argumentative people, they turn away, and do not wish to form any association with them because they do not have any sight. Most of these people are ones who have confirmed themselves in faith alone, not only in respect to doctrine but also in respect to their life; for they think to themselves, “What need is there for me to know what is evil, since it does not condemn, or to know what is good, since it does not save, provided I think in accordance with that faith that the Lord has fulfilled all requirements of the law for me and that His merit is imputed to me?”

205. [207.] 67. Angels of heaven have disclosed that people caught up in faith alone have no conscience, indeed that they do not know what conscience is, and anyone who does not have any conscience does not have any religion either. The reason is that they make goods of life of no account, and those who make these of no account are incapable of any measure of conscience or of knowing therefore what it is; for conscience is a grief of the heart at having acted contrary to Divine precepts and at having entertained thoughts in opposition to them. The grief of conscience springs from people’s seeing themselves as being in a state of damnation.

206. [208.] 68. Those who believe that a person is saved by charity and not by faith alone, if they do not live a life of charity, are not much different; for to speak of charity or to speak of faith and not put it into practice is equally just a matter of thought, in which there is no element of life because it has in it no element of will. Such spirits inflict pain in the breast and in the right shoulder blade.

207. [209.] 69. How much harm principles of falsity do and how far they turn the heart from things that ought to be done can be seen from many illustrations. As for example, one who believes that works contribute nothing to salvation turns his heart away from doing good deeds. One who believes adulterous affairs to be allowable turns his heart away from a chaste married love,* thus from chastity, indeed from purity of faith, for purity of faith is utterly in conflict with adulterous affairs. One who believes that nature accomplishes all things, and God only in a general way, puts his trust in his own prudence and does nothing good except of his own volition, on which account principles of falsity flow into his life; for the will does not act against principles seized on but in accordance with them.
* Or, conjugial love.

208. [210.] 70. I spoke with Melanchthon* about faith alone, saying that one can see from reason only that faith alone does not save, because every individual is the embodiment of his good or his evil, and every spirit is the form and image of his good or his evil, not only in respect to his facial appearance but also as regards his entire body. For a spirit is such as his affection is, in mind and at the same time in body, as one can plainly know from the fact that when anyone speaks contrary to some spirit’s or angel’s affection, the latter’s facial appearance then immediately changes, even becoming invisible and disappearing. Now, because faith alone is merely a matter of thought and not of the will, and thus a matter solely of the memory and not of the life, it follows, I said, that it exists as yet outside the person and not within him. Consequently, since a spirit is a spirit wholly to the degree of his good or his evil, and since faith separated from good does not exist within a person, it follows that such a faith is only a kind of skin, and that adherents of faith alone are not human except in respect to the skin, so that they may be rightly termed cutaneous or skin-deep ones.
* Philipp Melanchthon (born Philipp Schwarzert or Schwarzerd), 1497-1560, a German Protestant reformer, who collaborated with Martin Luther in drawing up the Augsburg Confession, a summation of the Lutheran faith, for whose formulation he was mainly responsible. Endorsed by the Lutheran princes, the statement was presented at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, and it became the chief creed of the Lutheran Church.
[Marginal Note]
Melanchthon

209. [211.] 71. This much is true, that anyone who affirms in himself faith alone, both in doctrine and in life, cannot be reformed and thus saved-namely, one who, when in the world, entertained the thought that, “Since I am justified by faith, no shred of evil condemns me, because it is not imputed, and no particle of good saves me,” and who consequently banishes from his thinking any reflection on the evil or goodness of life in him, and, if he does discern them, does not care about them, as matters of no consequence to his salvation. Such spirits exist, who cannot be reformed, for they continue the same thoughts after death.

210. [212.] 72. That the Lord is love…. That consequently the whole of heaven is organized in accordance with the classes and types and varieties of love, and also every society of heaven, as well as every spirit and angel…. The case is similar in a spirit or angel who has heaven in him, that everything in him is ordered in consequence of some love and in accordance with it in his intellect-including, indeed, his whole body. How then is faith alone ordered, which is faith only in accordance with some love?

211. [213.] 73. There was a certain Englishman who wrote learnedly and knowledgeably regarding faith and charity, and this with a great deal of ingenuity, but who had concluded that faith produces charity, believing that when a person has been justified by faith he endeavors to do good, this being the effect of faith, consequently that faith leads first to charity and also afterward in a state of charity. He was told by angels that this is how it appears to a person, but that it is nevertheless not so; yet that because this is how it appears, it is the way of reformation, for in consequence a person learns many things that will be matters of faith, believing that thus he will be saved. But when a person is being regenerated, the order is then reversed; and if one is willing to investigate, they said, one never finds charity to be produced by faith, but faith produced as a result of charity. Consequently the Englishman, being endowed with great ingenuity, thought up numerous arguments to establish that faith does the producing, and he was given an opportunity to set forth these arguments and to show whether it was so. For that reason he was left to meditate on his arguments; but when he came at the end of each to the production of charity, a kind of veil always appeared in the way, which he was not able to penetrate so as to arrive at charity. Abandoning that argument therefore, he dealt in like manner with the next, and so on with a hundred; and so he proceeded in his ingenious meditation every day for an entire year, never seeing a conjunction of the two from the standpoint of faith. On that account he afterward confessed that it was not possible, adding that some people said they had sensed in themselves that it was owing either to his having thought of charity as outside of faith or to other causes, and so forth and so on-as for instance, to the fact that he had been informed by such matters as are matters of faith; for truths of faith teach, and a person acts in accordance with them, and people have attributed this to faith as a result of some principle either conceived or heard. Moreover, after a person practices charity, his faith then becomes living, and in every single action faith and charity then operate together, at which point it can hardly be seen what is prior and what is subsequent.
Truths of faith which are matters of thought and the intellect exist first; but still truths are not living and do not become matters of a living or saving faith unless and until a person lives according to truths.

212. [214.] 74. I read in the presence of some Englishmen their customary prayers before the Holy Supper which declare how they should conduct themselves in order to have their sins forgiven them, a declaration which contains no mention of faith, and I said that it constitutes the essence of true religion.’ Certain preachers who were for faith alone were listening, and they said that when they read that prayer in their churches, they altogether believed it to be the way of salvation; but when they thought in accordance with their doctrine about faith alone, they then thought otherwise. The English were praised for that prayer, and many believed that it accorded with their doctrine, but a number of them said that it was intended for the common people, and faith alone for the learned. They were asked whether they would risk the admonition that if they did not do as prescribed, Satan would enter as he did into Judas.** At that they went away and talked with each other about the matter.
* “The way and means to be received as worthy partakers of that Holy Table is First, to examine your lives and Conversations by the rule of God’s commandments, and wherein soever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended either by will, word or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life; and if ye shall perceive your offences to be such, as are not only against God, but also against your neighbors, then ye shall reconcile yourselves unto them, being ready to make restitution and satisfaction according to the utmost of your power, for all injuries and wrongs done by you to any other, and being likewise ready to forgive others that have offended you, as ye would have forgiveness of your offences of God’s hand, for otherwise the receiving of the Holy Communion doth nothing else but increase your damnation. Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, or hinderer or slanderer of His word, or adulterer, or be in malice or envy, or in any other grievous crime, repent you of your sins, or else come not to the Holy Table; lest after the taking of that Holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you, as he entered into Judas, and fill you with all iniquities, and bring you to destruction both of body and soul.” (From The Doctrine of Life, no. 5.)
** A reference to the following statement in the declaration: “Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, or hinderer or slanderer of His word, or adulterer, or be in malice or envy, or in any other grievous crime, repent you of your sins, or else come not to the Holy Table; lest after the taking of that Holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you, as he entered into Judas, and fill you with all iniquities, and bring you to destruction both of body and soul.” (From The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, no. 5.)

213. [215.] 75. I once saw some English ecclesiastics, and among them also one or two bishops, who had fought for faith alone as though for their altars and hearths; and in accordance with their ideas respecting faith alone and justification by it, they were forming an image to represent that faith. (This can be accomplished impeccably and easily in the spiritual world. They form images there mentally, and the images also become visible, for appearances in the spiritual world originate solely from the inhabitants’ ideas.) These ecclesiastics molded into their image all elements of their faith, but when it was finished it appeared in the sight of angels as a terrible monstrosity, as though to frighten them. That is how it appeared in the light of heaven, but to the ecclesiastics’ eyes it appeared otherwise, as monstrosities usually do in the dark shadows of fantasy. At first they boasted of the image, but afterward they became ashamed.*
* See also no. [10] above.

214. [216.] 76. Some Englishmen said that faith produces charity as a tree produces fruit, but they were shown that by a tree in those places* is meant not faith but a person, and that truths of faith are meant by its branches and leaves, and goods of love by its fruits. They were also told that natural affection or natural good, which is characteristic of love of self and love of the world, cannot be conjoined with a faith which is spiritual. If they are conjoined, the result is an, adultery. Moreover, they were told that spiritual good cannot be formed except through goodness of life, the good from which it arose.
* See perhaps Matthew 3:10, 7:17-19, 12:33; Luke 3:9, 6:43, 44, 13:6-9. Cf. also Revelation 22:2.

215. [217.] 77. An argument that they emphasize is that a person cannot do good which is good of himself. That is true; but still, unless a person is engaged in good as if of himself, he does not adopt it as his, and so is not conjoined with the Lord. For conjunction to occur there must be reciprocity, thus a covenant, the arrangement being, “If you do this, I will do that.” To make it possible for a person to act as if of himself, he has therefore been given freedom, and this freedom is a freedom to think, will, and do. He has been given the faculty of reason to see what salvation is. He has been given the faculty of will, and the power of choice and determination. He has been commanded to act. These gifts have been given in order that he may act as if of himself, even though the ability comes not from him but from the Lord. If he were not to do so of his own volition, he would be an automaton, and anything flowing in would simply flow on through him. The Lord also continually presses and urges a person to act, and this in such a way that it does not appear to him otherwise than that he does so of himself, to make possible his adoption of it and conjunction. A thousand passages from the Word could be cited to show that a person is condemned if he does evil and rewarded if he does good. (Select passages in which doing and works are mentioned.)*
* As for example, regarding doing: Genesis 18:19; Exodus 23:2; Leviticus 5:4; Deuteronomy 4:25, 31:29; 1 Samuel 15:19; 2 Samuel 12:9; 1 Kings 10:9, 21:20; 2 Kings 17:17; Psalms 14:1, 3, 15:3, 34:14, 16, 36:3, 37:3, 27, 53:1, 3, 82:3, 106:3; Isaiah 1:16,17, 56:1, 64:5; Jeremiah 4:22, 18:9,10, 22:15; Malachi 2:17; Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27, 35. Regarding works: Exodus 23:24; Deuteronomy 15:10; 1 Samuel 8:8; 2 Kings 22:17; Psalms 14:1, 33:15, 106:39, 141:4; Isaiah 29:15, 59:6, 66:18; Jeremiah 25:6, 7, 14, 44:8; Amos 8:7; Jonah 3:10; Matthew 5:16, 16:27, 23:3; John 7:3, 7, 8:39, 14:12; Revelation 2:2, 5, 9, 13, 19, 23, 26, 3:1, 2, 8, 15, 9:20, 14:13, 20:12, 13.

216. [218.] 78. Many were examined who in their final hours had received the Eucharist and who then believed they would be saved by that faith of theirs, believing it with trust and confidence; and yet evil of life remained and not faith. They were told to hold their breath and hang on to that faith; but nevertheless, as soon as they began to breathe again, the delight of evil which had formed their life returned, and they were cast into hell.

217. [219.] 79. After the Judgment, those who had been scattered about among others were gathered together, and when they had been assembled, a burning came into their heart to seduce upright people into believing that faith alone saves. Consequently the latter complained about them to the Lord, and I then saw them receding more and more until they reached the boundaries of the Christian world. To the rear of these boundaries lay desert areas, and I saw a great number of those people driven into them. I was also granted after that to see what the desert was like. I found rude huts and shacks, in which the men live an almost solitary existence with some whore, and they are surrounded by rocky ground and masses of stones heaped together, with several paths running in between, although they dare not approach one another. They are afraid of each other, fearful that the others will do them harm, nor do they believe it when people stand at their doors and invite them out. They have given to them daily a bit of bread and some water. Certain others send them something else to eat. I did not see any bush, much less a tree, but only stretches of sand and rocks.

218. [220.] 80. Many of them would say that they were willing to be instructed and so reject that faith, but without success. It remained too deeply enrooted, because it had been the fundamental tenet of their life. What is surprising, moreover, the learned of that religious persuasion regard justification by faith alone as a Divine mystery-so that to try to put a finger on it would be like trying to touch the pupil of the eye-saying that they have bound themselves to it by a sworn oath. Even when they have been shown that that faith is described in the book of Revelation by the beast from the sea,* and in Daniel by the little horn which grew in every direction and cast down from heaven the host there,** and when they hear this confirmed from heaven where the inhabitants perceive the correspondence, still they continue to worship justification as their idol, by which they mean justification by faith alone.
I have spoken with them at length as well about the effort to do good following justification, asking whether there is in this effort any element of will on the person’s part. Some have said that there is, others that there is not, and that it must be kept quite separate.
* Revelation 13:1-7.
** Daniel 8:9,10.

219. [221.] 81. Some of them say that we do not have free will but that it was lost by Adam; that we have some freedom in believing and faith, but not in doing or works. However, they were shown that no one-not even Adam-has ever had any freedom of himself, but only as if of himself, that everyone has the freedom to act from the Lord, thus to be led by the Lord; and that everyone comes into this freedom to the extent that he is led.

220. [222.] 82. All those preachers who in the life of the body confirmed themselves in faith alone, and because of their life cannot retreat from it, are not permitted to preach. Their priestly attire is taken from them, and afterward they do not know that they had been preachers.
Very many are permitted to preach, but as soon as they preach faith alone and justification by it alone, their listeners all leave and the church becomes empty. In this way those preachers who are able to retreat from that faith are corrected so as to receive the doctrine of heaven. The like occurs in the case of those who separate the Lord from the Father and do not make them one.
Moreover, what is new, all who are in the spiritual world more than a month reject the notion of a third person, acknowledging that the Holy Spirit is the Lord speaking through angels and spirits. The reason they reject the notion is that fanatic spirits, Quakers and many others, who are hellish, say they are the Holy Spirit from eternity.
[223.] I have had many conversations with them on this subject, remarking that because they have rejected the idea of a third person in the Godhead, they presently think of two, and asking them to see whether now of the two they may make one.

