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A Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment · 8 of 12

The Popish Saints in the Spiritual World

61.VIII. THE POPISH SAINTS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. It is known that man has from his parents implanted or hereditary evil, but in what it consists is known to few. It consists in the love of ruling, which is such, that as far as the reins are given it, so far it bursts forth, until it even burns with the lust of ruling over all, and at length of wishing to be invoked and worshiped as God. This love is the serpent, which deceived Eve and Adam, for it said to the woman: God knows, that in the day ye eat of the fruit of the tree, your eyes shall be opened, and then ye shall be as God (Gen. 3:4, 5). As far therefore as man rushes with loosened reins into this love, so far he turns himself away from God, and turns towards himself, and becomes an atheist; and then the Divine truths which are of the Word, may serve as means, but because dominion is the end, the means are in the heart only as they serve him. This is the reason why those who are in the mediate and in the ultimate degree of the love of ruling, are all in hell, for that love is the devil there; and in hell there are some of such a nature, that they cannot bear to hear any one speaking of God.

62.Those of the Papal nation have this love who have had dominion from the frenzy of its delight, and have despised the Word, and preferred the dictates of the Pope to it. They are utterly devastated as to externals, until they no longer know anything of the church, and then they are cast down into hell and become devils. There is a certain separate hell for those who wish to be invoked as gods, where such is their fantasy, that they do not see what is, but what is not. Their delirium is such as affects persons in a malignant fever, who see things floating in the air and in the chamber, and on the covering of the bed, which do not exist. This worst of evils is meant by: The head of the serpent, which is bruised by the Seed of the woman, and which wounds His heel (Gen. 3:15). “The heel” of the Lord, who is “the Seed of the woman,” is the Divine proceeding in ultimates, which is the Word in the sense of the letter.

63.Because man from heredity is such, that he wishes to rule, and as the reins are loosened, successively over more, and at length over all, and because the wish to be invoked and worshiped as God, is the inmost of this love of ruling, therefore all who have been made saints by the Papal bulls, are removed from the sight of others and hidden, and are deprived of all interaction with their worshipers. This is done, lest that worst root of evils should be excited in them, and they should be hurried into such fantastic deliriums as prevail in the above mentioned hell. In such deliriums are those who, when they lived in the world, have eagerly sought to be made saints after death, for the purpose of being invoked.

64.Many of the Papal nation, especially the monks, when they come into the spiritual world, seek the saints, each the saint of his own order; yet they do not find them, and therefore they wonder. But afterwards they are instructed by others, that they are either intermingled with those who are in the heavens, or with those who are in the hells, every one according to his life in the world; and that in whichsoever they are, they know nothing of the worship and invocation of themselves; and that they who know it, and wished to be invoked, are in that separate and delirious hell. The worship of saints is such an abomination in heaven, that whenever they hear of it they are horrified, because as far as worship is paid to any man, in so far it is withheld from the Lord, for thus He alone cannot be worshiped; and if the Lord is not alone worshiped, a discrimination is made, which destroys communion, and the felicity of life which flows from it.

65.That I might know, for the sake of informing others, what kind of men the Popish saints are, as many as a hundred of them, who knew of their canonization, were brought up from the lower earth. The greater part ascended from behind, and only a few in front, and I spoke with one of them, who they said was Xavier. While he talked with me, he was quite foolish, yet he was able to tell me, that in his place, where he remains confined, he is not so; but that he becomes foolish as often as he thinks that he is a saint. I heard a like murmur from those who were behind.

66.It is otherwise with the so-called saints who are in heaven; they know nothing at all of what is doing upon earth, nor have I spoken with them, lest any idea of this should enter their minds. Only once Mary, the mother of the Lord, passed by, and appeared over head in white raiment, and then, stopping awhile, she said that she had been the mother of the Lord, and that He was indeed born of her, but that He became God, and put off all the human from her, and that therefore she now adores Him as her God, and is unwilling that any one should acknowledge Him as her Son, because in Him all is Divine.

67.I will here add this Relation. A certain woman in splendid raiment and with saint-like countenance, occasionally appears in a middle altitude, to the Parisians who are in a society in the spiritual world, and tells them she is Genevieve. But as soon as any of them begin to adore her, then instantly her countenance is changed, and her raiment too, and she becomes like an ordinary woman, and chides them for wishing to adore a woman, who, among her companions, is in no more repute than a maid servant; wondering that men in the world are caught by such trifles. The angels said that she appears for the purpose of separating those there who worship man from those who worship the Lord.