3980. The reason for the good spirits' indignation having been made public, this spirit was let into the state of mind of his conviction that good works are of no account, only faith alone. As a result of his conviction being spread around among many such spirits, such a general aura arose that the spirits imagined they were disappearing, as if they were no spirits, or as if diffused into the atmosphere. They complained that they now did not know whether they were spirits, or whether they were living or not living. Such was the aura when good works had been snatched away from them. When these have been snatched from them, they appear to themselves hardly to be living. For the good works themselves which they did from the charity of faith, which were being taken from them, are like fulcrums on which they stood, or the very lowest things, which are effects; and when these last uses - or effects in which uses terminate, and in which they who are uses terminate, being the uses that inward spirits perform - are taken away from them, spirits seem to themselves to be hardly alive, but to be in some general aura, like thought by itself. That aura was a sad one, because there was nothing definite.
3980. The cause of the indignation of the good spirits being divulged, this spirit was let into the state of his persuasion, that good works were of no account, but faith only, and from this persuasion diffused around among many such, there arose a sphere so general that other spirits seemed to themselves to disappear as if they were not, or to evaporate into the atmosphere, complaining, at the same time, that they knew not whether they were spirits, or whether they were dead or alive. Such was the sphere when good works were surreptitiously taken from them, which, as they constitute the goods done from the charity of faith, when taken away, such spirits are deprived of the fulcra on which they rest, or, in other words, of the very ultimates which are the effects [of charity as a cause]. These ultimate uses or effects where and in which uses terminate - uses produced by interior principle - being taken away, spirits scarcely seem to themselves to live, but to be in a kind of general sphere as of thought alone. Such a sphere was sad as having in it nothing determinate.
3980. Causa indignationis bonorum spirituum tunc propalata, missus in statum suae persuasionis, quod bona opera nihili sint, modo fides sola; ex persuasione ejus diffusa inter plures tales, sphaera orta est tam communis, ut putarent spiritus se disparere, sicut nulli essent, seu sicut diffusi in atmosphaeram, conquesti quod sic non scirent num spiritus essent, seu num viverent vel non viverent: talis erat sphaera, cum surriperentur iis bona opera, quibus - quia ipsa bona quae ex fidei charitate facerent, quae surriperentur, sic fulcra [sunt], quibus insisterent, seu ipsa ultima, quae sunt effectus, ultimis usibus, seu effectus, ubi usus terminantur, et in quibus terminantur, qui sunt usus, quos interiores producunt - surreptis, apparent sibi vix vivere, sed esse in communi sphaera, sicut sola cogitatio; talis sphaera erat tristis, nam nihil determinatum.