296、为清楚看见并理解圣治在恶人身上作工的方式，我需要按所列举的顺序解释这几点。
①每种邪恶里面都有无数事物。在人眼里，每种邪恶都看似一个简单事物；我们就是这样看待仇恨和报复，偷盗和欺诈，奸淫和淫乱，骄傲和自大等等邪恶的。殊不知，每种邪恶里面都有无数事物，甚至比人体里面的纤维和血管还多。因为一个恶人就是一个最小形式的地狱，而地狱是由无数个体构成的，那里的每个个体在形式上都像一个人，尽管是畸形的。这个人里面的所有纤维和血管都是反向的。一个灵人本身就是一个邪恶，这邪恶在它自己看来就像一个单一实体；但一个灵人里面的事物，就和这邪恶所产生的欲望的一样多。因为每个人从头顶到脚底都是他自己的邪恶，或他自己的良善。既然一个恶人是这个样子，那么显而易见，他就是一个由无数不同事物构成的邪恶，其中每一个事物都是一种独特的邪恶；这些事物就被称为该邪恶的欲望。由此可推知，如果人要被改造，主必须按着所有这些事物出现的顺序来修复并翻转它们；这一切只能通过主的圣治，从人生命的开始直到结束一步一步实现。
在地狱，邪恶的每个欲望当显为可见时，都看似某种有害动物，如一条龙，某种毒蛇，或某种猫头鹰等等。当一个恶人被天使观之时，他里面的恶欲就有一种类似表象。欲望的所有这些形式必须一一被改变；就灵而言，看似一个畸形人或一个魔鬼的这个人自己必须被如此改变，以至于就像一位美丽的天使；每一种恶欲都必须被如此改变，以至于看似一只羔羊或绵羊，或像一只鸽子或斑鸠；天上天使的良善情感当显为可见时，看上去就是这个样子。把一条龙变成一只羔羊，把一条蛇变成一只绵羊，或把一只猫头鹰变成一只鸽子，只能通过根除邪恶的种子，并植入良善的种子以取代之而逐渐实现。这一切的发生就像嫁接树木，一些树根和树干保留下来，而嫁接的枝子把从老根汲取上来的树液转变为结好果子的树液。要嫁接的枝子必须从作为生命之源的主那里取得。这与主的话是一致的（约翰福音15:1-7）。
②恶人凭自己不断把自己越来越深地引入自己的邪恶。之所以说凭自己，是因为一切邪恶皆来自人，人将来自主的良善转变为邪恶，如前所述（294节）。恶人之所以将自己更深地引入邪恶，基本原因是：随着他意愿和实行邪恶，他越来越往内、越来越深地向地狱社群行进；邪恶的快乐也因此增长，并如此占据他的思维，以致最后他感觉再没有比这更甜蜜的了。人若越来越往内、越来越深地向地狱社群行进，可以说就会被绳索捆住；尽管只要活在世上，他感觉不到这些绳索。它们好像是由他所喜爱的软羊毛或细丝线制成的，因为它们爱抚他。但死后，这些绳索就从柔软变得坚硬，也不再爱抚，而是让人叫苦不迭。
犯这些恶的人，谁不因罪恶得逞和无节制的放纵而感到欣喜若狂？众所周知，小偷从偷窃中获得如此快乐，以致他无法停止偷窃；说来奇怪，他喜欢偷来的一枚硬币胜过喜欢作为礼物所获得的十枚硬币。若不是规定奸淫的能力会随着对它的滥用而减退，这种邪恶也是如此。尽管如此，对许多人来说，思想并谈论它的快乐仍旧存在；别的不说，触摸的欲望还在。
殊不知，这种快乐之所以会增长，是因为随着人从意愿，同时从思维上犯这些恶，他越来越往内、越来越深地向地狱社群行进。只要邪恶仅在思维中，不在意愿里，人还没有在某个地狱社群与这邪恶同在；不过，一旦邪恶也在意愿里，他就进入这个社群。那时，他若意识到这邪恶违反十诫，并视诫命为神性，却仍有意行这邪恶，就会因此沉入深渊，并且只有通过实实在在的悔改，才能从这深渊中被解救出来。
必须清楚的是，就灵而言，每个人都在灵界，就在那里的某个社群；恶人在地狱社群，善人在天堂社群。有时，当一个人陷入沉思时，他甚至出现在那里。此外，正如声音和言语通过自然界的空气传播，情感和思维则传播到灵界的各个社群。这是一种对应关系，因为情感对应于声音，思维对应于言语。
③对恶人来说，圣治不断允许邪恶，以便不断把他们从中引出来。对恶人来说，圣治就是不断的许可，因为从他们的生命出来的，无非是邪恶。对人来说，他要么处于良善，要么处于邪恶，不可能同时处于两者，甚至不可能交替处于两者，除非他不冷也不热。不是主，而是人把生活的邪恶引入意愿，并从意愿引入思维。这就是我们所说的许可。
既然恶人所意愿和思想的一切都是出于许可，那么问题来了，在这种情况下，圣治是什么呢？我们不是说它在无论善恶的每个人里面的最小细节中作工吗？但圣治在于这一事实：它为了目的而不断许可，并且只允许诸如属于目的的那类事，不允许别的。它不断检查被允许涌现的邪恶，分离并洁净它们，逐出与目的不一致的邪恶，以我们看不见的方式把它们移走。这些过程尤其发生在人的内在意愿，并由此发生他的内在思维。圣治还不断保持警惕，防止被逐出并移走的东西再次被意愿接受，因为被意愿接受的一切都会归给人，而凡被思维接受，未被意愿接受的东西都被分离并逐出。这就是主对恶人的不断治理，这种治理就是不断的许可，以便把他们不断引出来，如前所述。
人对这一切几乎一无所知，因为他没有觉察到。他之所以没有觉察到，主要是因为这些邪恶是属于其生命之爱的欲望的邪恶；它们不是被感觉为邪恶，而是被感觉为没有人注意到的快乐。谁会留意自己的爱之快乐呢？他的思维漂浮在它们上面，就像小船漂浮在河流上；人感觉它们就像深深吸入的芳香空气。他只能在外在思维中对它们有所感觉，甚至在那里也没有注意到它们，除非他清楚知道，它们是邪恶。对此，详情可见下文（298节）。
④主以上千种方法，甚至以最秘密的方法实现从恶中的这种引出。其中只有一些方法被透露给我，而且都是最普通的，这些方法是：人完全没有意识到的欲望快乐成群结队地排入属于人之灵的内在思维，由此排入他的外在思维；它们在其中以一种满足、愉快或渴望的感觉出现，并在那里与他的属世和感官快乐混在一起。在这个领域有分离和洁净的方法，也有收回和排放的途径。这些方法主要是为了某些作为功用的目的而沉思、思考和反思的快乐；作为功用的目的与人的各种工作和职务的元素和细节一样多。它们也与一个人为了表现得像个文明道德的人，也像个属灵人而进行反思的快乐一样多；此外还有一些闯进来的不令人快乐的东西。这些快乐因属于外在人中的人之爱，故是分离、洁净、排出并收回属于内在人的恶欲快乐的方法。
以一个视利益或友情为目的，或其职务功用的不义法官为例。他内心里不断专注于这些目的，但表面上旨在表现得像一个熟练的律师和一个义人。他不断以琢磨、思想、反思并打算如何弯曲、反转、改写和调整法律制度，以便他的判决看似符合法律和正义的表象为快乐。殊不知，他的内在快乐就是由狡猾、欺诈、诡计、暗中偷盗，以及其它许多类似东西构成的；由如此多的恶欲快乐构成的这种快乐，就在他的外在思维的一切事物中掌权，并且表现正义、诚实的快乐就在这外在思维中。内在快乐被允许降至这些外在快乐，并在那里混在一起，就像胃里的各种食物一样。它们在那里被分离、洁净并带走。然而，这一切只适用于更严重的恶欲快乐。
对恶人来说，只能将更严重的邪恶从不那么严重的邪恶中分离、洁净和收回；而对善人来说，不仅严重的邪恶，而且不那么严重的邪恶也能被分离、洁净和收回。这一切通过对良善与真理，公义与诚实的情感的快乐实现，人照着他视恶如罪，由此避开并厌恶它们的程度而体验到这种情感的快乐，若与它们争战，更是如此。这些就是主洁净所有得救之人所用的方法。祂也通过外在方法洁净这些人，这些方法涉及名声和尊敬，有时涉及财富。即便如此，主也将对良善与真理的情感的快乐植入这些方法，好叫它们通过这些快乐被引导和调整，以至于变成爱邻的快乐。
人若能在某种可见形式中看见恶欲的快乐，或能以某种感官清楚感知到它们，就会看见并发觉它们数量多到无法界定。因为整个地狱无非是所有恶欲的一个形式，并且那里没有哪两种恶欲是一模一样的，也永远不可能有。人对这些无数欲望几乎一无所知，更不知道它们是如何联系在一起的。然而，主通过祂的圣治不断允许它们涌现，以便带走它们，并且按完美的秩序和系列如此行。一个恶人就是一个最小形式的地狱，正如一个善人就是一个最小形式的天堂。
要明白并确信主以上千种方法，甚至以最秘密的方法实现从恶中的这种引出，再没有比观察灵魂在身体中的秘密运作更好的了。人们对这些运作的认识如下：当人要吃食物时，他会看着它，闻它的气味，对它有食欲，品尝它，用牙齿咀嚼，用舌头咽进食道，从而进入胃里。但人对灵魂的秘密运作一无所知，因为他没有感觉到它们。这些运作如下：胃搅动所接受的食物，用它的分泌物打碎食物，将其分类，也就是消化它，然后成分合适的份，提供给吸收它们的敞开的小孔和静脉；有的被输送到血液，有的被输送到淋巴管，有的被输送到肠系膜的乳糜管，有的被输送到肠。然后，来自肠系膜中的乳糜池的乳糜通过胸导管被带入腔静脉，由此被带入心脏，再从心脏被带入肺脏，从肺脏通过左心室被带入主动脉，又从主动脉通过整个分支系统被带入全身的各个器官，以及肾脏。在每个器官里面都会实现血液的分离，以及杂质的净化和清除；更不用说心脏如何将已在肺脏净化的血液输送到脑，它通过颈动脉做到这一切，脑又如何将复活的血液输送回腔静脉（就是刚才提到的胸导管引入乳糜的地方），从那里再输送回心脏了。
这些和其它无数现象就是灵魂在身体中的秘密运作。大多数人感觉不到这些运作，不精通解剖学的人对它们一无所知。然而，类似的事就发生在人心智的内层，因为凡能在身体中发生的事，无不来自心智。人的心智就是他的灵，他的灵同样是一个人。唯一区别在于，凡发生在身体中的事，都是在属世层面发生的，凡发生在心智中的事，都是在属灵层面发生的；这种相似性是很完美的。由此明显可知，圣治以上千种方法，甚至以最秘密的方法在每个人里面作工；它的不断努力或目的就是洁净人，因为它的目的就是拯救他；人义不容辞的责任只有一个，那就是移走外在人中的邪恶。如果我们热切地祈求主的帮助，主就会处理好剩下的事。
296. So, then, that Divine providence with evil people may be clearly perceived and thus comprehended, the headings listed above must be explained in the order in which we have presented them.
FIRST, that every evil contains countless constituents: Every evil appears to a person's sight as a simple entity. That is how hatred and vengeance appear, theft and fraud, adultery and licentiousness, arrogance and haughtiness, and so on. But people do not know that every evil contains countless constituents - more than the number of fibers and vessels in a person's body. For an evil person is a hell in miniature form, and hell consists of millions and millions of spirits, each one there having a seemingly human form, even though a monstrous one, with all the fibers and all the vessels in him inverted. Every spirit is himself an evil, appearing to himself as a single entity, but having in him countless constituents, as many as the lusts of that evil. For every person is his own evil or his own good, from his head to the sole of his foot.
Since that is the case with an evil person, it is apparent therefore that he is a single evil composed of various, countless constituents, which are evils individually and are called lusts for evil.
It follows from this that all of these constituents, in the order in which they exist, must be repaired and transformed by the Lord for a person to be reformed, and that this can be accomplished by the Lord's Divine providence only gradually, from a person's first age even until his last.
[2] When it is represented in hell, every lust for evil appears as some harmful animal, such as a dragon, a basilisk, 1a viper, an eagle owl, a screech owl, and so on. The lusts for evil in an evil person appear likewise when he is viewed by angels. All of these forms of lusts must be transformed one by one. The person himself, who in respect to his spirit appears as a monstrous person or devil, must be transformed in order to be seen as a beautiful angel, and each lust for evil must be transformed so as to appear as a lamb, a sheep, a pigeon or dove, as angels' affections for good appear in heaven when they are represented. Turning a dragon into a lamb, a basilisk into a sheep, or an owl into a dove can be accomplished only gradually, by eradicating evil from its seed on and implanting a good seed in its place.
