Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 281according to it; for what is meant is having doctrine in themselves;and to have doctrine in themselves is to have it in the life. Fromthis it is clear that by the “doctrine of Jezebel” is meant the life ofthe love of self and the world.171. And who have not known the depths of satan, as they say,signifies entanglement with these, as is evident from this, that theloves that rule in the hells are the loves of self and of the world, andthose loves are altogether contrary to the love to the Lord and thelove to the neighbor, which rule in heaven. “Satan,” by whom ismeant hell (see above, n. 120), unceasingly inspires the loves of selfand of the world; and these man also receives with delight, becausethey are in him hereditarily, and are therefore his proprium; thushell insinuates itself with man and entangles him. This is what issignified by “the depths of satan.” There are few, however, who areaware of this, because these loves, as they are man’s proprium byinheritance, draw his mind to themselves by allurements fromdelight, and thus draw him away from the delights of heavenlyloves, even until he does not know what the delights of heaven are.These delights of the love of self and the love of the world are whatclose up the internal man and open the external; and to the extentthat the external is opened the internal is closed, so that the man isfinally in total thick darkness in respect to the things of heaven andthe church, though in light [lumen] in respect to the things of selfand the world. (These things may be seen more fully described inHeaven and Hell, in the chapter where it is shown that the divine ofthe lord in heaven is love to him, and charity towards the neighbor,n. 13–19; and in the chapter where it is shown that all who are inthe hells are in evils and in falsities therefrom, out of the loves ofself and of the world, and that these loves are the infernal fires, n.551–565, 566–575; also Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 65–83,where these two loves are treated of.172. I put upon you no other burden, signifies that this aloneshould be guarded against. This is evident from the signification of“laying a burden” upon those in whom the internal can beconjoined with the external, as being that they should carefullyguard against this, since the delights of these two loves are the sole