The FIRST MEMORABLE OCCURRENCE was: I once heard there the sound as of a mill. It was in a northern region thereof. At first I wondered what this might be, but I remembered that by a 'mill' and 'to grind' in the Word is understood to seek out of the Word what is serviceable for doctrine (n. 794). I therefore approached the place where the sound was heard, and when I was near the sound died away. Then I observed upon the ground a sort of domed grotto, access to which was open through a cave. On seeing this I went down and entered, and lo! there was a room in which I saw an old man sitting among books, holding the Word in front of him and seeking therefrom what was serviceable for his doctrine. Lying around were slips of paper on which he wrote the things serving his purpose. In an adjoining room were scribes, who were collecting the slips and transmitting [what was written on them] to a complete sheet. I questioned him first about the books around him. He said that they all dealt with JUSTIFYING FAITH, those that came from Sweden and Denmark profoundly, those from Germany more profoundly, and those that were from Britain still more profoundly, while those from Holland dealt with it most profoundly of all. He added also that while they differed on various points they were all in agreement on the article concerning justification and salvation by faith alone. Afterwards he said to me that he was at that moment collecting out of the Word this first [tenet] of justifying faith, that God the Father had given up being gracious towards the human race on account of their iniquities, and that for the salvation of men it was therefore a Divine necessity that satisfaction, reconciliation, propitiation and mediation should be made by someone who should take upon himself the condemnation required by justice (damnationem justitiae), and that this could in no wise be done except by His Only Son; also that after this was done access to God the Father was opened for His sake. And he said, 'I see and have seen that this is according to all reason. How else could God the Father be approached but by faith in the merit of His Son? And I have just now found that this is also according to Scripture.'

[2] I heard this, and was astounded at his having declared it to be 'according to reason' and 'according to Scripture', when yet, as I plainly told him, it is contrary to reason and to Scripture. Whereupon in the growing heat of his zeal he retorted, 'How can you say so?' I therefore opened my mind, saying, 'Is it not contrary to reason to think that God the Father has given up being gracious towards the human race and has rejected it. Is not Divine Grace an attribute of the Divine Essence? Therefore to give up being gracious would be to give up His Divine Essence, and to give up His Divine Essence would be to be God no more. Is it possible for God to be alienated from His Very Self? Believe me, that grace on the part of God, just as it is infinite, is also eternal. The grace of God can be lost on the part of man if he does not receive it, but never on the part of God. If grace should depart from God it would be all up with the entire heaven and with the entire human race, insomuch that man would no longer be man as to any least thing of him. Therefore grace on the part of God endures to eternity, not only towards angels and men but also towards the Devil himself. Since this is according to reason, why do you say that the only access to God the Father is through faith in the merit of the Son, when yet there is perpetual access through grace?

[3] But why do you say access to God the Father for the sake of the Son? and why not to God the Father through the Son? Is not the Son the Mediator and Saviour? Why do you not go to the Mediator and Saviour Himself? Is He not God and Man? Who on earth goes directly to any emperor, king, or chief? Must there not be one to procure admission and introduce him? Do you not know that the Lord came into the world so that He Himself might introduce [men] to the Father, and that there is no possible access except through Him? Search the Scriptures now and you will see that this is in accordance therewith, and that your way to the Father is contrary to Scripture just as it is contrary to reason. I tell you further, that it is presumption to climb up to God the Father and not [come] through Him Who is in the bosom of the Father and Who Only is with Him. Have you not read John xiv 6?' Having heard these things the old man became so heated that he sprang out of his chair and shouted to his scribes to throw me out. And when I went out quickly of my own accord, he threw after me beyond the doors the book that happened to be at hand, and that book was the Word.

[4] The SECOND MEMORABLE OCCURRENCE was this: After I went out I again heard a grating sound, but like that of two millstones grinding together. I approached the sound and it died away, and I saw a narrow entrance leading obliquely downwards into a kind of grotto divided into little compartments, in each of which two [men] were sitting who were also collecting out of the Word confirmations in favour of faith. The one was collecting and the other writing, and this by turns. I approached one compartment and stood in the doorway and asked, 'What are you collecting and writing?' The answer was, '[Passages] concerning the ACT OF JUSTIFICATION or the FAITH IN ACT, which is faith itself justifying, quickening and saving, and the chief thing of doctrine in Christendom.' Whereupon I said to him, 'Tell me some sign of the act, when that faith is brought into the heart and the soul of a man.' He replied, 'The sign of the act is instantaneous, when the man, moved with distress that he has been condemned, thinks of Christ, that He has taken away the condemnation of the law, and with confidence lays hold of this merit of His, and with this in his thought goes to God the Father and prays.

