93. 因為迦百列對瑪利亞說:"從你生出的聖者將被稱為上帝的兒子。"我現在就從聖言中列舉經句來說明, 以祂的人身顯現的主就是那所稱的"聖者":

我在異象觀看; 看, 一位守望者, 一位聖者, 從天而降(但以理書4:13, 23)。上帝從提幔而來, 聖者從巴蘭山臨到(哈巴穀書3:3)。我是耶和華聖者, 以色列的創造者, 你們的聖者(以賽亞書43:14-15)。以色列的救贖主, 他的聖者, 如此說(以賽亞書49:7)。我是耶和華你的上帝, 以色列的聖者, 你的救主(以賽亞書43:1, 3)。至於我們的救贖主, 萬軍之耶和華是祂的名, 以色列的聖者(以賽亞書47:4)。耶和華你的救贖主說, 以色列的聖者(以賽亞書43:14; 48:17)。萬軍之耶和華是祂的名, 你的救贖主是以色列的聖者(以賽亞書54:5)。他們試探上帝和以色列的聖者(詩篇78:41)。他們離棄耶和華, 藐視以色列的聖者(以賽亞書1:4)。他們說:"讓以色列的聖者離開我們的面"; 所以, 以色列的聖者如此說(以賽亞書30:11-12)。那些說:"讓趕快成就工作, 讓我們看看, 讓以色列聖者的目的臨近並出現"(以賽亞書5:19)。在那日, 他們必將依靠耶和華, 以色列的聖者, 真的(以賽亞書10:20)。揚聲歡樂吧, 錫安的居民, 因為在你們中間為大的是以色列的聖者(以賽亞書12:6)。以色列上帝的話:"在那日, 他的眼睛將必望向以色列的聖者"(以賽亞書17:6-7)。人中貧窮的必因以色列的聖者而快樂(以賽亞書29:19)。地充滿了違背以色列聖者的罪過(耶利米書51:5)。也可看以賽亞書55:5; 60:9 以及其它地方。

"以色列的聖者"表示在祂人身顯現的主, 因為天人對瑪利亞說:"從你生出的聖者將被稱為上帝的兒子"(路加福音1:35)。

儘管"耶和華"與"以色列的聖者"是分開提及, 但可明顯看出兩者是一,並且相同, 從以上列舉的經句中, 可證明以色列的聖者就是耶和華。

有許許多多的經句來說明主被稱為"以色列的上帝", 例如以賽亞書17:6; 21:10, 17; 24:15; 29:23;耶利米書7:3; 9:15; 11:3; 13:12; 16:9; 19:3, 15; 23:2; 24:5; 25:15, 27; 29:4, 8, 21, 25; 30:2; 31:23; 32:14-15, 36; 33:4; 34:2, 13; 35:13, 17-19; 37:7; 38:17; 39:16; 42:9, 15, 18; 43:10; 44:2, 7, 11, 25; 48:1; 50:18; 51:33;以西結書8:4; 9:3; 10:19-20; 11:22; 43:2; 44:2;撒迦利亞書2:9;詩篇41:13; 59:5; 68:8。

56. What the people from Babylon are like in the other life is something which can only be known to one who has been allowed by the Lord to mix with them in the spiritual world. Since this has been granted to me, I can speak from experience, having seen and heard them and talked with them. Each person has after death a life similar to that he had in the world. This can only be changed as regards the delights of his love, which are turned into corresponding forms; this can be seen in two chapters of HEAVEN AND HELL 470-484, 485-490.

The life led by the people now under discussion is likewise exactly as it was in the world, but with the difference that the secrets of their hearts are then disclosed. For they are then in the spirit, which is where the more inward levels, those of thoughts and intentions, reside; and these they kept hidden in the world, covering them over with an outward show of holiness.

[2] Since these then were revealed, one could perceive that more than half of them, those who had usurped the power of opening and closing heaven, are completely godless. But because their minds cling to the power they exercised in the world, and this is based upon the principle that the Lord had all power given to Him by the Father, and this was then handed on to Peter, and in due succession to the prelates of the church, they still keep alongside their ungodliness the practice of confessing the Lord with the lips. But this only lasts so long as they can keep some power by its means. The rest, however, who are not godless, are so vacuous that they know nothing whatever about people's spiritual life, the means of salvation, the Divine truths which point the way to heaven, nor anything about heavenly faith and love, believing that by the Pope's favour heaven can be granted to anyone, no matter what sort of person he is.

