The Last Judgment (Posthumous) · 5 of 18

The Saints of the Papists

60.[59] THE SAINTS OF THE PAPISTS. The papists, especially the monks, when they come into the other life, inquire for the saints, each one for those in his order; and the Jesuits do the same: and they likewise find them; but when they speak with them, they do not find more of holiness with them than with others. On being questioned, they say that they have no more power than others; and that they who have not worshipped the Lord, but only the Father, have no power; and that they are among the vile, whom their associates despised. Some of them know that they have been canonized; and when they are proud of it, they are derided by their associates; some do not know it. The most of those who affected sanctity in the world, are in the lower earth and in the hells, because they did this from the insane love, that they wished to be invoked and worshipped as gods; and that love profanes all the sanctity of heaven. But still the monks, and especially the Jesuits, conceal the lot of those, and lie to the common people, that they are saints on account of a restraint and obedience; although they laugh at them in their hearts.

61.[60] I heard the Pope who lived in the year 1738, -because he receded from the Babylonish error, and renounced all power over souls and over heaven, and became a Christian, calling upon the Lord alone, he related to me that he had spoken with almost all who had been made saints, of both sexes; and, except two, he had seen no one in heaven; and that these two abhorred being invoked: and that many of them were not aware of it; and that some spoke foolishly.

62.[61] St. Genevieve. She appears sometimes to the Parisians, in a middle altitude, in a splendid dress, and then as it were with a saintly face, and grants herself to be seen by many. But when some begin to invoke her, then immediately her face changed, and also her garments; and she becomes like another woman, and chides them, and rebukes them severely, for wishing to worship a woman, whose lot is no other than the lot of ordinary women, and who is not more highly esteemed among her associates than others: and she chides them even to shame, that men in the world are taken with such trifles. I will add, that the reason why she appears to them such at the beginning, was to the end that it might be known what kind of delusions these were. I heard the angels say that she sometimes appears so, for the sake of separating the worshippers of men from the worshippers of God. She also teaches them that she knows nothing at all more than others, and nothing whatever about invocation.

63.[62] She says also that she is not among the best; and that he who wishes to become greater than others, becomes lower than others; and that it is an injury to the most of them that they have been canonized; because, when they hear of it, they become puffed up in heart from hereditary evil, and are removed away, that they may not know at all who they were in the world.

64.[63] Agnes dwells in a chamber with virgins for her companions; and as often as she is called forth by any worshipper, she goes out, and asks what they want with a shepherd girl, who in herself is low, and is one with others in their work. And then her companions go out, and chide them even to shame. And as soon as they are ashamed, and desist from such things, she is also guarded, lest pride should enter into her. But she is now conducted away to another place; nor is she found anymore to the right among the upright women; in whose society she is not tolerated, unless she answers that she is filthy.

65.[64] The saints adored in the world are of three kinds. Some are averse to the worship; these are guarded by angels. Some orally repudiate it, but still cherish in heart that they wish to be worshipped. Some receive it; but these are profane, miserable, and foolish.

66.[65] Anthony of Padua appeared to me in front a little below, at the plane of the foot. He appeared in a dark garment; and I spoke to him as to whether he supposed he was a saint. He at first answered that he was not at all a saint: but still it was perceived that he retained the pride, that he wished to be one; on which account I spoke with him more severely. When anyone comes to him, he is led to say, that he can introduce no one into heaven, and that he knows nothing at all about being invoked; that this is a falsity. When they inquire of him what heaven is, whether it is the Lord, and whether it is love from Him and to Him and mutual love, this he does not know: on which account other spirits, from whom he wishes to get away, and cannot, mock at him. An interior craftiness has been observed in him. He endeavors to be worshipped in secret ways; but he fears: for he would be thrust down to lower places, where he suffers hard things. He can by art bind the ideas of the thought of others. He has conjunction with the Jesuits who appear in white.

67.[66] Francis Xavier dwells deep beneath the back parts. He was a subtle magician, operating through conjugial love and through innocence; thus clandestinely.

68.[67] Ignatius was in front above. He was a good spirit. He said that he was averse to being canonized, making himself filthy. He detested their making saints. He knew about the Jesuits, and called them atheists, and said that he shunned them.

