5396. When the visitation of the Germans, Swedes and Danes occurred, those were first cast out to whom religion was not a matter of very much concern, thus, those who thought about civil and worldly matters and but little about religion save that it exists - not even that it ought to exist. Their perception respecting it was also deadened, as if it were not a matter of very much moment. They said that they did not know the difference between living civilly and morally well, and living well in a Christian way; and that it is just the same thing whether they refrain from evil in the state merely because they would be punished by the laws thereof, or whether they shun evil out of regard to religion, thinking about the precepts of the Church derived from the Word; when, yet, the difference is so great, that they who do well only on account of civil laws, still have no conscience, nor, consequently, influx from heaven. But these were merely external men; and, when the externals of such ones are removed, as happens in the other life, they rush into every crime, into which they are led by the hells, according to their cupidities, without restraint, since they are not inwardly ruled by the Lord; and, in the other life, they are in dense darkness as regards all things which belong to intelligence, and in torpor and listlessness concerning everything that pertains to the life there: in a word, the whole of their life is open outwards, or downwards, and not inwards, or upwards. This is the difference between doing well from religion, and doing well from a civil standpoint, out of regard to the laws and fear for their reputation, profit, or honor.
5396a. There appeared a multitude of so-called Protestants, upon quite a high mountain and also around the mountain, who have been, in the world, of such a temper, that they esteemed themselves better Christians and worshippers of God than other men. They believed this because, they say, they have performed the work of repentance, and have done so as often as they attended the Holy Supper; and that they have also prayed on their knees, at other times, that their sins might be forgiven: this they have called repentance; while, yet, they neither examined themselves, nor knew, nor cared to know what their sins were; only that they believed they were born in sins. Wherefore, when they returned from the Holy Supper and from their prayers, they led a life not at all different from their previous one. They supposed that not to act contrary to the civil laws from fear of punishments, nor contrary to moral laws from fear of the loss of reputation, profit and honor, was to live Christianly.
5396b. Evils of thought and will they did not suppose were sins; when, yet, these are the sins that condemn. To do well outwardly, when such things are within, is hypocrisy, and, in relation to God and the neighbor, fraud and deceit. Such was the quality of their repentance and fear of God; for, when externals are removed, no bonds of conscience, which are of the thought and will, bridle or restrain them from rushing into evils and falses of every kind, without any mercy. Such are those who do not think from religion, and will, and thus act, from it; and, inasmuch as they had the intention of injuring the righteous whom the Lord defended (which also they knew), they were told that they do not fear any God. This they denied, though they said that they were, indeed, aware that the Lord defends the righteous, but, still, they do not regard the Lord otherwise than as a man, and have never thought otherwise about Him.
5396c. But they were asked whether they do not know that the Divine is also in the Lord, and that the Divine is the same as God the Father; also, that His Divine and Human act as one; also, that one is never contrary to the other; also, that the oneness is like that of soul and body in man - as, moreover, the Creed received in universal Christendom teaches; and likewise that no one cometh to God the Father except by the Lord; as well as that He is The Way - whence it follows, that he who acts against the Lord acts against God the Father; and that those all acknowledge no God, but are atheists, who deliberately, or knowingly, thus disparage the lord. They confessed that, from doctrine, they know such things, but that they never think so, but think no differently about the Lord than about a man just like other men. Inasmuch as these persons were of such a character, that mountain sank down to a level surface, and those who were worse than the rest were kept there on a certain summit, and cast into a hell in the neighborhood of the north.
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