This, however, can be done only as is comparatively the case in the grafting of trees, in which the roots remain with some portion of the trunk, but the engrafted branch nevertheless turns the sap drawn up through the old root into sap producing good fruit.
The branch to be engrafted can be obtained only from the Lord, who is the tree of life. This, too, accords with the Lord's words in John 15:1-7. 2
[3] SECOND, that an evil person of himself steers himself ever more deeply into his evils: We say he does it of himself, because every evil originates from the person; for he turns the good coming from the Lord into evil, as we said above.
As for the statement that an evil person steers himself more and more deeply into evil, the fundamental reason is that as he wills and does evil, he introduces himself more and more interiorly and also more and more deeply into societies in hell. As a consequence his delight in evil also grows, and this so occupies his thoughts that at last he feels nothing to be sweeter. Moreover, someone who introduces himself more interiorly and deeply into societies in hell becomes like one bound in chains. But as long as he lives in the world, he does not feel the chains. They are as though made of soft wool, or of delicate silk threads, which he loves because they titillate him. But after death those chains from being soft become hard, and from being titillating become biting.
[4] That the delight of evil grows by increments is something people know from experience with thefts, robberies, lootings, retaliation and revenge, exercises of tyranny, the pursuit of material gains, and other evils. Who does not feel the heightenings of delight in these in the measure of his successes in them and unrestrained practices of them? People know that a thief feels such delight in his thefts that he cannot desist, and, surprisingly, that he prizes one stolen coin more than ten coins received as a gift. (The same would be the case with adulterous affairs if it had not been provided that that evil decrease in potency in the measure of the abuse. But still there remains with many the delight of thinking and talking about such affairs, and if nothing more, still the lust to touch.)
[5] People do not know, however, that the reason for this is the fact that the person introduces himself more and more interiorly and more and more deeply into societies in hell as he commits evils willingly and at the same time by design. If he commits them only in thought, and not in the will, he is not yet with his evil in a society of hell, but enters it only when the evils are also in his will. If in that event he thinks as well that this or that evil is contrary to the commandments of the Decalogue, and regards those commandments as Divine, he then commits the evil on purpose, and so lowers himself to a depth from which he cannot be withdrawn except by actual repentance.
[6] It should be known that in respect to his spirit every person is in the spiritual world and in some society there - an evil person in a society of hell, and a good person in a society of heaven. The person also sometimes appears there when he is engaged in deep meditation.
It should be known, too, that as the sound accompanying speech spreads round about in the air in the natural world, so the affection accompanying thought spreads round about into societies in the spiritual world. The two also correspond, for affection corresponds to sound, and thought to speech.
[7] THIRD, that Divine providence with evil people is a continual permitting of evil in order to effect a continual turning away from it: We say that Divine providence in the case of evil people is a continual permitting because from their life can flow nothing but evil. For a person is either in a state of good or in a state of evil. He cannot be in both at the same time, nor in the two alternately unless he is "lukewarm". 3Moreover the Lord does not introduce evil of life into the will and through that into the thought, but it is introduced by the person, and this is called permission.
[8] Now because everything that an evil person wills and thinks is by permission, the question then is what Divine providence does in that case, which is said to operate in the least particulars in every person, in an evil person as well as in a good one. It consists, however, in its continually permitting for the sake of its goal, and permitting only such things as are conducive to the goal, and in its continually examining, winnowing, and purging the evils which by permission ensue, and banishing and in imperceptible ways expelling those that are incongruous.
These processes take place principally in a person's interior will, and from this in his interior thought.
Divine providence operates continually also in this respect, that it provides against banishable and expellable evils being given admission again by the will, since everything given admission by the will is incorporated into the person. On the other hand, evils that are admitted by the thought and not the will are kept separate and dismissed.
This is the continual operation of the Lord's providence in the case of evil people, which, as we said, is a continual permitting in order to effect a continual turning away.
[9] A person knows scarcely anything of these processes, because he has no perception of them. The principal reason he does not perceive them is that the evils are those of the lusts belonging to his life's love, and those evils are not felt as evils but as delights, to which no one pays any attention. Who pays attention to the delights of his love? His thought swims in them, like a boat that is carried along in the current of a river, and he perceives a kind of sweet-smelling atmosphere which he inhales with a deep breath.
