1449. The inhabitants of Venus on the side looking this way are almost in despair regarding their salvation, saying that they are wild animals, brutes, abominations, hatreds - not that they actually kill people, but that they are hatreds against their neighbors, and therefore damned, and cannot be saved.
While undergoing this purging process, they also utter damning expressions against heaven, and salvation, because they are desperate. I have now and then experienced this, thinking it was caused by infernal furies, whereas it was from those who are in this kind of despair. But in their case this is overlooked, as they are at such a time as if insane. But the Lord so tempers them that they do not go farther with those vituperations than certain limits, so that they may be saved. When they have gone to extremes, reaching the limit of suffering, then they are saved, because then their bodily elements have died.
It is said that those from this side of the planet Venus now being spoken of had not been evil, but simple. They had not believed in the Lord Himself, but in some Supreme Creator without any designation, or without the Lord, the Mediator. So those of this type on the planet Venus are purged in this way, and then saved as soon as they have been taught that the Lord Alone is the Mediator and Savior. They have now confessed that without God as intercessor, they cannot possibly be saved, because they are filthy, and unworthy.
Then some of them, who had suffered the extremes, were raised up into heaven and received there, and indeed with a tenderness so great that they drew a tear from my eyes, declaring themselves unworthy for having uttered those words, besides other things they had thought; and they drew tears.
1449. The inhabitants of that side of Venus which looks in this direction are, as it were, in despair concerning their salvation, saying that they are beasts, brutes, abominations, hatreds - not that they actually kill men - but that they have hatred against their neighbor, so that they are damned and cannot be saved. While in such vastation, being in a state of despair, they also utter damnable expressions against heaven and salvation, as on various occasions I discovered, supposing it to be from infernal furies, whereas it was from those who were in such despair. But this is forgiven them for they are then as if insane. But the Lord so regulates that their vituperations do not exceed certain limits in order that they may be saved: and when they have reached the last extremity, so that they may suffer to the limit, they may then be saved, since their corporeal things are dead. Those who are from this side of the planet Venus, of whom we are now speaking, are said not to have been evil, but simple. They had not believed in the Lord Himself, but in a certain Supreme Creator without any designation, or without the Lord the Mediator, which is the reason that those on the planet Venus who are such are vastated in this manner, and consequently are saved as soon as they have been instructed that the Lord alone is the Mediator and Savior. They have now confessed that without God as Intercessor they can never be saved, because they are filthy and unworthy. Some of them who had suffered to the last extremity were raised up into heaven and were there received with so much tenderness that they drew tears from my eyes; they were saying that they were unworthy, since they had said such things, besides other things they had thought, - and they drew my tears.
1449. Incolae Veneris a parte huc spectante, quasi in desperatione de salute sua sunt, dicentes, quod bestiae, bruta sint, abominationes, odia, non quod actualiter homines interficiant, sed quod odia sint contra proximos, sic quod damnati, et quod non salvari possint. Dum in tali vastatione sunt, etiam expressiones habent damnabiles contra coelum, et salutem, quia in desperatione, quod passim expertus sum, putans 1
quod ex furiis infernalibus, cum tamen ex iii qui in tali desperatione, sed hoc iis ignoscitur, quia tunc sunt quasi insani, sed Dominus ita moderatur, ut non longius in talia vituperia pergant, quam ad certos limites, sic ut salvari possint, cumque ad extrema, sic ut extrema patiantur, tunc salvantur, quia sic corporea eorum mortua sunt. Illi qui ab hac parte telluris Veneris, de quibus nunc, dicuntur non fuisse mali, sed simplices, [quod] non crediderint in Ipsum Dominum, sed in quendam Summum Creatorem, sine aliquo insigni, aut Domino Mediatore, quare ii qui tales sunt in tellure Veneris, tali modo vastantur, et sic salvantur, dum prius instructi sint, quod Dominus Solus sit Mediator, et Salvator: confessi nunc, quod absque intercessore Deo nusquam salvari possint, quia spurci, et indigni. Sic quidam eorum, qui in extremis fuerunt in coelum sublati, et ibi recepti [sunt], et quidem cum tanta teneritudine, ut expresserint lachrymam ex oculis meis, dicentes se indignos, cum talia loquuti sint, praeter alia, quae cogitaruntt et lachrymas expresserunt.
Footnotes:
1. imperfectum in the Manuscript