1099. And a hold of every unclean spirit.- That this signifies where there is nothing but evils from the adulterated goods of the Word, is evident from the signification of a hold, as denoting the place where those are who are meant by Babylon, the signification of hold here being similar to that of habitation above; and from the signification of unclean spirits, as denoting those who are in evils from the adulteration of good, therefore, in the abstract, the evils themselves, which are adulterated goods. Goods which are applied to evils, as the goods of love to the Lord applied to the loves of self, and the goods of love towards the neighbour applied to the loves of the world, are called adulterated. Love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour are pure and holy loves; but the loves of self and of the world, such as these are with those who have claimed to themselves the Lord's dominion over heaven and the church, are impure and profane; therefore to change holy into profane loves is to adulterate the goods of the Word, especially when they call their profane things holy, and their evil things good. Those who have been such in the world become unclean spirits after death, and their hell is meant by the hold of every unclean spirit.
[2] Continuation concerning the Athanasian Creed.- As we have said man has thought from light, and thought from love, thought from light causing the presence of man in heaven, while thought from love is the cause of the conjunction of man with heaven; and the reason is, that love is spiritual conjunction. The result of this is, that when the thought of man's light becomes the thought of his love, he is introduced into heaven, as to a marriage, and as far as love in thought from light plays the chief part, or leads that thought, so far that man enters heaven, as a bride enters the bride-chamber, and is married. For in the Word the Lord is called the bridegroom and husband, and heaven and the church the bride and wife. By being married, is meant to be conjoined with heaven in one of its societies, and man is conjoined with it, to the extent that, in the world, he has procured intelligence and wisdom from the Lord by means of the Word, thus to the extent that he has, by means of Divine truths, learned to think that God exists, and that the Lord is that God. But he who thinks from few truths, that is from little intelligence, while he thinks from love, is indeed conjoined with heaven, but more remotely.
[3] By love is meant love to the Lord, and loving the Lord does not mean to love the Lord as a person. Man is not conjoined with heaven by this love alone, but by the love of the Divine Good and Divine Truth, which are the Lord in heaven and in the church; and the love of these does not consist in knowing and understanding them, nor in thinking about them and speaking of them, but in willing and doing them, because they are commanded by the Lord, and therefore, because they are of use. Nothing is complete until it is done, and what is done is the end, and the end is that for the sake of which the love is cherished; therefore from the love to will and do something, there exists the love of knowing, and understanding and thinking about it. Tell me, why you desire to know and understand anything, unless for the sake of the end that you love? The end that is loved is the deed. If you say for the sake of faith, then understand that faith alone, or faith merely in thought, without that actual faith which is action, is a nonentity. You are very much deceived if you imagine that you believe in God, while you do not perform the things which are of God; for the Lord teaches in John, "He that hath my precepts and doeth them he it is that loveth me, and I will make my abode with him; but he that loveth me not, keepeth not my words" (xiv. 21, 23, 24). In a word, to love and to do are one; therefore, in the Word, where mention is made of loving, doing is meant, and where mention is made of doing, loving is also meant; for that which I love, I do.
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