in revenge, invites such as are in a similar delight; and so in other cases. Such spirits communicate with hell, and man is in the midst of them, and is ruled altogether by them, so that he is no longer under his own power and guidance, but under theirs, although he supposes, from the delight and consequent liberty which he enjoys, that he rules himself.
"He, however, who is not covetous, or does not love himself in preference to others, and who does not take delight in revenge, is in the society of similar angels, and by them is led of the Lord, and indeed in freedom, to every good and truth to which he suffers himself to be led. And as he suffers himself to be led to an interior and more perfect good, so he is led to interior and more angelic societies. The changes of his state are nothing else but changes of societies." —A. C. n. 4067.
"The angels attendant on man have their abode solely in his ends of life. So far as he has respect to an end of the same kind as that which influences the Lord's kingdom—that is, to the good of the neighbor, the general good, the good of the church—so far the angels are delighted with him, and join themselves to him as a brother; but so far as he is influenced by selfish ends, the angels recede, and evil spirits from hell draw near; for in hell none but selfish ends have rule."—Ibid. n. 3796.All this is quite consistent with the preceding disclosures, as well as with the conclusions of a sound mental philosophy and the rational intuitions of the wisest and best men. And we observe that the law governing the association of spirits with men, is the same biological law according to which spirits themselves are arranged into different societies—the law of spiritual affinity. And the Scripture, too, furnishes abundant confirmation of the truth of this disclosure.
