Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 4103they instigate others to breathe against their companions nothingbut what savors of hatred, revenge, and cruelty. They replied thatthey cannot be other than they are; whereupon it was given to saythat from this they may know that everyone’s life remains with himafter death.5719. They who despise and ridicule the Word in the letter, andstill more who do this to the things contained therein in the deepersense, and consequently to the doctrinal things that are from theWord, and who at the same time are in no love toward theneighbor, but are in the love of self, bear relation to the vitiatedthings of the blood, which find their way into all the veins andarteries, and taint the whole mass. Lest by their presence theyshould bring anything of the kind upon man, they are kept separatefrom others in their own hell, and communicate only with thosewho are of this nature; for these throw themselves into the breathand sphere of that hell.5720. Hypocrites have been with me, those namely who havespoken in a holy manner about Divine things, and with anaffection of love about the public and the neighbor, and have bornewitness to what is just and equitable, and yet in their heart havedespised and even laughed at these things. When they werepermitted to flow into the parts of the body to which theycorrespond by opposition, they inflicted pain on the teeth, so severeon their nearest presence that I could not bear it; and in proportionas they were removed, the pain ceased. This was shown repeatedly,that no doubt might remain. Among them was one whom I hadknown in the life of his body, and I therefore spoke to him; and athis presence also there was pain in the teeth and gums. When hewas raised upward to the left, the pain attacked the left jaw, andinvaded the bone of the left temple down to the bones of the cheek.5721. The most stubborn of all are they who during their life inthe body had appeared more just than others, and had also beenestablished in dignity, and on both accounts had authority andweight, and yet had believed nothing, and had lived a mere life ofthe love of self, being inflamed with inward hatred and revenge