221. [224.] 83. Known to me was one who in the world had, by many arguments, confirmed himself in faith alone.* I told him to go and see the dwellings in the aforementioned desert areas,** and when he arrived there he saw nothing but sandy ground and pebbles, surrounded by rocks, without any shrubbery or grass. Thus returning he grieved over the people’s wretched lot. He also met and spoke there with some whom he had regarded in the world as learned, and when he tried still to defend faith alone, serpents appeared which flew at his feet and coiled themselves around them. After that he was taken to stretches of fields inhabited by people who possessed a similar faith, places which had grass, shrubbery, trees and buildings, and where the people were cheerful in spirit and diligent in their labors and business dealings. They confessed that they knew about that faith only from preachers, but gave no thought to it beyond its literal meaning and did not defend it further, and that they nevertheless lived their life according to the Word, so that that faith was only a matter of knowledge in their memory, but not a faith in life. They are afterward instructed and receive truths which they had not known in the world.
* Jacob Benzelius (see Spiritual Experiences no. 6044), 1683-1747, Swedish Lutheran clergyman and professor of theology, Bishop of Gottenburg 1731-1744, Archbishop of Uppsala 1744-1747.
** See no. [217].

222. [225.] 84. One learned man was examined who in life had thought only of faith alone. He was examined to see whether he knew any truth of the church-whether he knew what faith is, or the life of faith, or charity, or love; or what truth is, and an affection for and perception of truth; what free will is; what regeneration is; what spiritual temptation or trial is; what baptism is, and the Holy Supper; what heaven in a person is, and hell, and its origin; in what the holiness of the Word lies; what Providence is; what God is-whether He is one or three; what conscience is; and what the church in a person is, and heaven in a person. And angels hearing him found that he knew none of these things, his replies from his reasonings being false, and his replies from the Word having been falsified. He was told how he could come into the light of heaven and so into angelic wisdom, and because of it into the happiness of heaven. Being convinced, he tried to learn, but because he had confirmed himself in faith alone, he could not.

223. [226.] 85. I have spoken with angels about the progression of truth to good and the fact that angels feel joy when a younger or older child learns and assimilates truths with affection, thus when truths become a matter of knowledge; that they feel still greater joy when these truths become matters of the intellect, and even more when they become matters of the will; and the greatest joy when they become matters of action. At that point they also love him and the fact that truths have taught him and led him to good; and afterward they rejoice when he recognizes that truths do not lead into good, but that it is good that leads him into truths and so into wisdom. A person is not aware of this, but angels perceive it and rejoice.

224. [227.] 86. How English preachers who wish to gain a reputation for learning compose their sermons with great elegance and seemingly profound wisdom, especially as regards the influx of faith into an effort to do good, and the state of the person then in respect to his affection, reception, and enlightenment by the Holy Spirit. Some of the English complained, saying that the sermons thus delight their ears with their elegance and are pleasing when they hear them, but when they try in themselves to apply something from them, they do not know what the preachers have said as to whether it is permissible to add their volition and so consciously will and do a thing. When asked about it, the preachers make such equivocal replies that it seems as though they may and may not, saying finally that it is a transcendent mystery, in order that their listeners, being able to gather either conclusion from them, may praise them; but because of the preachers’ ambiguous utterances, which conceal in them some hidden meaning like a snake in the undergrowth, their listeners do not like them. The preachers tell them to remain in the doctrine which is taught in the customary prayer at the Holy Supper, and that if they, do not do so of their own will, perhaps the devil will enter into them as he did into Judas.*
The sermons of English preachers are also filled with a sense of trust and confidence in themselves.
* A reference to the following statement in the declaration: “Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, or hinderer or slanderer of His word, or adulterer, or be in malice or envy, or in any other grievous crime, repent you of your sins, or else come not to the Holy Table; lest after the taking of that Holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you, as he entered into Judas, and fill you with all iniquities, and bring you to destruction both of body and soul.” (From The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, no. 5.)

225. [228.] 87. A number of times I have heard it said from heaven that faith alone saves no one, because it has no life in it; also that faith is truth, and that a person possesses truth to the extent that he abstains from evils as being sins. (More on the Decalogue and its holiness in Spiritual Experiences, no. 6065.)

226. [229.] 88. Truths of faith have been likened to the adornments and furnishings in palaces, and I have heard it said that unless a person lives according to those truths, the truths are as though in a dark room with the windows closed; but as soon as a person lives according to them, he is then raised into heavenly light, and the windows are thrown open, and he sees the truths and delights in them.

227. [230.] Conclusion

89. Lastly we must report what a person’s state after death is like, of whatever religious persuasion he may be. People who have led a good life-namely, those who have abstained from evils because they are sins and have conducted their dealings with others uprightly and honestly-are not conveyed into the evils of their will, but are kept in a state of good by the Lord and so in a state of intelligence and wisdom.
90. In contrast, however, those who have lived evilly are conveyed into the evils of their will, and they cannot but think then in accord with that evil, appearing as though demented, more like animals than human beings. Their love of doing evil then reigns. They rush into everything into which their lust carries them. More irrational than the rest are those who have been motivated by a love of ruling for their own benefit. I have seen thousands of this character, and they appear altogether as though bereft of rationality, and yet they continue to believe they are wise, even exceptionally wise. Nevertheless they are permitted from time to time to return into their rational state, the state which they had in the world, when their cunning caused them to imagine themselves endowed with every virtue. But even then the pleasure of returning into the delight of their will draws them, so that they cannot be withheld from it except against their will. They wish to be irrational. Consequently, because that is their character, they are conveyed into hells, which they are then not permitted to leave; and they remain there under the supervision of a judge, who imposes on them tasks that they must accomplish daily. If they do not do them, they are not given any food, or clothing, or bed; and if they do evil, they are severely punished. Thus by these tasks they are withheld from the delights of their will. In such a prison are kept all-both men and women-who have lived evilly, that is, who have given rein to sins. Moreover, before they arrive there, they have taken from them everything that they previously learned from the Word and everything that they knew regarding faith, and also any cognizance of who they had been in the world-whether kings or magistrates, bishops or church elders, rich or poor, or one of the masses. Consequently they are then all alike, no one being any greater than another. A humble peasant may associate with the eminent, without either knowing which of them was in a higher position in the world; for haughtiness of the spirit is found equally in those who are of the common people as in members of the aristocracy.
Surprisingly, too, they cannot leave those hells to eternity. For if by chance they as much as set foot outside, they are punished; and if they are taken out by others, they become more insane than before-as I have several times seen happen. They are like highwaymen who for fear of punishment live honorably in a house in the city, but as soon as they go out into a forest think constantly of robbing and pillaging.

228. [231.] 91. A person’s states can all be summoned back after death, including his states at various stages of life, such as his states of childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. People who enter heaven come into the state of their adolescence. Summoned back also are states of innocence, charity, and affections for truth, accompanied by their every delight, indescribably increased. In the case of people who have lived well, states of good are summoned back; in the case of those who have been evil, states of evil-as described just above.

229. [232.] 92. (That people today continue to crucify the Lord, see under Lord;* also that they are like the Jews in their time. Experiences.**)
* i.e., in the writer’s indices to his Spiritual Experiences (published posthumously).
** i.e., Spiritual Experiences, a record carefully maintained by the writer from 1745 to 1765, from which much of the present material was drawn.

230. [233.] Love

93. From the ideas of spirits flowing into the world of spirits after death, it is possible to know all the ideas they have had regarding God, heaven, love, and faith.
Most of them have an idea of God as a kind of cloud or mist, because they have thought that God is a spirit, and they have no other idea of a spirit than that.
They have an idea of heaven as being in the sky-some placing it among the stars, all regarding it as existing in the universe-and scarcely any have an idea of it as existing in a person, because they cannot remove the idea of space. The ideas they have of heavenly joy are ones of delight, each thinking of it as the delight of his love, especially the delight of ruling and of living blissfully and continually in the enjoyment of external delights, only a few placing it in the enjoyment of inner delights, without knowing what they are.
They have so crude an idea of love that you would call it filthy. They think of it in terms of the delight of a love of adultery. Some of them have no idea of love, because they have not known what love is. They think of mutual love in the same way, some having the idea of an external friendship. In a word, all their ideas of love stem from an idea of lasciviousness.
They have no other idea of faith than the accepted one, whose character we described above, an idea which is not an idea of genuine faith, because it is an idea of faith separated from charity, with no knowledge of what charity is. When an angelic idea of God, heaven, love, or faith flows in, they do not perceive it. There is in their minds a kind of dark oblivion, because the light of heaven does not enter.
Such is the character of the world today as a result of faith alone; for when faith alone enters and is accepted, no element of truth then is liked. They say, “I know the truths of our church, which are wholly contained in that faith.”

231. [234.] 94. A person after death comes into the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and there he passes from society to society, and so is prepared either for heaven or for hell. This passage appears as a relocation from one place to another, and also to involve traveling. The person goes to various zones, sometimes ascending to more elevated places, sometimes descending to lower ones; and that is how he perceives it, even though the changes are only changes of state. (So it has been with me when I have been in the spirit.) Finally then, when the person has been prepared, he is at that point led by the love which is at the head of his other loves, and he turns his face toward the society where his dominant love is found and goes there as though to his home.

232. [235.] 95. That an affection or love has impressed on it conceptions of truth, so that the very affection engenders them as concepts known to it, for it sees things consonant or in harmony with it…. For some people possess a faculty for confirming. Consequently, if the affection is a good one-which becomes good by life-it immediately has impressed on it concepts supporting it, and it perceives those things when it hears or sees them because of the similar and analogous elements in itself. This therefore is a characteristic of love. But one who is caught up in faith alone and prompted by love of self or the world is incapable of being affected by anything other than what accords with his love, than what has been impressed on his love, and what is contrary to truths of faith, namely, that God is to be loved above oneself, and heaven above the world, that the good of the neighbor is to be loved, and every useful endeavor in service to the neighbor, and the like. Truths of faith are then rejected, which is also the case after death, and those notions remain which are matters of the love or of the will.

233. [236.] 96. All those who possess a love of ruling for their own benefit, and not for the sake of being useful, retain that love after death, and wherever they go they try to rule, the love being one that, as it is given rein, rushes on. It is a love that spurns everything Divine unless it serves it as a means of ruling. Consequently it likes it as long as it serves it as such a means, but when it does not serve as such a means, it not only rejects it but hates it. The reason is that that love is opposed to heavenly love. Such people are not admitted into heaven; and if by hypocritical pretense they do insinuate themselves into heaven, they fill the whole vicinity with a notion and image of themselves, even when they are speaking of God. Thus they turn astray the ideas of the angels, which are directed from themselves to God. Therefore they are driven away. This I have been shown.
Most of these people are carnal, because they have immersed themselves in their native character and have not raised themselves above it.. People like that are conveyed to the boundaries of the world of spirits of our earth, where a lake appears full of smoke and fire, and being first rolled in the dust, they are given over to the life they led in the world, and so are cast into the lake.

234. [237.] 97. Let all who are in the world and read these words know that the love of ruling for one’s own benefit and not for the sake of being useful is the fundamental diabolical love and contains in it all evils. Let them know this and guard themselves against it. All evil loves are contained in it and accompany it, including ones that a person is completely unaware of in the world.
I have an abundance of examples sufficient to show that people who in outward appearance seem to be moral and Christian, but inwardly in themselves think of nothing but themselves and the world, after death are associated with devils. I observed such a one over a long period of time, who in his heart was so arrogant that scarcely anyone else could be more so, and yet in the world he could speak theologically with theologians and morally with others. He pretended to be more just and fair than any other, but after he died he became such a fiery devil that he not only denied God but even wished to be the devil himself so as to be able continually to fight against God and destroy heaven. He burned with such hostility against all who acknowledged the Lord that he was frequently punished, but in vain. If I were to recount his acts of malice, cunning, and criminality, I would fill pages. I saw in him what the devil is like in his hell and in people. It was Charles XII.*
People of that character do not acknowledge God, but believe all who conquer to be gods, and they wish to become gods themselves and to be worshiped.
* Charles XII, 1682-1718, king of Sweden 1697-1718.

235. [238.] 98. I heard a conversation once regarding the love of ruling, in which it was said that many believe that those who in the world worship the Lord, love Him, when in fact they are His foes; and the statement was made that a devil can be impelled to worship the Lord if only it is promised him that he will become great, and still more if it is promised that he will become exceedingly great. Permission was then granted for the speakers to take from hell one of the devils there who was most hostile to the Lord; and they told him that the Lord would make him exceedingly great. He changed his attitude to such a degree that he wished to lead all to the Lord, and to impel them by various threats, saying that the Lord must be honored and worshiped, and asserting this earnestly and persuasively, having in mind that he would become the Lord’s vicar. However, when he saw that he had been deluded, he began to detest the Lord and became His implacable foe as before, but was cast into hell.
In a word, the delight of exercising command surpasses every delight of the body.

236. [239.] 99. (Regarding the two kinds of command or dominion, one emanating from love of self and the other from love for the neighbor, see the descriptions in the book Heaven and Hell, in The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, and in the small book The Earths in the Universe, and cite them.)

237. [240.] 100. The interior elements in people who are caught up in a love of exercising command appear black, because they are closed to the flowing in of heaven. Their lower elements appear as though foggy, because they are opened to the hells. I heard it said that the higher, thus interior elements can never be opened toward heaven in people caught up in a love of ruling.

238. [241.] 101. I saw from various nations some people of knightly rank, who wore sashes draped from the shoulders over the chest, and jewels. I saw many of them, and when examined by angels they were found to have their sight continually focused on themselves, thinking of their greater eminence and distinction in comparison to others, and wishing all to turn their eyes to them.
Now because they believed they were worthier than others to be set over others, they were for that reason given administrative positions; but when they began to make decisions regarding the public welfare, it was then perceived that they had no affection for the common good or for useful endeavors, and so neither could they distinguish good from evil, or truth therefore from falsity, with any judgment, but could only speak in a high-sounding manner from memory. Consequently, because they were of such a character, they were expelled from their posts, and they were permitted to wander about and obtain for themselves new positions. But wherever they went, people said that they thought only of themselves and not about them, thus that they thought only from a sensual, carnal sight. Therefore they were not accepted anywhere they went, and this repeatedly over some period of time. I afterward saw some of them reduced to extreme straits and begging for a pittance. Thus is a love of ruling humbled.
One man who was also adorned with the insignia of knighthood confessed that whenever he wore that attire, he could not think as he did beforehand, because he was interrupted by thought of himself. But when he was at home, having cast aside the attire, he would regularly return to the judgment he possessed previously.
Diabolical spirits are skilled in the art of seducing upright people by turning the people’s thoughts to themselves and their own person. They praise them in various ways. They place themselves behind them and inspire in them a love of self. And whenever they perceive some element of blackness-which is the people’s native character-and they search out what is there, they infuse it with their own thought and pervert it, indeed direct it. Some of them gaze at the people’s foreheads and accomplish the same end. Others operate in other ways. Wherever the blackness appears, there the love of ruling exists, because it is the person’s native character.

239. [242.] 102. Love, which is a property of a person’s will, corresponds to flame; and faith, which is a matter of thought from the intellect, corresponds to light. That this is so has its origin, by influx of the Lord, from love and wisdom, or from the sun of heaven, from which emanate Divine love and Divine wisdom-love into the will, and wisdom into the intellect-but producing only as much intelligence as there is love, as is the case with light from a flame.

