until he opens his heart, and you will hear what he will then preach concerning God, the holy things of the church, and heaven and hell,—­that they are mere fancies and delusions, and thus bonds invented for souls, whereby great and small, rich and poor, may be caught and bound, and kept under the yoke of their dominion.  Let these observations suffice for illustration of what is meant by natural men, even to corporeal, enjoying the powers of human rationality like others, and using it when they are in externals, but abusing it when in their internals.  The conclusion to be hence deduced is, that no one is to be judged of from the wisdom of his conversation, but of his life in union therewith.

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500.  To the above I will add the following MEMORABLE RELATION.  On a certain time in the spiritual world I heard a great tumult:  there were some thousands of people gathered together, who cried out, LET THEM BE PUNISHED, LET THEM BE PUNISHED:  I went nearer, and asked what the cry meant?  A person that was separate from the crowd, said to me, “They are enraged against three priests, who go about and preach every where against adulterers, saying, that adulterers have no acknowledgement of God, and that heaven is closed to them and hell open; and that in hell they are filthy devils, because they appear there at a distance like swine wallowing in mire, and that the angels of heaven abominate them.”  I inquired, “Where are the priests? and why is there such a vociferation on that account?” He replied, “The three priests are in the midst of them, guarded by attendants; and those who are gathered together are of those who believe adulteries not to be sins, and who say, that adulterers have an acknowledgement of God equally with those who keep to their wives.  They are all of them from the Christian world; and the angels have been to see how many there were there who believe adulteries to be sins; and out of a thousand they did not find a hundred.”  He then told me that the nine hundred say concerning adulteries, “Who does not know that the delight of adultery is superior to the delight of marriage; that adulterers are in continual heat, and thence in alacrity, industry, and active life, superior to those who live with only one woman; and that on the other hand, love with a married partner grows cold, and sometimes to such a degree, that at length scarce a single expression or act of fellowship with her is alive; that it is otherwise with harlots; that the mortification of life with a wife, arising from defect of ability, is recruited and vivified by adulteries; and is not that which recruits and vivifies of more consequence than that which mortifies?  What is marriage but allowed adultery?  Who knows any distinction between them?  Can love be forced? and yet love with a wife is forced by a covenant and laws.  Is not love with a married partner the love of the sex, which is so universal that it exists even among birds and beasts?  What is conjugial