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hearing that man was thought to be in such a predicament as to all that belongs to faith and salvation, said, “I once heard a certain man say, 'I have planted a vineyard, now I will drink wine even to intoxication :' But another asked him, 'Wilt thou drink wine out of thine own cup, held in thine own hand?' 'No,' replied he, 'but out of an invisible cup, in an invisible hand:' the first added, 'Then certianly thou wilt not be intoxicated."" The same The same man said, "But hear me, I pray; I tell you, drink ye wine from the Word understood: do ye not know that the Lord is the Word? Is it not from the Lord, and so is He not in it? If therefore ye do good from the Word, do ye not do it from the Lord, from His own mouth and will? And if ye then look to the Lord He will also lead and teach you, and ye will do it of yourselves from Him. Who, that executes any commission by the special command of a king, delivered from his own mouth, can say, I do this of myself, from my own command, and from my own will?" After this he turned himself to the clergy and said, "Ye ministers of God, seduce not your flock." On hearing these things, the greater part of the flock on the left, retired from the goats, and adjoined itself to the flock on the right side. Then some of the clergy said, "We have heard what we were unacquainted with before; we are the shepherds of our sheep, and will not forsake them." And they retired along with them. They then said, "This man hath spoken a true word: who can eay, when doing a thing from the Word, and thus from the Lord, from His mouth and will, 'I do this of myself? Or who can say, when doing any thing from a king, from his mouth and will, 'I do this of myself?' Now we see the Divine Providence, why a conjunction of faith and charity hath not as yet been found, which could be acknowledged by the ecclesiastical body: it could not be found, from the same reason that it could not even exist, for there was no faith in the Lord, who is the

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Word, and from thence neither was there a faith from the Word." But the other priests, that were of the flock of goats, went away, waving their hats, and crying, "Faith alone, faith alone, shall endure for ever."

507. THE FIFTH MEMORABLE RELATION.

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I was once engaged in discourse with the angels, and our closing subject of conversation was the lust of evil, in which every man is born and one of them said, "In our world, they who are under the influence of lust, appear to us angels as ideots, but to themselves as supremely wise; wherefore in order to draw them out of their infatuation, they are alternately let into it, and into the rational principle, which with them hath its abode only in their externals; and in this state they see, acknowledge, and confess their insanity, but are still desirous to emerge again from their rational into their insane state, and do again cast themselves into it, as an escape from a state of compulsion and dissatisfaction into a state of freedom and delight; thus they are inwardly delighted with lust, and not with intelligence. There are three universal loves of which every man is composed by creation; the love of his neighbour, which is also a love of performing uses, and which is a spiritual love; the love of the world, which is also a love of possessing wealth, and which is a material love; and the love of self, which is also a love of exercising dominion over others, and which is a corporeal love. Man is truly man whilst the love of his neighbour, or the love of performing uses, constitutes the head, and the love of the world, or the love of possessing wealth, constitutes the breast and belly, and the love of self, or the love of dominion, constitutes the feet and soles of the feet; but if the love of the world constitutes the head, he then becomes like a man hunch-backed; but if the love of self constituteth the head, he becometh then like a man, not standing on his feet, but as it were on the palms of his hands, with his head downwards and his haunches upwards. When the love of performing uses constitutes the head, and

