The New View of Hell/Chapter 9
IX.
DISPLAYS OF THE DIVINE BENIGNITY IN HELL.
MAN alone, of all created beings, is endowed with Liberty and Rationality. These are the properly human faculties. Without them he would not be man. These are the faculties which alone render him morally accountable. Without them, he would have been incapable of either sin or holiness; and to have been incapable of these, he must have been something other than man—a very different being from what he is.
Why is not the wolf or the bear morally responsible? Why is every other creature incapable of sin? Simply because man alone is endowed with what belongs to no other creature—a moral sense—the power to discriminate and the liberty to choose between justice and injustice, right and wrong; or in other words, with the faculties of rationality and liberty, which alone distinguish him from the brute creation and make him man.
But the very possession of these faculties involves a responsibility corresponding in magnitude to the dignity and worth of the endowment. It involves, moreover, the liability of their abuse and utter perversion by the possessor, and the possibility, therefore, of a spiritual lapse. And this must have been foreseen by the great Giver of these faculties. And now comes the question:
What shall be done with a man when he fails to discharge the obligations which the gift bestowed on him imposes?—when he abuses his properly human faculties, and yields to the promptings of his lower, carnal, animal nature, regardless of his obligations as a morally accountable being? What provision should infinite Love and Wisdom make for those who violate, and persist in violating, the laws of their spiritual or properly human nature? To say that their condition will be the same and their happiness the same in the Hereafter, as if they had faithfully obeyed these laws, is to utter what every enlightened mind sees to be absurd. As reasonably might one maintain that no penalty ought to be attached to the violation of physical laws; that men ought to be permitted to eat arsenic without being poisoned; to handle red hot iron without being burned; to leap from the top of Bunker Hill monument without being bruised; or to stick their bodies full of pins without suffering pain. There is everywhere and always a penalty attached to the violation of law. This is both wise and right. Otherwise laws would be without meaning and without force.
But infinite Love must make the best possible provision which infinite Wisdom can suggest, for those who abuse their human faculties, and obstinately persist in violating the laws of their spiritual being. It is bound by its very nature to do this. And who can doubt that it will do it? The illumined Swedenborg assures us that it actually does do it; and he tells us how. Nothing can exceed the extent and beauty of the Divine beneficence, as displayed in the provision made for those in the other world, who, by a life of evil here on earth, have confirmed themselves in a state of opposition to the Divine, and to the laws of their own inner and heavenly life.
"Life is love," is a remark often made by Swedenborg. And a man's ruling love is his life. His character is according to the nature of this love;—pure and heavenly if the love be pure; vile and infernal if the love be selfish. The ruling love is the inner and ever active force, perpetually working to mould the whole outer man—his words, tones, looks and actions—into perfect correspondence with itself.
Look at the face of an inveterate miser. How visibly is the spirit that prompts and sways him imprinted there! Or that of the confirmed inebriate—is it not the very image of bestiality? Or listen to the tones of the hardhearted, cruel and malignant—are they not in perfect agreement with the affections from which they proceed? So with hate, revenge, jealousy, despair—every strong passion or deep, feeling long indulged—its manifest tendency is to mould the countenance and the whole outer man into perfect correspondence with itself. And on the other hand who has not seen the very beauty, brightness and joy of heaven beaming from the face of one in whose heart love to the Lord and the neighbor has long been the ruling principle of action?
Now under the operation of this law—a law too generally recognized and too long established to be for a moment called in question—what ought to be the appearance of evil spirits in the other world, where infernal loves have taken full possession of their souls, from centre to circumference? Why, they ought to be monsters in form as they are in feeling and purpose. Their looks and tones ought to be the true expression of the infernal loves that rule them. Accordingly Swedenborg says:
"All the spirits in the hells, when inspected in any degree of heavenly light, appear in the form of their own evil; for every one there is the effigy of his own evil, because with every one the interiors and exteriors act in unity,—the interiors exhibiting themselves visibly in the exteriors, which are the face, the body, the speech, and the gestures. Thus their quality is known as soon as they are seen. In general, they are forms of contempt of others; of menace against those who do not pay them respect; of hatred of various kinds; also of various kinds of revenge. Ferocity and cruelty from their interiors are transparent through those forms. But when others commend, honor, and worship them, their faces are contracted, and have an appearance of gladness arising from delight. It is impossible to describe in a few words all those forms, as they actually appear, for no one of them is similar to another. Among those, however, who are in a similar evil, and thence in a similar infernal society, there is a general likeness, from which, as from a plane of derivation, the faces of all there appear to bear a certain resemblance to each other. In general, their faces are hideous, and void of life like corpses; in some cases they are black; in others they are fiery like little torches; in others, disfigured with pimples, warts, and ulcers. . . . Their bodies also are monstrous; and their speech is like the speech of anger, hatred, or revenge,—for every one speaks from his own falsity, and in a tone corresponding to his own evil. In a word, they are all images of their own hell"—Heaven and Hell, n. 553.
