49. The Dutch adhere more firmly than others to the principles of their religion, nor are they drawn away from them; and if they are convinced that one or another of them is not in agreement, still they do not admit it, but turn themselves back, and remain unmoved. Thus they remove themselves from an interior intuition of truth, for they keep their rational under obedience, in spiritual things. Because they are such, when they enter the spiritual world after death, they are prepared for receiving the spiritual of heaven, which is Divine truth, quite differently from others. They are not taught, because they do not receive; but what heaven is, is described to them, and afterwards it is granted them to ascend there, and to see it; and then whatever agrees with their genius is infused into them, which being done, they are sent down, and return to their companions with a full desire for heaven. If then they do not receive this truth, that God is One in Person and in essence, and that this God is the Lord, and that in Him is the Trinity; and also this truth, that faith and charity as matters of knowledge and discourse, are of no avail apart from the life of faith and charity, and that faith and charity are given by the Lord when evils are shunned as sins; if when they are taught these truths, they turn themselves away, and still think of God as existing in three Persons, and of religion, merely that there is such a thing, they are reduced to misery, and their trade is taken away, until they are brought to the greatest extremities. And they are then led to those who have abundance of everything, and a flourishing trade, and when there, the thought is insinuated into them from heaven, whence it is that they are such, and at the same time to reflect on the faith of these persons concerning the Lord, and upon their life, in that they shun evils as sins. In a little time they make inquiries, and perceive an agreement with their own thought and reflection; this is done repeatedly. At length, they think of themselves, that in order to be relieved from their miseries, they must believe and do the same. Then, as they receive that faith, and live that life of charity, opulence and enjoyment of life are given them. In this manner, those of them who have led anything of a life of charity in the world, are amended by themselves, and not by others, and are prepared for heaven. They afterwards became more constant than others, so that they may be called constancies; and they do not allow themselves to be led away by any reasoning, fallacy, or obscurity brought on by sophistries, or by any preposterous view from confirmations alone.