Apocalypse Explained (Whitehead) n. 171

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171. And who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, signifies entanglement with these, as is evident from this, that the loves that rule in the hells are the loves of self and of the world, and those loves are altogether contrary to the love to the Lord and the love to the neighbor, which rule in heaven. "Satan," by whom is meant hell (see above, n. 120), unceasingly inspires the loves of self and of the world; and these man also receives with delight, because they are in him hereditarily, and are therefore his proprium [his own]; thus hell insinuates itself with man and entangles him. This is what is signified by "the depths of Satan." There are few, however, who are aware of this, because these loves, as they are man's proprium [man's own] by inheritance, draw his mind to themselves by allurements from delight, and thus draw him away from the delights of heavenly loves, 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 what close up the internal man and open the external; and to the extent that the external is opened the internal is closed, so that the man is finally in total thick darkness in respect to the things of heaven and the church, though in light [lumen] in respect to the things of self and the world. (These things may be seen more fully described in the work on Heaven and Hell, in the chapter where it is shown that The Divine of the 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 in the Hells are in Evils and in Falsities therefrom, out of the loves of Self and of the World, and that these loves are the Infernal Fires, n. 551-565, 566-575; also in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 65-83, where these two loves are treated of.


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