And mark here the unspeakable love and mercy of the Lord!—the wonderful display of the Divine benignity! The devils are not permitted to see themselves or each other as the hideous creatures they really are. They only appear under these disgusting and loathsome forms when seen, as Swedenborg saw them, in the light of heaven; for this light aione reveals the real quality of persons and things. Seen in the false and fatuous glare of hell, nothing appears as it really is. And so the true character of the devils—their internal and external deformity—is mercifully concealed from themselves and from each other. Their dreadful wickedness does not seem to them wickedness, but praiseworthy shrewdness. Their unmitigated foolishness seems to them not foolishness at all, but rarest wisdom. They do not appear to each other like the horrid monsters they are, but like a very respectable class of people. In their own light, and to each other's eyes, they look not hideous but quite human. Their bitter and fiendish tones have in them nothing harsh or grating to each other's ears; on the contrary they seem quite agreeable and even musical to them. Accordingly Swedenborg, after describing the loathsome appearance of the devils as seen by himself in the clear light of heaven, adds:
"It is, however, to be observed, that such is the appearance of infernal spirits when seen in the light of heaven; but among themselves they appear like men. This is of the Lord's mercy, that they may not appear as loathsome to each other as they do to the angels. But this appearance is a fallacy; for as soon as a ray of light from heaven is let in, their human forms are turned into monstrous ones, such as they are in reality, as described above; for in the light of heaven everything appears as it really is."—Ibid.
Again he says:
"Among the wonderful things which exist in the other life, this also is one: that, when the angels of heaven look into evil spirits, these latter have a totally different appearance from what they have when seen among themselves. Among themselves and in their own fatuous light, which is like that of a coal fire, as before remarked, they appear to themselves in a human form, and also, according to their fantasies, not without beauty; but when the same spirits are looked into by the angels of heaven, that light is instantly dissipated, and they appear with entirely different faces, each according to his character; some dusky and black as devils; some with pale ghastly faces like corpses;—some like skeletons; and, more wonderful still, some like monsters, the deceitful like serpents, and the most deceitful like vipers; and others in other forms. But as soon as the angels remove their sight from them, they appear in their above mentioned forms, which they have when seen in their own light."—Arcana Cœlestia n. 4533. See also A. C. 4798.— H. H. 481.
A wonderful display, indeed, is it of the Lord's unspeakable love and mercy, that He does not permit infernal spirits to see themselves or one another as they really are!
And we have similar illustrations of the Divine benignity here on earth. The desperately wicked never see their own moral deformity. Their eyes are blinded out of tenderest mercy toward them; for to see themselves as they appear in the light of heaven, would cause them unutterable agony. Take any class of the most hardened villains you can find—those of a character nearest allied to that of devils, such as gamblers, thieves, swindlers, murderers, fornicators, pimps, pirates—does any one imagine that these people see themselves to be the dreadful creatures they really are? Have they any idea of their terrible moral deformity? Not one of them, in their ordinary evil state. How can they? for they are not in the all-revealing light of heaven, but in the fatuous light of hell; and this light which is real darkness, forever blinds and bewilders. In their own infernal light, these fellows appear to each other very respectable—appear, indeed, like men; but in the light of the Divine Word, or as viewed by heavenly minded people, they appear not as men but as monsters.
And not only are the faces and the whole personal appearance of the devils in exact correspondence with their evil loves, but all their surroundings exist under the very same law, and are produced in the same way. All the objects they look upon are but the embodied forms of their own evil loves. So that their whole outward or phenomenal world is a perfect reflection, under the law of correspondence, of their internal or spiritual condition.