A person is able to sense something of these evils in his outer thought only. But still he does not pay attention to them there, unless he knows well that they are evils.
But more on this subject in the discussion following next.
[10] FOURTH, that the turning away from evil is accomplished in a thousand ways by the Lord, even in very secret ways: Of these ways, only some have been disclosed to me, but no more than the most general, namely, that the delights of lusts, of which a person knows nothing, are emitted in groups and clusters into the interior thoughts belonging to a person's spirit, and from there into his outer thoughts, where they appear in the form of some sensation of pleasure, gratification or longing, and are commingled there with his natural and sensory delights. The means of winnowing and purging are located there, as well as the ways of turning and expulsion.
The means are especially the delights of meditation, thought and reflection for the sake of particular ends that are useful; and ends that are useful are as many as the particular and individual objectives of any business or occupation. They are also as many as the delights of reflection in order that the person may appear as a civic and moral one, and also as a spiritual one, despite the undelightful obstacles that stand in the way. Because those delights are delights of his love in his outer self, they are means of winnowing, purging, expelling and turning away the delights of the lusts for evil in his internal self.
[11] Take, for example, an unjust judge, who regards material gain as his end or partiality as the purpose of his office. Inwardly he is continually intent on these, but outwardly means to behave as one learned in the law and just. Such a judge continually takes delight in meditating, thinking, reflecting, and planning in order to twist, turn, adjust and conform an adjudication so that it appears consonant with the laws and a semblance of justice. Nor does he know that his inner delight consists in cunning and guile, deception and pretense, trickery and craft, clandestine thefts, and many other evils, and that this delight, composed as it is of so many delights of lusts for evil, governs in each and every consideration of his outer thought, where his delights are those of appearing to be just and honest. His inner delights descend into these outer delights, and they are mixed together like foodstuffs in the stomach, and there they are winnowed, purged, and turned aside. But this is the case only with the delights of lusts for evil that are more serious.
[12] In the case of an evil person, indeed, only a winnowing, purging and turning away of his more serious evils from the less serious is possible. Possible in the case of a good person, however, is a winnowing, purging and turning away not only of his more serious evils but also of his less serious ones, and this is accomplished through the delights of his affections for goodness and truth and for justice and honesty, into which he comes to the extent that he regards evils as sins and therefore refrains from and is averse to them, and still more if he fights against them. These are the means by which the Lord purges all those people who are saved. He purges them also by external means, which have to do with his reputation and honor, and sometimes with material gain. But still the Lord implants in them the delights of affections for goodness and truth, by which they are directed and adjusted so as to become the delights of a love for the neighbor.
[13] If someone were to see the delights of lusts for evil all together in some form, or clearly perceive them with some sense, he would see and perceive them to be so numerous as to be beyond counting. For the whole of hell is nothing but the embodiment of all lusts for evil, and no lust for evil there is entirely like or the same as another, nor can one be entirely like or the same as another to eternity. Moreover, of these countless lusts a person knows almost nothing, still less how they are connected. And yet the Lord through His Divine providence continually allows them to manifest themselves in order that they may be turned away, which is the case in their every succession and series. An evil person is in miniature form a hell, as a good person is in miniature form a heaven.
[14] The fact that the turning away from evil is accomplished in a thousand ways by the Lord, even in very secret ways, can be no better seen and thus concluded than from the secret operations of the soul in the body. Those that a person knows about are as follows, that he inspects the food he is about to eat, discerns it by its smell, hungers for it, tastes it, chews it with his teeth, and swallows it with his tongue down his throat and so into his stomach. In contrast, however, are the operations of the soul of which a person knows nothing, because he has no sensation of them, which are as follows: that the stomach churns the foods received, with solvents opens and breaks them up or digests them, and submits suitable elements to little orifices opening there and veins which absorb them; that it sends off some of the nutriments into the blood, some into lymphatic vessels, some into the lacteal vessels of the mesentery, and some down into the intestine; that after being drawn up from its cisterna in the mesentery through the thoracic duct, the chyle is then discharged into the vena cava and so into the heart, and from the heart into the lungs, and from there through the left ventricle of the heart into the aorta, and from the aorta through its branches into the organs of the entire body, and also into the kidneys, in each of which is effected a separation, purging and removal of heterogeneous elements from the blood.
We pass by without mention how the heart sends its blood, purified in the lungs, up into the brain, which it goes through arteries called the carotids, and how the brain returns the blood, vivified, into the vena cava, just above the place where the thoracic duct discharges the chyle, and so once again into the heart.
[15] These, in addition to countless others, are secret operations of the soul in the body. A person has no sensation of them, and anyone not versed in the science of anatomy has no knowledge of them. And yet similar processes take place in the interior components of a person's mind, as nothing can occur in the body without being impelled by the mind. For a person's mind is his spirit, and his spirit is equally human, the only difference being that the activities occurring in the body take place naturally, while those occurring in the mind take place spiritually. There is a complete similarity.
It is apparent from this that in every person Divine providence operates in a thousand ways, even in very secret ways; that it continually has as its end to purge him, because it has as an end to save him; and that nothing more is incumbent on the person than to put away evils in his external self. The Lord provides the rest, if entreated to.
Footnotes:
1. A legendary serpent or dragon, whose breath and glance were said to be lethal. Formerly identified in English translations of the Latin Vulgate with the cockatrice, and retained as such in the King James Bible.
2. "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."
3. See Revelation 3:16.
296. For a clear sense and grasp of the way divine providence works with evil people, I need to explain these statements in the order in which they are listed.
(a) There are countless elements in every evil. Every evil looks to us like a simple unit. That is how we see hatred and vengefulness, theft and fraud, adultery and promiscuity, pride and arrogance, and the like. We do not realize that there are countless elements in every evil, more than there are fibers and vessels in the human body. An evil person is a miniature form of hell, and hell is made up of millions of individuals, each one in a form that is human even though it is grotesque. All the fibers and all the vessels in that person are inverted. Essentially, a spirit is an evil that looks to itself like a single entity, but there are as many elements in it as there are compulsions that arise from it. We are all our own good or our own evil from our heads to the soles of our feet. So if evil people are like this, we can see that each one is an evil made up of countless different things that are distinct varieties of evil, things we refer to as the compulsions of that evil.
It then follows that if we are to be reformed, the Lord has to repair and turn around all these elements in the sequence in which they occur, and that this cannot be accomplished except by the Lord's divine providence working step by step from the beginning of our lives to the end.
[2] In hell, every compulsion to evil looks like a vicious animal when it is made visible, like a dragon, for example, or some kind of poisonous snake, or some kind of owl, and so on. This is what the compulsions of our own evil look like when angels see them. All these forms of compulsion have to be turned around one at a time. The task is to take people who in spirit look like gargoyles or devils and turn them around to look like beautiful angels, and each single compulsion has to be turned around so that it looks like a lamb, a sheep, a dove, or a turtledove. This is what the desires for good of angels in heaven look like when they are made visible. Changing a dragon into a lamb or a serpent into a sheep or an owl into a dove can only happen gradually, by uprooting the very seed of the evil and planting good seed in its place.
This has to be done in the way a scion is grafted onto a tree that is nothing but some roots and a trunk. Even so, the branch that has been grafted gets some sap from the old root and turns it into good, juicy fruit. The scion that is to be grafted has to be taken from the Lord, who is the tree of life. This is the intent of the Lord's words in John 15:1-7.
[3] (b) Evil people are constantly and intentionally leading themselves deeper into their evils. We say they are doing this intentionally because everything evil comes from us. We turn the goodness that comes from the Lord into evil, as already noted [294]. The basic reason evil people lead themselves deeper into evil is that they are making their way farther and farther into hellish communities, getting in deeper and deeper as they intend and do what is evil. This increases their pleasure in evil as well, and it takes possession of their thoughts to the point that nothing feels more gratifying. Furthermore, when we have made our way farther and deeper into hellish communities, we are wrapped up in chains, so to speak, though as long as we are living in this world, we do not feel them as chains. They feel like soft linen or slender threads of silk that we like because they caress us. After death, though, the softness of the chains turns hard, and the caresses start to chafe.
[4] If we consider theft, robbery, plunder, vengeance, domineering, profiteering, and the like, we can recognize this growth of the pleasure we find in evil. Do not the people who are committing these evils feel surges of pleasure as things go well and as obstacles to their efforts vanish? It is well known that thieves get such pleasure from theft that they cannot stop stealing; and strange as it sounds, they love one stolen coin more than ten coins freely given. It would be the same for adulterers if things were not so arranged that the power to commit this evil decreases as it is abused. Still, though, for many people the pleasure of thinking and talking about it is still there, and if nothing else, there is the insistent urge to touch.