the two other loves constitute in order the body and feet, such a man appeareth in heaven of an angelic countenance, with a beautiful rainbow around his head; but in case the love of the world or of wealth constitutes the head, he then appears, when seen from heaven, of a pale countenance like a corpse, with a yellow circle about his head; but in case the love of self, or of exercising dominion over others, constitutes the head, he appears, when seen from heaven, of a dusky yet fiery countenance, with a white circle about his head." Hereupon I enquired, what was represented by circles about the head: They answered, "Intelligence: a white circle about the head, where the countenance is dusky and fiery, is a representative that the intelligence of such a person is in his externals or about him," but insanity in his internals, or within him: such a person also, when he is in the body, is wise, but when he is in the spirit is insane; and no man is wise in spirit but from the Lord, in proportion as he is born again, and created anew by Him." As they uttered these words, the ground opened to the left, and through the opening I saw a devil arising of a countenance dusky and fiery, with a white circle about his head and I asked, "Who art thou?". He said, "I am Lucifer, son of the morning; and because I made myself like unto the Highest, I was cast down, according to the description in Isaiah, chap. xiv." (Nevertheless he was not Lucifer but only fancied that he was.) And I said, "Since thou hast been cast down, how art thou able to rise again out of hell?" He replied, "There I am a devil, but here I am an angel of light: dost not thou observe my head encompassed with a white zone ? Thou shalt see too, if thou art desirous, that amongst the moral I am moral, amongst the rational I am rational, and amongst the spiritual I am spiritual: I could also preach on occasion." Then I asked, "How didst thou preach?" He answered, "Against cheats, adulterers, and all infernal loves; nay, at such times I have called my

self no longer Lucifer, but a devil, and have poured forth curses against self, for which I was commended and extolled to the skies: hence it is that I am called the son of the morning and what I bave often wondered at when I was in the pulpit, I thought no other but that I was speaking what was right and true; but the cause of this was discovered to me, for I was then in my externals, which were at the time separated from my internals: yet notwithstanding this discovery, I was still not able to change myself, for I have elevated myself above the Most High, and raised myself up against Him." Then I asked him, "How couldst thou speak in such a manner, when thou wast thyself a cheat and an adulterer ?" He replied, "Whilst I am in externals, or in the body, I am one person, but when I am in internals, or in the spirit, I am another in the body I am an angel, but in the spirit I am a devil: for in the body I am in understanding, but in the spirit I am in will, and understanding raiseth me upwards, but will carrieth me downwards; and whilst I am in understanding, a white belt encompasses my head, but when the understanding yields itself subject to the will, and is made its servant, which is our last state, then the belt blackens and disappears, after which I can no longer ascend into this light." As he uttered these words, on a sudden seeing the angels who attended me, his counte nance became enflamed, and his voice harsh, and he grew black, even as to the belt about his head, and fell down into hell through the opening by which he had risen up. On seeing and hearing what had passed, they who were present drew this conclusion, that man's nature and quality depend on the nature and quality of his will, and not of his understanding, for the will easily draws over the understanding to its party, and makes a slave of it. I then inquired of the angels, whence the devils derive rationality : and they said, "From the glory of the love of self; for this love is encompassed about with glory, being the splendour

of its fire, and this glory raiseth the understanding almost into the light of heaven: for the understanding in every one is capable of being elevated according to the knowledges possessed by him, but the will can only be elevated by a life in conformity to the truths of the church, and of reason; hence it is that even atheists themselves, who from the love of self are in the glory of reputation and distinction, and thence in the conceit of their own intelligence, enjoy a more sublime degree of rationality than many others; but then this is only the case, when the thinking-principle of the understanding is uppermost in them, and not when the love principle of the will is uppermost, and the love-principle of the will possesseth the internal man, but the thinking-principle of the understanding the external." The angels further explained the reason why man is compounded of three kinds of love, viz. the love of uses, the love of the world, and the love of self, saying, "It is in order that he may think from God, and yet altogether as of himself: for in the human mind the highest parts are turned upwards toward God, the middle parts outwards towards the world, and the lowest parts downwards towards the body; and in consequence of these being turned downwards, he thinks altogether as of himself, when nevertheless it is from God."

508. THE SIXTH MEMORABLE RELATION:

"On a certain day there appeared before me a magnifi"cent temple of a square form, whose roof was like a 66 crown, arched above, and elevated round about its walls

were continued windows of crystal, and its gate of a "pearly substance within on the south side, verging to"wards the west, was a pulpit, on which, towards the right, "lay the Word open, encompassed with a sphere of light, "whose brightness surrounded and illuminated the whole "pulpit in the midst of the temple was a sacred place "with a veil to cover it which at that time was removed,

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