240. [243.] 103. People who worship the Lord out of love do so in accordance with all their truths of faith. Consequently the more truths one has, the fuller and more acceptable his worship. That is because love stirs up everything that has entered in consequence of it into the intellect, and the person is then conscious only of what he is saying or praying at the time, while all other considerations are held in some connection with it, and are not in their usual order of priority. When love produces truths, the truths are then ordered by the Lord into the form of heaven, and the person then venerates Him as though in the light of heaven. I have learned this from experience in the spiritual world. Whenever I see someone, I have come to mind then everything that I know or have heard about him. Angels see these things in their own order of priority. And so on.
From this it is apparent what worship of the Lord is like by those who are possessed of genuine truths out of love for Him.

241. [244.] 104. It sometimes happens for the sake of instruction that a spirit is permitted to alter the affections in another, even to the point of eventually transforming them into contrary ones, and in accordance with the transformations of his affections the other’s countenance is changed, so that it becomes altogether unrecognizable. Produced in the face is even a monstrous appearance, and also a blackness, depending on the affections induced, and the body, too, is transformed, becoming taller or shorter-taller in consequence of arrogance and conceit, shorter in consequence of humility and self-contempt. It was apparent from this that affection or love shapes a person from head to toe.
A similar phenomenon occurs when a spirit is transferred laterally through various societies, as I have also seen, namely, that he eventually becomes unrecognizable. It is apparent from this that a person’s character is such as the character of his love.
I have been shown as well in regard to faith-which is a matter of thought-that when joined to a carnal love (which varies in character), it makes a person ugly in accordance with the nature of the love. Consequently, for faith to exist, it must be joined to a spiritual affection.

242. [245.] 105. I have perceived what the delight of a love of commanding is like, that the sweetness it has in it is indescribable, causing a person to believe that it is heaven and its joy, when in fact it is hell. It is also transformed into such a dreadful fate. It is the same with a love of doing evil, with a love of hatred and vengeance, with a love of stealing, with a love of adultery, too, and with their delights. A person does not know that when these delights abate through reformation by the Lord, then for the first time do the delights of heaven enter, delights which immeasurably surpass the former delights, and that the delights of those evils then become undelightful and cause distress. Neither does he know beforehand that such delights are possible.

243. [246.] 106. I have seen many who lived in this and prior ages, some of whom were military officers of greater or lesser rank, some officials in a civilian capacity, who, owing to fortune’s treating them with favor, had acquired such a delight in commanding that they aspired to dominion over all things. I perceived their delight, which to them was as though heaven; and they were endowed as well with a natural ability and sight in civil affairs beyond that of others. After death they at first spoke of God, but after a short time they not only denied God and believed in nature; they also became finally virtual fools, sitting in darkness and so leading a miserable life. That is because a love of commanding is contrary to heavenly love.

244. [247.] 107. Every person after death is attached to a number of societies, as many as the loves he has had. But after he has been devastated and purged, he then goes to a society where his dominant love is found, for that society is for him the center of all the rest of his loves.

245. [248.] 108. There was a certain man-Fr. G.*-who in his childhood devoted himself to piety and consequently remained in an acknowledgment of God even to the end of his life. However, owing to favorable treatment by fortune, he nevertheless grew into a love of commanding, and so into evils of every kind, which indeed he did not commit, but which he excused and regarded as allowable. In the other life he prayed to God as in the world, and with such fervor that scarcely anyone could have done so more ardently, but he prayed to God the Father, believing that when he had done this all his offenses were forgiven. On the other hand, he began to burn with such hatred against the Lord that he denied Him, and he afterward persecuted those who venerated the Lord. Finally, then, he denied God and became a virtual fool, and was sent among those who possess little life.
* Frederic Gyllenborg, 1698-1759, a Swedish Count, known to Swedenborg in the world and mentioned at the beginning of his journal for 1733 as among his friends; at an early age a page at the court of the Queen Dowager, Hedvig Eleonora; chamberlain to King Frederic in 1722 and a member of his court until 1733, when he was appointed Chief Justice of Gothland; a member of the Swedish Diet from 1731; President of the College of Mines 1750-1759.

246. [249.] 109. People who are caught up in the delight of a love of commanding cannot become spiritual. They become carnal for the reason that they immerse every element of their affection and consequent thought in their native character, which in itself is carnal and evil, to the point that they cannot be withdrawn from their native character.
Everyone who in heart acknowledges God is elevated above his native character, for it is impossible for a person from his native self to look to God, acknowledging Him in his heart. Moreover, to one who cannot be elevated above his native character, heaven is closed; and because it is through it that intelligence flows in from the Lord, so it is that when heaven is closed, such people become stupid and virtual fools.

247. [250.] 110. I once saw what sort of love Christians have toward the Lord today. Many of them were conveyed into their loves, and in fantasy were given to see what seemed to be the Lord; and at that point they went into such a rage that they dragged Him down and tried to murder Him, all of them having been caught up in faith alone and subsequently in love of self. It was apparent from this that the Christian world today is against the Lord, as were formerly Jews.
In a word, all who are caught up in faith alone, and in a love of self and the world and so in evils, if they so much as sense the Divine atmosphere of the Lord, go into a rage.

248. [251.] Jews

Before the Last Judgment, Jews were for the most part to the left on a plane with the heel of the foot, and I quite often spoke with them there. They were at the time beneath the central area inhabited by the Christian world; but after the Last Judgment they were driven away, and being now far to the left, they live there in certain cities where the streets appear filled with dung and refuse, and where the houses are continually changing owing to the fact that new inhabitants keep coming and going. They are explored there to discover who among them are able to acknowledge the Lord as the Messiah-whom they are still awaiting in the world-and who cannot. Those who can are conveyed to synagogues where they are instructed.
[Marginal Note]
filth

249. [252.] In one of those cities an angel with a staff sometimes appears at a height, and he gives them to believe that he is Moses and urges them to desist from the madness of their awaiting the Messiah, since in fact the Messiah is Christ, who now, being one with the Father, rules the whole of heaven-saying that he himself knows this, because he had known it in the world. However, those who cannot acknowledge it because of their life listen, and when they leave, forget. But those who can acknowledge it keep it in remembrance.
[Marginal Note]
[Page] K
[containing the material from the phrase, and there spread out, in no. [93], p. 92, to the end of no. [100]]

250. [253.] They possess for Abraham a Divine concept; a somewhat Divine one but less so for Jacob, and also for the rest of their patriarchs.
Set over them by the Lord is always some converted Jew who possesses a hidden Judaism within or at heart, but Christianity outwardly or in profession; and he is instructed by certain angels sent by the Lord, in order that he may rule them according to their character and disposition.

251. [254.] Jews retain still from the world their dealing especially in precious stones, which they obtain for themselves in certain ways from heaven, that being where precious stones come from, concerning which more may be said. For they have there everything that exists in the world. They have gold and silver, found also in the form of coins. They have stones of every kind. These are, like everything else which appears to their eyes, from a spiritual origin, and so are correspondent forms. They appear altogether as they do in the world. Their origin is Divine truths. Consequently in the case of those angels who are governed by truths, the decorations in their homes glisten with silver and gold and diamonds. Precious objects of this kind are given from there to people below who pursue truths, and these objects continue to be of the same character forever because of their origin. Jews acquire them for themselves from those people and sell them. The reason Jews engage in this trade in the world and also after their departure from the world is that they love the Word of the Old Testament in its letter, and the literal sense of the Word corresponds to precious stones of various kinds. That sense is meant by the twelve stones on Aaron’s ephod, the Urim and the Thummim.* It is meant by the precious stones in Tyre, spoken of in Ezekiel.** And it is meant by the precious stones which formed the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem.***
Now because it was foreseen by the Lord that Christians would not hold the Old Testament as holy as Jews do, therefore the Jewish people have been preserved to this day and have been scattered throughout the Christian world, in order that the Word may be maintained in its sanctity through correspondences. This is the reason that Jews are permitted to deal still in the same things as in the world. If this reason had not existed, that nation, because of its perverseness, would have completely perished.
* Exodus 28:26-30; Leviticus 8:6-8.
** Ezekiel 27:22.
*** Revelation 21:19, 20.

252. [255.] There are also some who fabricate for themselves precious stones with such art that they can hardly be distinguished from genuine ones. When they are discovered, however, they are severely punished, put into a prison where they suffer hardships, and cast into hells.

253. [256.] The only delight Jews have is to make a profit. More interior delights are unknown to them. They are mostly external people.

254. [257.] I have spoken quite often with Jews on the following themes:
1) Regarding their sacrifices, I have said that they depicted heavenly events, and I have related how various elements of these symbolize the Lord.
2) Regarding Isaac, I have explained why he was sacrificed by Abraham;* and I have said that none of this was disclosed to them in the world because they were so external that they would not have accepted it, because they were unwilling to accept it, and that they would have profaned it.
3) I have spoken of the predictions contained in Isaiah, chapter 53,** at which they would fall utterly silent, because the explanation was such that they could not respond. They would be afraid to have it read again because they were unwilling to be convinced.
4) Regarding eternal life, I have said that it consists in the unanimity of all and in its resulting joy, whereas they are governed by an animosity toward each other and so are incapable of the happiness of heaven. They would reply that they were awaiting the Messiah to unite them.
5) I have spoken with them about the symbolism of Jacob’s sinew that was dislocated,*** about Esau’s heel which Jacob held,**** and about the heel which the serpent bruised,***** saying that these symbolize themselves. I have spoken about their being descended from a Canaanite woman and from whoredom with a daughter-in-law, explaining what these events symbolized and saying that the things meant in that chapter are such things as are symbolized.******
I have also said that the Jews and their tribes mentioned in the Word do not mean them but spiritual and celestial things. Regarding the land of Canaan, they said that they believe they will be brought into that land by the Messiah when He comes; that He will go before them with His staff and dry up the rivers; that surrounding them will be a fiery wall; that they would go through Christendom, and that Christians would take hold of their garments and beg to follow, and that they would admit them and have them as slaves, provided they turn over their money and currency; and other like things. I have asked them whether their dead as well and those now in the world of spirits would go, too, or only those in the world; whether the land of Canaan was large enough for them; where in fact the Messiah would be born; whether they knew any offspring of David; whether they knew where Bethlehem is located; and other like questions, as why they were awaiting an earthly kingdom when the Messiah’s kingdom is a heavenly one, as those who have departed from the world may know. Following these exchanges, the evil among them could not be convinced, but some were upright and wished to be instructed.
6) I have explained to them what the land of Canaan symbolizes, what Jerusalem symbolizes, why it was called holy, what Zion symbolizes, what the twelve tribes represented, and what they therefore symbolize. I have explained as well the passages in which it is said that those in captivity would return, saying that it did not mean them at all, but that it was so written for the sake of the spiritual meaning contained in every particular.
7) I have spoken to them about the spiritual meaning, to which they responded at first that they were aware of the Word’s having in it a mystical meaning, and that by that mystical meaning they know that they acquire gold and are able to make gold.******* To that I have replied that mystically speaking, that is, spiritually, it was true, because gold symbolizes the goodness of love, and those who are in possession of the mystical or spiritual meaning of the Word receive that love. But they wanted gold and not love, saying that to possess gold was their love.
* Genesis 22:1-18.
** Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked-but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:1-12)
*** Genesis 32:24,25,32.
**** Genesis 25:24-26.
***** Genesis 3:15.
****** See Genesis 38.
******* Cf. cabalism, the principles or doctrines of the cabala (spelled also cabbala, kabala, kabbala), a system of esoteric theosophy and theurgy developed by rabbis, reaching its peak about the 12th and 13th centuries and influencing certain medieval and Renaissance Christians, based on a mystical method of interpreting the Old Testament by which initiates claimed to penetrate sacred mysteries.

255. [258.] Before the Judgment Jews called two cities Jerusalem, but after the Judgment, by command they changed the name, because after that there came into common speech everywhere reference to the Holy Jerusalem mentioned in the book of Revelation. The Holy Jerusalem symbolizes the New Church, into which no one may enter who does not regard the Messiah as one with Jehovah, thus no one who does not worship the Lord. Jews have been discussed in Arcana Coelestia (The Secrets of Heaven).

256. [259.] Jews aspire much after heaven, believing that heaven is their inheritance and that to inherit the land of Canaan is to inherit heaven, supposing, too, that there is a land of Canaan in heaven, and that the Messiah will dwell among them. They are surprised that He does not descend from there to them; but I replied that He does not wish to because they have so much discord among them, and so many enmities and animosities, and contempt for others. Also because they pray to the God of Israel not to obtain salvation, but to become rich.

257. [260.] That the evil among them are cast into hells which lie beneath that great tract of theirs, many of them into forests and deserts, where they commit acts of robbery, but yet are punished miserably. That the Word is taken from them.

258. [261.] That they have been preserved as well for the sake of the Hebrew language. That they also have the Word written in the old Hebrew script, in which all the letters are curved, because the Word in that lettering has a more immediate communication with heaven.

[The manuscript contains an empty page here.]

259. [356.] The Ten Commandments

1) Ten articles on what happens to a person when he fights against evils as sins, as before.

260. 2) Next the Ten Commandments, in which are found the evils that are sins against which one is to fight.
Then the spiritual quality which is at that point imparted to the person and into which he comes, which is the spiritual quality there in every commandment.

261. 3) What charity is: that it is to perform useful services, everyone in his own occupation.

262. 4) What faith arising from charity is, and faith apart from charity.*
* The manuscript contains the following additions here, struck through, it seems, to delete them:
Present in summary here what faith is without goodness, 1) that it has no truth in it; 2) that it has destroyed the church; 3) that it has falsified the truth of the Word; 4) that it is the dragon, the he-goat, Cain, Philistia, Reuben.
Present this also in ten articles as before.

263. 5) Some observations regarding faith separated from charity, on the nature of that faith when a person is caught up in it in life and in doctrine.

264. [357.] Observations Regarding Faith

In a separate little work we must deal with faith,* thus with faith separated from charity, after the work on the Last Judgment,** in which all the points are taken up in articles, as follows:
* Almost certainly a reference to The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding Faith, published by the writer in its original Latin in Amsterdam, 1763, some months after the present work was written.
** Either the present work, not published by the writer, or in its eventual form as A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment and the Spiritual World, published by the writer in its original Latin also in Amsterdam, 1763, some months after the present work was written.

265. 1) What charity is and what faith is.

266. 2) That one cannot be separated from the other, there being no charity where there is no faith, and no faith where there is no charity.

267. 3) That in the measure one exists, in the same measure the other does also, in the same degree and of the same quality.

268. 4) That faith is truth.

269. 5) That faith does not produce charity, but charity faith.
That those tenets which are presumed to be constituents of faith are merely lifeless concepts before there is charity.

