A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment · 7 of 12

The Papists in the Spiritual World

56.VII. THE PAPISTS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. The Papists, and the Last Judgment upon them, were treated of in the small work on The Last Judgment (n. 53-64). The Papists in the spiritual world appear around the Reformed, and are separated from them by an interval, which they are not permitted to pass. Nevertheless, those who are of the order of Jesuits, by clandestine arts procure for themselves communications, and also send out emissaries, by unknown paths, for the purpose of seducing them. But they are discovered, and after being punished, they are either sent back to their companions, or are cast into hell.

57.After the Last Judgment, their state was so changed, that they were not allowed to gather together in companies, as before; but ways were appointed to every love, both good and evil, which those who come from the world immediately enter, and go to a society corresponding to their love. Thus the wicked are borne away to a society which is in conjunction with the hells, and the good to a society which is in conjunction with the heavens; thus precaution is taken that they may not form artificial heavens for themselves as before. Such societies in the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, are innumerable; being as many as there are genera and species of good and evil affections. And in the meantime, before spirits are either elevated into heaven, or cast down into hell, they are in spiritual conjunction with men in the world, because they too are in the midst between heaven and hell.

58.All those of the Papists, who have not been wholly idolaters, and who, from their religious persuasion, have done goods out of a sincere heart, and have also looked to the Lord, are led to societies which are instituted in the confines nearest to the Reformed, and are instructed there, the Word being read, and the Lord preached to them; and they who receive truths and apply them to life, are elevated into heaven and become angels. There are many such societies of them in every quarter, and they are guarded on all sides from the treacheries and cunning devices of the monks, and from the Babylonish leaven. Moreover, all their infants are in heaven, because, being educated by the angels under the guidance of the Lord, they know nothing of the falsities of the religion of their parents.

59.All who come from the earth into the spiritual world, are at first kept in the confession of faith, and in the religion of their country; and so therefore are the Papists. On this account, they always have some representative Pontiff set over them, whom they also adore with the same ceremony as in the world. Rarely does any Pope from the world act the Pontiff there; yet he who was Pope at Rome twenty years ago, was appointed over the Papists, because he cherished in heart that the Word is more holy than is believed, and that the Lord ought to be worshiped. But, after filling the office of Pope for some years, he abdicated it, and betook himself to the Reformed Christians, among whom he still is, and enjoys a happy life. It was granted me to speak with him, and he said, that he adored the Lord alone, because He is God, who has power over heaven and earth, and that the invocations of saints, and also their masses, are trifles; and that when he was in the world, he intended to restore that church, but that for reasons, which he mentioned, he found it impossible to do so. When the great northern city of the Papists was destroyed, on the day of the Last Judgment, I saw him carried out of it on a couch, and taken to a place of safety. Quite a different thing happened to his successor.

60.Here I am allowed to add something memorable. It was granted me to speak with Louis XIV., grandfather of the reigning king of France, who while he was in the world, worshiped the Lord, read the Word, and acknowledged the Pope only as the highest one of the church; in consequence of which, he has great dignity in the spiritual world, and rules the best society of the French nation. Once I saw him as it were descending by ladders, and after he descended I heard him saying, that he seemed to himself as if at Versailles, and then there was silence round about for half an hour; at the end of that time, he said, that he had spoken with the king of France, his grandson, concerning the Bull Unigenitus, advising him to desist from his former design, and not to accept it, because it was detrimental to the French nation, he said that he insinuated this into his thought profoundly. This took place in the year 1759, on the 13th day of December, about eight o’clock in the evening.