Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/169



LL who are in hell are in evils and the falsities thence derived; and no one there is in evils and at the same time in truths. Nearly all the wicked in the world are acquainted with spiritual truths, which are the truths of the church; for they have learned them in childhood from preaching and from reading the Word, and afterwards from the conversation they have had respecting them.

Some have even induced others to believe that they were Christians in heart because they knew how to discourse from truths with pretended affection, and also to act sincerely as if from spiritual faith. But such of them as have thought within themselves contrary to those truths, and have abstained from the doing of evils agreeable to their thoughts only on account of the laws of their country, and with a view to reputation, honors and gain, are all evil in heart; and are in truth and goods only as to the body and not as to the spirit.

When, therefore, external things are removed from them in the other life, and the internal things