[4] Afterwards I saw them going out of the wood, the dragon in the midst of the satyrs and priapi, and after them the drudges and camp followers who were the whoremongers and harlots. The gang was increasing on the way, and then it was given to hear what they were talking about. They were saying that they saw a flock of sheep with lambs in a meadow, and that this is a sign that one of the Jerusalem cities where charity is primary was near. And they said, 'Let us go and take that city, and cast out its inhabitants and plunder their goods.' They approached, but there was a wall round it, and guardian angels on the wall. And then they said, 'Let us take it by deceit. Let us send an expert ingenious mutterer who can whiten what is black and blacken what is white, and colour the reality of any object.' And one skilled in the art of metaphysics was found, who could change ideas of realities into ideas of terms, and hide the realities themselves under formulas, and thus fly off like a hawk with its prey under its wings. He was instructed how to speak with the city people, [to say] that they were in fellowship in religion and should be admitted. Coming to the gate he knocked, and when it was opened he said that he wished to speak with the wisest person of that city. And he entered and was conducted to a certain person, whereupon he spoke to him, saying, 'There are some of my brethren outside the city, and they request to be received. They are allies in religion. You and we make faith and charity the two essentials of religion. The only difference is that you say charity is primary and faith is thence derived, while we say faith is primary and charity is derived thence. What does it matter if one or the other is said to be primary, when each of the two is believed in?' [5] The city's wise one replied, 'Let us not discuss this matter alone, but in the presence of some more who may be the arbiters and judges, otherwise no decision may be made.' Whereupon they were sent for, and the draconic one spoke the same words as before to them. And then the wise man of the city replied, 'You have said that it is all the same whether charity or faith be taken as the primary thing of the Church, provided there is agreement that each of the two makes the Church and its religion. And yet the difference is such as exists between prior and posterior, cause and effect, the principal and the instrumental, and the essential and the formal. I say such things because I have noticed that you are skilled in the art of metaphysics, which art we call muttering, and some call it incantation. But let us leave those terms. The difference is like that between what is above and what is below; indeed, if you will believe it, the difference is like that between heaven and hell. For that which is primary makes the head and the breast, and that which is derived therefrom makes the feet and the soles thereof. But first let us agree what charity is and what faith is. [Let us agree] that charity is the affection of the love of doing good to the neighbour for the sake of God, salvation and eternal life, and that faith is the thought resulting from confidence concerning God, salvation and eternal life.' [6] But the emissary said, 'I grant that the latter is faith, and I also grant that charity is the former affection for the sake of God, because for the sake of His command, but not for the sake of salvation and eternal life.' And the wise one of the city said, 'So be it, provided it is for the sake of God.' After this agreement the wise one of the city said, 'Is not affection primary and thought derived from it?' But the one sent by the dragon said, 'This I deny.' But he got the answer, 'You cannot deny it. Does not a man think by virtue of affection? Take away the affection, and can you think anything? It is just the same as if you should take the sound away from speech. If you take away the sound, can you speak anything? For the sound is of the affection, and the speech is of the thought, for affection sounds and thought speaks. And it is also like flame and light. If you take away the flame, does not the light perish? It is similar with charity, because it is affection, and with faith, because it is thought. Are you not able thus to grasp that what is primary is the all in what is secondary, altogether as the sound is in speech? From these considerations you can see that if you do not make that which is primary the primary thing, you are not in the other. Therefore if you put the faith that is in the second place in the first place, you will in heaven appear no otherwise than as a man inverted, whose feet stand upwards while the head is downwards, or as a contortionist (hariolus) who walks on the palms of his hands with his body upside-down. Since you appear such in heaven, what then are your good works like, which are charity, but such things as that contortionist would do with his feet because he cannot use his hands? The result of this is that your charity, as you have also seen, is natural and not spiritual, because it is inverted.' [7] The emissary understood this, for every devil can understand truth when he hears it; but he cannot retain it, because when the affection of evil comes back it rejects the thought of truth. And afterwards the wise one of the city described in much detail what faith is like when it has been taken for what is primary, that it is merely natural, and that it is nothing but knowledge without any spiritual life, consequently that it is not faith. 'For your charity is only natural affection, and out of natural affection no other than natural thought proceeds, and this is your faith. And I can almost say that in faith merely natural there is hardly any other spiritual thing than there is in a knowledge of the kingdom of the Mogul, of the diamond mine there, and of its emperor's treasury and palace.' On hearing these things the draconic one went away full of wrath and reported them to his gang outside the city. And when they heard what had been said, that charity is the affection of the love of doing good to the neighbour for the sake of God, salvation and eternal life, they all cried out, 'This is a lie.' And the dragon himself cried, 'Oh! what a crime! Are not all the good works that are of charity, when done for the sake of salvation, merit-seeking?' [8] Then they said among themselves, 'Let us call more of our sort together, and besiege this city. Let us make ladders, climb the wall, and rush in at night and throw these charities out.' When, however, they attempted this, lo there appeared as it were fire out of heaven, which consumed them. But the fire out of heaven was the appearance of the wrath derived from hatred against those [charities], because they cast faith out of the first into the second place. Their appearing to be consumed as it were with fire was in fact the opening of hell under their feet, and their being engulfed. Things similar to these occurred in many places at the day of the last judgment; and this is what is understood by these words in the Apocalypse:-

The dragon shall go out to lead astray the nations that are at the four corners of the land, that he may gather them together for war; and they went up on the plain of the land, and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city; but fire came down from God out of heaven and consumed them Rev. xx 8, 9.