69.[68] The Virgin Mary, the mother of the Lord, was seen. Mary appeared to one side, in a snow-white garment, only as she passed by: and then she stopped a little, and said, that she had been the mother of the Lord; that He was indeed born of her; but that He became God, and put off all the maternal human; and that she therefore now adores Him as her God; and that she is unwilling that anyone should acknowledge Him as her son, because in Him all is Divine.

70.[69] MOHAMMED AND THE MOHAMMEDANS. See some things concerning the judgment upon the Mohammedans, and that there are two Mohammeds under the Christian heaven, in the small work on the Last Judgment (n. 50).

71.[70] That a choir is when many speak and act together and unanimously, and that by choirs inauguration to unanimity is made and that in their speech there is singing, see in the Arcana Coelestia (n. 1648, 1649, 2595, 2596, 3350, 5182, 8158).

72.[71] Mohammed. I have spoken with the Mohammed, who is in his stead, who had his seat under the Christian heaven: it seemed as if the glory of the Lord was shown to the Mohammedans, and that they then fell down upon their faces; and their Mohammed did the same.

73.[72] I have heard the Mohammedans speak so skillfully and prudently as to affect certain Christian spirits with shame, acknowledging Mohammed but adoring the one only Lord of the universe: and Mohammed then testified that he has no power, and he also then adored the Lord.

74.[73] I have sometimes seen that Mohammed drive away from himself the crowd that adores him, saying that they should go to the Lord, who rules the universe.

75.[74] Spirits were sent to me from Mohammed, who could induce the appearance of a laver, pleasant through the form of its flow.

76.[75] Both Mohammeds confess that the Lord is the fountain of all goodnesses and truths.

77.[76] The spirits who are around Mohammed are inaugurated into unanimity and into agreement by angelic choirs, to the end that they may suffer themselves to be acted upon, and to think, will and speak from the Lord through angels; (respecting choirs see above;) and I have seen and heard them present by them beautiful representations concerning the Lord, the Savior of the world. The work of choirs is performed by Mohammedans with great merit. The Mohammedan choirs there became more familiar to me than others. I was with Mohammed on a remarkable occasion: it was also when I was in Amsterdam, and in the courthouse there, which he saw through my eyes, and praised. He was delighted with the marbles there, which marbles correspond to the affections of the Mohammedans, who are in some degree spiritual; for all things are correspondences. Golden things correspond to the affections of the angels of the third heaven; things of silver to those of the second; things of copper to those of the first; and India porcelain to those of the last: to those of the Mohammedan heaven things of marble.

78.[77] The two Mohammeds were once taken up into heaven, because they desired it; and they then spoke with me therefrom. They said that they saw thence, in one idea of thought, innumerable things, which, when below heaven, they believed to be one single thing: this was done, that they might know how the Lord leads man by innumerable things, which in the natural state appear to the man as one; when yet there are ineffable things in every one of them. This may be compared with the least things of an animalcule, which appears to the naked eye as one obscure point, but seen under a powerful microscope, is yet an animal endowed with members, and likewise with organs, and within with muscles, fibers, heart, brain, and many other things. So it is with one idea of a man’s thought; therefore no one but the Lord alone knows what kind of thought the man has, and how much of what is living, that is, of heaven, there is in him: for as much of heaven as there is in him, so much of the human there is in him from the Lord. These things the two Mohammeds learned by being elevated into heaven.

79.[78] There were Mohammedans in the western quarter dwelling upon rocks, who were rejected by the Mohammed in the Christian region, because they worshipped Mohammed as God, and adored him; which was forbidden them: and it was found that then they thought nothing respecting the Lord, not even respecting Him as the greatest Prophet, and the Son of God. And when it was inquired what kind of idea they had concerning God the Father, and it was found that they not only had not the idea of Him as a man, but none at all, and without an idea of God there is not given conjunction with any heaven; it was said to them that they could rather have the idea of God respecting the Lord, because He was the greater Prophet, and the Son of God: but they said that they could not, for He was of a wandering nation. Since they worshipped Mohammed, therefore Mohammed himself, who wrote the Koran, and was buried at Mecca, was taken from his place, which was to the right deeply behind the right foot, and he was elevated a little above the earth, and was shown to them. He appeared gross and black, altogether similar to corporeal spirits, who have little of life. He spoke with them, confessed that it was he, and that he was such: and after he had been shown, he was carried down into his place; but those worshippers of Mohammed were dispersed.

