Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 8293

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8293. My soul shall be filled with them. That this signifies delight, is evident without explication. It is said, "my soul shall be filled," because the very delight of those who are in hell is to inflict evil on others; with some, for no other end than for the sake of the delight; with some, to the end that they may be reduced to slavery, and whom they desire to treat cruelly afterward. That they who are in evil of life have such a delight in the other life, scarcely any can believe, not even themselves; for so long as they are in the world they are restrained by fears of legal penalties, also of the loss of honors, wealth, reputation, and even of life. These fears cause them at that time to abstain from evils in externals; and from this they suppose that they are not of such a character; but when reflections upon the loss of life, of wealth, of honors, and of reputation are taken away from them, as is the case in the other life, and they are left to their evil, then the delight of doing evil, which had lain hidden in the will and had put itself forth whenever they could remove these fears, shows itself clearly. This delight then makes their life, which life is infernal life.


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