Accordingly we are told that the devils appear clad in filthy and tattered garments; that they dwell in deserts, bogs, and miry places—some of them in caves and dens like those of wild beasts; that among the objects by which they are surrounded, are dreary deserts, rocky and barren wastes, thorns and thistles, ferocious beasts and venomous reptiles, dirty pools and heaps of filth. And these things (all of which are spiritual in their nature) are but the embodied forms, under the law of correspondence, of the filthy and infernal loves of the evil spirits themselves. To quote again from Swedenborg:
"How the delights of every one's life are turned into corresponding delights after death, may indeed be known from the science of correspondences; but because that science is not yet generally known, I will illustrate the subject by some examples from experience.
"All those who are in evil, and have confirmed themselves in falsities against the truths of the church, and especially those who have rejected the Word, shun the light of heaven, and betake themselves to subterranean places, which through the openings appear very dark, and to the clefts of rocks, and there hide themselves. And they seek such retreats because they have loved falsities and hated truths for such caverns, and clefts of rocks, and darkness also, correspond to falsities, and light corresponds to truth. It is their delight to dwell in such places, and undelightful to them to dwell in open plains.
"In like manner do those who have taken delight in clandestine and insidious plots, and in the secret contrivance of fraudulent schemes these, too, are in those caverns, and enter into chambers so dark that they cannot even see one another, and there they whisper in each other's ears in corners. This is what the delight of their love is turned into.
"They who have studied the sciences with no other end than to acquire the reputation of learning, and who have not cultivated their rational faculty by means of them, and have taken delight in the things of memory from pride thence derived, love sandy places, which they choose in preference to fields and gardens, because sandy places correspond to such studies.
" They who have been acquainted with the doctrinals of their own church and of others, and have not applied any of their knowledge to life, choose for themselves rocky places, and dwell among heaps of stones, shunning places that are cultivated, because they dislike them.
"They who have ascribed all things to nature, and they also who have ascribed all things to their own prudence, and who by various artifices have raised themselves to honors, and have acquired wealth, apply themselves in the other life to the study of magical arts, which are abuses of divine order, and find therein the highest delight of their life. They who have applied divine truths to gratify their own loves, and thus have falsified them, love urinous places and odors, because these correspond to the delights of such love.
"They who have been sordidly avaricious, dwell in huts, and love swinish filth, and such nidorous exhalations as proceed from indigested substances in the stomach. They who have passed their life in mere pleasures, have lived delicately, and indulged their appetites, prizing such enjoyments as the highest good of life, love excrementitious things and privies in the other life. These are delightful to them, because such pleasures are spiritual filth. They shun places that are clean and free from dirt, because such places are undelightful to them."
Here, again, we are called to admire the unspeakable love and mercy of the Lord as manifested toward those in the other world who are "enemies to him by wicked works." For we must remember that all the objects which greet their senses—though in reality just as Swedenborg has described them—appear very different to the devils from what they did to him, or from what they do to our imagination—for we are able to contemplate them in some degree of heavenly light. The regions they inhabit are certainly dismal enough; but not dismal to them. All the objects by which they are surrounded, are really hideous and loathsome to angelic natures; but not hideous or loathsome to them. The odors they inhale, so fetid and offensive to angels, are by no means offensive to them. On the contrary the devils find these things quite agreeable and even delightful for they accord perfectly with their nature; they agree with their desires or loves; they are in exact correspondence with their life.
Everywhere and always life seeks that which is in agreement with its nature. Nothing else will satisfy its cravings. Such is the nature of the devils, that the scenery of hell, so dismal and repulsive to our imagination, is quite agreeable to them;—more beautiful, indeed, to their eyes than would be the splendors and magnificence of heaven. Their life being what it is—degraded, bestial, infernal—the objects that surround them are the very ones with which they are best pleased; for they suit their tastes, being in perfect correspondence with their life. To them, their dens and caverns seem preferable to the most gorgeous palaces of heaven; their filthy rags more seemly than the shining, garments of the angels; their fetid stenches more grateful to their nostrils than would be the sweetest perfume from the gardens of the blest. "It is delightful to the devils," says Swedenborg, "to inhabit such places [as caverns and clefts of the rocks], and undelightful to them to dwell in open fields."
"They love sandy places, and prefer them to fields and gardens." "They love mean and squalid brothels."
"They love the filth of swine." "They love urinous places and scents, because these things correspond to the delights of their life."
