LJC 86-87 - Smooth Talkers

LJC 86

. . . the Moravians, also known as the Herrnhuters . . .
they knew how to ensnare minds with their cunning,
saying that they were the remains
of the Apostolic church,
and that is why they greet one another
as brothers,
and as mothers
those women who keep their more intimate secrets.
They also claim that they excel others
in the teaching of faith,
and that they love the Lord
because He suffered the cross,
calling Him the Lamb and the Throne of Grace.
They have many other similar claims
to persuade people to believe
that theirs is the true Christian church.
Those who approach ensnared by their smooth talking
are examined to see
whether they are the kind of people
to whom they would dare to entrust their secrets.
If they are not, they conceal them,
but if possible, they reveal them.
Then they issue warnings
and threaten any
who publish their secrets about the Lord.

They behaved similarly in the spiritual world,
yet it was perceived
that inwardly they did not think like this.
So to disclose this
they were admitted into the lowest heaven;
but they could not bear
the aura of charity and faith from it
which came from the angels there,
and they took to their heels.
Afterwards, because in the world
they had believed that they alone were alive,
and that they would reach the third heaven,
they were actually carried up to that heaven.
But on perceiving the aura of love to the Lord there,
they were seized with pain in the heart
and began to suffer inward torments,
jerking convulsively like those in a death agony;
so they cast themselves down headlong.
These events first showed
that they had in them not a scrap
of charity towards the neighbor
nor of love to the Lord.