HENCE THERE IS THAT AFFLICTION AND THAT DESOLATION IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, WHICH WERE PREDICTED BY THE LORD IN THE Evangelists, AND IN Daniel.

1. The Lord, when He spoke with the disciples concerning the consummation of the age, and concerning His own advent, that is, concerning the end of the church of this day and the beginning of the New Church, predicted these things:-

There will then be great affliction such as was not from the beginning of the world till now, nor ever shall be (Matt. xxiv. 21).

Also that there would be:-

The abomination of desolation foretold by the prophet Daniel; for after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken (Matt. xxiv. 15, 29).

2. That there is such an affliction and desolation in the church is utterly unknown and unseen in the world, because it is everywhere said therein that they are in the light itself of the Gospel, to such a degree that if an angel were to descend from heaven and teach anything else, he would not be believed. That thus the Roman Catholic and the Greek Churches teach, and thus each of the three Reformed Churches distinguished by the name of their leaders, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, and in like manner each heretical sect, which sects are manifold. 3. But this predicted affliction and desolation appears in clear light in the spiritual world* since all men after death come into that world, and remain in the religion in which they were in the natural world; for the light there is spiritual light, which discloses all things. 4. When the clergy are there interrogated concerning God, concerning faith, and concerning charity, which are the three essentials of the church and thence of salvation, they answer scarcely otherwise than as blind men in pits. Concerning God they answer that He is one, and that there are three who are unanimous; and when they say that the three are one they are commanded to speak as they think, then, because thought and speech with those who are in the spiritual world, act as one they utter, with a clear voice, three Gods. As to faith, they reply that it is a faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; and that God the Father gives it, the Son mediates it, and the Holy Spirit operates it, thus in three Gods in order.** When further interrogated respecting that faith, whether they know its sign when it enters, and the sign that it is within, they reply, "What is it to know a sign? Is not this faith from the good pleasure, from the election of that one God only, and nothing from the man mixed up with it?" When asked whether that faith, since it is directed to three, and thus to three Gods, and man is in plenary ignorance concerning it, is anything, they reply that it is not only something, but the all of the church and the all of salvation. If asked whether that is possible, at this they laugh. As to charity, they say this is where that faith is, and that it is separate from it and not separate, and that it contributes to salvation and does not contribute. 5. When the laity are questioned concerning God, faith, and charity, they know almost nothing, except that a few have acquired some enigmas from the clergy which they call articles of faith, and which are in general that God the Father has mercy on account of the passion of His Son, and that He remits sins and justifies. 6. When these two classes are explored as to whether they have anything of God, of faith, and of charity in themselves, it is perceived that they have nothing, consequently nothing of heaven, of the church and of salvation, only with those who have done goods from religion, since these, in the spiritual world, are receptive of faith in the Lord God the Saviour. 7. From the few things above adduced, it appears whence there is that "great affliction such as was not from the beginning of the world nor shall be," and whence that "abomination of desolation" which the Lord foretold would be at the end of the church, which is at this day. 8. Such an affliction has not been from the beginning of the world, nor shall be, is because the Gentiles and the Jews themselves were ignorant of the Lord God the Saviour, as the fountain of salvation, and ignorance excuses; but the case is otherwise with Christians after His Advent, to whom this [truth] is laid open in the Word of both Testaments. * [NOTE FROM THE MARGIN.] And He now appears to me in most splendid light in London of the natural world. ** Dr. Tafel has, "De fide respondent, quod sit in Deum Patrem, Deum Filium, et Deum Spiritum Sanctum; et quod Deus Pater illam det, Filius illam mediat, et Spiritus Sanctus illam operetur, ita ordine in tres Deos. Dr. Worcester omits this clause.