Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 3466

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3466. I afterwards spoke with those of this stamp, and informed them that it was impossible for them to enter the sphere of angels, for they would be distressed like a fish when raised out of the water into the air. But as they were of a more subtle genius, they were above at a very considerable height in front, and flowed in with a kind of insensible subtlety. They were those who think such adulteries with married and unmarried women as are mentioned above, to be not only lawful, but holy; thus pretending for them a character of sanctity. To these I remarked, that it was as impossible for such vile adulterers to enter the angelic sphere as for a bird to live in the ether; and I represented a bird in [the empty receiver of] an air-pump; but they thought it was possible; whereupon they themselves were representatively carried upwards, as out of the atmosphere into the ether; and the preacher himself being made the subject of this process, it appeared as if with him the urinary bladder was so dilated as to occupy the whole man, with the exception perhaps of the head, so that he became, as it were, only a filthy bladder or vile utensil. Whether anything similar appeared to take place to those who were in the elevation above-mentioned, I do not recollect. At this time I saw what I have described; but it was perceived that they were fearfully tortured, for they were remitted into more subtle ideas, because they had made a pretence of holiness.


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