26. As they journey through the universe in this manner, and are thus enabled to know more than others about the systems and earths beyond the sphere of our solar system, I have spoken with them on this subject also. They said that in the universe there are very many earths, with human beings upon them; and that they wonder at its being supposed by some, whom they called men of little judgment, that the heaven of the Omnipotent God consists only of the spirits and angels who come from one earth, when these are so few that, relatively to the Omnipotence of God, they are scarcely anything, and this would be the case even if there were myriads of systems with myriads of earths. They said, moreover, that they knew of the existence of earths in the universe exceeding in number some hundreds of thousands; and yet what is this to the Divine, who is Infinite! 27. The spirits of Mercury, when they were with me while I was writing and explaining the Word as to its internal sense, and who perceived what I was writing, said that the things which I wrote were very gross, and that almost all the expressions appeared as material. But it was given to reply, that the men of our Earth nevertheless look upon the things that have been written, as subtle and elevated, and that many things they do not understand. I added, that very many on this Earth do not know that it is the internal man that acts on the external, and causes it to live, and that from the fallacies of the senses they persuade themselves that the body has a life of its own, and that in consequence the evil and unbelieving are in doubt as to a life after death. Also, that that in man which is to live after death they do not call the spirit but the soul; and that they dispute about what the soul is and where its abode is, and believe that the material body, although dispersed to all the winds, must be again conjoined to it, in order that man may live as a man; besides many other things of the same kind. When the spirits of Mercury heard these things, they asked whether such men could become angels. To this it was given to answer that those who have lived in the good of faith and charity become angels, and that then they are no longer in external and material things, but in internal and spiritual things; and that when they come into this state, they are in a light superior to that in which the spirits from Mercury are. In order that they might know that this was so, an angel who had come into heaven from our Earth, and who had been such while he lived in the world, was allowed to speak with them; which circumstance will be detailed below [at no. 37].