[5] What people do not realize is that this is happening because they are making their way farther and farther, deeper and deeper, into hellish communities as they commit these evils intentionally and consciously. If the evils occur in our thoughts only and not in our volition, we are not with the evil in some hellish community yet. We enter such a community when the evils are in our volition as well. If at that time we are also conscious that this evil is against the laws of the Ten Commandments, and if we regard these laws as divine, and still deliberately do it, this sends us down so deep that the only way we can be rescued is by active repentance.
[6] We need to realize that all of us, in spirit, are in some community in the spiritual world, in a hellish one if we are evil, and a heavenly one if we are good. Sometimes we are even visible there when we are deep in meditation. Further, just as sound and speech spread through the air in the physical world, desire and thought spread out in the communities in the spiritual world. There is a correspondential relationship here because desire answers to sound and thought to speech.
[7] (c) For evil people, divine providence is a constant permission of evil with the ultimate goal of constantly leading them out. The reason divine providence is a constant permission for evil people is that nothing can come out of their life except evil. Whether we are devoted to good or evil, we cannot be devoted to both at the same time, or even alternately, unless we are lukewarm. It is not the Lord who lets evil living into our volition and from there into our thought, it is we ourselves; and this is called permission.
[8] Now since everything evil people intend and think is a matter of permission, the question arises as to what divine providence is in this situation, the providence that we say is at work in the smallest details within all of us, evil and good alike. Divine providence consists of the fact that it is constantly allowing things to happen for a purpose and is permitting only things that serve that purpose, nothing else. It is constantly examining the evils that are allowed to emerge, separating them, purifying them, banishing the ones that do not suit its purpose, and lifting them away in ways we cannot see. This is going on primarily in our deeper volition and secondarily in our deeper thought. Divine providence is also constantly at work to see that we do not welcome back into our volition the things that have been banished and lifted from us, because everything we accept into our volition becomes part of us. Things we have accepted in thought but not in volition, though, are separated and sent away.
This is the constant effort of the Lord's providence for evil people--as just noted, a constant permission with a view to constant rescue.
[9] We know very little about this because we do not feel it. The main reason we do not feel it is that our evils are inherent in the cravings of our life's love, and we do not feel these as evil but as pleasant. No one pays them any heed. Do we pay any attention to the pleasures of our love? Our thoughts drift along in them like a little boat in the current of a river. We sense them like a breath of fragrant air that we breathe in deeply. All we can do is sense a little of them in our outer thought, but we still take no notice of them there unless we have a clear knowledge of what evil is. There will be more on this later, though [298].
[10] (d) The Lord does this leading out of evil in a thousand ways, some of them quite mysterious. I have been shown only a few of these, and only some of the commonest ones at that. What happens is that pleasures of our compulsions, of which we are utterly unaware, are emitted in close-knit groups into the inner thought processes of our spirit and from there into its outer thought processes. There they take on the guise of a kind of feeling that something is gratifying or pleasing or desirable. These inner pleasures mingle there with our lower and sensory pleasures. In this arena there are means of separation and purification and routes of dismissal and relief. The means are primarily the pleasure we find in contemplation, thought, and reflection for various purposes that are constructive; and there are as many purposes that are constructive as there are elements and details of our various jobs and offices. There are also just as many constructive purposes as there are attractive thoughts about how we can seem to be civic-minded and moral individuals and spiritual individuals--as well as some unattractive ones that intrude themselves. Because these pleasures are effects of our love in our outer self, they serve as means by which the pleasures of the compulsions to evil of our inner self can be separated, purified, excreted, and withdrawn.
[11] For example, take dishonest judges, who see money or cronyism as the goals or functions of their office. Inwardly, they are constantly focused on these goals, but this comes out in an effort to act competently and fairly. They find a constant pleasure in pondering, thinking, reflecting, and intending ways to bend, turn, adapt, and finagle the legal system so that their decisions seem to conform to the laws and to mimic justice. They are not aware that this inner pleasure is made up of plots, pretences, deceit, undercover theft, and much more of the same kind, and that a pleasure comprising all these pleasures of obsessions with evil is the controlling element in everything that goes on in their outward thinking where they find pleasure in seeming to be fair and honest.
The inner pleasures are allowed to come down into the outer ones and mingle there the way food is churned in the stomach. That is where they are separated, purified, and withdrawn. This applies, though, only to the more serious pleasures of our compulsions to evil.
[12] For evil people, only this separation, purification, and withdrawal of the more serious pleasures from the less serious ones is possible. For good people, however, there can be a separation, purification, and withdrawal of the less serious evils as well as the more serious ones. This is accomplished by means of the pleasures of our attraction to what is good and true, what is fair and honest, pleasures that we experience to the extent that we see our evils as sins and therefore abstain from them and turn away from them, and even more if we actively fight against them. These are the means the Lord uses to purify everyone who is being saved. He also purifies our evils by outward means that have to do with our reputation and respect and sometimes our finances. Even so, the Lord is planting in these means the pleasures of desires for what is good and true that guide and adapt them so that they become pleasures of a love for our neighbor.
[13] If we were to see the pleasures of our compulsions to evil in some kind of visible form or feel them clearly with any other sense, we would see and sense that there are so many that they cannot be delimited. Hell in its totality is nothing but a form of all our compulsions to evil; and in hell there is no single compulsion to evil that is exactly like any other. There cannot be one exactly like another to eternity. We know almost nothing about these countless elements, let alone how they are connected; and yet in his divine providence the Lord is constantly letting them come forth so that they can be withdrawn, doing this in a perfect pattern and sequence. An evil person is a miniature hell, and a good person is a miniature heaven.
[14] There is no better way to see and be assured that the Lord accomplishes this withdrawal from evils in a thousand ways, some most mysterious, than to look at the mysterious workings of the soul in the body. Here are some that we know about.
We know that when we are going to eat something we look at it, smell it, want it, taste it, break it up with our teeth, and use our tongues to send it down the esophagus into the stomach. However, there are mysterious workings of the soul of which we are totally unaware because we do not feel them. The stomach churns the food it has received, breaks it down and sorts it out with its secretions--that is, digests it--and assigns the elements to the appropriate open pores and veins that take them in, carrying some elements off into the blood, some into the lymphatic vessels, and some into the lacteal vessels of the mesentery, while some are sent down into the intestines. Then the chyle that comes from its reservoir in the mesentery is brought down through the thoracic duct into the vena cava and from there into the heart, and from the heart into the lungs. From there it passes through the left ventricle of the heart into the aorta, and from there through the whole branching system into the organs of the whole body. Material is also brought to the kidneys, in both of which there take place separation, purification, and withdrawal from the blood of elements that are not suitable. Allow me to leave out how the heart sends the blood that has been purified in the lungs up to the brain, which it does through the carotid arteries, and how the brain sends energized blood back into the vena cava just above the place where the thoracic duct injects the chyle, and from there back to the heart.
[15] These are some of the mysterious workings of the soul in the body, and there are many others. Most people are unaware of them, and people who are not trained in anatomy know nothing about them. Yet things like this are going on in the deeper reaches of our own minds, since nothing can happen in the body unless it comes from the mind. The mind is our spirit, and the spirit is just as much a person as we are. The only difference is that the things that happen in the body happen on the physical level and the things that happen in the mind happen on the spiritual level. There is a perfect parallelism.
We can see from this that divine providence works in a thousand ways, some most mysterious, in each of us, and that its constant effort is to purify us. This is because it is focused on the goal of saving us; and all that is required of us is that we set aside the evils in our outer self. The Lord takes care of the rest, if we ask.
296. In order, therefore, that the Divine Providence with the wicked may be clearly seen and thus understood, the propositions stated above now fall to be explained in the order in which they were presented.
First: There are innumerable things in every evil. In man's sight every evil appears as one single thing. This is the case with hatred and revenge, theft and fraud, adultery and whoredom, arrogance and high-mindedness, and with every other evil; and it is not known that in every evil there are innumerable things, exceeding in number the fibres and vessels in a man's body. For a wicked man is a hell in its least form; and hell consists of myriads of myriads of spirits, and every one there is in form like a man, although a monstrous one, in which all the fibres and vessels are inverted. The spirit himself is an evil which appears to himself as a "one"; but there are innumerable things in it as many as the lusts of that evil, for every man is his own evil, or his own good, from the head to the sole of his foot. Since then a wicked man is such, it is evident that he is one evil composed of innumerable different evils each of which is a distinct evil, and they are called lusts of evil. Hence it follows that all these in their order must be restored and changed by the Lord in order that the man may be reformed; and this cannot be effected unless by the Divine Providence of the Lord, step by step from the earliest period of man's life to the last.
