154. Respecting Divine worship they said that they acknowledge God under the Human form, thus our Lord; for whoever acknowledge the God of the universe under the Human form, are accepted by our Lord and led by Him. The rest cannot be led, because they think without a form. They added that the inhabitants of their earth are instructed in the things of heaven by a kind of immediate interaction with angels and spirits, into which they can be led by the Lord more easily than others, because they reject what is corporeal from their thought and affection. I asked what becomes of those among them who are evil. They said that on their earth it is not permitted to be wicked; but that if any one thinks and does evil, he is reproved by a certain spirit, who threatens death to him if he persists in so doing; and that when he persists, he dies in a swoon; and that in this way the men of that earth are preserved from the contamination of the evil. One such spirit was also sent to me, and spoke with me as he did with his own people. Moreover he brought something of pain to the region of my abdomen, saying that thus he does to those who think and do evil, and threatens death to them, if they persist. They said that those who profane holy things are severely punished; and that before the punishing spirit comes there appear to them in vision the jaws of a lion, wide open, of a livid color, which seems as if it would swallow their head, and tear it from the body, whereby they are seized with horror. They call the punishing spirit the devil.