80.[79] It was afterwards disclosed whence were the two Mohammeds, who had obtained a seat in the Christian heaven: because one of them was born in Saxony, and taken by the Algerians; and he there adopted the Mohammedan religion, and became a ship captain. He was then taken by the Genoese, where he received the Christian religion: thus he became imbued with both religions, because he acknowledged the Lord: and being led by the love of ruling, he was therefore taken there instead of Mohammed, and infused into the Mohammedans the belief that he was Mohammed himself: he was clever. (no text change — flag for editorial verification; [83] is missing as its own paragraph between [82] and [84]), in whom is the Father, who is one God with Him: and that the Holy proceeding from Him is the Divine filling the heavens, and making the heavens.

81.[80] But the other Mohammed was disclosed as being a Christian from Greece. He was also acknowledged by those who in the world had thought of many Mohammeds.

82.[81] With the first Mohammed there appears something luminous, as if from a little torch; and the Mohammedans look thither, and there is influx thence into them through the medium of spirits: for in the spiritual world distances are only appearances; and when anyone is thought of, the distance perishes, and there becomes presence; Mohammed is skillful in instructing those who inquire of him. It has been granted me to perceive the sphere of his life: it was exteriorly pleasant, but interiorly concealing lasciviousness, which they have from matrimony with many wives and concubines. It was an unclean heat, but which is a pleasant heat, to the Mohammedans.

83.[82] The reason that Mohammeds are continually substituted in place of another, is because everyone after death is led into his religious persuasion which he had in the world: it is a continuation of life. But he is afterwards gradually led away either to goods or to evils, according to his life; according to which also he receives truths or falsities.

84.[84] THE MOHAMMEDANS I was conducted to a region where the Mohammedans were, which region was towards the right in the plane of the sole of the right foot: and when I was there, I was held in the thought concerning the Lord, that the Father is in Him, and He in the Father; and that the Holy Spirit proceeds; thus in the thought that there is one God, in whom is a trine. All those who were there were then in the same idea, and altogether acknowledged it; and this through all that tract. It was thence granted me to know, that there are many from the Mohammedans who receive the belief concerning the Lord, that He is one with the Father.

85.[85] When I was conducted by the Lord through all the places, that I might know the quality of those there from their various nations, I came also to two mountains, upon which were Mohammedans. On one were those who lived well morally; they said that they have good, because they obey their governors. On the other were those who were very perceptive of spiritual things. They stated at first that no others can come to them but they who are of a like genius; and that Christians cannot; and that if they come, they appear to them as if they were being swallowed up by wolves; and that those who still come, they send to prison, and treat badly, and afterwards dismiss: these are monks who are able to introduce themselves by their arts, but are detected. I spoke with them respecting many wives; and they heard the reasons why it is according to the Christian doctrine, that only one wife is to be received. They perceived the justice in the reasons, but answered that they cannot as yet recede from matrimony with many, because it was conceded to them by their religion in the world, for the reason that they are orientals, who, without many wives, would have burned forth into adulteries, and so would have perished.

86.[86] I spoke also with the firstborn of the Christians, who are the military guards of their Sultan, called Janizaries, and became Mohammedans: they said that they were still Christians in heart; and that some were intermediate, but some Mohammedans.

87.[87] When I spoke something from the Word with those who were upon the other mountain, I apperceived something holy from them: as when I said that the Lord was conceived from Jehovah; and for that reason He called Him Father; and it is thence that He is the Son of God; and thence the Divine is in Him; and therefore He could glorify His whole body; so that as to that part of the body, which from those who are born of human parents is rejected and putrefies, was with Him glorified and made Divine from the Divine in Himself; and He rose with this leaving nothing in the sepulcher, altogether otherwise than takes place with every man. They heard attentively and said that they wondered they had not heard of such things.

88.[88] I saw an infestation of Mohammedans by Christians in a certain city; from which infestation they could with difficulty be rescued. It was done by arts, of which there are many in the spiritual world. It was then seen that the city sank down in the middle part, and there was a wall made round about. But the sinking down was little, so that they could ascend and descend. Thus those who withdrew were transferred, and exempted from the infestations.

