49. The Dutch are more firmly attached than other peoples to their religious principles, and are not to be moved from them. Even if it is proved to them that this or that point is inconsistent, still they do not accept this, but turn back and remain unmoved. So too they draw back from looking inwardly at truth, for they keep their powers of reasoning about spiritual matters under strict control. Being of this nature, on arrival in the spiritual world after death they are not prepared in the same way as others to receive the spirituality of heaven, which is Divine truth. They are not taught, because they are not receptive of teaching; but they are given a description of what heaven is like, and then they are permitted to go up into heaven to view it. Then whatever is in keeping with their character is imparted to them, so that when they are sent back down to their companions they are full of desire for heaven. [2] If then they do not accept this truth, that God is one in person and in essence, and that He is the Lord and that in Him is the Trinity, as well as this, that it is of no avail to know and talk about faith and charity, unless they are expressed in the life we lead, being given to us by the Lord when we shun evils as sins - if when they are taught such things they turn their backs on them, and continue to think of God as being three persons, and of religion as merely something that exists, they are reduced to poverty and their trade is taken away from them, until they realise they are reduced to extreme straits. Then they are taken to people who have affluent means and a flourishing trade, and there the idea is introduced into their minds from heaven of finding out what is the source of these peoples' prosperity. At the same time they are brought to reflect on what these people believe about the Lord, and how they live loathing evils as sins. Even so they do not sufficiently enquire and perceive how this agrees with their own thoughts and reflexions. These states alternate. Finally they think of their own accord that the way out of their poverty is to adopt similar beliefs and to behave in the same way. Then, depending on the extent to which they receive faith and lead a life of charity, they are given wealth and a pleasant life.

[3] In this manner those who have in the world lived a life containing some charity are corrected by themselves rather than by others, and prepared for heaven. Afterwards they become so much more resolute than others that they can be called models of constancy, nor do they allow themselves to be led astray by any reasoning, fallacy or blurring produced by sophistic arguments, or by mere proofs which result from looking at things the wrong way round.