About the torment, and finally setting free of the unhappy

A dispute about mercy

This night when I awoke, many things were exhibited to me that are rather hard for me to describe. There appeared a kind of revolt by spirits, for I plainly saw that many who were in the last heaven were being thrust down, and many who were in captivity were rising up. But what was granted to me to see very clearly was that the unhappy ones who for a long time had been in harsh captivity were striving, many at a time, with those who were in freedom in the last heaven and who wanted in fact to deprive them of mercy, thus all hope of salvation. This dispute continued by day, until I awoke. They complained greatly, with much anxiety, and this over and over again, that the others wanted to take away mercy, and that then it would be over with them. For they had been undergoing severe punishment, so that they wanted nothing more than to lose their life completely. The only hope brought to them by God the Messiah was that they were able to think there was still mercy; and when the wicked ones having freedom wanted to take even this away, their anxiety was doubled, and they were falling into despair. As regards the strife itself, how they disputed about mercy, it is not an easy thing to describe, for the displays like these of spirits evade description. Therefore, when they had complained most bitterly about that injustice, that is, that their only comfort - that there would be mercy - was being taken away from them, finally the hope dawned upon them that they would not lose the mercy promised to them. I was even able to feel to a degree within myself an emotion of mercy, not as my own, but as belonging to the heavens, and thus to God the Messiah. Finally I saw these spirits who had been in such anxiety wonderfully liberated, by a kind of ascending, which likewise cannot well be described. Afterwards I spoke with them, and being very kind, they are now among the happy. 1747, in the night between 27 and 28 October (old calendar). At the time, I was shown on several occasions that they were almost deprived of mercy - it came very close - so that they were brought to the extreme of distress and [fear of] eternal death, before being liberated. But it was told to me that they had led an evil life.