18. All who lived like Christians in externals, and made no account of the Christian life, made one exteriorly with the heavens, but interiorly with the hells, and since they could not be torn away in a moment from their conjunction with heaven, they were detained in the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and it was permitted them to form societies, and to live together as in the world; and there by arts unknown to the world, to cause splendid appearances, and by this means to persuade themselves and others, that they were in heaven; therefore, from that external appearance they called their societies heavens. The heavens and the earths upon which they dwelt, are meant by "the former heaven, and the former earth which passed away" (Apoc. 21:1).