a white horse, and One seated on it (19)
a new heaven and a new earth, and the holy Jerusalem descending from heaven (21)
the river of the water of life (22).
That he saw these "in the vision of the spirit" is said 1:10; 4:2; 5:1; 6:1; 21:1, 2.
[4] Such were the visions which appeared from heaven to the sight of the spirit of these men, but not to their bodily sight. Such visions do not occur at this day because if they did, they would not be understood inasmuch as they are produced by representations the details of which signify internal things of the church and arcana of heaven. Daniel also foretold (9:24) that they would cease when the Lord came into the world.
Diabolic visions, however, have occurred at times, incited by fanatical and visionary spirits who in their delirium called themselves the Holy Spirit. But those spirits have now been gathered together by the Lord and cast into a hell separate from the hells of others. There are also phantasmal visions which are merely the illusions of an estranged mind.
All this makes clear that no one can be reformed by any visions other than those in the Word.
134 r. The fact that no one is reformed by communication with the dead is plain from the Lord's words about the rich man in hell and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom.
For the rich man said, I ask you, father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers, to testify to them lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. But he said, No, father Abraham, but if some one will go to them from the dead, they will repent. He replied, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded either if one should arise from the dead (Lu 16:27-31).
Communication with the dead would have the same result as miracles (of which just above), namely, that a man would be influenced and driven into worship for a short time. But as this deprives a man of rationality and at the same time shuts his evils in, as was said above, the captivation or the inward bond is undone, and the imprisoned evils break out, with blasphemy and profanation; this last occurs, however, only when spirits introduce something dogmatic from religion, which is never done by a good spirit, still less by an angel of heaven.