n go from one affection to another and
sometimes to the opposite, and thus from one center into another; the
affection in which he is at the time makes the center, for he is then in
the enjoyment and light of it.

[3] Some who are raised after death into heaven by the Lord, for they
have lived well, have carried with them, however, the belief that they
are clean and rid of sins, therefore are not in a state of guilt. In
accord with their belief they are clothed at first in white garments, for
white garments signify a state purified from evils. But after a time they
begin to think, as they did in the world, that they are washed, as it
were, from all evil, and to glory that they are no longer sinners like
other men. This can hardly be kept from being an elation of mind and a
contempt of others in comparison with oneself. In order, therefore, that
they may be delivered from their imaginary belief, they are sent down
from heaven and let back into the evils which they pursued in the world;
they are also shown that they are in hereditary evils of which they had
not known. When they have been led in this way to realize that their
evils have not been separated from them but only put aside, thus that in
themselves they are impure, indeed nothing but evil, and that they are
withheld from evils and held in goods by the Lord, and that this only
seems to be their doing, they are raised again into heaven by the Lord.

[4] Second: _It is an error of the age to believe that the state of man's
life can be changed in a moment, so that from wicked he can become good,
and consequently can be led from hell and transported at once to heaven,
and this by the Lord's direct mercy._ Those who separate charity and
faith and place salvation in faith alone, commit this error. For they
suppose that merely to think and speak formulas of that faith, if it is
done with trust and confidence, justifies and saves one. Many think it is
done instantly, too, and if not previously, can be done in the last hour
of one's life. These are bound to believe that the state of man's life
can be changed in a moment and that he can be saved by direct mercy. But
in the last chapter of this treatise it will be seen that the Lord's
mercy is mediated, that man cannot become good in a moment from being
wicked, and can be led from hell and transported to heaven only by the
continual activity of divine providence from infancy to the very close of
life. Here it need only be sa