Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 1.djvu/193

 man, and then seemed to himself to be no wiser than other men.

In the same degree in which there is wisdom and intelligence with angels, there is also wickedness and cunning with infernal spirits. For the cases are similar; because when the spirit of man is released from the body, it is in its own good or in its own evil,—an angelic spirit in his own good, and an infernal spirit in his own evil. For every spirit is his own good or his own evil, because he is his own love.

Therefore as an angelic spirit thinks, wills, speaks and acts from his own good, so does an infernal spirit from his own evil; and to think, will, speak and act from evil itself, is to do so from all the things which are included in the evil. It was otherwise when he lived in the body. The evil of the man's spirit was then restrained by the bonds in which every one is held by the law, by his love of gain and honor, and through fear of losing them; on which account the evil of his spirit could not then break out and manifest itself in its own intrinsic nature.

Besides, the evil of the man's spirit then lay wrapped up and veiled in external probity, sincerity, justice and the affection of truth and good, of which such a man has made an oral profession, and has assumed an appearance for the sake of the world. Under these outward semblances the evil lay so covered up and concealed that he was scarcely aware