[2] Having seen these things, I wanted to know what they were representing, because I knew that all the things that appear in the spiritual world are correspondences, and represent something spiritual flowing down out of heaven. Whereupon out of heaven [angels] were speaking with me and saying, 'You yourself are aware of what the harbour represents, also the vessels, and the boys and girls upon the cross-beams, but you do not know what the turtles represent.' And they said, 'The turtles represent those of the clergy there who entirely separate faith from charity and the good works thereof, affirming among themselves that plainly there is no conjunction, but that the Holy Spirit, by means of faith in God the Father for the sake of the Son's merit, enters in with a man and purifies his interiors even to the will of his proprium, of which they make as it were an oval plane. Also that when the operation of the Holy Spirit draws near to this plane it makes a detour around it on its left side and does not touch it at all; and thus that the interior or higher part of a man's nature is for God and the exterior or lower part is for the man, and that thus not a thing that the man does, neither good nor evil, appears before God. What is good does not appear because it is merit-seeking; nor what is evil because it is evil since if these should appear before God, the man would perish on both counts. This being so, a man is at liberty to will, think, speak and do whatever he pleases, provided he is careful before the world.'

[3] I asked whether they assert also that it is allowable to think of God as not being omnipresent and omniscient. [The angels] said out of heaven that 'they are at liberty in this respect also because, in the case of him who has once been purified and thus justified, God does not see anything of his thought and will, but that in the interior recess or higher region of the mind or nature he still retains the faith that he had acquired in the act thereof, and that that act can return when necessary without the man's being aware of it. These are the things that the small head represents, which they draw into the foreparts of the body and conceal, and also insert into the large head, when they are speaking with the laity. For they do not speak with them out of the small head but out of the large one, which appears in front as if provided with a human face, and they speak with them out of the Word, concerning love, charity and good works, the precepts of the Decalogue and repentance, quoting out of it almost all the passages the Word has on these subjects. But at the same time they insert the small head into the large one, and in consequence thereof they understand inwardly among themselves that all these things are not to be done for the sake of God, heaven and salvation, but only on behalf of public and private good. Because, however, they speak of these things out of the Word, especially concerning the Gospel, the operation of the Holy Spirit, and salvation, in a pleasing and elegant manner, they therefore appear before their hearers as handsome men wise beyond the rest in the whole wide world. This also is why you saw that dainties and things of value were given to them by the boys and girls sitting upon the cross-beams of the vessels.

[4] These therefore are they whom you have seen represented as turtles. In your world they are hardly recognised as different from others, except by this, that they suppose themselves to be wiser than others, and they laugh at others, especially at their colleagues whom they say are not wise like themselves, and whom they despise. They carry a little badge about with them on their clothing by which they mark their distinctness from them.'

[5] [The angel] speaking with me said, 'I shall not tell you what their opinion is on the other matters of faith, as on election, freedom of choice, Baptism, the Holy Supper; for these are such as they do not publish, but we in heaven know. But because they are such in the world, and after death no one is allowed to speak otherwise than he thinks, therefore, as they cannot then speak otherwise than out of their insane thoughts, they are reckoned as insane and cast out of the societies, and at length are sent down into the pit of the deep and become corporeal spirits looking like mummies; for they have put a hardness on the interiors of their minds because in the world also they have interposed a barrier. There is an infernal society of them bordering on the infernal society of the Machiavellians, and they enter from one to the other whenever they like and call each other comrades, but, because of the disagreement arising from the fact that with them there has been something religious concerning faith in act, but not with the Machiavellians, they depart.'

[6] Afterwards I saw them cast out of the societies, and gathered together to be cast down. A ship was seen flying in the air with seven sails, and on board were officers and sailors clothed in purple, having sumptuous wreaths upon their caps, calling out, 'See, we are in heaven, we are purple-robed doctors and are laurel-crowned above all because we are the chief wise ones out of all the clergy in Europe.' I wondered what this was, and it was told me that they were images of the pride and the mental thoughts that are called phantasies derived from those who had been seen before as turtles; and now they had been cast out of the societies as insane, and were gathered into a single group standing together in one place. Whereupon I was desirous of speaking with them, and I approached the place where they were standing. Having greeted them, I said, 'Is it you who have separated men's internals from their externals, and the operation of the Holy Spirit in faith from its co-operation with man as being outside of faith, and so have separated God from man? Have you not thus removed not only charity itself and its works from faith, as have many other clerical doctors, but also faith itself as to its manifestation by a man before God. I ask you, however, whether it is your wish that I speak with you concerning this matter from reason, or from Sacred Scripture?' They said, 'Speak first from reason.'

