4282. Those became such who were the sons or daughters of the Church, and fell into idolatry; they said that they had neither known nor cared anything for God, that they had lived unhappily in wedlock, believing in nothing but the life of the body; wherefore after death they become such as I have described. Those that were in the Church are at length, after many centuries, reduced to this state, and they become interior idolaters, for their life, although it appears human from their excelling in ingenuity of discourse and [a certain] polish, is yet an animal life, and thus after ages have passed they retain next to nothing of spiritual life, and finally are enabled to subserve the vilest uses, such as those above mentioned. - 1749, May 26.