89.[89] I was conducted to the Mohammedans who are in the eastern quarter, and it was granted me to speak with them. They said that some Christians of the Roman Catholic religion come to them; and they observed that it was done by them only for the sake of gain and dominion: and further, that they wish to possess all the things of the world, and also to have dominion over all who are there. There was a conversation with them concerning God: they said that they cannot comprehend how they can perceive one God, when they name three, and call them persons; when yet there is but one God; and that they still heard from the Christians, that they also say one God; because this is a contradiction. They asked what I knew concerning God. I said, that in the Christian heaven that is not believed, nor is it so said: but that the trine is in one Person; and that the trine which is named in it is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that this is in the Lord, in whom the inmost, which is the esse of life, is called the Father; the second, which is the existere of life thence, is the Son; and the third is the proceeding, and is called the Holy Spirit: and that such a union was effected by God the Father, by His coming in the world; and that Christians might also be enlightened in it, since the Lord teaches openly, that the Father is in Him, and that the Father and He are one, and that the Holy Spirit does not speak out of itself, but from Him: but they who are of the Roman Catholic religion do not admit this, for the reason that they are lords on the earth; neither the Reformed, who are in the religion of faith alone; for so far the Mohammedans comprehended this. They said that they thought, desiring illustration, which was afterward given them; since this thing cannot be comprehended, without instruction from the Word.

90.[90] I spoke with the Mohammedans concerning the resurrection; that the Christians believe that the resurrection is first to take place with the destruction of the world; and that the bodies are then to be united to their souls, and to be gathered together from every quarter where they have been scattered; and that in the meantime they are spirits, of whom they have an idea as of wind, especially of the breath; and that thus they flit about either in the ether or in the starry heaven, without hearing, sight, or any other sense; and that they are in expectation of the judgment; and that those also are in this expectation who have died from the very beginning of this earth; who have thus flitted about in the universe now for six thousand years; and that some think that they are together in a certain place, which is not a place, but a somewhere or other; as also that the angels are such. Also that the Christians scarcely comprehend that man lives a man after death as in the world, for they cannot have an idea of the spiritual body; but that still, when they do not think from doctrine, they think of themselves after death, that they live as men, as when they are near to death: and that for that reason those who treat of the deceased write openly that they are among the angels, are speaking with them, are in white garments, in paradises; yet as soon as they come to any ideas from doctrine, they think, as was said, of man after death, and of an angel, as of wind. When these things were said, the Mohammedans then answered, that they wondered that such a fallacy can reign with Christians, who call themselves more enlightened than others; saying that they know that they are to live after death, are to live in happy marriage, and are to drink wine; and this after they have rejected the castoffs, which had served them for their ultimate clothing in that gross sphere, as a body there.

91.[91] There are many Mohammedans who become Christians, acknowledging the Lord as the only God, because the Father is in Him. These, when they are led into heaven, are led first to the east, and thence to the north, and thence ascend higher and higher to the west, and are there in a higher place; but still by a circuit, or going round, according to situation below; some appeared to ascend towards the south, who were they that confirmed themselves in the Divinity of the Lord.

92.[92] Many Mohammedans, from natural light, comprehend better concerning spiritual things than the Christians do; because they think much, and desire truths. They understood well that all the things in heaven and in the world refer themselves to good and truth; and that truth, when it is believed, is the truth of faith; and that good, when a man is affected by it, is the good of love: and therefore two faculties, understanding and will, were given to man; the understanding by the reception of truth, thus of faith, and the will by the reception of good, thus of love: and that good and truth, thus the understanding and the will, must be one, that the man may be truly a man; thus also a man of faith and of truth. They clearly perceived thence that they who are in the good of life, are in the perception of truth; for the reason that good desires truth, and wishes to be conjoined, and as it were nourished; and that truth is as spiritual food to good; also on the other hand that truth desires good, that it may be anything; because without good there is no life in truth; thus that there is the reciprocal desire of the one for the other, and that from this man is man.