[7] And I spoke, saying, 'How can the internal and the external with a man be separated? Who does not see from common perception, or is not able to see, that all a man's interiors go on through and are continued into the exteriors and even into the outermosts, that they may produce their effects and work their works. Do not the internal things exist for the sake of the external, that they may terminate in them and continue in existence in them, and so have existence, scarcely otherwise than as a column does upon its own pedestal? You can see that if there were not a continuation and thus a conjunction, the outermost things would be dissolved and burst as bubbles in the air. Who can deny that the interior operations of God with a man are myriads of myriads, concerning which the man knows nothing? And what benefit would it be to know them, if only he may know the outermost things, in which with his own thought and will he is together with God?

[8] And this shall be illustrated by an example. Does a man know the interior operations of his speech, as how the lung draws in the air, and this fills the vesicles, the bronchia and the lobes; how it emits this air into the trachea and there turns it into sound; how that sound is modified in the glottis with the aid of the larynx; and how the tongue then articulates it, and the lips complete the articulation that it may become speech? All these interior operations, of which the man knows nothing, are they not for the sake of the outermost, that the man may be able to speak? Remove or separate one of these internal things from its continuity with the outermost things: would the man be able to speak any more than a stock?

[9] Take another example. The two hands are a man's ultimates. Are there not interior things that are continued thither? They are from the head through the neck, then by means of the breast, the shoulders, the arms and the forearms; and there are the innumerable muscular structures, the innumerable sets of motor fibres, the innumerable bundles of nerves and blood-vessels, and the many joints of the bones with the membranes and ligaments thereof. Does the man know anything of these, while yet his hands are being operated as a result of all of them? Suppose that those interior things should be deflected to the left in the region of the wrist and did not enter it, would not the hand be cut off from the forearm and decay like something dismembered and lifeless? Indeed, if you are willing to believe it, it would be as with the body if the man were beheaded. It would be entirely similar with a man's will and understanding if the Divine Operation should cease before reaching them and not inflow into them. These things are in accordance with reason.

[10] Now, if you are willing to hear, the same things are also in accordance with Sacred Scripture. Does not the Lord say:-

Abide in Me, and I in you. I am the Vine, and you are the branches; he that abides in Me, and Tin him, shall bear much fruit; for without Me you cannot do anything John xv 4, 5?

Are not the fruits the good works that the Lord does by means of the man, and that the man does as of himself? Does not the Lord also say:-

That He stands at the door and knocks, and that to him who opens He will enter in, and will sup with him, and he with Him Rev. iii 20?

Does not the Lord:-

Give the pounds and talents, that man may trade with them, and get gain, and that as he gains, He will give eternal life Matt. xxv 14-30; Luke xix 13-26?

Also:-

That He gives wages to each one in accordance with his labour so His vineyard Matt. xx 1-16?

These, however, are but a few passages. Pages can be filled from the Word concerning this, that a man should be fruitful of works like a tree, should do the commandments, should love God and the neighbour, and more. I know, however, that your self-intelligence is not able to have anything in common with the things that are from the Word, such as it is in itself, and that although you quote them, yet your ideas pervert them; also, that you cannot do otherwise because you remove everything of God from man as regards communication and consequent conjunction. What is left then but to remove also all things of worship?'

[11] Afterwards those [clergy] were seen by me in the light of heaven, which uncovers and makes manifest what each one is. Then they were seen, not as before in a ship in the air as if in heaven, nor robed in purple there and laurel-crowned; but in a sandy place, and in tattered garments, and their loins girded with as it were fishing-nets through which their nakedness was visible; and then they were sent down into the society that bordered on the Machiavellians, of which above. * The Original has 'Testudines, (Skillpadde)'. 'Skillpadde' is old Swedish for turtle or tortoise.