I am aware that this will sound very strange to minds much confirmed in the old ideas. It will seem to them utterly incredible that such unsightly and disgusting objects as those above mentioned, should be delightful to the devils. But they will see upon reflection that nothing could be more reasonable. For are there not animals that delight in just such sights and smells here on earth? If so, then these things are agreeable to some kinds of life. They are in perfect correspondence with some natures, as truly so as beautiful gardens and the perfume of sweetest flowers are in correspondence with the nature of angels. To crows and kites the smell of carrion is not unpleasant, but delightful. Owls and bats prefer darkness to light. Mire and filth are not unsightly, but beautiful to the eyes of swine; and the stench of their own stye is quite agreeable to their nostrils. Serpents and vipers love the clefts of rocks foxes love deserts; rats prefer cellars and subterranean regions; turtles and crocodiles seek marshy places; and to the eyes of wolves and bears their own dens, undoubtedly, seem more beautiful and home-like than would the palaces of kings.
Who cannot see that the things which such creatures prefer for food, the odors they delight to inhale, and the places they love to inhabit, affect their senses in a manner very different from what they do ours? And the only reason to be assigned is, that their life is very different from the properly human. Their loves and consequent tastes are different from ours. And they choose and delight in what is agreeable to their life, as we do what is agreeable to ours. Says Swedenborg:
"The delights belonging to the lusts of evil, and those belonging to affections for the good, cannot be compared; because resident within the former is the devil, and within the latter is the Lord. If a comparison must be drawn, the delights of the lusts of evil can only be compared to the lasciviousness of frogs in ponds, and of serpents in slimy places; while the delights of affections for the good may be compared to mental delights in gardens and flowers. For things similar to those which are pleasing to frogs and serpents, are also pleasing to those in the hells who are in the lusts of evil; and things similar to those which are pleasing to the mind in gardens and flowers, are also pleasing to those in the heavens who are in affections for the good. For as before stated, unclean correspondences are pleasing to the evil, and clean correspondences to the good."—Divine Providence n. 40.
And are there not, even in this world, people who seem to prefer disorder, filth and squalor, to order, neatness and cleanliness? Have you never seen persons, who, if they were presented with the most magnificent habitation, filled and surrounded, too, with everything beautiful, and arranged in the most orderly and tasteful manner, would, if left to do precisely as they pleased, convert that palatial residence into a vile and loathsome place in less than six months? Are there not some whose nature (inherited, or acquired by habit,) is so near akin to that of certain animals, that they would very soon convert the sweetest and most lovely place of abode, into a squalid and disgusting stye? Their nature is such that cleanliness and order seem far less agreeable to them, than filth and disorder. And, place them where you will, they will very soon reduce all their surroundings to a condition that will reveal with great clearness the state of their own minds. So on the other hand, place people of refinement and culture in the humblest cabin, and they will soon make that cabin reveal to the careful observer something of their refined and cultivated tastes. And the reason of this is, that every kind of life is delighted with, and therefore seeks, that which corresponds with its own nature.
But it does not appear after all, some may say, how the devils, having once been men in the natural world, can find delight in things which here on earth are known to be agreeable only to a low order of animals.
It does not? Let the reader reflect for a moment. What has made those people devils? What kind of life is theirs?—the life, too, that they have freely chosen? It is not angelic life. It is not properly human. It is the life of self and sense—mere corporeal or animal, not celestial life. They have marred and spoiled their truly human life; or have suffered it to become stifled and overrun by a rank luxuriance of thorns and thistles and noxious weeds, which, if not carefully and betimes rooted out, are sure to spring up and take possession of the natural heart. Only a kind of bestial life, therefore, is left them—such life as corresponds to, and forms the very essence of, animals like those above mentioned. This life, therefore, must from its very nature, seek and find delight in scenes and objects which are agreeable to such animals.
Considering the nature of the devils, therefore, or the kind of life they have freely chosen and made their own, it is most reasonable that the hideous and loathsome objects by which they are surrounded, should not appear hideous or loathsome to them, but pleasant and altogether agreeable; for they are all in perfect correspondence with their life's love. And whatever corresponds to this, is always perceived as delightful. But if this be really so, some will say, what is there, after all, to choose between heaven and hell? What great advantage has one over the other? The devils, you say, have their delights as well as the angels, though they are not delighted with precisely the same things. They have what is most agreeable to their nature. Their surroundings as well as their associates are such as they prefer. They go in freedom where they wish to go—into the society of congenial spirits; and there they feel quite at home. What great inducement is there, then, to strive for heaven, or to shun hell?
