114. To the above shall be added two memorable experiences taken from THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED. The first is as follows. 1
I was once suddenly seized with an almost deadly disease. My whole head was oppressed, for a pestilential smoke had been let in from the great city which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, Revelation 11:8. Half-dead with severe anguish, I expected the end. I lay like this in bed for three and a half days, so greatly was my spirit affected, and from this my body. Then I heard around me the voices of people saying, "Lo he who preached repentance for the remission of sins, and the man Christ alone, lies dead in the street of our city." And they asked several of the clergy whether he was worthy of burial, as was said of the two witnesses slain in that city. Revelation 11:8-10. And they answered, "No, let him lie for a spectacle." And they passed to and fro, and mocked. All this truly happened to me when this chapter of the Revelation was being explained. Then grievous sayings were heard from them, especially these: "How can repentance be performed without faith? And how can Christ, a man, be adored as God? Whilst we are freely saved without any merit of our own, what need is there of anything apart from faith alone; the faith that God the Father sent the Son to take away the damnation of the law, so that He might impute His merit to us, and so justify us in His sight, and absolve us from our sins, and then give the Holy Spirit to operate every good work in us? Are not these things agreeable to Scripture and to reason?" The crowd standing by applauded these speeches.
[2] I heard all this, but could not reply, because I lay almost dead. But, after three and a half days my spirit revived, and I went forth in the spirit from the street into the city, and again I said "Repent, and believe on Christ, and your sins will be remitted, and you will be saved; if you do not do this, you will perish. Did not the Lord Himself preach repentance for the remission of sins, and that men should believe on Him? Did He not command His disciples to preach the same? Does not a complete disregard as to how life should be lived follow from the dogma of your faith?" But they said, "What idle talk! Has not the Son made satisfaction? And has not the Father imputed this, and justified us who have believed this? As we are thus led by the spirit of grace, what sin is there, then, in us, and what power has death over us? Dost thou comprehend this gospel, thou preacher of sin and repentance?" But then a voice came forth from heaven saying, "What is the faith of the impenitent but a dead faith? The end is come, the end is come upon you that are secure and blameless in your own eyes, justified by your own faith, you who are devils." And suddenly a deep gulf opened in the middle of the city, spreading itself far and wide; and house fell upon house, and they were swallowed up. And presently water bubbled up from a large whirlpool and overflowed the waste.
[3] When they were thus overwhelmed, and to all appearance drowned, I desired to know their condition in the abyss, and I was told from heaven, "You shall see and hear." And immediately the waters wherein they seemed to be drowned disappeared before my eyes; for waters in the spiritual world are correspondences, and consequently appear to surround those who are in falsities. And then they appeared to me to be in a sandy bottom where there were large heaps of stones, among which they ran, lamenting that they were cast out of their great city. And they called out, crying, "Why has this happened to us? Are we not clean, pure, just and holy, through our faith?" Others exclaimed, " Are we not cleansed, purified, justified and sanctified, through our faith?" And others cried, "Are we not through our faith made such that we are reputed and seen to be clean, pure, just and holy in the sight of God the Father, and before the whole Trinity? And are we not declared to be such in the presence of the angels? Are we not reconciled, propitiated, expiated, and thereby absolved, washed and cleansed from sins? And has not the damnation of the Law been taken away by Christ? Why, then, are we cast down hither as damned? We have been told by a bold preacher of sin in our great city, Believe on Christ, and do the work of repentance.' Have we not believed on Christ whilst we believed on His merit? And did we not do the work of repentance when we confessed ourselves sinners? Why, then, has all this befallen us?"
[4] But then a voice from near-by said to them, "Do you know any single sin of which you are guilty? Have you ever examined yourselves? Have you in consequence thereof shunned any evil as a sin against God? Yet whoever does not shun evil remains in it. Is not sin the devil? Wherefore, you are those of whom the Lord said: Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not, whence ye are; depart from Me all ye workers of iniquity.Luke 13:26-27; Matthew 7:22-23. "Depart, therefore, everyone to his own place. You see the openings into the caverns; enter therein, and work shall be given each of you to do, and afterwards food in proportion to your work. If you do not obey, hunger will at length compel you to enter."
[5] Afterwards there came a voice from heaven to some on that territory who were outside that great city, and who are also described in Revelation 11:13, crying aloud, "Take heed to yourselves, take care lest you associate with people like them. Can you not understand that evils, which are called sins and iniquities, render man unclean and impure? How can man be cleansed and purified from them save by actual repentance and faith in the Lord God the Saviour? Actual repentance is to examine oneself, to know and acknowledge one's sins, to hold oneself guilty, to confess them before the Lord, to implore help and power to resist them, and thus to desist from them and lead a new life; and to do all this as of oneself. Practise this once or twice a year, when you approach the Holy Communion; and afterwards, when the sins whereof you accounted yourselves guilty recur, then say to yourselves, We will not entertain them because they are sins against God'; this is actual repentance.
[6] Who cannot understand that if a man does not examine himself and see his sins, he remains in them? For all evil is delightful to man from his birth. It is delightful to take revenge, to commit whoredom, to defraud, to blaspheme. And does not this delight blind you to the nature of these evils? Moreover, if perchance it is said that they are sins, do you not excuse them on account of that delight? Nay, do you not confirm them by false reasonings, and persuade yourselves that they are not sins? And so you remain in them, and commit them afterwards more than before; and this even till you do not know what sin is, or whether there is such a thing as sin. It is otherwise with everyone who actually practises repentance. He calls his evils, which he knows and acknowledges, sins; wherefore he begins to shun and detest them, and to feel their delights as undelightful. And in proportion as he does this he sees and loves what is good, and at length feels the delights of good, which are the delights of heaven. In a word, so far as anyone casts the devil behind him, so far he is adopted by the Lord, and taught and guided by Him, and withheld from evils and held in good. This is the way, and there is no other, from hell to heaven."
[7] It is remarkable that among the Reformed there is a certain deep-rooted opposition to, refusal of, and aversion for actual repentance, which is so great that they cannot force themselves to examine themselves and to see their sins, and to confess them before God. It is as if they are seized with horror whenever they consider doing this. I have enquired of very many of them in the spiritual world concerning actual repentance, and they have all said that it is beyond their power. When they heard that Papists do as much as this; that is, that they examine themselves and confess their sins openly in the presence of a monk, they were greatly astonished, and wondered also why the Reformed cannot do the same in private before God, when it is just as much enjoined on them before they approach the Holy Supper. Some of those who were there enquired into the reason for this, and they found that faith alone induced just such a state of impenitence and state of heart; and then it was given them to see that those Papists who approach and adore Christ, and do not adore, but only honour, the primates and priests of their Church, are saved.
[8] After this there was heard a sound like thunder, and a voice speaking from heaven, saying, "We are amazed. Say to the assemblage of the Reformed, 'Believe on Christ and do the work of repentance, and you will be saved.'" And I said so, and added, "Is not baptism a sacrament of repentance, and thereby an introduction into the Church? What else do the sponsors promise for the one who is to be baptized but that he will renounce the devil and his works? Is not the Holy Supper a sacrament of repentance, and thereby an introduction into heaven? Is it not declared to the communicants that they must certainly do the work of repentance before they come to the table? Is not the Decalogue, which teaches repentance, the doctrine of the whole Christian Church? Is it not said there, in the six precepts of the second table, Thou shalt not do this and that evil; and not said, Thou shalt do this and that good? Wherefore you may know that so far as anyone shuns evils, so far he loves good; and that before this he does not know what good or evil are."
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