363. Who the Water Carriers are [cf. Deut. 29:11, Josh. 9:21,23,27]

Those who think from the Word, but not from a belief grounded in truth, that they deserve heaven because they labor in the vineyard, or preach, and also teach, and therefore think that they merit salvation, are purged in the other life by means of appropriate fantasies, but especially by this, that they seem to themselves to be carrying water from lakes or from a sea surrounding them and pouring this water into a trough, to give a flock to drink. When the trough is filled up, they rest, until they again draw and the trough is filled again to overflowing.

A flock did, in fact, appear to come to drink, but whether the flock appears to them, I cannot yet affirm. 1747, 18 December.