531. To these things I will add this MEMORABLE OCCURRENCE. I was suddenly attacked by a very nearly fatal illness. The whole head was oppressed. A pestilent vapour out of the Jerusalem that is called Sodom and Egypt was let loose. Half dead with the fierce pain, expecting the end, I lay in my bed for three and a half days. Such did my spirit become, and my body as the result thereof. And then around me I heard voices saying, 'See, there lies dead in the street of our city the one who preached repentance for the remission of sins, and the man Christ only!' And they were asking some of the clergy whether he was worthy of burial. They said, 'No, let him lie, let him be looked at!' They were going away, coming back, mocking. It really so happened to me when this chapter of The Apocalypse was being expounded. Then the harsh words of those mocking were heard, chiefly these: 'How can repentance be performed without faith? How can Christ, a man, be adored as God? Since we are saved by grace without any merit of our own, what do we need then but the faith alone that God the Father sent His Son that He might take away the condemnation of the law, impute His merit to us, and thus justify us in His view, and absolve us from sins with a priestly proclamation, and then give the Holy Spirit to work every good in us? Are not these things in accordance with Scripture and with reason also?' The crowds standing by were applauding. [2] I was hearing these things, but I was not able to reply because I was almost dead. After three days and a half, however, my spirit got better, and as to the spirit I went out from the street into the city, and again I said, 'Do the work of repentance, and believe in Christ, and your sins will be remitted and you will be saved; otherwise you will perish. Did not the Lord Himself preach repentance for the remission of sins, and that they should believe in Him? Did He not command the disciples to preach the same? Is it not the case that a full security of life follows the dogma of your faith?' But they said, 'What rubbish you talk! Has not the Son made satisfaction, and has not the Father imputed it? He has justified us who have believed this. Thus we are led by the spirit of grace. What part does sin then have in us? What has death then to do with us? Do you comprehend this, O herald of sin and repentance?' But then a voice went forth out of heaven saying, 'What is the faith of an impenitent man but a dead faith? The end is coming, the end is coming upon you secure ones, blameless in your own eyes, justified in your own faith, you devils.' And suddenly a deep gulf was being opened in the midst of the city. This grew wider and wider, and house upon house fell down, and they were swallowed up, and soon waters bubbled up out of the wide hole and flooded the desolation.
[3] When they were thus submerged and seen to be flooded I was desirous to know their lot in the depths, and it was said to me out of heaven, 'You shall see and hear.' And then before my eyes the waters with which they had been flooded were dispersed; for the waters in the spiritual world are correspondences, and consequently they appear around those who are in untruths. Thereupon they were seen by me in a sandy ravine where heaps of stones were piled up, among which they were running and bemoaning the fact of their having been cast out of their great city. And [some of them] were screaming and crying out, 'Why has this happened to us? Are we not by our faith made clean pure, just, holy?' And others, 'Are we not by our faith cleansed, purified, justified and sanctified?' And others, 'Are we not by our faith become such that before God the Father we may appear, be seen and be reckoned, and before the angels be proclaimed, as clean, pure, just and holy? Are we not reconciled, rendered favourable, atoned for, and thus delivered, washed and wiped clean from sins? Has not the condemnation of the law been taken away by Christ? Therefore why have we been cast hither as damned? From a presumptuous preacher of sin in our great city we have heard, "Believe in Christ, and do the work of repentance". But did we not believe in Christ, while believing in His merit? And did we not do the work of repentance when we confessed that we were sinners? Why then has this happened to us?' [4] But then a voice was heard directed to them from the side, 'Do you know any sin that you are in? Have you ever examined yourselves? Have you, by the same token, fled from any evil as a sin against God? For he who is not fleeing from it is in it; and is not sin the devil? You are therefore those of whom the Lord says, "Then shall you begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets, but He shall say, I say unto you, I have not known you whence you are, depart from Me all you workers of iniquity" (Luke xiii 26, 27); as also those of whom [He speaks in] Matt. vii 22, 23. Go away, therefore, each into his own place. You see openings into caves. Enter therein, and to each of you will be given his own work to do there, and then food in proportion to the amount of work. If you do not, hunger will yet compel you to enter.'
[5] Afterwards a voice out of heaven was directed to some upon the land who were outside that great city, of whom verse s also [treats], saying shrilly, 'Take care, take care how you associate with such as these. Are you not able to understand that the evils that are called sins and iniquities render a man unclean and impure? How can a man be cleansed and purified from these except by means of an actual repentance and a faith in Jesus Christ? Actual repentance is to examine oneself, to recognise and acknowledge one's own sins, to take the responsibility, to confess them before the Lord, to beg for help and power to resist them, and in this way to give them up and lead a new life, and to do all these things as from yourselves. Do this once or twice a year when you are approaching the Holy Communion; and afterwards, whenever the sins of which you made yourselves guilty recur, say then to yourselves, We are not willing them because they are sins against God. This is an actual repentance. [6] Who cannot understand that he who does not examine and see his own sins remains in them? For every evil is delightful from birth, for it is delightful to take revenge, to commit whoredom, to prey [on others], to blaspheme, and especially to exercise a dominion derived from the love of self. Is it not the delight that makes these evils escape notice, and if perchance it is said that they are sins, do you not excuse them on account of their delight? In fact you persuade yourselves, and confirm by untruths, that they are not sins, and so you remain in them and commit them afterwards more than before, and this to such an extent that you no longer know what sits is, or even whether sin exists. It happens otherwise with any one who actually does the work of repentance. The evils of his that he recognises and acknowledges he calls sins, and therefore he begins to flee from them and avoid them and to feel their delight as undelightful. And in so far as this is done, so far he sees and loves goods and at length feels the delight thereof; which is the delight of heaven. In a word, in so far as any one is putting the devil behind him, so far he is being adopted by the Lord and being taught, led, withheld from evils and kept in goods by Him. This is the way, and there is no other from hell to heaven.'
[7] It is a surprising fact that the Reformed have a certain innate refusal, evasiveness and aversion in regard to actual repentance, and this is so great that they cannot bring themselves to self-examination, or to seeing their own sins and confessing them before God. It is as if they are possessed by horror when they are endeavouring to do this. I have asked very many in the spiritual world about it and they all said that it was beyond their ability. When they heard that the Papists are doing this all the while, that is, that they examine themselves and openly make confession of their sins before a monk, they were exceedingly amazed, and above all at the fact that the Reformed are unable to do this in secret before God, although it has been enjoined on them just the same before they approach the Holy Supper. And some there have inquired why this is the case, and found that faith alone induced such a state of impenitence and such a heart. And then it was given them to see that those of the Papists who adore Christ, and neither invoke the saints nor adore the so-called Vicar [of Christ] or any of his key-bearers, are saved.
[8] After these things a thunder-like sound was heard, and a voice speaking out of heaven saying, 'We look on with amazement! Say to the congregation of the Reformed, Believe in Christ and do the work of repentance, and you will be saved.' And I said, being also above, 'Is not BAPTISM a sacrament of repentance and thereby an introduction into the Church? What else do the sponsors promise on behalf of the one to be baptised but that he will renounce the devil and his works? Is not the HOLY SUPPER a sacrament of repentance and thereby an introduction into heaven? Is it not said to the communicants that they must wholly do the work of repentance before approaching? Is not the CATECHISM a universal doctrine of the Christian Church teaching repentance? Is it not said there in the six precepts of the second table, Thou shalt not do this and that evil, and not, Thou shalt do this and that good? Consequently you have the ability to know that in so far as anyone is fleeing from evil, so far he is loving good; and that before this he does not know what good is, nor even what evil is.'
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