5534. Of what quality these are may appear from the crew which followed them, the number of which was immense; which crew, also, was cast out of the mountains, hills and rocks in the midst, where are those who had the Word and were able to be illustrated and to receive spiritual life. All these were such as in the world have lived a merely natural life, and, so far as they lived in societies, a civil life, which thence has also appeared moral. They have attended churches, listened to the preachings, partaken of the sacrament of the Supper; but (inasmuch as they have had no interior bonds, in fact have thought and willed evil and also done it) have never thought that such and such a thing is sin and thus against God and the neighbor, but have abstained from doing it only on account of external bonds, which are fears on account of the law, of opposition, of the loss of profit, honor and reputation - these have all had no conscience thus not any spiritual life but only natural and civil; and he who has no spiritual life has no communication with heaven, but is shut out from it; for, when externals are taken away, such ones are carried off without restraint to every crime, nor can they be withheld therefrom by heaven, since they are without communication therewith; and, howsoever the Lord may inflow through heaven, still nothing is received from that. That they are such, cannot, owing to their civil, and thence apparently moral and Christian life, be known by anyone, but only by the Lord. And, because they are not Christians, therefore neither [spiritually] alive, they cannot be together with the societies of heaven, with whom is the life of heaven. They are able to know in the world whether they were of such a character, from the sole consideration whether they have thought in themselves, This is a sin, thus against God and the neighbor, or, against the Divine precepts, and therefore against the Word and doctrine, whether they have so thought in themselves, and not only so said with the mouth; for many speak thus with the mouth, but in themselves do not so think. These latter have no conscience, neither anything of heaven in themselves - only the world. They fear their magistrates and not God. They return from churches, preaching and the Holy supper just as they were before. This is, they reckoned, their duty, because it ought so to be done.