ch on our Earth from the mouth of the Lord Himself
before He ascended into heaven; for He then said, "_All power is given
unto Me in heaven and on earth_" [(Matt, xxviii. 18)].

[Footnote yy: From the Creed of Athanasius.]

[Footnote zz: Immediately after death, man rises again as to his
spirit; and he is in the human form, and he is a man as to all things
in general and particular, nos. 4527, 5006, 5078, 8939, 8991, 10594,
10597, 10758. Man rises again only as to the spirit, and not as to
the body, nos. 10593, 10594. The Lord alone rose again as to the body
also, nos. 1729, 2083, 5078, 10825.]

160. I afterwards conversed with those spirits concerning their earth;
for all spirits can do this when their natural or external memory is
opened by the Lord; for this they carry with them from the world, but
it is not opened except at the Lord's good pleasure. Respecting their
earth, from which they had come, the spirits then said that when leave
is given them, they appear to the inhabitants, and converse with
them, as men; and that this is effected by their being let into their
natural or external memory, and consequently into such a thought
as they had been in when they lived in the world; and that on such
occasions the inhabitants have their interior sight or the sight of
their spirit opened, by which they see the spirits. They added, that
the inhabitants know no otherwise than that they are men of their
earth, and only apperceive they are not when they are suddenly removed
from their sight, I told them that the same thing also happened on our
Earth in ancient times, as, for instance, to Abraham, Sarah, Lot, the
inhabitants of Sodom, Manoah and his wife, Joshua, Mary, Elizabeth,
and the prophets generally; and that the Lord appeared in like manner,
and they who saw Him knew no otherwise than that He was a man of the
earth, till He revealed Himself. But that at the present day this
rarely happens; the reason is, lest men by such things should be
compelled to believe; for compelled faith, such as is the faith
which enters by means of miracles, does not inhere, and would also be
hurtful to those with whom faith may be implanted by means of the Word
in a state without compulsion.

161. The spirit, who had been a prelate and a preacher in the world,
entirely disbelieved that any other earths existed besides our own,
because he had thought in the world that the Lord was born on this
Earth alone, and that without the Lord none