93.[93] In the Judgment I saw that the Mohammedans were led from the west and round about in their circuit around the Papists, by a way towards the north to the east, in a circular way to appearance: and that on the way the evil were cast outside of that sphere where there is a space of great extent; some into a wilderness there, some into swamps and pools, some into dark forests. These things were on the backside of their mountain: on the side of that space in the north there was an immense and extended whirlpool, into which also many, who had led an evil life, were cast. The rest proceeded by a circuit towards the east, and spread themselves into an ample space that extended itself more to the back. Thither those were led, who acknowledged God the Father, and the Son as the greatest Prophet, who is with the Father. That space was broad, divided into mountains, hills, and valleys, upon which they were arranged; and there it is well with them. They who were still better, enjoying more intellectual light than others, were likewise led to that place, where there was communication with the Christian heaven, a space which separated intervening. These were they, who, being instructed, received the Lord; and they who received well, were led into the south, where they obtained their heaven behind the Christians there.

94.[94] There were those who feigned themselves Christians as to the belief in the Lord’s Divinity. These insinuated themselves among them by craftiness, but were forthwith detected and separated, and cast into the desert and the adjoining chasm; and some were led back and dispersed.

95.[95] There were some from the Mohammedans who acknowledged only the Father as others do, and the Lord as the greatest Prophet. They said that they could not understand that the Divine is divided into three Persons, thus into three gods. They said that the Holy Spirit was God speaking by a spirit, and an angel; a certain one from the Christians now drew near to them, asking why they do not acknowledge the Son of God as God. They said that there is one God, and thus there would be two; on which account they asked him how many Gods he worshipped; he replied One, because God is one. But they explored the idea of his thought, that he did not think of one God, but of three. This is easily done in the other life. They said that they saw that he said one God with the mouth, and in heart and in faith believed in three: and yet it behooves a Christian to speak as he thinks, and not to divide the mind from the speech, as do flatterers and those who lie; and as he could not deny this, they said that the Christians ought to be ashamed to think of three gods, when no Gentile who has any intelligence thinks so; who have not three in their idea, when they name one. He wished to say that the three were one by unanimity; neither could this be given without the idea of three conversing and consenting among themselves; and besides, three essences which make one could not be given, unless they were also one person: one and the same essence of three is not given; still less in God, who is not divisible: and who, moreover, can give it from an essence, such as this is among the metaphysicians, and have it be thought by the common people, when it cannot be by the learned? On which account he was affected with shame, saying that he would in no wise return to them, and that he would inquire of someone concerning the triune God. The angels afterwards spoke with the Mohammedans, instructing them that God is one both in Person and in essence, in whom is a trine; and that the Son of God, who to them is the greatest Prophet, being sent by the Father, cannot but be God, because He was conceived of God the Father Himself: thus the Divine itself was in Him from conception; and the Divine is indivisible.

(no text change — flag for editorial verification of paragraph order) They are for the greatest part in the western quarter. After the Last Judgment there came many anew into that quarter, who thought little respecting the God of the universe, and nothing respecting the Lord, but worshipped Mohammed as God. And because they did not find him, they elected another, on a mountain elevated above the Christian region, with whom they consulted, and whom they obeyed: and then, by the command of their new Mohammed, they poured themselves into the Christian region, and infested them in various modes. But after visitation, and the disclosure that they were a wandering nation, and one that delighted in idleness, and wished to do nothing useful, they were cast into their hells. As long as they consociated themselves with the Babylonians, they were also able to render themselves inconspicuous. At length the earth upon which they were was rolled over above them, and they were cast into hell: their hell appeared fiery.

97.[99]. The judgment upon them proceeded still further into the west, in a long tract; and likewise towards the north, where they mingled themselves with the evil Papists; and I saw them cast into the hells and whirlpools there.