[5] I then said, 'Suppose it to be so, and that the act is instantaneous.' And I asked, 'How shall I comprehend what is said of this act, that nothing more of the man contributes to it than would do so if he were a stock or a stone, and that the man as to that act is not able to begin, will, understand, think, operate, co-operate, or apply and accommodate himself at all? Tell me, how does this agree with your having said that the act takes place precisely when the man is thinking of the justness of the law, of his condemnation having been removed by Christ, of the confidence by virtue of which he lays hold of that merit of His, and when in thinking of this he goes to God the Father and prays, and all those things are done by the man as of himself.' But he said, 'They are not done actively by the man, but passively.'

[6] And I replied, 'How can anyone think, have confidence, or pray, passively? Take away from a man what is active or reactive, do you not then take away what is receptive, and thus everything, and with everything the act itself? What does your act then become but something purely ideal, which may be called an entity of the reasoning faculty. I know that you do not suppose along with certain people that such an act is allowed to happen only with the predestined, who know nothing whatever of the infusion of faith with themselves. They might as well play at dice to find out whether it is so. Therefore, my friend, believe that in matters of faith a man operates and co-operates as of himself, and that in the absence of that co-operation the act of faith, which you call the chief thing of doctrine and religion, is nothing but a statue of Lot's wife, tinkling like dry salt when scratched with a scribe's pen or his finger-nail (Luke xvii 32). I have said this because as to that act you are making your own selves like statues.' When I said this he got up and grabbed hold of a candlestick to throw it in my face, but then, the candle having suddenly gone out leaving thick darkness, he threw it against his companion's forehead and I went away laughing.

[7] This was the THIRD MEMORABLE OCCURRENCE. In a northern region of the spiritual world I heard as it were the roar of waters. So I went over there, and when I was getting near, the roar ceased, and I heard sounds like those of a large gathering of people. And at that moment a house with holes in it and a walled enclosure round it was seen. It was from this house that the sounds were heard. I approached, and there was a doorkeeper, whom I questioned about the people there. He said that they were the wisest of the wise who come to conclusions among themselves on supernatural subjects. He spoke in this manner out of the simplicity of his faith. I said, 'Is it permitted to go in?' He said that it was, 'only you must not speak. I can let you in, because as a favour I am letting the Gentiles in who are standing with me at the door'. And so I entered, and lo! there was a circular arena with a raised platform in the middle, and an assembly of the so-called wise were discussing the mysteries of faith. The theme or proposition then the subject of discussion was, 'Whether the good that a man does in THE STATE OF JUSTIFICATION OF FAITH, or in its progress after the act, is the good of religion or not?' They were unanimous in stating that by the good of religion is understood the good that contributes to salvation.

[8] The discussion was eager; but those prevailed who said that the good things that a man does in the state or progression of faith are only moral, civil and political, which contribute nothing to salvation, but that faith is the only means. And they confirmed it thus: 'How can any work of a man be conjoined with free grace? Is not salvation of free grace? How can any good of a man be conjoined with the merit of Christ? Is not salvation by it alone? And how can a man's operation be conjoined with the operation of the Holy Spirit? Does it not effect all things without the help of the man? Are not these three things alone saving in the act of faith? And do these three not also remain as alone saving in the state or progress of faith? And therefore accessory good from a man cannot possibly be called the good of religion, which, as was said, contributes to salvation; but if anyone does this for the sake of salvation it should rather be called the evil of religion.'

[9] The two Gentiles who were standing in the entrance near the door-keeper heard these things, and one said to the other, 'These people have not any religion. Who does not see that to do good to the neighbour for the sake of God, thus with God and from God, is what is called religion.' And the other said, 'Their faith has infatuated them.' Whereupon they asked the door-keeper, 'Who are these people?' The door-keeper said, 'They are wise Christians.' 'Nonsense, you are deceiving us,' they replied; 'by the way they are talking they are play-actors.' And I went away. And when after a time I looked at the place where that house had been, behold! it was a swamp.

[10] These things that I saw and heard I did see and hear in a wide-awake condition of my body and spirit at the same time, for the Lord has so united the spirit to my body that I am in both at the same time. The fact that I came to those abodes, and that they deliberated then about those subjects, and that it took place just as it is described, was of the Divine Auspices of the Lord.