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are provided with gates, to prevent their being seen from the neighbouring rocks and hills: this arises from their inherent prudence in concealing their designs, and not divulging their intentions; for in the spiritual world the designs and intentions are discovered by inspection. When any one enters their cities for the purpose of exploring their condition, at his departure he is led to the different gates of the streets, which are shut, and thus he is conducted backwards and forwards from one gate to another, till he is completely tired, and then he is let out: this is done that he may never be induced to return. Wives who affect authority over their husbands, dwell on one side of the city, and never meet their husbands but when they are invited, which is done with civility; and on these occasions the husbands lead them to houses, where the married pairs live without affecting any authority over each other, and there they shew them how elegant and neat the houses are, and how happily they live together, informing then at the same time, that this is the consequence of mutual and conjugal love those wives who are attentive to, and affected with these things, cease to assume any dominion over their husbands, and then they live together, and a habitation is allotted them nearer the middle of the city, and they are called angels; the reason is, because true conjugal love is a hea venly love, in which there is no dominion.

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OF THE ENGLISH IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 806. Man has two states of thought, external and internal: he is in the external state in the natural world, and in the internal state in the spiritual: these two states of thought form a one with the good, but not with the wicked. The nature and quality of man's internal state are seldom discoverable in the world, because he learns from infancy to be moral and rational, and loves to appear so: but in the spiritual world its quality is clearly discovered, for he is

then a spirit, and the spirit is the internal man. Now, as I have been permitted to be in the spiritual world, and there to behold the nature and quality of the internal man in people of different countries and kingdoms, it behoves me, from the importance of the subject, to communicate what hath been revealed to me.

807. With respect to the people of England, the better sort among them are in the centre of all Christians, in consequence of possessing an interior intellectual light: this though it is not apparent to any one in the natural world, in the spiritual world is very conspicuous: they derive this light from the liberty of speaking and writing, and thence of thinking; while others who do not enjoy such liberty, have that light presented in a confused manner because it wants an outlet. That light however is not active of itself, but is made so by others, especially by men of reputation and authority, shining with peculiar brightness as soon as such men declare their sentiments. It is on this account that the English in the spiritual world have governors set over them, and priests given them, of distinguished character and great talents, in whose opinions, in consequence of this their natural character, they acquiesce.

808. There is amongst them a similitude of disposition (animus), which leads them to an intimate connexion with friends of their own country, but seldom with others; they are kind in relieving each other's necessities, and love sincerity. They are lovers of their country, and zealous for its glory; and they regard foreigners, as a person looking through a telescope from the top of his palace regards those who dwell and wander about at a distance from the city. The political concerns of their country engage their attention and possess their hearts, sometimes to such a degree as to indispose their spirits for those studies of a sublimer sort, which lead to the acquisition of superior intelligence: these sublimer studies are indeed pursued eagerly by the

young people who are brought up in their public seminaries of education, but they pass away like meteors and other such phænomena; still however, their rationality is rendered quick and lively by their attention to political concerns, and sparkles with light, which they form into beautiful images, as a prism of crystal, turned toward the sun, presents the several colours of the rainbow, and tinges a plane surface presented to it with glowing hues.

809. There are two large cities like London, into which many of the English enter after death; I was permitted to see the more excellent of the two, and to walk through it. The middle of it answers to that part of London where the merchants meet, called the Exchange, and there the governors dwell; above that middle part is the east, below it is the west, on the right side is the south, and on the left side is the north. The eastern quarter is inhabited by those who have been particularly distinguished for leading the life of charity, and in that quarter there are magnificent palaces; the southern quarter is inhabited by such as have been distinguished for wisdom, and there many of the objects which surround them are full of brightness and splendor; the northern quarter is inhabited by those who have been particularly delighted with the liberty of speaking and writing; and in the western quarter are they who glory in the doctrine of justification by faith alone: in this quarter, on the right, lies the entrance into the city, as well as the way out of it, through which they who lead wicked lives are conducted out. The clergy who live in the western quarter, and teach the doctrine of justification by faith alone, dare not enter the city through the great streets, but only through bye-alleys, for no inhabitants are tolerated in the city, but such as are in the faith of charity. I have heard them complain of the preachers from the west, how they compose their discourses with such art and eloquence, and so intermix the strange doctrine of justification by faith, that their hearers

do not know whether good ought to be done or not; they preach faith as being intrinsic good, and separate this from the good of charity, which they call meritorious good, and consequently not acceptable to God. But when they who inhabit the eastern and southern quarters of the city hear such discourses, they go out of the temples, and the preachers are afterwards deprived of the priestly office.

810. I have been told several reasons why those preachers are deprived of the priestly office, the principal of which is, because they do not frame their discourses from the Word, and thus from the Spirit of God, but from their own rational light, and thus from their own spirit: they take a text indeed, as a prelude, from the Word, but this they only touch with their lips, and then leave as a thing without flavour; then they choose some more savoury subject from their own intelligence, which they masticate and turn over their tongues, as a rich dainty, and in this manner give instruction. I have been informed further, that in consequence of this practice, their discourses are as void of spirituality as the songs of nightingales; and that their metaphorical ornaments are like false hair, neatly curled and powdered, on a bald head; and that the mystic contents of their discourses upon justification by faith alone, may be compared with the quails brought up from the sea to the camp of the children of Israel, which proved fatal to many thousands of the people, Num. xi. but that the theological doctrine of charity and faith together, may be compared with the manna from heaven. I once heard some of these clergy conversing together about faith alone, and I saw a kind of image formed by them, which represented their solitary faith; it appeared in the light (lumen) of their eyes, which originated in phantasy, like a great giant; but when light (lux) from heaven was let in upon it, it then appeared, as to its upper parts, like a monster, and as to its lower parts like a serpent; at the sight of

which they drew back, and it was cast by the by-standers into a lake.

811. The other great city, also called London, is not in the middle part of the Christian region, but is separated from it towards the north; it is the receptacle after death of those who are inwardly wicked. In the middle of it there is an open communication with hell, into which the inhabitants sink down, and in their turns are swallowed up.

812. It is very perceivable from observations made on the English in the spiritual world, that there is a twofold theology taught amongst them, one grounded in their doctrine of faith, and the other in the doctrine of charity; the former is received by those who are initiated into the sacerdotal office, and the latter by many of the laity, particularly by the inhabitants of Scotland and its borders: with these the Solifidians are afraid to engage in dispute, because they combat with them both from the Word and from reason. This doctrine of charity is plainly insisted on in the exhortation read in church on the Sabbath day previous to every administration of the Lord's supper, in which it is openly declared, that if men are not in charity towards each other, and do not shun evils as sins, they cast themselves into eternal damnation, and that in this case, supposing them to come to the holy communion, the devil would enter into them as he did into Judas.

OF THE GERMANS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 813. It is well known, that the inhabitants of every kingdom which is divided into several provinces, are not of a similar genius, but that there is a particular difference between them answering to the general difference which distinguishes the inhabitants of the several climates of the globe; still, however, it is observable, that there is a common genius among those who are the subjects of one king,

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