98.[97] Many of the Mohammedans, when they had heard many things concerning the Lord, wished to go and join the heavenly Christian Church. But it was told them that they should remain still in their religion, or in their doctrine from the Koran, that the Lord was the greatest Prophet, the Son of God, the wisest of all, sent to inform the human race; for the reason that they cannot in heart acknowledge His Divine, but only with the mouth; since they imbibed those things from infancy: and their spiritual good was formed in part from such things as had been of their faith; which cannot be extinguished so suddenly by a new tenet of faith, let them only live in sincerity and justice, and so in their good: because all sincerity and justice is in itself the Divine proceeding from the Lord; and because they can in their manner still live faithfully, and be gradually led on to the Lord. It was said to them, that many Christians do not think of the Lord’s Divine, but only of His Human, which they do not make Divine; for instance, the Roman Catholics, as also the Reformed; who for that reason go to the Father, that He will have mercy for the Son’s sake and rarely to the Lord Himself: on account of which belief and prayer, they continually retain the idea concerning the Lord, that He is a man like any other.

99.[98] It was told me that there is a book among the Mohammedans which is common in their hands, in which some pages were written by correspondences, like the Word with us; from which pages there is some light in the heavens.

100.[100] There were with me many from Greece, who had dwelt in the world with the Mohammedans; complaining that then as well as now they inveighed against them because they worship three Gods; to whom they also replied, that they worship one God, and that the three are one: but they still persist that they are three which they worship, since they name three; and they ask which God of the three they worship the most: and when they reply that they worship all together, they then say that thus there is one God, and the rest are little gods; and that it is only said thus. But when they hear it said that they are equal, they withdraw, and set themselves against the Christians, as having little or no judgment in spiritual things. They complained that they do not give up the infestation, until they say that they are three names of the one God: then they acquiesce. They afterwards inquired respecting the three names of the one God. It was told them from heaven, that the Christians derived those names from the sense of the letter of the Word, where three names of the one God are mentioned: and by the Father is there meant the Creator of the universe; by the Son, the Savior of the human race; and by the Holy Spirit, enlightenment; and that these three are in the Lord alone; and that in Him the three are one; and that He teaches this in the Word. But on account of the class, who are not willing to regard the Lord’s Human as Divine, because they have claimed all His power to themselves, they were not willing to have it said that it is Divine power, and thus that they were gods on the earth; and when it was read to them out of Matthew and Luke, that He was conceived from God the Father, and thus the Divine was in Him, and He was from it; they said that they supposed He was the son of Joseph. And when it was said to them that He did not come into the world to reconcile the human race to the Father, but to conquer the devil, that is, to subjugate the hells, that He might reduce all things [on earth] and in the heavens to order, and might at the same time glorify His Human, or might reunite it to the Divine, which was the soul itself in Him from conception; and that thus and no otherwise could the human race be saved. On hearing these things they were silent, and many acquiesced.

59-1 [MARGINAL NOTE.] There are Quaker spirits who, from their worship by Quakers in the world, believe themselves to be the holy spirit, and to have been from eternity but in process of time they come among the profane who are called stercoracenus and cadaverous spirits, abominable excrement.

60-1 The M.S. has, mucus narium; Tafel, mercurius vivus. See SE 3811, 3812, where mucus narium occurs.

60-2 The M.S. has a marginal note which Tafel omits, namely, Sunt spiritus quaqueriani qui ex cultu a quaqueriis in mundo se credunt spiritum sanctum et ab aeterno fuisse, sed successu temporis veniunt inter prophanos, qui vocantur spiritu stercorei et cadaverosi, excrementum abominabile.

61-1 Clement XII, Pope A.D. 1730-1740.

101.[101] It was said to them that there are Mohammedans who receive the belief that the Lord is one with the Father, and that they have a heaven in which all things are happy; and that they live there from the Lord in spiritual marriage of good and truth.

102.[102] SOME THINGS CONCERNING THE PAPISTS. When the Last Judgment was going on, he who was Pope in the year 1738, and was then blind in his old age, dwelt on high near a city in the northern quarter; and I saw him then brought away, and carried sitting upon a litter, and sent into a secure place; and as everyone after death is first led to his own religion, and afterwards is led away from it, as far as he can be, they also, for that reason, seek for the Pope: on which account someone is always appointed, who takes on the name and the function of Pope. He was for a long time in that function after that time; but when he observed that he had no power at all of remitting sins, nor of opening heaven, and that this power was Divine, and thence the Lord’s alone, he therefore began to be averse to that doctrine, and afterwards to abhor it, and he abdicated that office, and betook himself among the Christians who worship the one Lord, and is with them in heaven. I have often spoken with him; and he called himself happy, that he had embraced those truths, and had removed himself away from that idolatrous religious persuasion. He said that he revolved in his mind similar things in the world, and acknowledged in heart that the Word was holy, and that the Lord was to be worshipped; but that he could not then recede, on account of causes which he also mentioned.

