19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication [unlawful sexual intercourse,] uncleanness, lasciviousness [inclined to lustfulness; sexual desire,]
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, [disagreeing or quarrelling?] emulations [ambition or endeavor to equal or excel others,] wrath [extreme anger,] strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings [excessive and boisterous indulgence, especially in alcohol and lustful gratification,] and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
-Galatians 5:19-26 King James Version (KJV)
Spiritual Diary, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by Bush, Smithson and Buss [1883-9] at sacred-texts.com
6031.
...It is also manifest that man must reject evil of himself and that, except he do it of himself, evils are not removed; which is contrary to the notion of those who believe that works are of no account, but faith alone. These also believe that God forgives all sins without any co-operation of man; when, nevertheless, without his co-operation nothing of evil is removed; for wounds cannot be healed unless they be laid bare. All the punishments in hell are for no other reason than that evils may be actually exposed and known; and they are punished until they do not will them.
THE LOVE OF RULING. It has been made known to me, by much experience, that an inexpressible pleasantness, and as it were sweetness, dwells in the love of ruling. In the case of Charles XII., when he was married, there was a struggle between him and his wife respecting the power of ruling; and I was then told that they called the delightfulness of that love their heaven; when, nevertheless, hell is in it.
A PLACE WHERE SENSUAL SPIRITS ARE. CHAR[LES] XII. Far away in the north, near the west, is a place where those are who are merely sensual. They say that they know all things, and that they see more clearly that others that a thing is so-and-so and not otherwise - for example, that it is nature, and not God, from which all things are - and who scoff at those who talk about such things as they do not see and touch. There is a hell within the hell there, where the more deeply sensual are. Certain ones were sent thither to see the places. They stated, that, in their chambers, they saw almost nothing; some saw something dimly. Those who were there, said that they see everything clearly; and the more sensual of them say that they see still more things there. This they highly value, there; for such are all the more sensual. There were tables, chairs and the like. Char[les] XII, who was sensual, and spoke as they did, was sent there. He is also their judge...
STATE OF C[HARLES] XII... (1.) C[harles] XII - was a most profoundly evil man, and diametrically opposed to the Divine; which being discovered he was at length cast down into the extremity of the west, and let down very deep. He became wholly as it were bony...
HELLS SEEN [BY ME]. Vice-President Hjarne [6036-1 "Vice-President" of the College of Mines. Hjarne held this post at the time of Swedenborg's appointment as "Assessor," in 1716, and for some years afterwards. -TR.] wished to see some one in hell; which also was permitted. He entered the first. In that one there was, as it were, a flaminess. Candles appeared to him; and this because those ones were in self-love. Thence he entered a second, where appeared those who are black there - a charred blackness. From thence he entered a third, and in that they seemed like persons buried in shrouds. They appeared pallid, like the dead. He asked them if they were dead. They said that to themselves they appear to be alive, but that they are such to the eyes of others. It was similar in the former hells: those there appear to one another like men, but in the light of heaven such as described. (4.) He afterwards went through a long void, and came to a cave, where they did not see any [spirits]. They were invisible like flying specters [or apparitions.] They were those who were able to cast themselves out into other places by means of phantasies. When he came to the end of the cave, he looked back and saw them sitting. Some were old men with beards; some with a face nothing but beard; and others were deformed after other fashions. He spoke a few words with them. From this, 5thly, he proceeded into another hell, where appeared, as it were, a horrid fieriness, and those there, as it were on fire; and they were such as were, from simulated affection, able to put on various affections, and at the same time to represent various things by phantasies - as, for instance, useful and elegant articles; but, as they went to excess with the phantasy, they were affected with weariness at presenting these things any further. In this [hell] was Er[ic] Benzel[ius]. And after this he [i.e., Vice-President Hjarne] was gone, [and] came forth into daylight.
ADULTERIES, THE LOVE OF RULING, DECEIT, ETC. It must be described how infernal [or hellish] are adulteries and the other sins... Scarcely anyone, at this day [in 1758,] believes that they are so infernal, and that adulterers cannot possibly be saved... Adulterers, no matter how morally well they may have lived in other respects and have given themselves to prayers, are cast into hell. ...In a word, marriages in the heavens are most holy; wherefore, they must not be profaned by adulteries.
Doctrine of Life (Dick) n. 76
76. No one can know what the chastity of marriage is, unless he shuns the lasciviousness of adultery as sin... It is a truth that the lasciviousness of adultery and the chastity of marriage are to each other just as hell and heaven are to each other; and that the lasciviousness of adultery makes hell with man, and the chastity of marriage makes heaven with him. However, the chastity of marriage is only possible with the man who shuns the lasciviousness of adultery as sin.
Heaven and Hell, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by John C. Ager [1900] at sacred-texts.com
The evils of those who are in the love of self are, in general, contempt of others, envy, enmity against all who do not favor them, and consequent hostility, hatred of various kinds, revenge, cunning, deceit, unmercifulness, and cruelty; and in respect to religious matters there is not merely a contempt for the Divine and for Divine things, which are the truths and goods of the church, but also hostility to them. When man becomes a spirit this hostility is turned into hatred; and then he not only cannot endure to hear these truths and goods mentioned, he even burns with hatred against all who acknowledge and worship the Divine. I once talked with a certain spirit who in the world had been a man in authority, and had loved self to an unusual degree; and when he simply heard some one mention the Divine, and especially when he heard him mention the Lord, he was so excited by hatred arising from anger as to burn with the desire to kill; and when the reins of his love were loosened he wished to be the devil himself, that from his love of self he might continually infest heaven. This is the desire also of some of the Papist [or Roman Catholic] religion when they perceive in the other life that the Lord has all power and they have none.
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