to grow wise,
because wisdom is undelightful to them.

499. XVIII. BUT THEY USE THAT RATIONALITY WHILE THEY ARE IN EXTERNALS,
BUT ABUSE IT WHILE THEY ARE IN INTERNALS. They are in externals when
they converse abroad and in company, but in their internals when at home
or with themselves. If you wish, make the experiment; bring some person
of this character, as, for example, one of the order called Jesuits, and
cause him to speak in company, or to teach in a temple, concerning God,
the holy things of the church, and heaven and hell, and you will hear
him a more rational zealot than any other; perhaps also he will force
you to sighs and tears for your salvation; but take him into your house,
praise him excessively, call him the father of wisdom, and make yourself
his friend, until he opens his heart, and you will hear what he will
then preach concerning God, the holy things of the church, and heaven
and hell,--that they are mere fancies and delusions, and thus bonds
invented for souls, whereby great and small, rich and poor, may be
caught and bound, and kept under the yoke of their dominion. Let these
observations suffice for illustration of what is meant by natural men,
even to corporeal, enjoying the powers of human rationality like others,
and using it when they are in externals, but abusing it when in their
internals. The conclusion to be hence deduced is, that no one is to be
judged of from the wisdom of his conversation, but of his life in union
therewith.

* * * * *

500. To the above I will add the following MEMORABLE RELATION. On a
certain time in the spiritual world I heard a great tumult: there were
some thousands of people gathered together, who cried out, LET THEM BE
PUNISHED, LET THEM BE PUNISHED: I went nearer, and asked what the cry
meant? A person that was separate from the crowd, said to me, "They are
enraged against three priests, who go about and preach every where
against adulterers, saying, that adulterers have no acknowledgement of
God, and that heaven is closed to them and hell open; and that in hell
they are filthy devils, because they appear there at a distance like
swine wallowing in mire, and that the angels of heaven abominate them."
I inquired, "Where are the priests? and why is there such a vociferation
on that account?" He replied, "The three priests are in the midst of
them, guarded by attendants; and those who are gathered together are of
those who believe