142、过了一会儿，我看见来自这个星球的其他灵人，他们出现在与我交谈的灵人之下的一个地方。不过，他们都是偶像崇拜者，因为他们拜类似于人、但不漂亮的石像。要知道，所有人一进入来世，起初都像在世时那样举行敬拜；但逐渐从中被引退。原因在于，一切敬拜被植入人的内在生命，只能逐渐被移走并根除。一看到这个石像，我得以告诉他们说，他们不该拜死物，而要拜活物。对此，他们回答说，他们知道神活着，石头不会活着；但当看到类似于一个人的石头时，他们才能想到一位活着的神；否则，他们的思维观念无法被固定并指向一位不可见的神。于是，我可以告诉他们说，当思维观念被固定并指向主，也就是在思维上具有人形的可见之神时，它们就能被固定并指向一位不可见的神。当人与主联结时，他能以此方式在思维和情感，因而在信和爱上与一位不可见的神联结，别无它法。
142. Later I saw some other spirits from that same planet who appeared in a place below the spirits just mentioned; I talked with them as well. They were idolaters; they worshiped a stone idol that looked more or less human, but was not pleasing to look at. It is important to know that the religious focus of all who arrive in the other life is at first the same as it was in the world; they are weaned from it only gradually. This is because our whole religious orientation is deeply rooted in our inner life, and it takes time to uproot and remove it from that life.
When I saw their idolatry, it occurred to me to tell them that they should worship what is living, not what is dead. They replied that they know God is alive and is not made of stone, but by focusing their attention on the human-shaped stone they think about the living God; there is no other way they can fix and focus the ideas of their thought on a God who is invisible.
It then came to me to say that the ideas of their thoughts could in fact be fixed and focused on a God who is invisible if they were focused on the Lord, who is a God visible to our thoughts in a human form. In this way, by being joined to the Lord we can be joined to the invisible God in thought and feeling and therefore in faith and love. It cannot happen in any other way.
142. A little later I saw some of the other spirits from the same world, who were to be seen at a lower level than those with whom I had been talking. These, however, were idolaters, worshipping an idol of stone, resembling a human being, but not a beautiful one. It should be known that on arrival in the next life all begin by practising worship like that they had in the world, but they are by stages withdrawn from it. The reason for this is that all worship remains implanted in a person's inner life, and it can only be withdrawn and uprooted by stages.
On seeing this I was able to tell them that they ought not to worship what is dead, but what is alive. They replied to this, saying that they knew that God is alive and is not a stone, but that when they view a stone which resembles a human being they think of a living God. They found it impossible any otherwise to concentrate the ideas of their thought and direct them to an invisible God. Then I was able to tell them that the ideas of thought can be concentrated and directed towards an invisible God, when they are directed towards the Lord, who can be thought of as God visible in human form. By this means man can be linked to an invisible God by thought and affection, and so by faith and love, when he is linked to the Lord, but not in any other way.
142. After a while I saw other spirits from the same earth, who appeared in a place below the former, with whom also I spoke. But they were idolaters, for they worshiped an idol of stone, resembling a man, but not beautiful. It is to be known that all who come into the other life have at first a worship like their worship in the world, but that they are gradually withdrawn from it. The reason is, that all worship remains implanted in man's interior life, from which it cannot be removed and eradicated but by degrees. On seeing this, it was given me to tell them that they ought not to worship what is dead, but what is living; to which they answered that they know that God lives, and that a stone does not; but that they think of the living God when they look upon a stone in the form of a man; and that otherwise the ideas of their thought cannot be fixed and determined to the invisible God. Then it was given me to tell them that the ideas of thought can be fixed and determined to the invisible God when they are fixed and determined to the Lord, Who is God visible in thought under the Human form; and thus that man can be conjoined to the invisible God in thought and affection, consequently in faith and love, when he is conjoined to the Lord, but in no other way.
142. Postmodum videbam alios spiritus ex eadem Tellure, qui apparebant in loco infra illos, cum quibus etiam loquebar; sed illi erant idololatrae, colebant enim idolum ex saxo, simile homini sed non pulchro: sciendum est, quod omnes qui in alteram vitam veniunt, in principio cultum habeant similem cultui suo in mundo, sed quod successive ab illo removeantur: causa quod ita fiat, est quia omnis cultus manet implantatus interiori vitae hominis, e qua non removeri et eradicari nisi successive potest. Cum id visum, dicere illis dabatur, quod non oporteat adorare mortuum sed vivum; ad quod respondebant, quod sciant quod Deus vivat et non saxum, sed quod cogitent de Deo vivo, cum intuentur saxum simile homini, et quod aliter ideae cogitationis suae non possint figi ac determinari ad Deum invisibilem; tunc illis dicere datum est, quod ideae cogitationis possint figi et determinari ad Deum invisibilem, cum ad Dominum, qui est Deus visibilis in cogitatione sub Humana forma; et sic quod homo possit conjungi Deo invisibili cogitatione et affectione, proinde fide et amore, cum conjungitur Domino, non autem aliter.