Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/181

 love of self, are in general, contempt of others, envy, enmity, and thence hostility toward all who do not favor them, hatred of various kinds, revenge, cunning, deceit, unmercifulness and cruelty. And in respect to the things of religion they not only entertain a contempt for the Divine and for divine things,—which are the truths and goods of the church,—but even feel anger against them, which is likewise turned into hatred when man becomes a spirit. And then he not only cannot endure to hear those things mentioned, but also burns with hatred against all who acknowledge and worship the Divine.

I once conversed with a certain spirit who had been in authority when in the world, and had loved himself in an unusual degree. This spirit, at the bare mention of the Divine, and especially at the mention of the Lord's name, was moved by such hatred arising from anger, that he burned with a desire to kill Him. The same spirit also, when his love was left unrestrained, desired to be the devil himself, that from self-love he might continually infest heaven. This, too, is the desire of many who are of the Roman Catholic religion, when they perceive in the other life that the Lord has all power, and themselves none.

There appeared to me some spirits in the western quarter toward the south, who said that they had been in stations of great dignity in the world, and that they deserved to be preferred above others and