[2] In hell every lust of evil when visually represented appears like a noxious creature, as a dragon, or a cockatrice, or a viper, or a bird of night, or an owl, and so on; and similarly do the lusts of evil appear in a wicked man when he is viewed by angels. All these forms of lusts must be changed one by one; and the man himself, who with respect to his spirit appears as a human monster or devil, must be changed to become like a beautiful angel; and every lust of evil must be changed to appear like a lamb, or a sheep, or a pigeon, or a turtle dove, as the affections of good in the angels appear in heaven when visually represented; and to change a dragon into a lamb, a cockatrice into a sheep, and an owl into a dove can only be effected step by step, by rooting out evil from its very seed and implanting good seed in its stead. This, however, can only be done as is done, for example, in the grafting of trees. When their roots with some of the trunk remain, the engrafted branch draws sap through the old root and turns it into sap that makes good fruit. The branch that is to be engrafted can only be taken from the Lord, who is the Tree of Life. This, moreover, is in accordance with the words of the Lord (John 15:1-7).
[3] Second: A wicked man from himself continually leads himself more and more deeply into his evils. It is said, from himself, because all evil is from man, for man turns good that originates from the Lord into evil, as was said above. The real reason why the wicked man immerses himself more deeply in evil is that as he wills and commits evil he advances into infernal societies more and more interiorly and also more and more deeply. Hence also the delight of evil increases, and so occupies his thoughts that at last he feels nothing more pleasant. He who has advanced more interiorly and deeply into infernal societies becomes as if he were bound with chains. So long as he lives in the world, however, he does not feel his chains, for they are as if made from soft wool or from fine threads of silk, and he loves them as they give him pleasure; but after death, instead of being soft they become hard, and instead of being pleasant they become galling.
[4] That the delight of evil mounts up from strength to strength is well known from thefts, robberies, plunderings, acts of revenge, tyranny, unlawful acquisition of wealth and other evils. Who does not feel the exaltation of delight as he succeeds in them and as he practises them without restraint? It is well known that a thief feels such delight in thefts that he cannot desist from them, and what is wonderful, that he finds more pleasure in one stolen coin than in ten that are given him as a gift. It would be the same with adultery if it had not been provided that the power of committing this evil decreases with its indulgence; but yet with many there remains the delight of thinking and talking about it; and if nothing more, there is still the lust of touch.
[5] It is not known, however, that this increase of delight comes from a man's penetrating into infernal societies more and more interiorly and more and more deeply as he commits the evils from will and at the same time from thought. If the evils are only in thought and not in the will, the man is not yet in an infernal society with the evil, but he enters it when the evils are also in the will. If he then also thinks that the evil is contrary to the precepts of the Decalogue, and considers these precepts as Divine, he commits the evil of set purpose, and thereby plunges to a depth from which he can be led out only by actual repentance.
[6] It should be known that every man as to his spirit is in the spiritual world in some society there, a wicked man in an infernal society and a good man in a heavenly society; and sometimes he also appears there when in deep meditation. Moreover, as the sound of the voice with the spoken words diffuses itself in the air in the natural world, so affection with its thought diffuses itself among societies in the spiritual world; and there is a correspondence between them, for affection corresponds to sound and thought to speech.
[7] Third: The Divine Providence with the wicked is a continual permission of evil, to the end that there may be a continual withdrawal from it. The Divine Providence with wicked men is a continual permission because nothing but evil can proceed from their life; for man, whether he is in good or in evil, cannot be in both at the same time, nor in each alternately unless he is lukewarm; and evil of life is not introduced into the will and through it into the thought by the Lord but by man; and this is called permission.
[8] Now since everything that a wicked man wills and thinks is of permission the question arises, What then is the Divine Providence here, which is said to be in the most individual things with every man, both wicked and good? It consists in this, that it continually grants permission for the sake of the end, and permits such things as pertain to the end and no others; and the evils that proceed by permission it continually keeps under view, separates and purifies, sending away and removing by unknown ways whatever is not consistent with the end. These things are effected principally in man's interior will, and from this in his interior thought. The Divine Providence is also unceasing in providing that what must be sent away and removed is not received again by the will, since all things that are received by the will are appropriated to the man; but those which are received by the thought and not by the will are separated and removed. This is the Lord's continual Providence with the wicked and is, as has been stated, a continual permission of evil to the end that there may be an unceasing withdrawal from it.
[9] Man knows scarcely anything of these operations because he does not perceive them. The chief reason why he does not perceive them is that the evils pertain to the lusts of his life's love, and these evils are not felt as evils but as delights to which no one pays attention. Who pays any attention to the delights of his love? His thought floats on in them like a boat which is borne along on the current of a river, and there is perceived as it were a fragrant-smelling atmosphere, which is inhaled with a full breath. Only in his external thought can he feel something of them, but even there he pays no attention to them unless he knows well that they are evils. But more will be said concerning this in what follows.
[10] Fourth: The withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand ways that are most secret. Of these only some have been disclosed to me, and none but the most general, as, that the delights of lusts of which man knows nothing are admitted by companies and groups into the interior thoughts of man's spirit and from these into his exterior thoughts in which they make their appearance under a certain sense of satisfaction, pleasure, or longing; and there they mingle with his natural and sensual delights. Here are the means of separation and purification, and also the ways of withdrawal and removal. The means are chiefly the delights of meditation, thought and reflection for the attainment of certain ends which are uses; and ends that are uses are as many in number as the particular and individual matters of one's business and office. They are also as many as the delights of reflection for the attainment of certain ends, as that he may appear to be a civil and a moral man and also a spiritual man, besides the undelightful things which interpose. These delights, because they belong to his love in the external man, are the means of separation, purification, rejection and withdrawal of the delights pertaining to the lusts of evil that belong to the internal man.
[11] Take, for example, an unjust judge who regards gains or friendship as the ends or uses of his office. Inwardly he is continually engrossed in these, but outwardly his object is to act as a skilled lawyer and a just man. He continually delights in meditating, thinking, reflecting and framing intentions that he may bend, turn, adapt and adjust the right so that it may still appear to conform to the laws and bear a semblance to justice. He does not know that his internal delight consists of cunning, fraud, deceit, clandestine theft and many other evils; and that this delight, composed of so many delights of the lusts of evil, rules in every detail of his external thought, where he harbours the delights of appearing to be a just and sincere man. Internal delights are let down 1into these external delights and they are mingled like food in the stomach; and there they are separated, purified and drawn away. This, however, is done only with the more grievous delights of the lusts of evil.
[12] With a wicked man no separation, purification and removal is possible other than of the more grievous from the less grievous evils. With a good man, however, there can be the separation, purification and removal not only of the more grievous but also of the less grievous evils. This is effected by the delights of the affections of the good and the true, of the just and of the sincere, into which he comes so far as he regards evils as sins, and so shuns and turns away from them, and still more if he fights against them. These are the means by which the Lord cleanses all who are saved. He cleanses them also by external means which pertain to fame and honour, and sometimes to wealth; yet into these the Lord introduces the delights of the affections of good and truth, by which they are so directed and adapted as to become delights of the love of the neighbour.
[13] If anyone were to see the delights of the lusts of evil together in some form, or were to perceive them distinctly by any sense, he would see and perceive them to be so numerous that they could not be defined; for the whole of hell is only a form 2of all the lusts of evil, and there no lust of evil is exactly like another or the same as another, nor can there be such likeness to eternity. Of these innumerable lusts man knows scarcely anything, much less how they are linked together. Yet the Lord by His Divine Providence continually permits them to come forth, to the end that they may be withdrawn; and this is effected in their every order and series; for a wicked man is a hell in its least form, as a good man is a heaven in its least form.
[14] That the withdrawal from evils is effected by the Lord in numerable and hidden ways cannot be better seen and thus acknowledged than from the hidden operations of the soul in the body. Those of which man has some knowledge are the following: The food which he is about to eat he looks at, learns its nature from its odour, has an appetite for it, tastes it, chews it with his teeth, rolls it with his tongue down to the gullet, and thus to the stomach. But the hidden operations of the soul, of which man knows nothing because he does not perceive them, are the following: The stomach rolls about the food it receives, opens and separates it by means of solvents, that is, digests it, and distributes appropriate portions to the little mouths opening there of the veins which drink them in. It also sends some to the blood, some to the lymphatic vessels, some to the lacteal vessels of the mesentery and some down to the intestines. Then the chyle, conveyed through the thoracic duct from its cistern in the mesentery, is carried into the vena cava, and so into the heart. From this it is carried into the lungs, from them through the left ventricle of the heart into the aorta, and from this by its branches into the viscera of the whole body and also to the kidneys. In each of these organs is effected a separation of the blood, a purification, and a removal of heterogeneous substances, not to mention how the heart sends up its blood to the brain, after it has been purified in the lungs, which is done by the arteries called carotids, and how the brain returns the blood, now vivified, to the vena cava mentioned above, where the thoracic duct brings in the chyle, and so back again to the heart.