270. 6) That faith without charity is not possible.
That faith without charity is not religion.
That faith without charity falsifies the Word.
That faith without charity wholly blinds any understanding of truth.
That the church comes to an end when there is no faith teaching charity.
That every church degenerates into Babylon* and into faith alone.
That faith separated from charity is predicted in the book of Revelation and is meant by the dragon and its two beasts.**
That faith without charity is meant by the he-goat in Daniel*** and the goats in Matthew.****
That faith without charity is meant by Philistia.
That faith without charity is meant by Cain.
That faith without charity is meant by Reuben.
That faith arising from charity and also faith without charity is meant by Peter.
That charity is meant by James, and works of charity by John.
* A reference to Babylon in the book of Revelation (Revelation 14:8, 16:19, 17, 18), by which is depicted the final state of the Roman Catholic Church.
** Revelation 12, 13, 14:9-11, 15:2, 16:10-13, 19:19, 20, 20:2-4, 10.
*** Daniel 8.
**** Matthew 25:32,33.

271. Present what today’s faith is like, that it is of such a character (see the page following regarding faith)*-also describe briefly the stages of justification, that they are of such a character-and that that faith constitutes the whole of today’s theology. Moreover, that if it is affirmed, many falsities arise; but not if it is not affirmed.
* A reference apparently to the material in nos. [366-371].

272. 1) That the will is twofold, spiritual and natural.
2) That concepts are the storehouse of faith. 3) That all the constituents of faith can be seen. 4) That falsities of faith are not faith. 5) That faith is truth.


273. [352.] The Last Judgment

1) What a Last Judgment is.

274. 2) That a Last Judgment has occurred three times.

275. 3) That a Last Judgment was and is accomplished by the Lord operating from first things through last things.

276. 4) That a Last Judgment could not have been accomplished a second time without His coming into the world and being present by that means also in last things.

277. 5) That without a Last Judgment’s having been accomplished by Him, thus without His advent into the world, no mortal could have been saved.

278. 6) That if the Lord had not glorified His humanity even to the lasts of it, neither could any Last Judgment have taken place at this day.

Consequently, that no one hereafter could have been saved.

279. 7) That following a Last Judgment a new church has always been established and is being established now, and that this would not have been possible and is not possible before.

280. 8) That it was therefore foretold in the book of Revelation that following the Last Judgment the New Jerusalem would descend from heaven, by which is meant the New Church.

281. 9) That no one hereafter is admitted into that church, thus into heaven, unless he acknowledges God as one in both person and essence, in whom is the Trinity, thus unless he acknowledges the Lord, and unless by some combat he puts away and refrains from evils as being sins against Divine laws.

282. [353.] The English

That the English have a double theology, one for the learned, and one for those not learned.

283. That their preachers so compose their sermons that the learned understand their theology and those not learned theirs, and this out of a certain fear for their reputation and approbation among both.

284. [354.] To my asking whether they believe that their theology for those not learned is true, they reply that they know no otherwise when they are delivering their discourse in the churches, but not so when they are composing their sermons.

285. [355.] I then told them that their knowing no otherwise when delivering their discourse is owing to the flowing in of heaven, but that its being not so when they are composing their sermons is owing to the flowing in of their native self, because they are then thinking about themselves, their learning, and their reputation and approbation in consequence of it.

286. [262.] Observations

Regarding Leibniz* and Wolff **

I have spoken with Lord Wolff and Leibniz about simple substance and preestablished harmony.
* Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (or Leibnitz), 1646-1716, an influential German philosopher, writer, and mathematician. According to his Monadology, the universe consists of an infinite number of “monads” or simple substances, and nothing else. These monads are autonomous centers of force, indestructible, indivisible, and eternally active. As every monad contains within it the whole infinity of substance, each is a living mirror of all existence. Each is, however, limited and different from all the rest, mirroring the universe in its own way. Monads do not interact, but are organized to operate synchronously in a “pre-established harmony” instituted by God before their simultaneous creation. They form a continuously ascending series from the lowest to the highest. Although Leibniz sometimes described God as the highest of the monads, he nevertheless could not avoid the difficulties in reconciling the inclusion of God in the monadic series with the Christian doctrine of Divine transcendence. In some places he spoke as though God were outside the series and the cause of the monads’ existence, or as though they proceeded from Him by what he called “fulgurations.”
** Baron Christian von Wolff (or, less correctly, Wolf), 1679-1754, an influential German philosopher and mathematician. In an attempt to systematize the principles of Leibniz, he developed a comprehensive system of philosophy. Wolff’s system gained great popularity and was substantially that taught in most of the German universities in the latter half of the 18th century. It also provided the background to the Critical Philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). Wolff wrote a very long series of treatises covering nearly the whole field of speculative philosophy.

287. [263.] Concerning simple substance, Leibniz said that his opinion regarding the monad was never like that of Wolff regarding simple substance. He said that he did indeed regard the monad as a unit, but that that unit contained within it simpler and purer substances by which the monad was formed and from which arose the changes of state in it, since if nothing were posited in it, it would be a vacuum, in which no change of state is possible, because a vacuum is incapable of being affected.
Leibniz was consequently astonished that Wolff postulated his monad-which he called simple substance-to be created out of nothing, and if divided to collapse into nothing, and yet attributed to it changes of state. He was also astonished, too, that Wolff called some phenomena simple substances, including things which exist in nature, which anyone can see to be aggregates of substances, as, for example, the constituents in air and the ether, the elements in metals, and also souls.
Wolff said that he hoped by the definitions of his simple substances to win over the hearts of theologians, who wish it to be believed that all things were created by God out of nothing, without any intervening means-not knowing at the time that his followers who established those principles in themselves would close to themselves the paths to angelic wisdom, which nevertheless is founded on natural truths.

288. [264.] Concerning preestablished harmony, Leibniz said that he conceived of it and deduced it from the fact that thought operates in union with a person’s speech, countenance, and action, and that he had not considered at the time the more interior thought, which most people do not manifest in speech or act, and which in many cases wars with their outer thought. Still less had he considered spiritual thought, which a person does not come into until after death.
He also said that in the world he had not reflected on anything but thought, which he had regarded as occupying the place of the soul, and had not considered at the same time affection, as a result of which and in accordance with which a person thinks. Consequently now, after having been instructed by angels, he confesses that he erred, and knows that the case is altogether otherwise.

289. [265.] Regarding Newton*

I have spoken with Newton about the possibility of a vacuum and about colors.
* Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727, renowned English mathematician and natural philosopher, the most eminent physicist of his day. Among his principal achievements were formulation of the law of gravitation and laws of motion, invention of infinitesimal calculus, and the first correct analysis of white light. In his Opticks (1704) he postulated a combination of the wave and corpuscular theories of light similar to the present view. Newton found the existence of God reflected in the admirable order of the universe, but opposed the pantheistic notion of a world soul. He also denied the doctrine of the Trinity on the ground that such a belief was inaccessible to reason.

290. [266.] Concerning the possibility of a vacuum, he said that in the world he had believed a vacuum to be possible; but when angels perceived that the idea he had of a vacuum was an idea of nothingness, they turned away, saying that they could not bear the idea of nothingness, since when an idea of nothingness enters, any idea of the essence of things perishes, and when an idea of the essence of things perishes, so does any idea of the thought, intellect, affection, love, or will in people and in angels, which are in every instance impossible in a state of nothingness.
The angels asked him whether he believed that the Divine from which angels have all their wisdom and people all their intelligence is, in either the spiritual world or the natural world, a vacuum, thus whether he believed that any Divine operation can flow in through a vacuum into the vacuum of these worlds and make them perceptible.
Upset at this question, he replied that it could not do so through an absolute vacuum, which is an empty nothingness, but through an apparent vacuum, because the Divine is the underlying being itself of the wisdom and love in angels in heaven and people in the world and informs all things, and being itself and nothingness are so antithetic to each other that if one is postulated, the other cannot be.
Therefore the angels prayed that he and all those who harbor the idea of a vacuum as one of nothingness would reject it, that they might associate together, knowing that no element of their life can ever exist in a state of nothingness, but only in things which are, and which from their are-ness or being have expression. The angels added that of a vacuum conceived of as nothingness, nothing can ever be said that relates to acting, reacting, receiving, or taking in, thus nothing that relates to the life of their wisdom and love, which has in it so many limitless affections with their variations, perceptions and sensations, because nothing is nothing, and something cannot be predicated of nothing.
Having listened to this, Newton said that he had already rejected that idea and would reject it thereafter, knowing that he is now in the spiritual world-even though in it according to his former idea would have been his vacuum-and that he is now still a person, thinking, feeling, acting, and even breathing there. These are not possible in a vacuum that is an empty nothingness, he said, but only in something which is, and which from its being exists and subsists. Nor is any interstitial nothingness possible, he said, because it would be destructive of somethingness, that is, of the essences and substances which constitute something. For something and nothing are completely antithetical, so antithetical that he is horrified at the idea of nothing, and he guards himself against it, he said, to keep his mind from falling into a state of insensibility.

291. [267.] Concerning colors, Newton said that in the world he had believed them to arise from substances flowing continually from the solar ocean as differently colored particles of matter and attaching themselves constantly to like particles in objects in the world. So, too, when they pass through translucent materials, he had viewed them as then following paths of light according to its diffractions and refractions, and passing through them as counterpart to counterpart, thus red to red, blue to blue, yellow to yellow, and so on, as in the case of prisms, crystalline spheres, and vapors, which produce rainbows.
Some angels, however, did not acknowledge this to be the cause of colors, saying that there are just as well colors in the spiritual world as in the natural world, and in the spiritual world ones more vivid, splendid, and variegated than in the natural world. Moreover, they know that colors are variegations of their light, they said, corresponding to their love or goodness and to their wisdom or truth, and that the sun from which their light emanates is the Lord Himself, whose Divine love surrounding Him produces the appearance of a sun, and whose Divine wisdom issuing from Him produces the appearance of light. They also said that from that sun-which, as they said, is pure love-no such substances or particles of matter as he described flow forth; but the pure light of that sun produces variegations of colors in objects according to the reception of wisdom by angels, the color red insofar as their wisdom originates from goodness, and the color white insofar as their wisdom originates from truth, and the rest of the colors as they are possessed of a deficiency or lack of these, which in their world corresponds to darkness in the natural world.
Furthermore, through their spiritual ideas by which they are able both to present and to make manifest the causes of things vividly and to full assent, the angels demonstrated that colors are nothing else but variegations of a flaming light and white light in objects according to their forms, and that colors are not material substances, as light is not, because they correspond to the love and wisdom of angels, from which they emanate by Divine operation, and the love and wisdom of angels are not material substances but spiritual. In the world, too, heat and light are not material substances but natural, and they flow into material objects and are modified in them in accordance with the forms of their constituents. Consequently colors are not material substances either, as they would be if they sprang from differently colored atoms.
Finally the angels said with some exasperation, “Who does not see the paradox in the Newtonian explanation, indeed, the absurdity?” And they went away, saying that they would return if Newton theorized about colors spiritually or even naturally, and not so materially and sensually.
Some spirits then went over to him and said, “Think, please, of colors not from the perspective of some small prism or the way they appear on some wall, but from the perspective of the greenness of all the forests and all the grassy fields throughout the entire world in which you have been. Can you conceive of a continual emanation from the sun of a green color only, and at the same time of its flowing in and constant renewal? Can you conceive, too, of a continual flowing in of a grey or stony color into the mountains of the whole earth, and so on? Would you not then be conceiving of continuous oceans of only a green or stony color? Tell us where they go when they cease. Do they go off into the universe? Or do they sink down somewhere, or rise upward? Perhaps new worlds are formed from them, for from so large a mass they may be, being material substances.”
After thinking about the matter more deeply, Newton said, “Now I know that colors are modifications of light in objects, in whose forms light is variegated in accordance with the forms of their constituents, giving rise to colors.”
These are Newton’s own words, which he wishes me to communicate.

292. [268.] Regarding London

London appears similar to London in the world in its streets and districts, but not similar as regards its houses and dwellings. The dissimilarity is not apparent, however, because everyone there dwells in a section of it and in a house corresponding to his affection and consequent thought. The center of the city is where the Exchange* is. To the right, there, lives the governor,** and in the surrounding area his officials. The central thoroughfare of the city is Holborn.*** Ahead, there, is the east; behind, extending in the direction of Wapping, is the west.**** The south lies to the right of that street, and the north to its left.
In the eastern section, which stretches far and extends for a considerable distance outside the city, live the best of the inhabitants. They worship the Lord there. To the south live those who are intelligent, in an area extending almost to Islington.***** They also hold assemblies there. In addition, those who live in that area are prudent in their speaking and writing. To the north live those who are uneducated and who take the greatest liberty in speaking freely, which they love to do. In the west are those who possess a vague affection for good. The inhabitants there are afraid of revealing their thoughts. To the south of them in and around the piece of ground where Moorfields is located****** is a dissolute throng. All who incline to evils are banished from the city to that locale, and therefore those people are from time to time cast out, and this continually. By that process the city is constantly purged, and those who are led away from there are never seen again.
[269.] The inhabitants sometimes see in and about the center of the city a certain malicious person sitting on a chair in a pulpit, calling the them and bidding them to assemble in one place or another. Those who go over and listen are taken to a place leading out to where the dissolute throng is, and they are, as we said, sent out by ways leading to it. (Every society is purged. This is the method of purging employed there.)
The inhabitants’ houses, like their clothes, and also their foodstuffs, are the same as in the world. I asked about the availability of wines, liquors, ales, chocolate, tea, and the like. They said that they had the same ones. I asked also about the beverage called punch. They said that they have that beverage, too, but that it is given only to honest and at the same time hard-working people.
They do not tolerate in the city any ruler who would impose on them or dictate to them what they are to do. They wish to be in complete freedom.
* Counterpart of the Royal Exchange in the center of London in the world, a large structure housing in the late 17th century, in addition to grand art work and statuary, some two hundred shops, but serving by the mid-18th century as a commercial exchange for wholesale buyers and sellers, domestic and foreign, and for brokers of stock, and accommodating on its upper level, among other enterprises, the Royal Exchange Assurance Office for the assuring of houses and other buildings, goods, wares and merchandise against loss due to fire.
** In a counterpart, no doubt, to Mansion House in the center of London in the world, the official residence of the Lord Mayor, which lies to the right of the Exchange as one faces east.
*** Holborn never extended far enough to be the central thoroughfare of London in the world, but the writer may have thought of it as extending further into and through the city than it did, so as to include as well Newgate Street, Cheapside, Cornhill, Leaden Hall, and White Chappell, streets extending one after another in a more or less direct line from west to east through the center of the city.
****The geographic orientation here and from this point on seems to be the converse of that existing in the world. In the world, Wapping was in the mid-18th century a district of London situated on the north bank of the Thames in the eastern portion of the city.
***** In the world, Islington was, in the mid-18th century, a large village on the north side of London.
****** In the world, Moorfields was in the mid-18th century a large piece of ground to the north of central London, lying on the north side of London wall, which contained Bethlem Hospital on the south side, shops to the east of that, and large open fields, cultivated in the southern section, and uncultivated in the northern two sections.

293. [270.] The English live by themselves and do not travel into other regions, for they are of a character or disposition different from that of others, and their disposition is such that it does not admit others in their company into intimate association with them.

