417. CONCERNING THE CHANGE MADE IN HEAVEN There were those who occupied the highest place in heaven from their having believed, when on earth, that they were supreme, and that all except them were as nothing. That place was occupied by certain ones of whom it is not allowable to make mention, nor is it allowable to publish the cause. They are likened to stars, for they appear to themselves as suns, and the souls who flow thither from the world adore them: and because they had adored them in the life [of the body] they are first introduced to them, in order that they may afterwards be taken away from there. Yesterday, unless I am mistaken, one of those great stars was cast down from that highest place, and with him whom they had adored as an idol there was then remaining a crowd of about 500 to 600, as was said. But this crowd, staying today with their prince in their sphere began, as they had continually done before, to make disturbances, but now greater ones. Therefore, after their prince had been again instructed and admonished, and nevertheless was unwilling to desist from his inverted opinion of faith, he was therefore rejected, and for about a minute or two he suffered infernal torments in which he cried out in misery. Presently, when he had been delivered from these torments, a voice came to him from heaven, saying that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Thus he then began to think and acknowledge something, but because the torments had first driven him, his confession cannot as yet be accepted, because it is not as yet from faith. 1747, Dec. 29.