[15] These and innumerable others are the secret operations of the soul in the body. They are not felt by man, and he who is not versed in the science of anatomy knows nothing of them. Yet similar operations take place in the interiors of man's mind; for nothing can take place in the body except from the mind, since a man's mind is his spirit, and his spirit is equally a man, with this difference only that whatever is done in the body is done naturally, and whatever is done in the mind is done spiritually: there is a perfect similitude. Hence it is evident that the Divine Providence operates with every man in a thousand hidden ways; and that its unceasing care is to cleanse him because its end is to save him; and that nothing more is incumbent on man than to remove evils in the external man. The rest the Lord provides, if His aid is earnestly implored.
Footnotes:
1. This is translating "demittuntur," suggested by Tafel Latin edition (1555) and Worcester Latin edition (1899) for the reading of the Original Edition "demittantur," which is probably an error.
2. Original Edition has "nisi quam." Tafel Latin edition (1855) and Worcester Latin edition (1899) insert "nihil" and omit "quam." It is often translated as "nothing but."
296. Therefore that the Divine providence with the evil may be more clearly seen and thus comprehended the points that have been stated above shall be explained in the order of their presentation. First: In every evil there are things innumerable. In man's sight every evil appears as one simple thing,-hatred and revenge, theft and fraud, adultery and whoredom, pride and haughtiness, and other evils, so appear,-and it is not known that in every evil there are things innumerable, more than there are fibers and vessels in a man's body. For an evil man is hell in the least form; and hell consists of myriads of myriads, and every one there is in form like a man, though monstrous, in which all the fibers and vessels are inverted. The spirit is itself an evil, appearing to itself as a one; but as many as are the innumerable things in a spirit so many are the lusts of that evil; for every man is his own evil or his own good from the head to the sole of the foot. Since, then, an evil man is such, it is evident that he is one evil composed of innumerable different ones, each of which is a distinct evil; and these are called lusts of evil. From all this it follows that all these, in the order in which they are, must be restored and turned about by the Lord that man may be reformed; and that this can be done only by the Lord's Divine providence, step by step, from the earliest period of man's life to the last.
[2] Every lust of evil in hell, when it is represented, appears like some noxious animal, as a dragon, or a basilisk, or a viper, or a horned owl, or a screech-owl, and so on; the lusts of evil in an evil man have a like appearance when he is looked at by angels. All these forms of lusts must be changed, one by one; the man himself who appears in respect to his spirit as a monster man or as a devil, must be so changed as to be like a beautiful angel; and every evil lust must be so changed as to appear like a lamb or a sheep, or like a pigeon or turtle-dove, which is the way in which the good affections of the angels appear in heaven when they are represented; and to change a dragon into a lamb, a basilisk into a sheep, or an owl into a pigeon, can only be done gradually by eradicating evil from its seed and implanting good seed in place of it. This can only be done comparatively as in the grafting of trees, the roots and some of the trunk of which remain, and yet the ingrafted branch turns the sap drawn up through the old root into a sap that makes good fruit. The branch to be ingrafted can be taken from no other source than the Lord who is the Tree of Life. This is in accordance with the Lord's words (John 15:1-7).
[3] Secondly: An evil man from himself continually leads himself more deeply into his evils. The expression, from himself, is used because all evil is from man, for man turns good that is from the Lord into evil, as has been said above. The essential cause of the evil man's leading himself more deeply into evil is that as he wills and does evil he advances more and more interiorly, and also more and more deeply, into infernal societies, and in consequence the delight of evil grows; and this so occupies his thoughts that at length nothing is sweeter to his sense. And he who has advanced more interiorly and deeply into infernal societies becomes as if he were bound with cords; although so long as he lives in the world he does not feel the cords, they are as if made of soft wool or smooth threads of silk, which he loves because they titillate. But after death these cords from being soft become hard, and instead of titillating they become galling.
[4] That the delight of evil is augmented is known from thefts, robberies, depredations, revenge, tyranny, money-getting, and other evils. Who does not feel the exaltation of delight in these things in the measure of his success and unrestrained indulgence? It is known that a thief feels such delight in thefts that he is unable to refrain, and what is wonderful, that he has more love for one coin that is stolen than for ten received as a gift. The same would be true of adultery, if it had not been provided that this evil decreases in potency in the measure of the abuse; although with many a delight in thinking and talking about it remains, and if nothing more there is still the lust of touch.
[5] But it is not known that this increase of delight comes of man's advancing into infernal societies more and more interiorly and more and more deeply, as from will and at the same time from thought he commits the evils. So long as the evils are in thought alone, and not in the will, man is not in an infernal society with the evil, but he enters it as soon as the evils are also in the will. And if he then thinks that this evil is contrary to the commandments of the Decalogue, and regards the commandments as Divine, he commits the evil designedly and thereby sinks himself to a depth from which he can be led forth only by actual repentance.
[6] It must be understood that in respect to his spirit every man is in the spiritual world, in some society there-an evil man in an infernal society, and a good man in a heavenly society, and sometimes when in deep meditation he also appears there; also that as the sound of the voice with the spoken words spreads itself all about in the air of the natural world, so affection with thought spreads itself into societies in the spiritual world; and this is a correspondence, for affection corresponds to sound and thought to speech.
[7] Thirdly: The Divine providence with the evil is a continual permission of evil, to the end that there may be a continual withdrawal from it. The Divine providence with evil men is a continual permission, because nothing but evil can go forth from their life; for man whether he be in good or in evil, cannot be in both at the same time, nor alternately unless he is lukewarm; and it is not the Lord but man that introduces evil of life into the will and through the will into the thought. This is what is called permission.
[8] Since, then, all things that an evil man wills and thinks are of permission, it may be asked what the Divine providence therein is which is said to be in the least particulars in every man, whether evil or good. But it consists in this, that it continually permits for the sake of the end, and permits such things as pertain to the end and nothing else; and the evils that go forth from permission it continually surveys, separates, and purifies, sending away things discordant and discharging them by unknown ways. These processes take place especially in man's interior will, and from this in his interior thought. The Divine providence is also unceasing in keeping watch that what must be sent away and discharged be not received again by the will; since all things that are received by the will are appropriated to man, while whatever is received by the thought and not by the will is separated and banished. Such is the Lord's continual providence with the evil, which is, as has been said, a continual permission, to the end that there may be an unceasing withdrawal.
[9] Of all this man knows scarcely anything, because he has no perception of it. The primary reason that he has no perception of it is that these evils are the evils pertaining to the lusts of his life's love; and these evils are not felt as evils but as delights to which no one gives attention. Who attends to the delights of his love? His thought floats on in them like a boat borne by the current of a river, and there is a perception as it were of a fragrant atmosphere which is inhaled with a full breath. Only in his external thought can he feel something of them, and even there he gives no attention to them unless he knows well that they are evils. But of this more in what follows.
[10] Fourthly: The withdrawal from evil is effected by the Lord in a thousand ways, and even in most secret ways. Only some of these have been disclosed to me, and none but the most general, which are these: The delights of lusts of which man has no knowledge are emitted in companies or in bundles into the interior thoughts that belong to man's spirit, and therefrom into his exterior thoughts, in which they appear under a kind of feeling of satisfaction or pleasure or longing; and there they are mingled with his natural and sensual delights. There, too, are the means of separation and purification, and also the ways of withdrawal and discharge. The means are chiefly the delights of meditation, of thought, and of reflection for the sake of certain ends which are uses; and the ends, which are uses, are as many as are the particulars and least particulars of one's business and office. Or again, they are as many as the delights of reflection, to the end that he may appear like a civil and moral man and also like a spiritual man; besides the undelightful things that insert themselves. These delights, because they belong to one's love in the external man, are the means of separation, purification, excretion, and withdrawal of the delights of the lusts of evil belonging to the internal man.
