The Swedenborg Library Vol 1/Chapter 17
XVII.
ANGELIC AND INFERNAL SPIRITS.
HE man who becomes an angel after death, posseses intelligence and wisdom ineffable as compared with that which he possessed when he lived in the world. For when he lived in the world his spirit was bound to the body, and by the body was in the natural world. Therefore what he then thought spiritually, flowed into natural ideas which are respectively general, gross and obscure, and incapable of receiving the innumerable things which belong to spiritual thought, and which also involve them in the dense shades arising from worldly cares.
It is otherwise when the spirit is released from the body, and comes into its spiritual state, as is the case when it passes out of the natural into the spiritual world which is its peculiar realm. That its state then, as to thoughts and affections, immensely excels its former state, is evident from what has now been said. Hence it is, that the angels think things that are ineffable and inexpressible, consequently such as cannot enter into the natural thoughts of man; although every angel was born a man and lived as a man, and then seemed to himself to be no wiser than other men.
In the same degree in which there is wisdom and intelligence with angels, there is also wickedness and cunning with infernal spirits. For the cases are similar; because when the spirit of man is released from the body, it is in its own good or in its own evil,—an angelic spirit in his own good, and an infernal spirit in his own evil. For every spirit is his own good or his own evil, because he is his own love.
Therefore as an angelic spirit thinks, wills, speaks and acts from his own good, so does an infernal spirit from his own evil; and to think, will, speak and act from evil itself, is to do so from all the things which are included in the evil. It was otherwise when he lived in the body. The evil of the man's spirit was then restrained by the bonds in which every one is held by the law, by his love of gain and honor, and through fear of losing them; on which account the evil of his spirit could not then break out and manifest itself in its own intrinsic nature.
Besides, the evil of the man's spirit then lay wrapped up and veiled in external probity, sincerity, justice and the affection of truth and good, of which such a man has made an oral profession, and has assumed an appearance for the sake of the world. Under these outward semblances the evil lay so covered up and concealed that he was scarcely aware himself that his spirit contained so great wickedness arid subtlety, or that in himself he was such a devil as he becomes after death, when his spirit comes into itself and into its own nature.
Such wickedness then manifests itself as exceeds all belief. There are thousands of evils which burst forth from evil itself, among which, also, are such as cannot be expressed in the words of any language. I have been permitted to learn and comprehend their nature by much experience; for it has been granted me by the Lord to be in the spiritual world as to my spirit, and at the same time in the natural world as to my body.
This I can testify, that their wickedness is so great that it is hardly possible to describe a thousandth part of it; and furthermore, that unless the Lord protected man, it would be impossible for him ever to be rescued from hell; for there are with every man both spirits from hell and angels from heaven; and the Lord cannot protect a man unless he acknowledge the Divine and live the life of faith and charity. Otherwise, he averts himself from the Lord, and turns toward infernal spirits, and thus becomes imbued as to his spirit with similar wickedness.
Nevertheless, man is continually withdrawn by the Lord from the evils which, on account of his association with those spirits, he attaches, and as it were attracts, to himself. For if he cannot be restrained by internal bonds, which are those of conscience, and which are not accepted if he denies the Divine, still he is withheld by external bonds which are the fear of the law and its penalties, and of the loss of gain and the privation of honor and reputation. Such a man may, indeed, be restrained from evil acts by the delights of his love, and by the fear of the loss and privation of them, but he cannot be brought into spiritual goods: for so far as he is led toward these, he meditates cunning and deceit by simulating and counterfeiting deeds that are good, sincere and just, with a view to persuade others to think well of him, and thus to deceive them. This cunning adds itself to the evil of his spirit, and gives it a form and imbues it with a quality like its own.
The worst of all are they who have been in evils originating in self-love, and who at the same time acted from interior deceit,—for deceit enters more deeply than any other evil into the thoughts and intentions, and infects them with its poison, and thus destroys all of man's spiritual life.
The reason that torments in the hells are permitted by the Lord, is because evils cannot otherwise be restrained and subdued. The only means of restraining and subduing them, and of keeping the infernal crew in bonds, is the fear of punishment. There is no other means; for without the fear of punishment and torture, the evil would rush headlong into deeds of madness, and all would be chaos like a kingdom on earth where there is no law and no punishment. (H. H. 576-581.)
The punishments in hell are various, more gentle and more severe according to the nature of the evils to be restrained. For the most part the more malignant who excel in cunning and artifice, and are able to keep the rest in a state of submission and slavery by punishments and the terror thereby inspired, are set over the others; but these governors dare not go beyond the limits prescribed to them.
THE DEVIL AND SATAN.
It has hitherto been believed in the world that there is some one devil who presides over the hells, and that he was created an angel of light; but after he became rebellious, was cast down with his crew into hell. This belief has prevailed, because in the Word mention is made of the Devil and Satan, and also of Lucifer, and the Word in those passages has been understood according to the literal sense; when yet by the Devil and Satan is there meant hell,—by the Devil, that hell where dwell the worst called evil genii; and by Satan, that hell whose denizens are not so malignant, and are called evil spirits; and by Lucifer are meant those who belong to Babel or Babylon, being those who claim dominion even over heaven itself.
That there is no single devil to whom the hells are subject, is also evident from the fact, that all who are in the hells, like all who are in the heavens, are from the human race; and that those who have gone thither from the beginning of creation to the present time, amount to myriads of myriads, every one of whom is a devil of such a character as he had acquired in the world by a life in opposition to the Divine. (H, H. 543-4.)