Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/165

 who perform for him all good offices, and likewise converse with him about the Lord, heaven and angelic life; and instruct him in truths and goods. But if the man, now a spirit, be one of those who knew such things in the world, but in heart denied or despised them, he then, after some conversation, desires and also seeks to be separated from their company. When the angels perceive this, they leave him. After joining several other companies, he is at last associated with those who are in similar evil with himself. When this takes place, he turns himself away from the Lord, and turns his face toward the hell with which he had been conjoined while in the world, where those reside who are in a similar love of evil.

From these facts it is evident that the Lord draws every spirit toward Himself by means of the angels, and likewise by influx from heaven; but that the spirits who are in evil strenuously resist, and as it were tear themselves away from the Lord, and are drawn by their own evils, that is by hell, as by a rope. And because they are drawn, and by reason of their love of evil are willing to follow, it is manifest that they cast themselves into hell of their own free choice.

That such is the case cannot be believed in the world in consequence of the idea entertained of hell. Nor does it in the other life appear otherwise than in the world, before the eyes of those who are out