[11] Take, for example, an unjust judge who regards gains or friendship as ends or as uses of his office; inwardly he is continually in these things, but outwardly he aims to act like a skilled lawyer and a just man. He is constantly in the delight of meditation, thought, reflection, and purpose, that he may so bend, turn, adapt, and adjust the right that there may still appear to be a conformity with the laws and a semblance of justice, not knowing that his internal delight consists of cunning, frauds, deceits, clandestine thefts, and many other things, and that this delight, made up of so many delights of the lusts of evil, rules in all things and each thing of his external thought, wherein are the delights of appearing to be just and sincere. The internal delights are let down into these external delights, and they are mixed together like various kinds of food in the stomach; and there they are separated, purified, and conducted away; nevertheless, this is done only with the more grievous delights of the lusts of evil.
[12] For with an evil man no separation, purification, and withdrawal is possible except of the more grievous evils from the less grievous; while with a good man there can be not only a separation, purification, and withdrawal of the more grievous evils, but also of the less grievous; and this is done by means of the delights of affections for what is good and true and for what is just and sincere, into which he comes so far as he regards evils as sins and in consequence shuns them and turns away from them, and still more if he fights against them. Such are the means by which the Lord purifies all who are saved. These He also purifies by external means, which have respect to fame and honor, and sometimes to wealth; nevertheless there are implanted in these by the Lord the delights of affections for good and truth, by which they are so regulated and fitted as to become delights of love of the neighbor.
[13] If one could see the delights of the lusts of evil together in some form, or if he could clearly perceive them by any sense, he would see and perceive them to be too numerous to be defined; for all hell is nothing but a form of all the lusts of evil, and there no lust of evil is exactly like another or the same as another, neither can there be to eternity. And of these numberless lusts man knows scarcely anything, still less how they are connected. Nevertheless, the Lord through His Divine providence continually permits them to come forth, to the end that they may be taken away, which is done in every order and series. An evil man is a hell in the least form, as a good man is a heaven in the least form.
[14] That this withdrawal from evils is effected by the Lord in a thousand ways, even the most secret ways, one can best see and be convinced of by comparison with the secret operations of the soul in the body. Those that man has knowledge of are the following: The food that he is about to eat he looks at, perceives the odor of, hungers for, tastes, chews with his teeth, rolls to the oesophagus with his tongue, and thus into the stomach. But the soul's secret workings, of which man knows nothing because he has no sensation of them, are these: That the stomach rolls about the food received, opens and separates it by means of solvents, that is, digests it, and offers fitting portions of it to the little mouths there opening and to the veins that drink them in, sends some to the blood, some to the lymphatic vessels, some to the lacteal vessels of the mesentery, and some it sends away down the intestines; and finally the chyle, conveyed through the thoracic duct from its receptacle in the mesentery, is carried into the vena cava, and so into the heart, and from the heart into the lungs, from them through the left ventricle of the heart into the aorta, and from this by its branches into the viscera of the whole body and also to the kidneys; and in every one of these organs a separation of the blood, a purification and a withdrawal of heterogeneous substances is effected; not to speak of how the heart presents its blood, when defecated in the lungs, to the brain, which is done through the arteries called carotids, and how the brain returns the blood vivified to the vena cava (just above where the thoracic duct brings in the chyle), and so back again to the heart.
[15] These and innumerable others are the secret operations of the soul in the body. These operations are not felt by man, and he who is not versed in the science of anatomy knows nothing about them. And yet similar things take place in the interiors of man's mind; for nothing can take place in the body except from the mind; for man's mind is his spirit, and his spirit is equally a man, with the difference only that whatever is done in the body is done naturally, and whatever is done in the mind is done spiritually; the similitude is complete. From all this it is evident that the Divine providence works in every man in a thousand ways, even to the most secret, and that its unceasing end is to purify him, because its end is to save him; and that nothing is incumbent on man except to remove evils in the external man. All the rest the Lord provides if He is appealed to.
296. Ut itaque Divina Providentia cum malis distincte percipiatur, et sic comprehendatur, explicanda sunt supradicta in illa serie, in qua allata sunt: PRIMUM: Quod innumerabilia sint in unoquo vis malo: unumquodvis malum apparet coram homine sicut unum simplex; sic apparet odium et vindicta, sic furtum et fraus, sic adulterium et scortatio, sic superbia et elatio animi, praeter reliqua; et non scitur quod in unoquovis malo sint innumerabilia; sunt plura quam in hominis corpore sunt fibrae et vasa; est enim homo malus in minima forma infernum, ac infernum consistit ex myriadibus myriadum, et unusquisque ibi est in forma sicut homo tametsi monstrosus, ac omnes fibrae ac omnia vasa in illo sunt inversa; ipse spiritus est malum, apparens sibi sicut unum; sed tot innumerabilia quot in illo sunt, tot sunt concupiscentiae illius mali; est enim quisque homo suum malum aut suum bonum a capite ad volam pedis: cum itaque talis est malus, patet quod sit unum malum compositum ex variis innumerabilibus, quae distincte mala sunt, et vocantur concupiscentiae mali. Ex his sequitur, quod illa omnia in ordine in quo sunt, a Domino reparanda et convertenda sint, ut homo reformari possit, et quod hoc non fieri possit nisi per Divinam Domini Providentiam successive a prima aetate hominis usque ad ultimam ejus.
[2] Omnis concupiscentia mali in inferno apparet, cum repraesentatur, sicut animal noxium, ut vel sicut draco, vel sicut basiliscus, vel sicut vipera, vel sicut bubo, vel sicut ulula, et sic porro; similiter apparent concupiscentiae mali apud hominem malum, cum spectatur ab angelis; omnes hae formae concupiscentiarum singillatim convertendae sunt; ipse homo, qui quoad spiritum apparet ut homo monstrum seu ut diabolus, convertendus est ut sit sicut angelus pulcher; et unaquaevis concupiscentia mali convertenda est, ut appareat sicut agnus, aut ovis, aut sicut columba et turtur, quemadmodum affectiones boni angelorum in Coelo, cum repraesentantur, apparent; ac convertere draconem in agnum, basiliscum in ovem, ac bubonem in columbam, non potest fieri nisi quam successive, eradicando malum a suo semine, ac implantando bonum semen loco ejus. Sed hoc non fieri aliter potest, quam comparative sicut fit cum insitione arborum, quarum radices cum aliquo trunco remanent, sed usque insitus ramus succum per veterem radicem extractum vertit in succum facientem fructus bonos: ramus ille inoculandus non aliunde desumi potest quam a Domino, qui est Arbor vitae; quod etiam est secundum Domini verba, Johannes 15:1-7.
[3] SECUNDUM. Quod malus in sua mala se ex se continue profundius inducat: dicitur ex se, quia omne malum est ex homine, vertit enim bonum, quod a Domino est, in malum, ut supra dictum est. Quod malus se profundius inducat in malum, ipsa causa est, quod inferat se in societates infernales interius et interius, et quoque profundius et profundius, sicut vult et facit malum; inde quoque crescit jucundum mali, et hoc occupat ita cogitationes ejus, ut tandem non sentiat [aliquid ut] dulcius; et qui se in societates infernales interius et profundius intulit, fit sicut circumligatus vinculis; sed quamdiu in mundo vivit, vincula non sentit; sunt sicut ex molli lana, aut ex lenibus filis serici, quae amat quia titillant; verum post mortem vincula illa ex mollibus fiunt dura, et ex titillantibus pungentia.
[4] Quod jucundum mali incrementa capiat, notum est ex furtis, latrociniis, depraedationibus, vindictis, dominationibus, lucris, et aliis; quis non in illis secundum successus et secundum exercitia non inhibita sentit elevationes jucundi; notum est, quod fur in furtis tale jucundum sentiat, ut non desistere possit, et, mirum, quod amet unum nummum furatum plus quam decem nummos dono datos: simile etiam foret cum adulteriis, nisi provisum esset, quod malum illud potentia decrescat secundum abusum; at usque apud multos remanet jucundum cogitandi et loquendi illa, et si non plus, usque libido tangendi.
[5] Sed nescitur, quod hoc inde sit, quod se in societates infernales interius ac interius, tum profundius et profundius inferat, sicut ex voluntate et simul cogitatione committit mala; si modo in cogitatione sunt, et non in voluntate, nondum est cum malo in societate infernali, sed tunc intrat quando etiam sunt in voluntate; si tunc etiam cogitat quod id malum sit contra praecepta decalogi, et haec facit Divina, tunc ex proposito committit illud, et per id se demittit profunde, e quo non educi potest nisi per actualem poenitentiam.