It is true that every kind of love has its delights. But the nature of the delight is according to the quality of the love. The purer the love, the more exalted the delight. The delights of the devils, therefore, as compared with those of the angels, are as the delights of bears and crocodiles compared with those of Christ-like men; yea, they are as the sweetness and tranquillity of love, compared with the bitterness and unrest of hatred.
Why is God so unspeakably happy—the happiest Being in the universe? Because He is the best. Because his love is the purest. It is the love of others out of Himself—the love of imparting happiness. And the more a man grows to be like God—the more he receives of His unselfish love, the more does he enjoy of that sweet peace which it is in the very nature of this love to bestow. While the less of this love he receives—the more selfish and un-like the Lord he is, the more does he experience of that inward unrest which it is the nature of this opposite love to produce.
Who that has ever truly loved—be it husband, mother, wife or child—does not know that in the exercise of disinterested love, there is an unspeakable bliss which the world cannot give? The Lord promises peace—his own peace—to all who humbly acknowledge Him, and willingly consecrate themselves on the altar of duty. "Peace I leave with you," says He to all such—"my peace I give unto you." There is true peace nowhere but in Him;—nowhere but in the reception and exercise of his unselfish love. Therefore He says: "In me ye shall have peace." And when those who have followed Him in the regeneration, enter the spiritual world and come more fully into their life's love, they will receive in greater fullness than ever before the delights of that love. They will then know, from the sweet seraphic joy that floods their souls, the full meaning of the words, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
But they who have yielded habitually to the promptings of their lower nature, regardless of God and the good of the neighbor, and have not denied self, taken up the cross, and followed the Divine Master—these, when they enter the other world, come more fully into the life and delights of self-love. And what are these? The delights of fraud, hatred, revenge, adultery, blasphemy, wickedness of every kind;—delights, indeed, to those whose ruling love is the love of self, but torment and unmitigated misery when compared with the pure ecstatic delights of angelic love. Therefore these persons are represented as receiving the sentence, "Depart from me, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
The truth, then, summarily stated, is: that all life, from that of the highest angel in heaven down to that of the meanest creature here on earth, has its delights; for life is love, and all love has its delights. The degree of happiness which each creature enjoys, depends upon the character of his delights; and the character or exaltation of his delights, depends on the nature or quality of his love. And as far as the human transcends in dignity the bestial life—as far as man surpasses the brute in wisdom or in the extent and variety of his powers, so far has he the capacity of enjoyment above (yes, and of misery below) that of the brutes, and so far does the happiness of the angels exceed that of the devils.
Is not this new view of hell in the highest degree rational? What can be more reasonable, (in view of the kind of life which infernal spirits have voluntarily made their own) than that they should be totally oblivious of their own condition?—that they should be unable to see themselves or one another or the objects that surround them, as they really are?—that everything should seem to them quite different from what it is, and from what it actually appears when viewed in the light of heaven?—that they should remain forever ignorant of realities, and spend an eternity in the midst of shadows and phantasms? (See Arcana Cœlestia 4623.)
And what unspeakable benignity in our Heavenly Father, does this doctrine display! When his children have wandered far from the way of his commandments; when they have shut their souls against the light of his wisdom and the purity of his love, and confirmed themselves in a life of evil; He loves them still—loves them too tenderly to permit them to see where and what they are. He loves them, and, for their own good, mercifully provides that they remain forever oblivious of what they were created to be; that they shall not be permitted to see themselves or each other as monsters, but as men; that the loathsome objects which surround them, and which their own evil loves create by an unfailing law, shall not seem loathsome but pleasing to them; that they shall still enjoy what they call delights—delights, too, as elevated as the kind of life they have formed for themselves, will possibly admit of.
Where shall we find a more striking display of the Lord's infinite and unspeakable mercy, than is presented in the wonderful provision He has made for the comfort and highest welfare of the devils? His love is, indeed, unfathomable. "His mercy is forever." Who can unfold his marvelous loving-kindness? "Who can show forth all his praise?"
"The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works."
"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there."
"Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
"But I say unto you. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you;
"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."