[3] Each person has the same sort of life in the spiritual world as he had in the natural world, with no difference so long as he is not in heaven or in hell; this may be seen in HEAVEN AND HELL 453-480. In external appearance the spiritual world is exactly like the natural world (170-176). As a result their moral and civil lives are similar, and in particular their worship is similar, since it is rooted and clings to the inmost levels of a person; and no one can be diverted from it after death, unless he has the good which comes from truths and the truths which come from good. It is, however, more difficult to divert the people under discussion than other peoples from their form of worship, because they lack the good which comes from truths, not to mention the truths which come from good. The truths they have do not come from the Word with few exceptions, and these they have falsified by employing them to establish their power. As a result they have no good either, except a spurious kind of good; for the nature of truths determines the nature of good. These remarks are intended to convey the idea that the worship this group practises in the spiritual world is exactly the same as it was in the natural world.

[4] After this introduction I should like to report something about their worship and their life in the spiritual world. They have a Council chamber to replace the Council chamber or Consistory in Rome, where their leaders meet to deliberate about various ecclesiastical matters, above all how to keep the common people subject to blind obedience, and how to enlarge their power over them. This Council chamber is situated in the southern quarter near the eastern border. But no one who had been Pope in the world, nor any who had been a cardinal, dares to enter it, because by claiming for themselves in the world the Lord's power they have implanted in their minds an image of Divine authority. So as soon as they present themselves there, they are taken away and cast out to join their peers in the desert. Those of them, however, who were of upright character and had not so convinced themselves of that belief as to usurp such power, are in a dimly-lit room behind the Council chamber.

[5] They have another meeting-place in the western quarter near the north, where their business is the admission of the credulous common people into heaven. There they arrange around them a number of communities devoted to various outward pleasures. In some they go in for gaming, in some for dancing, in some for all kinds of jokes and amusements to make people smile, in some for friendly conversation, in one place talking about politics, in another about religious affairs, in another about indecent subjects, and so on. They admit their clients to one of these communities in response to their desire, calling that heaven. But after a few hours spent there they all become bored and go away because these are merely outward, not inward pleasures. Many are also thus led away from believing their teaching about being admitted to heaven.

[6] In detail their worship is almost the same as in the world. It consists, as in the world, of masses, which are held not in the ordinary language used by spirits, but in a concoction of high-sounding phrases which strikes terror into them by its outward sanctity, but remains unintelligible. They adore saints in the same way and display their statues. But the Roman Catholic saints are themselves nowhere to be seen, for all of them whose ambition was to be worshipped as deities are in hell, and the rest who had no such ambition are among the spirits of the common people. Their dignitaries are aware of this, for they seek out the saints and find them, and therefore come to disparage them. But they conceal this from the people, so that the saints can go on being worshipped as guardian deities, and the prelates themselves, who are in charge of the people, as lords of heaven.

[7] As in the world they similarly build numbers of churches and monasteries. They similarly amass wealth, collecting heaps of precious objects and hiding them in cellars. The spiritual world has precious objects just as much as the natural world, but many more of them. Similarly there they send out monks to induce peoples to adopt their religion, and thus make them subject to their rule. It is a widespread practice to have look-out towers constructed in the middle of their group, so that they can watch all the surrounding areas. By various tricks and devices they get in touch with people both near and far, and bind them with treaties to get them on their side.

[8] That is their general condition. But in detail most of the prelates of that religion rob the Lord of all power and claim it for themselves; and because they do this, they do not acknowledge the Divine. In outward show they put on a counterfeit appearance of holiness, holiness which is essentially a profanity, because it contains no inward acknowledgment of the Divine. As a result their outward holiness allows them to make contact with some communities of the lowest heaven and their inward profanity to make contact with the hells, so that they are in both places at once. For this reason they attract simple good spirits, giving them dwellings close to their own, and groups of malicious spirits, whom they arrange around their own group. In this way they are linked through the simple good with heaven and through the malicious with hell. Thus they devise unspeakable crimes which they commit under guidance from hell. For the simple good in the lowest heavens do not see beyond their external holiness, and their most devout adoration of the Lord in outward show, and so they are favourably disposed to them because they fail to see their crimes. This is their best protection; but still they all in course of time drop their outward show of holiness, and are then cut off from heaven and cast into hell.

[9] This will give some idea of what the people from Babylon are like in the other life. I know people in the world will be surprised at such things happening there, since they have only a vague and vacuous idea of people's condition after death and of heaven and hell. But a person is just as much a person after death, he lives in society as in the world, dwells in houses, listens to sermons in churches, performs duties and sees sights in that world similar to those in the one he has just left. All this can be proved from the reports in HEAVEN AND HELL of things seen and heard.