421. 'And to him was given the key of the pit of the deep' signifies their hell open. By a 'key' is signified the power of opening and also the act of opening (n. 62, 174, 840); and by 'the deep' is signified the hell where those are who have confirmed justification and salvation by faith alone with themselves, all of whom belong to the Church of the Reformed. Here, however, it signifies those who in their own eyes and consequently [in the view] of many others appear as learned and well-informed, when yet before angels in heaven they appear destitute of understanding in respect of the things that are of heaven and the Church, since those who confirm that faith as far as the interior things thereof close the higher things of their understanding till at length they are no longer able to see any spiritual truth in light. This is because the confirmation of untruth is the denial of truth. Therefore, while they are hearing any spiritual truth that is a truth of the Word serviceable for doctrine and life to those who belong to the Church, they keep the mind on the untruths they have confirmed, and then they either veil over with untruths the truth they have heard, or reject it as a mere noise, or yawn at it and turn away. And this is done all the more in proportion as they are in the pride of their own erudition, for pride sticks untruths together so that at length they cohere like the congealed foam of the sea. On account of this the Word has been hidden from them as a book sealed with seven seals. [2] What else their qualities are, and what their hell is like, shall also be told, because it has been granted [me] to see it, to speak with those who are there, and also to see the locusts that came out therefrom.
* That pit, which is like the opening of a furnace, appears in the southern quarter, and the deep beneath extends a great way eastwards. They have a light therein, but if the light out of heaven is admitted thither it becomes dark, on account of which that pit has been closed up at the top. Hovels appear there, as it were of brickwork with gaps, and these have been divided up into several little rooms, and in each of them is a table whereon lie papers with some books. At his own table sits each one who in the world had confirmed justification and salvation by faith alone, making charity a purely natural moral act, and the works thereof only works of civil life whereby men can expect to gain rewards in the world. But if men should do those works for the sake of salvation, they condemn them, some with vehemence, because in them is a human reason and will. All who are in this deep were in the world learned and well-informed, and among them are some metaphysicians and schoolmen who are there esteemed above the rest. When it was granted me to speak with them I recognised some of them. [3] But actually their lot is this: When they are first admitted therein they sit down in the first little rooms, but as they confirm faith by excluding the works of charity they leave the first seats and enter little rooms nearer to the east, and so on successively until they reach the end, where those are who confirm these dogmas out of the Word. And because then they cannot but falsify the Word, their hovels vanish and they see themselves in a wilderness, and then what was described above (n. 153) happens to them. There is also a deep below that deep where those are who in like manner have confirmed justification and salvation by faith alone, but who by themselves in their spirit have denied God, and in their heart have laughed at the holy things of the Church. There they do nothing but quarrel, tear their garments to bits, clamber up on the tables, stamp their feet, and fight among themselves with abusive language; and because it is not permitted anyone there to do bodily harm, they menace with the mouth and fists. It is dirty and squalid there; but it does not treat of those conditions here. * This description, repeated with but slight alteration in BE 89, is printed with inverted commas in the Original.
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