168. [168.] 34. The dragon's battle with Michael afterward was as follows, for it lasted several days. A hand appeared stretched out by the Lord over the heavens. In the western zone toward the north was seen as though the great back of a dragon, raised toward the heaven above the central area. A great number of angels therefore appeared. Followers of the dragon were at the entrance there, and the angels spoke with them about the Lord and about the goods of charity and so of faith. All then turned in their direction to hear what they were saying, and followers of the dragon were forced into thinking about the Lord and about faith alone as they had in the world, most of whom then had no Divine idea of the Lord, nor any idea of charity and works. The angels debated with them wisely on the subject, but in vain - even going on to say that all the angels in the heavens feel the same way, but still in vain. And finally after the battle, when the followers of the dragon wished to reply further, but only off the subject or apart from the truth, and could not, they were sentenced to be cast down from every place where their kind existed. When they said, however, that they would resist, the Lord was seen descending from the sun as though in a white cloud, and He pronounced the judgment that all found to be of such a character be separated and banished; and they were cast down then successively and by turns according to their connection with societies of heaven, a great number of them toward the western zone - thousands of them then appearing as one. I felt within me a severe collision of truth and falsity, which was a state of temptation or trial.
The whole western zone was full of such people who had been cast down from the heavens, and the earth then seemed to open, and they were cast down and covered by a mist. They were all the kind of people who never refrained from thinking and willing evil - only from doing evil because of one fear or another. This took place on April 11, 1757.
Followers of the dragon appeared from the southern zone to the western one along a curved line in the outline of a tail. Those to the south there were ones who were experts in their degrees of justification and had affirmed these in themselves.