294. [271.] It was also shown them that they speak spiritually, write spiritually, and think spiritually, and that they themselves do not know but that they do all these things naturally. This occasioned me to inform them that there is no proportional relation between something spiritual and something natural, thus no connection by a continuous relationship but by a discrete one which exists through correspondences, and that this connection causes a similarity of the two as though the two were one. They were a little resentful that they had not discovered this. However, they were shown that each degree has in it an internal element and an external one, the external one corresponding to the internal, and that their external forms are in appearance seemingly material, even though they are not material.
They were shown, too, by their ascending to the third heaven, that there is a similar connection between the celestial and spiritual degrees as there is between the spiritual and natural ones, namely, that there is no proportional relation; in other words, that something natural cannot by a continual purification become spiritual, nor something spiritual become celestial; thus that there is no connection by any approximation, but one such as exists between cause and effect, or between the soul and body.

295. [272.] I later spoke with some of them about their priests, and I saw that there was one class of priests who supposed themselves more learned and educated than the rest. They all live in the west, and when they come to preach, they proceed from the west there a little way into the north and so toward the middle of the city and its churches, a sign that they travel the path of reserve and ignorance; for in the west there live those who are reserved, and close by in the north there those who are ignorant of truth. They appear to themselves to preach in an educated and learned manner because they have as their subject the Divine operation into the actions of people when they have been justified, thus the effort which is the fourth degree of justification, saying that it flows into act in people without their being aware, and that the volition of the person himself is not present, since it is evil. Their listeners complained about them, saying that they did not understand whether these preachers wished them to act of themselves or not, because they could take either meaning from the preachers’ ambiguous declarations. I perceived that the preachers wished these sermons of theirs to sound learned in the ears of other preachers and bishops, and that in their presence they did not dare to preach otherwise.
On the other hand, there are also preachers living in the south who preach unequivocally that people should refrain from evils as if of themselves and do good things as if of themselves, while knowing at the same time that they do not do so of themselves. Therefore the people of the city love these preachers. They speak in accord with their prayer before the Holy Supper.*
* “The way and means to be received as worthy partakers of that Holy Table is First, to examine your lives and Conversations by the rule of God’s commandments, and wherein soever ye shall perceive yourselves to have offended either by will, word or deed, there to bewail your own sinfulness, and to confess yourselves to Almighty God, with full purpose of amendment of life; and if ye shall perceive your offences to be such, as are not only against God, but also against your neighbors, then ye shall reconcile yourselves unto them, being ready to make restitution and satisfaction according to the utmost of your power, for all injuries and wrongs done by you to any other, and being likewise ready to forgive others that have offended you, as ye would have forgiveness of your offences of God’s hand, for otherwise the receiving of the Holy Communion doth nothing else but increase your damnation. Therefore if any of you be a blasphemer of God, or hinderer or slanderer of His word, or adulterer, or be in malice or envy, or in any other grievous crime, repent you of your sins, or else come not to the Holy Table; lest after the taking of that Holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you, as he entered into Judas, and fill you with all iniquities, and bring you to destruction both of body and soul.” (From The Doctrine of Life, no. 5.)

296. [273.] In a suburb to the left live many of their learned, and among them Newton. They descend to the city by a downward sloping route.

297. [274.] In a word, those who teach in accordance with their prayer at the Holy Supper live in the south toward the east, and they are loved because they think as they preach. Not so the rest, who constantly argue with them and reply that they cannot do otherwise. I saw the latter withdrawing to their dwellings in the west, which lie to the right of the place leading out,* and I also saw one of them being taken out.
* See no. 292 above.

298. [275.] I was told regarding those preachers in the west that they are not concerned to know their evils or sins, because God knows them, and not they. Nor do they wish to know with any affection any other concepts than those which support their faith. They look down on those inhabitants who live in the south and east as simple, who are, so to speak, earthbound in their thinking. They believe, too, that the thinking of those people is not elevated but debased, when in fact the complete contrary is the case.

299. [276.] I heard a conversation with those priests in the west, which took place representationally. On one side was represented the devil together with hell, on the other the Lord together with heaven; and I then heard it said: 1) That the devil or hell dwells in the evil qualities in a person, and that the Lord with heaven is in the good qualities in him. 2) Further, that the Lord through heaven is continually driving away the devil along with hell. 3) But that the person who excuses his evils and lives intent on them retains the devil in him together with hell and does not allow them to depart, however much the Lord keeps driving them away. 4) Moreover, that the devil then speaking with him says, “What need is there to know your evils, to do combat with them, when God does this?” And in so doing he convinces the person. Consequently he is retained, and thus the two live together amicably. I heard many other like things as well, including that the devil convinces the person through that faith, saying, “What need is there for any concepts other than those which are matters of that faith? They are of no assistance. What need is there to know one’s evils, seeing that a person cannot of himself fight against them? What need is there for combat, seeing that a person of himself accomplishes nothing?” 5) When in fact every particle of life, every particle of reason, and every particle of freedom that a person has is from the Lord, who wills that a person act as if of himself. And that without a person’s cooperation as if of himself, evil, and with evil, the devil, remains-and so on, and so on.

300. [277.] Those priests in the west complained that the people who were directed by faith alone or faith separate kept disappearing, saying that they did not know where they escaped to. Some said that they had seen some of them in hells.

301. [278.] Moravians or Herrnhuters

(Do not write about those who are in the world, but about those who have departed from the world. I have spoken with the latter and heard the following:)
[279.] 1) That they are simply Arians,* and deny the Lord’s Divinity, saying that the Divinity in Him is like that in any other person. When they are told that He was conceived of Jehovah, they go along (even though they are not easily willing to admit it), not wishing to deny the Scripture in order to avoid being accused; but still they say something such as Jews do. Others of them, when they have been convinced, say that He was born to become an adoptive Son. They convince themselves by the Lord’s Word, that He was left in His freedom to suffer the cross,** not knowing why this was the case. They say they love Him, because He took it upon Himself to suffer the cross, and because it is so commanded by the Father, and especially because for His suffering of the cross He is loved by the Father.
2) They reject the Old Testament as existing no longer for them, but for Jews.
3) They also have little regard for the Gospels, saying that the Lord spoke as a simple person and thus that there is no Divinity in them.
4) As for having faith in the Lord as found in the Gospels, they say that this is what He Himself wished, and that He ought not to have spoken so.
5) They acknowledge only the Epistles of Paul, and also the historical portions of the Word, but they do not believe the latter to be among the Word’s holy declarations.
6) Regarding good works and charity, they say that these ought not to exist together with faith, that one ought to shrink in horror from doing good works for the sake of attaining heaven, and that they would rather accept into their company the most malevolent of people than people like that. In short, they condemn people of that sort even to hell.
7) They are in speaking extremely deceptive. With everyone they speak to the other’s heart in matters of religion. They take care that those mysteries of theirs are not disclosed. Everything else that they think and teach among themselves regarding the Holy Supper and baptism is such as does not accord with the Protestant faith. They do not admit to the Holy Supper any others than those who accept the three mysteries of theirs in it, because it is a confirmation of them.
8) It can be seen from this that they are among the worst of those who profess Christianity.
9) They make much of the sensation they experience, but they were shown that that sensation comes from Moravian spirits who were of their company in the world. These spirits draw nearer to those who think much about their religious faith and love it, saying that they are more alive and blessed than others. The spirits strongly reinforce these feelings, and accordingly their sensation of them.
* Adherents of Arianism, a theological view based on the teachings of Arius (c. 250-336), who taught that Christ the Son was a created being, not consubstantial with God the Father, and thus not Divine.
** See perhaps Romans 5:14-18; Ephesians 2:14-16; Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 12:1,2.

302. [280.] They are kept in a lower earth to the left, in a society separate from the rest, because they are by themselves and have a society of interior friendship which, if it were to be in proximity to others, would destroy the others’ delights. From time to time they withdraw from that society toward the left, into a desert which exists for them alone, where there is no grass, where there are rocks and crags.

303. [281.] The Dutch

How formally and courteously the Dutch invite their wives to join them!* They also go to them and conduct them to their houses, and show them how well it is with people who live in harmony in their own homes. They show them, too, how clean and ornamented the homes of those people are, and conversely how unclean they are when one exercises control over the other. Moreover, tasty food is given to those who live together in harmony. The husbands also teach their wives what delight those people have when one belongs to the other, and this mutually and reciprocally. As a result, when the wives see these things and perceive them to be true, they desist from their exercise of mastery, and they then acquire a dwelling closer to the center and are introduced into a more ornate home. The reason is that married love** then reigns, which regarded in itself is the essence of heavenly love.
* The context for this report is found in no. [22] above.
** Or, conjugial love.

304. [282.] Moravians or Herrnhuters in London, and Jews There

Moravians in London live in the furthest corner of the place leading out,* primarily to the side there; but when they travel in the city as in going to their chapel, they appear to proceed toward the center and from there a little way into the south and so to their corner. This occurs because they wish to appear to others as Christians, having a similar doctrine. After that they proceed from their corner into the west, where the priests who are caught up in faith alone are (as reported previously),** and from there they return.
From their corner, which to them is like an inn there, they go out from time to time and descend into an underground chamber which extends deep beneath the west where the aforementioned priests are, and there they find their hell, from which they are not let out again, except some who are let out into deserts.
They are not allowed to live near other people or anywhere else than where they do, because they form a society of interior friendship, which takes away the spiritual delight of others.
They tell others that they live here and there, even at the center, but still they live in the aforementioned corner, which they have an idea of as being as though their inn.
[283.] They appear when traveling to go toward the center because they persuade others that they are of the Anglican religion, and with the English they speak at first as though they were, saying that they differ only in regard to their rituals, which are like those of the Apostles.
When they are asked why their preachers are attired in blue, they say it is because they like that color. They venture to say that they ought to be attired like English preachers in a black gown, because they are afraid of having their mysteries disclosed.
They are most afraid of being honest and just for the sake of religion. They are altogether averse to this, because they are prone to evils of every kind, taking care only to keep these from being exposed, because their exposure would be damaging to their religious persuasion in the eyes of others.
* See no. [292] above.
** See nos. [295], [297-300].

305. [284.] Jews in London, on the other hand, do not live above ground but underground there, to the northern side below where Tower Hill* is located. They enter the place through a dark opening, and the citizens of the city do not know where they live.
* In the world, an area to the north, east and west of the Tower Ditch, on the north bank of the Thames, but south of the west-to-east thoroughfare, the route perhaps referred to by the writer in no. [292] as Holborn. Again, the geographic orientation here seems to be the converse of that in the world.

306. [285.] The Love of Knowing

The love of knowing is an external element of the will. The practical end to which it looks is an internal element of the will.

307. [286.] In younger and older children the external element reigns; in the course of time the internal element is formed.
[Marginal Notes]
useful application to life forms the internal element of the will arising from the warmth of the sun of heaven

it is as though in wintertime, and it is like filth outwardly glistening

308. [287.] [291] A love of knowing for practical ends then develops, whether these ends are good or evil.

309. [288.] However, a love of understanding whether something is true or not, and so of becoming wise, is likewise an external element of the will, arising from the light of heaven and its variegation.

310. [289.] Because this love is an external element of the will, it can be separated from its internal element; and in that case it is a love of some sort of acclaim for the sake of acclaim, and not for the sake of any useful end. Consequently it may exist also in evil people.

311. [290.] Whether the external element of the will in the intellect becomes a love of truth for the sake of acclaim, thus for the sake of an external end.

312. [292.] Jews

Jews are less aware than others that they are in the spiritual world. They think there of the Messiah as they did in the world and continue to await Him. They also say that He will come. But when they are told that He would be born in Bethlehem and be of the house of David,* and are asked where Bethlehem is now and where the house of David is now, they do not know how to reply other than to say that He Himself knows where that city is and where that family is. Some of them in the other life say that the Messiah is in heaven, and that He will not come to them in the spiritual world before He has first been born in the world.
[293.] When they are asked whether He will lead into Canaan only those who are in the world, they reply that at that time they will return into the world and dwell in the land of Canaan with them. When they are asked whether they will then be born again, they say that they will not, but will descend to those in the world, believing that thus they will be people like them.
When they are asked whether Canaan would be a land capable of holding all who have been born of that nation from the time of Abraham, they say that the land of Canaan will then be enlarged.
When asked how the Messiah, the son of Jehovah, could dwell with people so evil, they say they are not evil. When they are told that Moses said in his song that they were the worst of people,** and are asked whether they read that song and sing it as Moses commanded, they reply that Moses was angry when he wrote it because he was to leave them, and that they therefore do not read it but skim through it quickly.
When told that they have their origin from a Canaanite woman and from whoredom with a daughter-in-law,*** they then become angry and go away, saying that it is enough that they are descended from Abram and Jacob.
They say that Moses and David also will return and will accompany the Messiah, one on His right, and the other on His left.
They tell many fictitious tales regarding the Messiah-how He will lead them into Canaan, and how wealthy Christians, if they turn over their money, will follow by His grace.
Yet many of them know that Christ, who is the Messiah, rules all things in the heavens, and they say that they want to accept it, but cannot. They hear this from Moses, who sometimes appears from on high with his rod and teaches it, and when they hear it they go off in different directions.
They said to me, “Why did He suffer the cross?” I replied, “Because he was the greatest prophet, and therefore He bore the iniquities of the people, like the prophet who lay on his right side and on his left and ate bread made of barley and dung, of whom it is also said that he bore their iniquities.**** So, too, other prophets, like the one who took as a wife a harlot,***** the one who shaved his hair,****** and the one who went barefoot,******* who thus bore the people’s iniquities. Something similar is said of the Messiah in Isaiah, chapter 53.” When they heard this, they said they would go off by themselves and confer.
Those who have not been foully defiled with avarice, and who have not become devils as a result of fraud, hatred and vengeance, are tolerated beneath the heavens where they have their dwellings, because they hold the Word sacred. Moreover, those who allow themselves to be taught about the Lord are transferred into a society where they are instructed; and they are sent back to those who have not yet accepted such instruction. Their conduct of business is in diamonds and precious stones as in the world. They acquire these from heaven. They learn that their dealing in these is because they hold the Word sacred, because the sense of its letter corresponds to them and symbolizes them. Consequently the more sacred they hold the Word, the more successful their conduct of business is for them there.
* See Micah 5:2, Isaiah 11:1-10, Jeremiah 23:5, 6, 33:14-16. Cf. Matthew 2:1-6, John 7:42.
** See Deuteronomy 31:30-32:43.
*** Genesis 38.
**** Ezekiel 4:4-15.
***** Hosea 1:2-9. Cf. 3:1-4.
****** Ezekiel 5:1-12.
******* Isaiah 20:2-4.

313. [303.] On Degrees

1) There is a natural kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, and a celestial kingdom.

314. [304.] 2) In the natural kingdom are people as long as they live in the world. In the spiritual kingdom are spiritual angels, and in the celestial kingdom are celestial angels. For there are these three universal planes-natural, spiritual and celestial.

