out, "Make haste;" and they pressed forward. After near an hour, when
they were all within in the heavenly society, there appeared a gulph
between them and the angels; and the light of heaven above the gulph
flowing into their eyes, opened the interiors of their minds, whereby
they were bound to speak as they interiorly thought; and then they were
asked by the angels, whether they acknowledged that God is? The first,
who were determined adulterers, replied, "What is God?" And they looked
at each other, and said, "Which of you has seen him?" The second, who
were confirmed adulterers, said, "Are not all things of nature? What is
there above nature but the sun?" And instantly the angels said to them,
"Depart from us; now you yourselves perceive that you have no
acknowledgement of God: when you descend, the interiors of your mind
will be closed and its exteriors opened, and then you can speak against
the interiors, and say that God is. Be assured that as soon as a man
actually becomes an adulterer, heaven is closed to him; and when heaven
is closed, God is not acknowledged. Hear the reason; every filthy
principle of hell is from adulterers, and it stinks in heaven like
putrid mire of the streets." On hearing these things they turned
themselves and descended by three ways; and when they were below, the
first and second groups conversing together said, "The priests have
conquered there; but we know that we can speak of God equally with them:
and when we say that he is, do we not acknowledge him? The interiors and
exteriors of the mind, of which the angels told us, are devised
fictions. But let us go to the second place pointed out by the judges,
where a way is open into heaven to those who have heaven in themselves,
thus to those who are about to come into heaven." When they were come
thither, a voice proceeded from that heaven, saying, "Shut the gates;
there are adulterers at hand." Then suddenly the gates were shut, and
the keepers with sticks in their hands drove them away; and they
delivered the three priests, against whom they had been tumultuous, from
the hands of their keepers, and introduced them into heaven: and
instantly, when the gates were open for the priests, there issued from
heaven upon the rebels the delightful principle of marriage, which, from
its being chaste and pure, almost deprived them of animation; wherefore,
for fear of fainting away through suffocation, they hastened to the
third place, concerning wh