103.[103] But it happened otherwise with his successor, Benedict XIV. He declared openly that he had confirmed in his own mind, that since the Lord had transferred all power over the heavens to Peter, He had no power at all left, and no longer any holiness. I saw him speaking with Sextus V, who was called up from below, and after the conversation sank down again. I heard him speaking many things in regard to the Word with someone concerning the Bull Unigenitus, but this is not the place to make them public. He was cunning, and at first civil, and then very sharp-sighted: he loved the Jesuits more than others, and went down to them into their hell; nor have I as yet seen him come up therefrom: and scarcely is he to come up thence, because he said that he had confirmed and established the Bull Unigenitus, and because he said that the Sacred Scripture was not equal in his mind to the papal decree, but inferior to it. When it was shown him that the Word was holy in every word, and that they were perpetual correspondences, and that thence it was for the whole heaven, he made this of no account, saying that the papal decrees were of the same holiness. But then it was said, that there is in each thing which the Pope pronounces in the Consistory, something derived from the infernal love of ruling over heaven and earth, and of ascribing to himself the Divine power, and so of being worshipped as God; and that hell, and not heaven, is in such a decree. And it was shown from what spirits it is said, and who it is that then breathe into and move the breast; that they are infernal spirits, who are not willing to believe in salvation by the Holy Spirit, but he reasoned against those things.

104.[104] Louis XIV, king of France, is at this day among the happy. He was made by the Lord the governor over the best society of the French nation, over those who are arriving in the spiritual world from the world. He acts uprightly and justly, and is diligent in looking out for things useful to his subjects there. He acknowledges the Lord, and that He has power over the heavens and the earth. He reads the Word, and shuns cunning and craftiness. He said that he was such in the world. Once when I was speaking with him, he suddenly descended seemingly as if by steps, to a place below me a little in front; and it was perceived that then in vision he was as if he was at Versailles. And it was then perceived that he had come as if into a kind of sleep; and it immediately became silent around him, and also with me; which lasted two hours. Afterwards he ascended, and spoke to those who stood around him, saying that he had spoken with the king of France, his grandson, who reigns at this day; and that he exhorted him to desist from confirming the Bull Unigenitus; and he said that otherwise misfortune would come upon him. He said that he did not know whether he perceived that in clear vision, or obscure vision, which are in the thought with some emotion of the mind. This took place Dec. 13, 1759, about seven or eight o’clock.

105.[105] After the Last Judgment, the Babylonians were for a long time gathered together upon mountains in the west as before. The reason is, that a spirit after death can go nowhere else than the place where his life is. They were thus there upon mountains, where a part made to themselves as it were new heavens. But as soon as it was calculated that there were about two hundred there, they were cast down into the hells, as before; and this was done until all things were reduced into such order; and no one after death can go anywhere but into his own hell; nor can a part remain upon the earth there; and this is done when those places are taken possession of by societies, where they are in the acknowledgment and adoration of the Lord. [106] The southern quarter, where the richest were, and where the great city of the Jesuits is, which quarter was altogether overturned, as may be seen from the description of the Last Judgment, is still a desert land; and I saw the monks there sometimes, who, as they had heard that treasures were hidden away there, still flocked thither for the purpose of exploring; but in vain.

106.[107] Nor do they still desist from sending out their emissaries into the Reformed Christian world, for the purpose of seducing as in the world. They are monks, who thirst solely for gain and who aspire to supreme, yea Divine, power and who are so barren that they know nothing at all of Divine truth; but yet they prevail over others by cunning; nevertheless they are investigated, and those who have been investigated are miserably punished.

107.[108] It was shown me to the life, why Babel or Babylon was called Lucifer, son of the dawn, Isa. 14 and Gen. [11:1-9]. That by Lucifer there Babel is meant, is manifest from what precedes and follows there, concerning which the things there may be quoted. And that Babel in the beginning adored the Lord, and observed the commandments more than others, bearing domination in the mind; but that in process of time domination becomes the head, and at length endeavors to drag the Lord Himself from His throne, and to place itself thereon.