315. [305.] 3) In each kingdom there are two degrees-two in the natural, two in the spiritual, two in the celestial. Thus in the three kingdoms there are six degrees.
[306.] All these degrees are discrete or discontinuous, and we call them degrees of height.
[307.] Discrete degrees stand in relation to each other like thought and speech, or like an affection of the heart and a gesture, or like an affection of the mind and an expression of the face. Or, in the material world, like the ether and the air, or like a sinew and the fibers of which it consists. All composite entities throughout the natural world and in the spiritual world are of such a character, and they consist of two or three such degrees in their proper sequence.
We call these degrees prior and subsequent, higher and lower, inner and outer; and in general they stand in relation to each other like cause and effect, or like an essence and its embodiment or aggregate of essences, or like an elementary substance and its derivative compound or amalgamation of elementary substances.

316. [308.] There are also continuous or uninterrupted degrees. Each discrete degree has a continuous degree. The continuous degree of each discrete degree exhibits a range of variation, like that of light from daylight to dusk and finally to the darkness of night, and like that of thought from rational thought, which is in a state of light, to sensual thought, and finally to carnal thought, which is in darkness more or less dense to the extent of its descent to the body. In such a continuously decreasing degree is the human mind, and also human minds collectively. In a similar but lower degree is a person’s sight, his hearing, his sense of smell, his sense of taste, and his sense of touch. So, too, his speech and singing, for the sound of a person’s voice may be like the sound of a lyre or like the sound of a bass drum. So, similarly, instances of harmony in relation to each other and instances of beauty in relation to each other; for these range through a continuous degree from the most harmonious or the most beautiful to the least harmonious and the least beautiful.
These degrees are degrees of the cause itself in itself, and of the effect itself in itself. They are distinguished from the prior degrees in that the prior ones are degrees of the cause itself and of the effect in relation to each other. We call continuous degrees purer and cruder degrees.
An idea of these latter degrees can be had especially from the example of light and dark, or from that of the air’s atmosphere at lower and higher altitudes, for in a lower region it is heavier, denser, more compressed, and in a higher region finer, rarer, and more attenuated.

317. [309.] Unless one acquires for himself a concept of these two kinds of degrees, he cannot have an idea of the inner and outer elements in a person, thus neither an idea of the soul and body, and not even one of cause and effect. Nor can he have an idea of the difference between the heavens, nor of the wisdom of the angels in the various heavens. Nor can he have any idea of correspondences, representations, influx, order, thus any idea of those matters which have to do with order, both in the natural world and in the spiritual world, thus scarcely a correct idea of anything.

318. [310.] Few so far have had any idea of degrees other than the idea of a continuous degree, such as exists from the pure to the crude or from the greatest to the least, giving rise to the notion that there is only one kind of degree, and that the natural degree and spiritual degree are distinguished only as the pure and the crude are, likewise the heavens in relation to each other, and the wisdom of the angels in relation to each other, when in fact they differ in accordance with discrete degrees. Regarding the nature of these latter degrees, more will be told below from personal experience.

319. [311.] There are, therefore, as said before, six discrete degrees, two in the natural kingdom, two in the spiritual kingdom, and two in the celestial kingdom. But these are the degrees in which people and angels are in respect to their thoughts, affections, and consequent wisdom, being thus degrees of life. Below these six degrees follow similar degrees, material ones, down to the lowest; and above these six degrees ascend degrees of infinity even to the Divine itself.
The reason for the last is that the Divine itself cannot flow in from itself in any angel or person except through discrete degrees, for if it were to flow in directly or through a continuous degree, the angel and the person would be totally consumed by the ardor of the Divine love and by the light of the Divine wisdom. For it would be as if the sun of the world were to flow in directly with its fire into objects of the earth, and not indirectly through atmospheres in accordance with distinct discrete degrees.

320. [312.] There are three natural atmospheres arising from the sun of the world, and there are three spiritual atmospheres arising from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord. The three natural atmospheres arising from the sun of the world are the purer ether, which is the universal atmosphere, from which springs all gravity; the intermediate ether, which forms a vortex around the planets and surrounds the moon and other satellites, from which springs magnetism; and the lowest ether, which is air.
These three atmospheres hold together all physical and material things of the earth, which have been composed in conformity to those three degrees.
The three spiritual atmospheres arising from the sun of heaven are those which surround the angels of the three heavens. In the two higher ones are angels in the Lord’s celestial kingdom. In the third and in the first natural one, which is pure ether, are angels in the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. In the following two atmospheres, which are the intermediate ether and the lowest ether or air, are people as long as they live in the natural world.

321. [313.] It should be known, however, that the atmospheres arising from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, are properly speaking not three but six-three above the sun of the world and three below the sun of the world. The three below the sun of the world constantly accompany the three natural atmospheres, and they enable a person in the natural world to think and feel; for atmospheres arising from the sun of the world do not have any life in them, because they arise from a sun which is nothing but fire, whereas atmospheres arising from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, do have life in them, because they arise from a sun which is pure love and pure wisdom.
The atmospheres arising from the sun of the world, which is nothing but fire, cause those things which exist on earth and in the human body to continue in existence and to be held together in connection, and not to change except in accordance with the laws of natural order. That is the reason for the difference between things in the natural world and things in the spiritual world, a difference concerning which more will be said in the following paragraphs.

322. [314.] That there are also atmospheres in the spiritual world, which is above the natural world, can be seen from the light and warmth there. These seem to the eyes and senses of angels the same as light and warmth to the eyes and senses of people. Yet angels are spiritual, while people are natural, and light and heat with their variations are impossible without atmospheres.
The existence of spiritual atmospheres can be seen also from many visible sights in that world, as from the appearance of colors there, of atmospheric phenomena, of thinner and thicker clouds, and winds, as well as of weights, pressures, and therefore consistencies. Although these phenomena appear altogether similar to those which exist in the natural world, still they are spiritual and not natural-even though to angels, because angels are spiritual, they appear the same.
The existence of spiritual atmospheres can be seen especially from the respiration of angels and spirits; for angels and spirits breathe the way people do in the world, only people breathe in their atmospheres, and angels and spirits breath in theirs-angels in the celestial realm breathing in their atmosphere, which is purer, and angels in the spiritual kingdom breathing in theirs, which is less pure.

323. [315.] However, the statements we have made so far regarding degrees and atmospheres are for the most part theoretical. Yet all theoretical conclusions must be drawn from and based on empirical observations, and also verified by them. Unless the observations of experience guide a person’s hand, so to speak, he may be deluded in his theoretical speculations, and from a premise seized on in his imagination or imaginary assumption he may easily be borne through a series of conclusions into falsities entirely contrary to the truth-falsities which he may then confirm by fallacious and deceptive appearances of every kind. For falsities can be confirmed by deceptive and fallacious appearances, even to the point that a person believes them to be absolute truths.
I would therefore like to present now some observations of experience, on the evidence of which not only are the preceding assertions confirmed, but from which also everyone possessing a mental light or acumen may form conclusions in regard to many other considerations.

324. [316.] In the natural kingdom where people are as long as they live in the world, in the spiritual kingdom where spiritual angels are, and in the celestial kingdom where celestial angels are, similar phenomena appear, even so similar that scarcely any difference distinguishes them other than the fact that similar phenomena in the spiritual kingdom are more perfect than in the natural kingdom, and in the celestial kingdom more perfect than in the spiritual kingdom.
A spirit or angel looks like a person in the world, so much so that he does not know but that he is an inhabitant of the world. He has a similar facial appearance and similar physique. As regards his facial appearance, he has similar eyes, nose, ears, lips, mouth, and hair. As regards his physique, he has a similar chest, similar belly, similar loins, similar hands and feet, even similar reproductive organs. In a word, he is a human being in outward form entirely like an inhabitant of the world.
He has similar lungs, because he breathes. He also has a similar heart, because he has a rhythmic pulse. The rest of the internal organs of his body are similar, too, because they equally have societies of heaven corresponding to them. There is a ruddiness as well in his face and in his hands, and in his arms and body, as comes from blood in the arteries and veins. He has also similar fibers, sinews, and muscles, because he moves his limbs in the same way as a person in the world.
Moreover, he has a similar sense of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
He possesses, too, a similar power of speech, and of singing as well, and also a similar imagination, thought, intellect and will, affection, and desire. In a word, an angel or spirit is so like an inhabitant of the world that he himself does not know but that he is an inhabitant of the world.
Married love* is for him likewise similar, with its every effect, except that there is no procreation, but instead of procreation a uniting of minds and a consequent increase of intelligence and wisdom. (So it is that in the Word, a marriage means in its spiritual sense a joining of good and truth, daughters qualities of good, and sons truths, and so on.)
* Or, Conjugial love.

325. [317.] The attire of angels and spirits is similar to the attire of inhabitants of the world. They have tunics, gowns, breeches, stockings, shoes, hats, headdresses, and undergarments, similar to those in the world, but with some difference in colors, especially in the colors of their tunics. That is because colors symbolize appearances of truth resulting from good-garments symbolizing truths, and apparel therefore the intellect.

326. [318.] They have similar houses, and in them apartments and rooms, with entryways, as in the world, and within these tables, chairs, furnishings, and various ornaments. In heaven there are palaces so magnificent that worldly ones cannot be compared to them. They have a size, they have an architectural harmony, inside and out, they have ornaments of gold and precious stones, in such configurations that no painter can depict them. There are marble houses, too, and also blue-colored ones. The purpose of each room is known from the ornaments in it.

327. [319.] They have similar foodstuffs and beverages as in the world. (Name their foods and drinks.)

328. [320.] They have lands, mountains, hills, plains, grassy meadows, parks or gardens, groves and forests. They have roads everywhere leading to various societies, some of them guarded, which are then not seen until a spirit must pass to his society. There are springs, there are lakes, and there are seas.

329. [321.] Animals are seen there on the land and flying ones in the sky, of every kind, both larger and smaller. Seen also are animals of mixed form, such as those described here and there in the Word. There are various insects or bugs.

330. [322.] In short, not only do the same things exist in the spiritual world as in the natural world, but also innumerably more, and each with a boundlessness and in a harmony that inspires delight. In a word, in heaven there is heaven in each and every element, in general and in every particular. Each outward sense has its heaven, every inner sense has its heaven, and an angel is himself a heaven in its smallest form. Moreover, in the measure that he has heaven within him, in the same measure every angel has heaven round about him.

331. [323.] It should be known, however, that each and every one of the things I have recounted is not material but spiritual, or from a spiritual origin; and yet spirits do not know but that they are material. The reason is that when a spiritual being touches something spiritual, or tastes something spiritual, the experience is altogether the same as when a material being touches or tastes something material.
Because of this appearance, I have virtually argued quite often with spirits themselves. In various ways and by various arguments empirically demonstrated, I have shown those believing that the things they see and touch are material that nothing in their world is material, but everything there spiritual.
I have shown this in reference to their houses, that they materialize in an instant and in an instant are destroyed or evaporate; from the evidence of their garments, that in an instant they are put on, replaced by new ones, or transformed; from the evidence of their meals and dinners, that the tables and the foodstuffs upon them in an instant appear, and afterward in an instant vanish; and from the fact that spirits themselves can enter their houses by passing through the walls, and do so quite frequently without going through the doors.
There was a certain person, known to me, with whom I spoke when his body that he had in the world was being buried, and I told him that he was now being buried. He replied that he did not know what part of him was being buried, since he had everything with him, including the same body as before, and everything else the same. For he, like others, did not know but that he was a material being, when in fact he was a spiritual one. He was presently informed that what was being buried was the body that he bore about him in the world and which then clothed his spiritual body.

332. [324.] Wonders. Spirits and angels do not know but that they speak the same language that they did in the world, that they write just as they did in the world, and that they think just as they did in the world. But in fact they speak a spiritual language, which contains not a single expression like any in the world. Moreover, although they write by forming letters and characters, their writing so differs from writing in the world that it possesses no similarity at all except in its letters and in some of its punctuation marks. Indeed, they think in a manner altogether different from that in the world, so different that not any of their thinking is equivalent. But still they do not know but that all of these are the same.
I have quite often experienced the reality of this by the following experiment. When spirits and angels are with me, they are in my natural state, and I have told them to speak words or a phrase in their spiritual state, and to remember the words when with me in a natural state; and not a single word then was the same, nor did they understand any of their words.
They also wrote a phrase in their spiritual state, and when their writing was shown them in a natural state, nothing was the same, other than the letters and punctuation.
Similarly, after they entertained some thought in a spiritual state, they could not present any idea of the thought in a natural state.
So for example, they say scapuleja and wita vella. Scapuleja in spiritual language means to cast out, and wita vella means to be at a distance. When they remember these words in a natural state, they themselves do not understand them, nor do they understand any word said in a natural state when they enter into their spiritual state. When they write scapuleja, they write [blank space], and when they write wita vella, they write [blank space], and they think they have written them in complete form. They write phrases using alphabetic letters, each one of which has some meaning.
They also write in such a way, using a number of symbols, that the wiser an angel is, the more he understands of its wisdom. Thus has the Word been written.

333. [325.] One may conclude from these observations that there is no proportional relation or continuous connection between something natural and something spiritual, moreover that spirits and angels who are present with a person do not know they are with the person, nor the person that they are with him.
These wonders have been disclosed in the presence of those in the spiritual world who are with me today, and not before, because they could be with me in my natural state.

334. [326.] The difference between the thinking, speech and writing of angels of the Lord’s celestial kingdom and that of angels of His spiritual kingdom is altogether similar to that of those who are in the spiritual kingdom relatively to those who are in the natural kingdom. This, too, has been confirmed by the observations of experience.

[Found here in the manuscript is The Word of the Lord, nos. 20, 21.]

335. [327.] The English

The garments of the English are unlike their garments in the world, including those of maidens and women. Their garments are totally altered to suit their general affection. When viewed in a spiritual state, their garments look becoming and beautiful, because they accord entirely with the people’s character. But the same garments seen in a natural state do not look so beautiful. The reason is that garments symbolize truths, and therefore all are clothed in accordance with their reception of truth.

336. [328.] There are in London ten governors, of equal authority.


[Found here in the manuscript is The Word of the Lord, no. 22.]


aRef Lev@24 @8 S0′ 337. [329.] The Intellect Teaches the Will and Does Not Lead It

Or that faith teaches and does not produce good works. For a person may be wise and see what is good and evil, but still act contrary to that sight, and in that case he either puts it out of his mind or hates it. It is the will in the intellect that is then opposed to it. In time it even dispels it. It is the truth of his sight that he acknowledges, and not truth in life.
But whatever once becomes a matter of the will, whether it be good or evil-this is called up by the sight and intellect or thought, and then the will is aroused and so appears in the thought. This occurs in all regenerate people. It seems at the time as though the will were aroused by the thought, but that is not the case. Rather it is like the sight teaching the foot to walk cautiously or the hand to perform some task. It seems as though it is leading, but it is not leading but showing and teaching.
The case is altogether like that of the heart and lungs. The lungs do not breathe unless the heart also acts, nor can a reciprocal conjunction of the two be initiated by the lungs but by the heart. (See more below in no. [355].)

