eas of their thought. They also
pointed out the way by which they came, from which it was perceived
that they were of the spirits of our Earth. On being questioned then
as to the confusion caused in their ideas, they said it arose from
those spirits saying that they ought to believe in a Divine Being
distinguished into three persons, whom they nevertheless call one
God; and on examining the idea of their thoughts, it is exhibited as
a trine, not continuous hut discrete, with some as three persons
conversing with each other, and with some as two seated together, one
near the other, and a third listening to them and going from them;
and although they call each person God, and have a different idea
concerning each, they still say there is but one God. They complained
exceedingly, that they had thrown them into a confusion of ideas, by
thinking of three and speaking of one, when nevertheless one ought to
think as one speaks, and speak as one thinks. The spirit who in the
world had been a prelate and a preacher, and who was also with me,
was then examined as to the character of the idea he entertained
respecting one God and three persons: [and it was found that] he
represented to himself three gods, which, however, made one by
continuity. He, however, exhibited this Three in One as invisible
because it was Divine; and while he was exhibiting this, it was
perceived that he was then thinking only of the Father, and not of the
Lord, and that his idea concerning the invisible God was no other but
as of nature in its first principles, from which idea it resulted that
the inmost of nature was his Divine, so that he might easily be led
from this to acknowledge nature as God. It is to be borne in mind,
that the idea which any person entertains on any subject is, in
the other life, exhibited to the life, and through it every one is
examined as to the character of his thought and perception on matters
of faith; and that the idea of the thought concerning God is the chief
of all, for through it, if genuine, conjunction is effected with the
Divine, and consequently with heaven. They were afterwards questioned
concerning the nature of their idea respecting God. They replied that
they did not conceive of an invisible God, but of a God visible under
the Human Form; and that they knew this not only from an interior
perception, but also from the fact, that He has appeared to them as a
Man. They added that if, according to the idea of some str