23. (ii) The signs and visitations which preceded the Last Judgment. There appeared above those who had made themselves something like heavens a patch of cloud. This was caused by the Lord's presence in the heavens of angels above them, chiefly by His presence in the lowest heaven, to prevent the link with them carrying any of its inhabitants off to share in their destruction. The higher heavens actually came down closer to them; this caused the interiors of those about to be judged to be disclosed. Upon this they no longer looked like moral Christians, but like demons. They rioted and quarrelled among themselves about God, the Lord, the Word, faith and the church. And because their lusts for evil were then also given their freedom, they treated all these subjects with contempt and ridicule, rushing into crimes of every kind. In this way all those inhabitants of heaven underwent a change of state. Then all at once all the magnificent buildings they had erected for themselves by skills unknown in the world vanished; their palaces were turned into miserable huts, their gardens into pools, their churches into ruins, and the very hills on which they lived into piles of rocks and similar things corresponding to their criminal characters and appetites. All the things to be seen in the spiritual world are correspondences of the affections entertained by spirits and angels. These were the signs of the coming judgment.