338. [330.] To be observed: Suppose there to be some matter, whether spiritual, moral, or civil, whose accomplishment a person has previously achieved and so loved. 1) The person hears of it from someone else or reads about it in a book. 2) This in turn prompts his thought. 3) Reawakened in the thought is his perception, because this had previously been connected with the matter. 4) Present in the perception is his affection, thus an affection for truth. 5) This affection, which we call an affection for truth, springs from an affection for good, which is a property of the will. Thus from the will, in the affection for truth, a conjunction of good and truth takes place, and as a result of that conjunction the will and intellect or good and truth operate in harmony. 6) Thus one element lies within another, and all are stirred by the last, even as a result of hearing and sight (that is, the stirring occurs as a result), namely, because the will lies inmostly within the hearing and so in the thought, and emerges in the same way that the spiritual and celestial meanings [of the Word] do from the natural meaning. There is in the hearing and so in the sight a concurrent presence.
But none of this produces anything. Production proceeds from the will or affection for good to an affection for truth, from there into the perception, and from this into the thought, and not conversely. The foregoing makes plain the reason for the appearance.

339. [331.] Possible also is thought from hearing, and within the thought perception, and within the perception an affection for truth, and not at the same time an affection for its goodness. An affection for its goodness may exist together with a love of self, of reputation, of honor, and of material gain, but this is not a marriage but an adultery. The reason is that the good of these, which is merely natural, may be opposed to the good of truth itself, which is spiritual, and this in various ways and respects. (Examples may explain these.)

340. [332.] When a person is governed by his natural goodness, which in itself is evil-thus when he is immersed in his native character-he then is either unaware of truths or denies them.

341. [333.] An affection for knowing and understanding truth for the sake of acclaim or for the sake of material gain is possible, and also for the sake of reward. A love of knowing and understanding is a love of natural light. A love of knowing and understanding truths is a love of spiritual light, which exists primarily in people who possess a love of good, but is possible also in people who are caught up in a love of acclaim.
I have been granted to know from experience that a love of light for the sake of acclaim as the goal is possible also in people who are caught up in a love of evil, but in them their love of evil is then concealed or dormant. It merely tinges the surface, like beauty formed of variegated colors, and the more concealed or dormant it is, the more it may afford delight.
A love of knowing and understanding truths for the sake of acclaim is an external quality, which can be possible provided the internal quality is concealed and dormant. But it is a spurious love. It is like something filthy covered over with a beautiful color, even with gold, beneath whose surface is something bad. When the person is caught up in evil, therefore, it is impossible for him to be aware of and to understand truths; indeed, he hates them, for he then hardens himself against truths. Thus the internal quality dispels the external one.
Possible even is a reverent quality externally and a profane one internally, if the internal one is dormant, but not if the internal one is active.

342. [334.] In Our Treatment of the Ten Commandments

We must deal with faith and the understanding of truth.

343. [335.] 1) What faith is. 2) That there is a conjunction of faith with good works, there being as much faith as there is life. 3) That life is the soul of faith. 4) That faith by itself is not faith, being lifeless. 5) That it is the dragon,* that it is the he-goat,** that it is Philistia, that it is Cain, that it is Reuben. 6) What faith is, that it is truth. 7) How sterile it is at the present time and not constituting religion.
* See Revelation 12:3, 4, 7-9, 13-17, 13:2-4, 16:12-14, 20:1-3.
** See Daniel 8.

344. [336.] 1) That in heaven they reject completely the dogma that the intellect is to be held captive in obedience to faith. 2) That all matters of theology can be grasped with the intellect, 3) not only with the spiritual intellect by angels, but with the rational intellect by people. 4) That otherwise people could use theological authority to say whatever they please.

aRef Ex@16 @20 S0′ 345. [337.] On Foods

There were some in the lowest heaven whose atmosphere above had the appearance of water. I spoke with them, and they said that they have choice foodstuffs, and that they take these from the table and save them till evening, and so eat them at their pleasure, but that they are not allowed to hoard them till morning. This prohibition is what is meant in the Lord’s prayer by the phrase, “Give us our daily bread,” and by what is said of the manna, that worms bred in it when it was kept;* also by the people’s being commanded to burn the remainder of the passover lamb,** neither to leave any remnant from the sacrifices,*** and to set out new loaves of bread in the Tabernacle every day.****
The reason is apparent from this, namely, that everyone is provided with spiritual bread daily by the Lord, and that it is not given him as something his own, thus that people should have no concern for tomorrow as to what they will eat or drink.*****
In this way and in no other are spirits kept in their employments and in their life and faith. Nothing is given to the evil, but only to those who have been engaged in work. In this way, too, are all held in bonds. It is how every useful endeavor is rewarded.
[Marginal Note]
Some are fed at the tables of others, but those who are evil and idle sit at the table and do not see the food.
* Exodus 16:13-20.
** Exodus 12:1-10.
*** Leviticus 7:15-17, 19:5, 6, 22:29, 30.
**** Actually, according to Leviticus 24:5-9, every Sabbath. Cf. Exodus 25:30.
***** See Matthew 6:25-34.

346. [339.] On Marriage and Adultery

1) Show by many considerations, and also from personal experience, that adultery is hell itself, thus the devil himself and satan, that all in hell are adulterers, that they rave like madmen when they perceive the presence of married love*. That it is a sign spirits are from hell that they desire to violate chaste marriages, and more. Further, that they are caught up in a marriage of evil and falsity.
2) That marriage is heaven itself, because all there live in a state of married love,* each in his own degree. That that love is the fundamental love of all the loves of heaven, because by it an angel becomes an embodiment of love, because those who are there possess a marriage of good and truth. And that therefore heaven is likened to marriage and a wedding,** and hell to adultery and licentious liaisons.
3) From this it follows that to the extent a person detests adultery as a diabolical sin and looks to the Lord, to the same extent he is in heaven, in a similar degree.
* Or, conjugial love.
** As in Matthew 22:1-14. Cf. Revelation 19:6-9

347. [340.] 1) We take up marriage and adultery in particular because a person who is in a state of marriage possesses a marriage of good and truth, and a person who is in a state of adultery is in a state of evil and falsity, and because adultery encompasses every sin against the Decalogue, for anyone who engages in it engages in every evil forbidden by the Decalogue, and vice versa. Consequently, because these things are involved in and contained, so to speak, in summary form in marriage and adultery, therefore we take these up in particular.
2) Adulterous affairs are more prevalent today in the Christian world than in any other religious sphere because Christians separate good from truth, or charity from faith, and when these are separated, it is then impossible for people to know from influx any better. Therefore they defend adulterous affairs and not marriages; and consequently they do not know what married love* is. (Cite how today’s faith is separated, and how it thus falsifies the Word and corrupts a person’s rational faculty, giving rise to the experience of delights in adulterous affairs, and not so much in marriages.)
* Or, conjugial love.

348. [341.] That an adulteress becomes the vessel of all abominations. The reason is that the husband’s seed is his life, which has been conjoined with the life of his wife, so that they are not two but one flesh. But when the lives of more than one man are introduced into the same woman, such a pollution results that it cannot be described for the obscenity of it. Such a pollution results in the eyes of angels.

[Found here in the manuscript is The Word of the Lord, no. 23.]

[The manuscript contains an empty page here.]

349. [342.] To Do Good Deeds and Not Fight Against Evils Is to Do Good Deeds from Self and Not from the Lord

Many people believe that they are saved because they have done good deeds, such as giving to the poor, assisting the neighbor, and acting honestly and justly in their occupation or employment. And yet they had never fought against the evils opposed to their good deeds, believing that the evils had been by their actions removed (and it does appear as though good deeds remove evils), saying in their heart, “If I do good, then I will refrain from evils.”
Yet the fact of the matter is this, that such a one indeed does good in obedience to the Lord’s commandments, but still not from the Lord, but from self, thus not in conformity with spiritual law except in appearance only, but actually in conformity with moral and civil law. And in that case evils still remain, evils to which, even if he does not do them, he is still not averse. Consequently, when the love of the evil with its delight returns, he then does not resist it. As a result he either excuses the evil and does it, or refrains from doing it out of concern for himself and the world, and does not even know that it is evil. The case is otherwise, however, when he fights against evil in conformity with spiritual law. In the measure that he does this, in the same measure he becomes averse to the evil, and in the same measure he loves good and its truth, and in the same measure he does good from the Lord and not from self, and in the same measure the Lord operating through good and its truth removes the evil.

350. [343.] I heard some spirits saying that they do not know but that to do good is to refrain from evil. But they received the reply that nevertheless they refrain from evil only by not doing it then, but that they still do not hate evil and are not averse to it as a sin, except to the extent that they fight against it. Evil is removed by combat, and good then follows, which is to say, the devil is removed by combat, and the Lord then enters.
To do good without fighting against evil is to do so only outwardly and not inwardly, whereas to fight against evil and thus to do good is to do good inwardly. A person does not become spiritual except through combat.
Some people of this kind who have been honest, just, and chaste, and have not fought against dishonest, unjust, and unchaste inclinations, are brought into combats after death; and it becomes clearly apparent then to what extent they did good from self or out of concern for self, or did so from the Lord, and through combats they are reformed.

351. [344.] Before this, people do not come into an affection for truth and so into a perception and concept of it and learn what is evil and what is good. Before this they are in a state of ignorance.

352. [345.] People do good out of obedience, and people do good from affection. A person does good out of obedience before he has fought against evils. This is a person’s first state, and it may be a state of reformation; and one who is in this state and does not do evils is regenerated in the other life by combats against them, or through temptations or trials. Doing good from affection occurs when a person has fought against evils. This state is the person’s state of regeneration. It is the inverse of the prior state.

353. [346.] To do good out of obedience is not to do it in a state of freedom, because it is not done from affection. It has in it thought of reward, thus of merit afterward.

354. [348.] To the Extent a Person Refrains from Evils as Sins, to That Extent He Does Good Not from Himself, but from the Lord

[349.] To the Extent a Person Refrains from Evils, to That Extent His Works Become Charity

[347.] No one can do good of himself, but the Lord in a person does the good, and no one comes to the Lord except one who removes evils from himself by combats against them. Therefore to the extent anyone thus removes them, to that extent he does good from the Lord. This good also appears in like manner as though it were done by the person, but yet he thinks always of the Lord, and angels have the perception that it is from the Lord.

[The manuscript contains an empty page here.]

[Found here in the manuscript is The Word of the Lord, no. 24.]

355. [350.] On the Delight Arising from the Acclaim of Being Wise and the Delight of Commanding, Etc.

I have seen several times that when spirits were caught up in a love of ruling, they behaved like fools, believing at the time that they were wiser than others. But when their state changed and they were returned to the governance of their intellect, they then saw that they were fools, but that they preferred the former delight which was foolish, and that it drew them constantly to foolishness, which they saw when in the enjoyment of that delight as nothing other than wisdom, so that they alternated between the two states. And yet their intellect could not lead them back, but their will led. (Relate a number of particulars from personal experience on this subject, from experience with Charles XII,* Benzelius,** and others-manifest evidence that the will acts upon the intellect, and not the intellect upon the will.)
The circumstance is such that they are turned by the Lord to the governance of their intellect by an influx of light into their voluntary faculty, and that they are turned by hell to the delight of their will.
* Lived 1682-1718, king of Sweden 1697-1718.
** Probably Jacob Benzelius, a Swede, 1683-1747, Archbishop of Uppsala 1744-1747 (see Spiritual Experiences, nos. 5004ff, 5074, 6033, 6034); but perhaps Eric Benzelius, his father (see Spiritual Experiences, no. 6034).


356. [351.] On the Ten Commandments

To the extent a person fights against evils as sins and refrains from evils as sins, to the same extent the works that he does are good, and to the same extent they are charity.

357. To the extent a person refrains from evils as sins, to the same extent his spiritual mind is opened.
– To the same extent his life becomes spiritually moral.
– To the same extent he is in heaven, thus in the Lord, and the Lord in him.
– To the same extent he comes into the light of heaven, thus into an affection for truth for the sake of truth.
– To the same extent he is regenerated and becomes regenerate.
– To the same extent the order of his life is turned around and he does good from the will, and only apparently from his intellect.
– To the same extent he is purified by truths.
– To the same extent hereditary evil is removed.
– To the same extent he grows in intelligence and wisdom.
– Cite a number of other, similar consequences from the heavenly doctrine where it describes what is accomplished by truths.
– That this takes place progressively, and continues on to eternity.
– To the same extent he has faith.

[The manuscript contains an empty page here.]

[An entire sheet is missing from the manuscript here.]*
* See Translator’s Remarks.

358. [294.] Moravians

They said that they were a remnant of the Apostolic Church, and that it is because of this that they call themselves brethren. Some of them were sent, therefore, from their society, which is underground, to those who had been converted and became members of the church in the time of Paul and the Apostles.

359. [295.] They were sent first to the church which existed among the peoples at Colossae,* and to begin with they spoke with the Colossians as though they were of a church like theirs. However, on being asked about the Lord, they said that they pray the Father for the sake of His Son, but that they do not approach the Son. The Colossians replied that they approach the Lord, because He said that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.** He also said that people ought to have faith in Him.*** They said, too, that no one can approach the Father directly, and that the Moravians climbed up above what was permitted.****
When asked about charity, the Moravians said that they practice charity with each other, and that it is because of this that they call themselves brethren. But the Colossians said that this was friendship, not charity, and they asked whether the Moravians did not know that charity is to do good, and that this is primary, adding that they call good “brother” and call truth “companion.” However, the Moravians said that doing good accomplishes nothing in regard to salvation, and so neither does charity, but faith only, and that faith is to believe that the Lord was sent by the Father to take away the condemnation of the law through His suffering of the cross, and that they are consequently no longer under any law. And when the Moravians said this, the Colossians, incensed at it, drove them from their midst, calling them fanatics and not apostolic.
* Actually, according to Leviticus 24:5-9, every Sabbath. Cf. Exodus 25:30.
** John 14:6.
*** John 3:13-18, 6:29, 35, 40, 47, 11:25, 26, 12:35, 36, 44-46, 14:1, 12. Cf. John 1:12.
**** Cf. John 10:1-9.

360. [296.] Those who had been members of the Thessalonian church* spoke similarly about them, but they observed them only from above; and recognizing the same characteristics in them, they irately turned away from them as from people altogether to be guarded against.
* The church at Thessalonica, the capital city of the Roman province of Macedonia on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea. Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians are addressed to the church at Thessalonica.

