De Conjugio (Chadwick) n. 65

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

65. They practise their treachery by love towards children. They were seen to rise from the earth in front of Gehenna, almost invisible, continuously removing obstacles, so that they could enter chaste homes. They love these, not unchaste ones. They can put on different appearances, and they also have the trick of projecting themselves by their thoughts, as if they were elsewhere, and thus of entering. They also put on an appearance of innocence, and preach chastity, praising it highly. They pursue friendships in various ways, to such a point that they are praised and loved, and if the wife is in the secret and desires it, she is praised. They talked with me and said that they were surprised that people exist who are so conscientious as to say that this is contrary to conscience, charity, and religion. They were so deluded as to see no evil, let alone filth, in it. They even talked sensibly about marriage. Their hell too is forward beneath the buttocks amid a foul smell of excrement. Because they are deceitful, making a pretence of chastity, innocence, friendship, and so on, when reduced to their internals, which are adulteries, they undergo vastation to such a point that they appear as ugly devils. They have little that is human left in their internals; they become foolish, because they are opposed to the holiness of heaven.

They mock and laugh at those who call marriages holy and adulteries profane, or actually not allowed.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church