108.[109] The women and virgins who have lived in convents, and have thought lascivious things, and still more those who have done lascivious things, are cast into hells where there are direful things. But they who have cultivated piety alone, and have not done any work, are divided among the adherents of their own religion, to act as servants, learning that bare piety in idleness does not conduce to salvation. But they who were diligent and loved to work, are allotted places among those women in the churches, with whom it is well. They who have been diligent in the convents, by serving others there in various ways, as to food, clothing, and other functions there, and who did these things from charity and affection, are conducted away beyond that mountain into the confines between the south and west, and form a society, which is protected from infestations from the men, and they are sent to those who teach the truths of faith; for they are more teachable than others.

109.[110] There was a vast multitude of Papists dwelling to the east, occupying all those mountains, even from the eastern quarter to the southern, who introduced themselves to the Gentiles upon the mountains and plains there. All that multitude was transferred by a direct way to the west, where a settlement was given them upon hills and plains for a great extent. They were those who had lived in goods, although not in truths, who had performed good works according to their religion, and were of that genius that they would not injure others, nor plot evils. That they desired truths is manifest from the fact that while they were on the way they appeared as if they were borrowing silver and garments, as the sons of Israel did from the Egyptians; by which was signified that they desired truths, and were receiving them from them; from those who do not do anything good.

110.[111] The vast multitude was explored as to the quality of its affection of truth from good, and at the same time whether they had lived in the good of charity. That exploration was seen as a sudden and instantaneous transference to various quarters. They who were in the middle remained there; because they were in the affection of truth, and wished to be imbued with the truths of faith. The rest were sent back, that they might first be instructed below by their own people, who had been upright monks, and at the same time had been in some doctrine of truth from the Word; and they were afterwards transferred to those of the Reformed, who, on account of a life according to the truths of the Word, were angelic spirits.

111.[112] I also saw a vast multitude of the Catholic nation, who had been hidden away and reserved by the Lord for a long time, and were reserved from the idolatrous contagion of the others; because they had lived well, and had acknowledged the Lord: and some were transferred to the south, some to the east, some to the west, and some to the north, that they might form some heavenly society, and be further instructed. For this end angels were sent to them, not only to instruct them, but also to guard them from the cunning and deceitful of their own nation, and from the influx out of their hells. In a word, many and great societies were instituted out of Catholics, and partly inserted into societies where the Word is read freely and the Lord is adored. If, after being instructed, they have received the truths of faith in the good of love, they are elevated thence into heaven. It is not their fault that they were born there. All their infants are in heaven: but these are ignorant of the falsities of their parents, not knowing that they are such; and they are educated under the Lord’s auspices by the angels.

112.[113] The most malicious of the Roman Catholics become the most stupid, for the reason that when malice penetrates all the interiors of the mind, and destroys all spiritual truth, they then first become insane, and afterwards stupid, and are sent under the earth between the west and the north. When anyone passes to that place, great stupor occupies his thought, and torpor his body. Many of them were worshippers of the devil, and had books where the doctrine of the worship of them was contained. One or two of their books were taken from them and read before others. The doctrinal teaching was this: that they petition God the Father to excuse them for betaking themselves to the devil; because they petitioned for help from God the Father, and had not obtained it, knowing that they get help from the devil; on which account they betake themselves to him, calling him their patron. Another book was opened, written with various characters and flexures, and being deciphered, taught that they had nothing from the Divine, but all from the devil. Being asked the reason they said, that they had not obtained from God by prayers their request that they might rule as in the world, over the souls of men and over the goods of that earth. It was told them that no one obtains this by prayers. Being detected, at first they became insane, and were cast down from the mountain on which they were, from the southern side of the mountain, into a direful hell where the worshippers of the devil are; and their houses collapsed together into heaps. One of them ran to me, and he was dusky like a devil.

113.[114] Those of them who are upright by nature, cannot dwell together with those who have attained spiritual uprightness from the affection of truth; for those who are upright from any natural uprightness are easily seduced. They believe all things, even things of cunning, and adore idols; on which account also they are among those who serve others as handmaids and servants; by whom they are guarded, lest they should be approached by the monks.