they
perceived that they believed in no God, and that they had contracted
a habit of professing belief with the mouth when yet they do not
believe. (The spirits of Mercury have an exquisite perception, in
consequence of their continually exploring, by means of perception,
what others know.) The spirits of our Earth were of the number of
those who in the world had made profession of faith according to the
doctrine of the church, but still had not lived the life of faith;
and those who do not live the life of faith, in the other life have
no faith, because it is not in the man[r]. On hearing this they were
silent, because, by an apperception then given them, they acknowledged
that the case was so.

[Footnote r: They who make profession of faith from doctrine, and
do not live the life of faith, have no faith, nos. 3865, 7766, 7778,
7790, 7950, 8094. And their interiors are contrary to the truths of
faith, although in the world they do not know this, nos. 7790, 7950.]

40. Certain spirits knew from heaven that a promise had once been made
to the spirits of the earth Mercury, that they should see the Lord;
they were, therefore, asked by the spirits about me whether they
recollected that promise. They said that they did recollect it; but
that they did not know whether the promise had been made in such a
manner as to preclude all doubt respecting it. While they were thus
talking together, the Sun of heaven appeared to them. (The Sun of
heaven, which is the Lord, is seen only by those who are in the inmost
or third heaven; others see the light which proceeds from it.) On
seeing the Sun, they said that this was not the Lord God, because they
saw no face. Meanwhile the spirits were conversing with each other,
but I did not hear what they said. Suddenly, however, the Sun again
appeared, and in the midst of it the Lord, encompassed with a solar
circle: at this sight the spirits of Mercury humbled themselves
profoundly, and bowed down. At that time also, the Lord appeared out
of that Sun to certain spirits of our Earth, who, when they were men,
had seen Him in the world; and they, one after another, and thus many
in succession, confessed that it was the Lord Himself; and they made
this confession before the whole assembly. At the same time also the
Lord appeared out of the Sun to the spirits of the planet Jupiter, who
declared with a clear voice, that it was He Himself whom they had seen
on their earth when the God of the univers