361. [297.] Afterward the Moravians came to a certain apostolic church which had existed in Galilee not far from Tyre. They comported themselves in the same way there, giving the Galileans to believe that they possessed the same doctrine they did. But on being asked about the Word, the Moravians replied that they hold to the Epistles of Paul, which contain their essential doctrine, and said that Paul spoke from the Holy Spirit. Asked what they believed in regard to the Gospels, they said that the Lord spoke in them from Himself. Asked whether He did so from the Father, thus from the Divine, or from the Holy Spirit, they said that He spoke from Himself. The Galileans asked about the manner in which He spoke, to which the Moravians replied that He spoke in a simple fashion as a man, and not from the Father or from the Divine, because He wished people to have faith in Him and wanted to be equal to the Father. The Galileans asked whether He was not conceived of the Father. The Moravians said that they think as they please about this, not daring to say that they think as Jews do. Nor did they dare to say that they have little regard for what He said.
When asked about the Old Testament, whether it is not holy, they said that Jews consider it holy because it was written for them, but that they themselves do not consider it holy, and that it is evil to believe that it is holy for them. Asked whether they know that there are many particulars regarding the Lord’s advent contained in it, they said that these had to do with the coming of the Messiah, and that by the Messiah is meant God the Father and not the Lord, denying that the Father was in the Lord according to His own testimony. When the Galileans began to cite passages in the Old Testament regarding the Lord, they turned away and said that they interpreted them differently than the Galileans. In short, they rejected the Word of the Old Testament as not holy and as containing nothing in it having to do with the Lord. Some of their responses I pass over, because they were such as would offend the ears.
After that the Galileans heard about the Moravians’ faith, and they said that it accorded not at all with their faith, indeed that it was nothing of any value. And incensed that the Moravians had claimed to be of their church, the Galileans ordered them to leave, saying that otherwise they would be driven away, because they saw that the Moravians were not in the least Christians, calling them antichrists.

362. [298.] Zinzendorf* heard all of these things that the Moravians said in conversation with this and the previous apostolic church, and he lamented, saying, “I do not know why I became of such a character in the world.” And seeing that there was nothing for those Moravians but hell, he grieved.
[301.] The Moravians said that they would not convert and join those apostolic Christians, because to do so would distress them and bring misfortune upon them.
* Count Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf, 1700-1760, a German reformer and organizer of the Moravian Church. Zinzendorf proclaimed a “religion of the heart,” based on an intimate fellowship with the Savior, whose Person, conceived as Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of the world, completely dominated his theology. Though forced by circumstances to separate from the Lutheran Church, he continued to maintain a close connection with it. Widely traveled, he founded Moravian communities in the Baltic provinces, Holland, England, the West Indies, and North America.

363. [299.] The Moravians said that in their sermons they include some component from the Gospels, and from the prophets and historical portions of the Old Testament as well, especially those passages which support their dogmas. They also include some other passages, too, but only for the sake of other Christians, to avoid giving offense, and to win them over to their views.

364. [300.] Some of them asked how they could have become of such a character in the world, when in fact they pray the Father and are religious. They received the reply that it was because they denied the Lord’s Divinity, and they were informed that there is a general emanation from hell in opposition to the Lord’s Divinity, to charity toward the neighbor, and to the holiness of the Word. Moreover, from this observation they may know, they were told, from where they acquired their convictions against those three concepts.

365. [302.] Several hundred of these Moravians departed and went to a society where charity reigned, and the several hundred were ones caught up in the persuasion that they were alive and that those in the practice of charity were dead. Because of this persuasion, the angels of the society where charity reigned appeared to their eyes to be black, while they for a time seemed outwardly to be angels. (Their persuasion has this effect, that as they approach, they themselves appear, because of their persuasion, as alive, and all others in their eyes as half-dead.) When the angels perceived this, they prayed to the Lord to remove these newcomers. Consequently the Moravians were commanded from above to leave, and as they were going and removing themselves, they appeared so monstrous as to seem scarcely human. Moreover, the monstrosity of their appearance kept increasing until they reached the entryway to their place underground, which led through a cavern, and when they arrived there, their monstrousness persisted and was apparent to their eyes and to the eyes of their comrades. After that they were also punished for a long time, and exceedingly so, for having dared such a venture; and they were told that they were being punished to keep them from going to the societies of others and by their persuasion inducing in others a state like theirs and so winning them over to their wicked dogma, believing that they are alive and those in the practice of charity dead, when the contrary is the case.
Their punishment continued until they swore that they would not do it again. For their greatest desire is to seduce others by various wiles and arts and persuade them to their views. They are deceivers.

[Found here in the manuscript is The Word of the Lord, no. 26.]

[The manuscript contains an empty page here.]

366. [358.] On Faith

That the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to accomplish a Last Judgment and at the same time glorify His Humanity, and that without this no mortal could have been saved. Also, that those are saved who believe in Him and do good from Him. This is the faith of the New Jerusalem.

367. [359.] How far faith separated from goods of charity differs from this faith, let him who is able explore. 1) Faith separated supposes God the Father and God the Son to be two beings, each existing from eternity. 2) It supposes God the Son to have come into the world by the will of God the Father to make satisfaction for the human race, which otherwise would have perished in eternal death owing to Divine justice, which its adherents call a retributive justice. [360.] 3) It supposes satisfaction to have been made by the Lord’s fulfillment of the law, and by His suffering of the cross. 4) It supposes God the Father’s mercy on account of these actions of the Son. 5) It supposes the attribution, the imputation, of the Lord’s merit to those who possess this faith and who because of it pray the Father therefore to be merciful for the sake of the Son. 6) It supposes the justification of those who do this with trust and confidence. 7) It supposes the operation of the Holy Spirit in them. 8) It supposes a forgiveness of all their sins, and thus salvation. 9) It supposes then an endeavor toward good, which operates secretly and moves a person’s will in a way that is not apparent. Others, whom its proponents consider less learned, suppose the operation to be apparent. 10) Of those who confirm themselves in this position, however, most suppose that no one can of himself do good which is good, and without its being merit-seeking, consequently that not any good work is saving, but faith alone. They pass over and do not reflect on the evil or goodness of their life.
[Marginal Note]
It supposes some element of temptation, and of liberation by that faith, and some then suppose an instantaneous flowing in of faith, and also the possibility of it in the final hour of death, and their salvation by faith alone, however they have lived.

368. [361.] In sum, that God the Father sent the Son to make satisfaction for the human race, and that as a result of His merit those are saved who believe these things.

369. [362.] They are of differing opinions as regards instantaneous salvation by faith and retributive justice.

370. [363.] They have books full of these conjectures of theirs, but they only write arguments in support of them.

371. [364.] Their faith supposes an intellect held in obedience to that faith, and a truth of faith which is not understood.

372. [365.] Moravians

I spoke with them about their brotherhood, asking whether it was one of love or charity. They said it was not, but only one of friendship, because they are all of the same opinion. They do not allow any mention of love or charity in their religion.

[The manuscript contains an empty page here.]

[Found here in the manuscript is The Precepts of the Decalogue.]

Various observations regarding matters found in the spiritual world, from which some particulars have been taken in A Continuation Concerning the Spiritual World*
* i.e., A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment, and Concerning the Spiritual World (Amsterdam, 1763).

1. [133.] By judgments that preceded, preparation was made for the universal Judgment.
The new heavens that they formed for themselves.
2. [134.] The destruction of some before the Last Judgment who were caught up in faith alone.
That first they underwent a visitation and were separated.
3. [135.] What kind of people they are who have formed heavens for themselves.
My seeing an event occur in one place like the one at Sodom.
4. [136.] A rock seen carried away like a passing cloud.
5. [137.] People caught up in faith alone settle themselves on rocks.
How they live there.
That earthquakes precede.
6. [138.] Malicious spirits on a level stretch of land cast down.
And good spirits preserved by the Lord raised up from their place (this being what it means to open graves*).
* Ezekiel 37:12, 13. Matthew 27:52.
7. [139.] The destructions which preceded the Last Judgment.
How a Divine atmosphere entered into the people there, and their interior qualities disclosed because of it.
8. [140.] The character of the people on whom the Last Judgment was executed.
9. [141.] The arrangement of Protestants or the Reformed before the Judgment, and their location, and how the interiorly evil were arrayed.
10, 11. [142, 143.] How they were first removed.
12. [144.] The banishment of those caught up in faith alone.
And their being explored then.
13. [145.] So, too, others.
14. [146.] So, too, others.
15. [147.] So, too, others.
16. [148.] How they then appeared.
17. [149.] Their dispersal.
18. [150.] Angels marveled at such a faith.
18 1/2. [151.] They have no conscience.
19. [152.] That the purging of the central area continued for a long time.
20. [153.] Some seen at a table, dressed as though in wedding garments, but who inwardly were bandits.
Their being cast down.
21. [154.] Some who appeared to be honest, but were inwardly wolves.
Their fate.
22. [155.] Protestants explored as to their character and distinguished into classes.
23. [156.] Their idea of the Lord.
24. [157.] Regarding those taken up with piety and external worship.
Their fate.
25. [158.] Hypocrites-their fate.
26. [159.] Priests who read the Word only in order to preach.
Their fate.
27. [160.] People are separated in accordance with the inward constituents of their life, which are affections.
28. [162.] Followers of the dragon-how they are explored.
Being people caught up in love of self and conceit.
[161.] Who they are.
29. [163.] Who they are who are followers of the dragon.
30. [164.] That everyone can know what charity is, that it is not to steal, etc.
31. [165.] Good people left to themselves were allotted their habitations.
32. [166.] People who understood and knew much, but did not have a will for good.
Their fate.
33. [167.] People who did not acknowledge the Lord and the need for goods of charity-their rebellion and alliance with Papists and Muslims.
Their fate.
Some mention made of the dragon’s battle with Michael.
34. [168.] The dragon’s battle with Michael represented.
The Lord seen in a cloud.
The representative appearance of a tail.
35. [170.] People caught up in faith alone and motivated by a love of commanding look downward. What they are like.
Their character.
36. [171.] That they are distinguished according to their ideas of God.
Distinguished into five classes.
[37.] [172.]
38. [173.] Their persecution of me by inspiring in me a similar respiration and pulse.
What I experienced because of it.
39. [174.] The thinking of people caught up in faith alone described.
What it is like even if they have not done evil.
40. [175.] Some of these people let out of their hells, believing that they would then behave well, but without success. Their experience.
41. [176.] Their arrangement into societies.
The purification of the societies.
42. [177.] That the arrangements are determined in accordance with their life’s affections.
Not in accordance with the thoughts of the intellect.
The nature of the paths they take afterward.
43. [178.] The most extensive disposition being that of Protestants.
The reason being that they have the Word and know about the Lord.
44. [179.] The kind of people who were raised up into heaven.
On the Lord’s saying that whoever has faith as a mustard seed.*
* Matthew 17:20; Luke 17:6.
45. [180.] Regarding goats and their battles.
46. [181.] Ditto.
47. [182.] The dragon.
48. [183.] Why the book of Revelation deals with these.
49-52. [184-188.] On followers of the dragon.
53. [189, 190.] The power of truth in the spiritual world.
[190.] My experience.
54. [191.] Regarding people who have little life-how life is infused into them.
55. [192.] That the religion of people caught up in faith alone is merely knowledge.
56. [193.] That people who fight against evils receive the law as though it were engraved on them.
56 1/2. [194.]My having been taken into the dwelling places of heaven.
What opinion they have in the third heaven of people caught up in faith alone.
And how they lived in the world to be in that heaven.
57. [195.] The faith of people caught up in faith alone-its character.
And what that faith looks like inwardly.
58. [196.] How the Epistle of James appears to them.
59. [197.] That those are accepted who have believed in charity, provided they have also lived a life of charity.
That [to believe the intellect leads the will] is contrary to the case, but [in the case of people who have believed as they do, their state] is afterwards reversed.
60. [198.] The arrangement of people who possess a faith that is one of charity.
61. [199.] In the counterfeit heavens of people caught up in faith alone was a wintry light.
62. [200.] Regarding hells where the people continually argue about faith.
What these hells are like.
63. [201.] People who believed they had faith given to know through personal experience that they had no faith.
64. [202.] The interior elements in them having been closed off.
Religion in them a matter of memory.
The people being sensual people.
65. [203.] That the church’s faith alone is not possible, learned as the result of an experience.
66. [204.] On people who possess no affection for truth, and yet argue on and on about truths. My experience.
67. [205.] That people caught up in faith alone have no conscience.
68. [206.] That people who believe in charity and do not live a life of charity are not much different.
69. [207.] The extent to which faith alone leads to evils of life.
70. [208.] A conversation with Melanchthon regarding faith alone, as to how false it is.
71. [209.] That people caught up in faith alone cannot be saved. Who they are.
72. [210.] That all societies of heaven are organized in accordance with the differing qualities of their love.
73. [211.] An Englishman who wished to join to faith a charity arising from faith, but which was not discerned.
74. [212.] My reading in the presence of some Englishmen their prayer before the Eucharist, and a conversation with them.
75. [213.] English priests who made an effigy of their faith.
76. [214.] A conversation with some Englishmen regarding faith alone.
77. [215.] Their arguments in defense of faith alone-the nature of these.
78. [216.] Those examined who affirmed their faith when in the final hour of dying. Their character.
79. [217.] After the Judgment many of those persuaded of faith alone were gathered together and banished.
80. [218.] Many of them afterward wished to receive charity, but without success. The reason.
Regarding the effort following justification.
81. [219.] Regarding free will with them.
82. [220.] That they are not permitted to preach.
Their listeners leave.
83. [221.] The desert areas inhabited by people caught up in faith alone.
84. [222.] Their being examined to see whether they know any truth, and its being found that they do not.
85. [223.] A conversation with angels about the progression of truth to good.
86. [224.] The English-how they write their sermons.
87. [225.] That that faith saves no one-brief mention.
88. [226.] That it is like a dark room.
89, 90. [227.] The wretched state of people who have held evils allowable, and their hell.
91. [228.] All states of love return after death, thus also states of faith if it is fixed in a person’s love.
92. [229.] That people today continue to crucify the Lord.
93. [230.] The present idea of God, heaven, love, faith.
94. [231.] The first state of a person after death.
95. [232.] That love engenders conceptions of truth and good in a person’s thinking.
96. [233.] People caught up in a love of self cannot be admitted into heaven.
97. [234.] People caught up in a love of self may speak just as well as others on Divine subjects, but yet after death they are opposed to things Divine.
98. [235.] That they are the Lord’s foes. An experience.
99. [236.] The two opposite kinds of love’s exercise of command.
100. [237.] The interior elements in such people-what they are like.
101. [238.] Exemplified by people possessing knightly rank.
102. [239.] That love corresponds to flame, faith to light.
103. [240.] The kind of people who worship the Lord out of a spiritual love, and what their affection for truth is like and their faith.
104. [241.] That affection shapes a person, shown by induced corresponding transformations of countenances.
105. [242.] The delight of a love of commanding exceeds every other delight.
106. [243.] What the delight of a love of commanding turns into after death.
107. [244.] That everyone after death comes into his love.
108. [245.] Frederic Gyllenborg-his manner of praying.
109. [246.] People caught up in the delight of a love of commanding-what they are like after death.
110. [247.] A horrifying illustration of the rage against the Lord in people who in their life do not think in accord with religion.