[6] Sciendum est, quod omnis homo quoad spiritum suum sit in Mundo spirituali in quadam societate ibi, malus homo in societate infernali, et bonus homo in societate coelesti; apparet etiam quandoque ibi, dum in alta meditatione est. Tum, quod sicut sonus cum loquela se circumfundit in aere in mundo naturali, ita affectio cum cogitatione se in societates circumfundat in mundo spirituali; est etiam correspondentia, nam affectio correspondet sono, et cogitatio loquelae. 1
[7] TERTIUM. Quod Divina Providentia cum malis sit continua mali permissio, ob finem ut sit continua abductio. Quod Divina Providentia apud homines malos sit continua permissio, est quia ex vita illorum non aliud prodire potest quam malum; homo enim sive in bono est, sive in malo; non potest in utroque simul esse, nec per vices nisi sit tepidus; et malum vitae in voluntatem et per illam in cogitationem non inducitur a Domino, sed inducitur ab homine, et hoc dicitur permissio.
[8] Nunc quia omnia quae homo malus vult et cogitat sunt permissionis, quaeritur quid tunc ibi Divina Providentia est, quae dicitur in singularissimis esse apud unumquemvis hominem, tam malum quam bonum; sed illa consistit in eo, quod continue permittat ob finem, et quod permittat talia quae finis sunt, et non alia, et quod mala quae ex permissione prodeunt, continue lustret, separet, purificet, et non convenientia amandet, et per ignotas vias exoneret: haec fiunt imprimis in hominis interiore voluntate, et ex hac in interiore ejus cogitatione: Divina Providentia etiam continua est in eo, quod prospiciat ne amandanda et exoneranda rursus a voluntate recipiantur, quoniam omnia quae recipiuntur a voluntate, appropriantur homini; at quae recipiuntur cogitatione, et non voluntate, illa separantur et ablegantur. Haec est continua Domini Providentia apud malos, quae, ut dictum est, est continua permission 2ob finem ut sit perpetua abductio.
[9] De his homo vix aliquid scit, quia non percipit; quod non percipiat, est primaria causa, quia sunt mala concupiscentiarum amoris vitae ejus, et illa mala non sentiuntur ut mala, sed ut jucunda, ad quae non aliquis attendit; quis attendit ad jucunda sui amoris; in his natat cogitatio ejus, sicut cymba quae fertur in vena fluvii; ac percipitur sicut athmosphaera fragranter olens, quae pleno spiritu attrahitur: solum aliquid ex illis sentire potest in cogitatione sua externa, sed usque nec ad illa ibi attendit, nisi probe sciat quod sint mala. Sed de his plura in nunc sequentibus.
[10] QUARTUM. Quod abductio a malo fiat mille modis, etiam arcanissimis a Domino; ex illis solum aliqua mihi detecta sunt, verum non nisi quam communissima, quae sunt, quod jucunda concupiscentiarum, de quibus homo nihil scit, catervatim et fasciculatim emittantur in cogitationes interiores, quae sunt spiritus hominis, et inde in cogitationes exteriores ejus, in quibus apparent sub aliquo sensu volupis, amaeni aut cupidi, et commiscentur ibi cum jucundis naturalibus et sensualibus ejus; ibi sunt media separationis et purificationis, et quoque viae abductionis et exonerationis: media sunt imprimis jucunda meditationis, cogitationis, reflexionis propter aliquos fines, qui sunt usus, et fines qui sunt usus sunt totidem quot particularia et singularia negotii et functionis alicujus; tum etiam quot sunt jucunda reflexionis propter fines ut appareat sicut homo civilis et moralis, et quoque sicut homo spiritualis, praeter injucunda quae interpolant; illa jucunda quia sunt amoris ejus in externo homine, sunt media separationis, purificationis, excretionis et abductionis jucundorum concupiscentiarum mali interni hominis.
[11] Sit pro exemplo judex injustus, qui spectat lucra aut amicitias ut fines seu ut usus functionis suae; is interius continue in illis est, sed exterius ut agat sicut legisperitus et justus; ille continue in jucundo meditationis, cogitationis, reflexionis ac intentionis est, ut jus flectat, vertat, adaptet et coaptet, usque ut legibus conforme, ac justitiae analogon appareat; nec scit quod internum ejus jucundum consistat in 3astutiis, fraudibus, dolis, furtis clandestinis, ac multis aliis, et quod illud jucundum ex tot jucundis concupiscentiarum mali compositum dominetur in omnibus et singulis externae cogitationis, in qua jucunda apparentiae quod sit justus et sincerus, sunt; in haec jucunda externa demittuntur 4jucunda interna, et commiscentur sicut cibi in ventriculo, et ibi separantur, purificantur et abducuntur; sed usque non alia jucunda 5concupiscentiarum mali quam quae graviora sunt:
[12] apud hominem enim malum non datur alia separatio, purificatio et abductio quam malorum graviorum a minus gravibus, at apud hominem 6bonum datur separatio, purificatio et abductio malorum non modo graviorum sed etiam minus gravium, et hoc fit per jucunda affectionum boni ac veri, ac justi et sinceri, in quas venit quantum mala spectat ut peccata, ac ideo fugit et aversatur illa, et magis si pugnat contra illa; haec sunt media, per quae Dominus purificat omnes qui salvantur; purificat etiam eosdem per media externa, quae sunt famae et honoris, et quandoque lucri; sed usque his a Domino inserta sunt jucunda affectionum boni et veri, per quae diriguntur et aptantur ut fiant jucunda amoris proximi.
[13] Si quis videret jucunda concupiscentiarum mali simul in aliqua forma, aut distincte perciperet illa aliquo sensu, visurus et percepturus esset illa in tali numero, ut non definiri possint; est enim totum infernum [nihil] nisi quam forma omnium concupiscentiarum mali, et ibi nulla concupiscentia mali est alteri prorsus similis seu eadem, nec dari potest una alteri prorsus similis seu eadem in aeternum; et de innumerabilibus illis homo vix scit aliquid, minus quomodo connexa sunt; et tamen a Domino per Divinam Ipsius Providentiam continue permittitur ut prodeant ob finem ut abducantur, quod fit in omni ordine et serie; homo malus est in minima forma infernum, sicut homo bonus est in minima forma coelum.
[14] Quod abductio a malis fiat mille modis, etiam arcanissimis a Domino, non melius videri, et sic concludi potest, quam ex arcanis operationibus animae in corpore; illae de quibus homo novit sunt hae; quod cibum, quem comesturus est, spectet, odore percipiat, appetat, gustet, dentibus comminuat, per linguam devolvat in stomachum, et sic in ventriculum; at vero arcanae operationes animae, de quibus homo non aliquid scit, quia non sentit, sunt hae; quod ventriculus cibos receptos convolvat, per menstrua aperiat et separet, hoc est, digerat, ac convenientia porrigat osculis ibi hiantibus ac venis, quae illa imbibunt, et quod quaedam amandet in sanguinem, quaedam in vasa lymphatica, quaedam in vasa lactea mesenterii, et quaedam demittat in intestina; dein quod chylus ex cisterna sua in mesenterio per ductum thoracicum subductus inferatur venae cavae, et sic in cor, et a corde in pulmonem, et ab hoc per sinistrum cordis ventriculum in aortam et ab hac per ramos in viscera totius corporis, et quoque in renes, in quorum unoquovis fit sanguinis separatio, purificatio, ac heterogeneorum abductio: ut taceam quomodo cor suum sanguinem in pulmone defaecatum submittit in cerebrum, quod fit per arterias, quae vocantur carotides, et quomodo cerebrum remittit sanguinem vivificatum 7in venam cavam mox supra ubi ductus thoracicus chylum infert, et sic rursus in cor.
[15] Haec praeter innumerabilia alia sunt arcanae operationes animae in corpore; homo de his nihil sentit, et qui non scientiae anatomicae peritus est, nihil scit; et tamen similia fiunt in interioribus mentis hominis, nam nihil potest fieri in corpore, nisi inde, est enim mens hominis ejus spiritus, ac spiritus ejus aeque est homo, cum sola differentia, quod quae fiunt in corpore, fiant naturaliter, et quae fiunt in mente, fiant spiritualiter; est omnimoda similitudo. 8Ex his patet, quod Divina Providentia operetur mille modis, etiam arcanissimis, apud unumquemvis hominem, et quod sit continua in fine purificandi illum, quia in fine salvandi est, et quod non plus incumbat homini, quam ut removeat mala in externo homine; reliqua providet Dominus, si imploratur.
Footnotes:
1 Prima editio: loquelae,
2 Prima editio: pcrmissio
3 Prima editio: ex
4 Prima editio: demittantur
5 Prima editio: jucnnda
6 Prima editio: hominem
7 Prima editio: vivificatum
8 Prima editio: similitudo,