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That the Word is holy and Divine from inmosts to outermosts is not
evident to the man who leads himself, but is evident to the man whom the
Lord leads.  For the man who leads himself sees only the external of the
Word, and forms his opinion of it from its style; but the man whom the
Lord leads forms his opinion of the external of the Word from the
holiness that is in it.

The Word is like a garden, that may be called a heavenly paradise, in
which are delicacies and charms of every kind, delicacies from the
fruits, and charms from the flowers; and in the middle of it trees of
life, and near them fountains of living water, and round about trees of
the forest, and near them rivers.  The man who leads himself forms his
opinion of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference,
where the trees of the forest are; but the man whom the Lord leads forms
his opinion of it from the middle of it, where the trees of life are.
The man whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks
to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the
circumference, and looks away from it to the world.

Again, the Word is like fruit within which there is a nutritious pulp,
and in the middle of it seed vessels, in which inmostly is a living germ
that germinates in good soil.  Again, the Word is also like a most
beautiful infant, about which, except the face, there are wrappings upon
wrappings; the infant itself is in the inmost heaven, the wrappings are
in the lower heavens, and the general covering of the wrappings is on
the earth.  As the Word is such it is holy and Divine from inmosts to
outermosts. (A.E., n. 1072.)

The Word is such because in its origin it is the Divine itself that goes
forth from the Lord, and is called Divine truth; and when this descended
to men in the world it passed through the heavens in their order
according to their degrees, which are three; and in each heaven it was
recorded in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels
there.  Finally it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to
men, and there it was recorded and made known in adaptation to man’s
understanding and apprehension.  This, therefore, is the sense of its
letter, and in this lies Divine truth such as it is in the three
heavens, stored up in distinct order.

From this it is clear that the entire wisdom of the angels in the three
heavens has been imparted by the Lord to our Word, and in its inmost
there is the wisdom of the angels of the third heaven, which is
incomprehensible and ineffable to man, because full of mysteries and
treasures of Divine verities.  These lie stored up in each particular
and in all the particulars of our Word.  And as Divine truth is the Lord
in the heavens, so the Lord Himself is present, and may be said to dwell
in all the particulars and each particular of His Word, as He does in
His heavens; and in the same way as He has said of the ark of the
covenant, in which were deposited only the Ten Commandments written on
the two tables, the first-fruits of the Word, for He said that He would
speak there with Moses and Aaron, that He would be present there, that
He would dwell there, and that it was His holy of holies, and His
dwelling place as in heaven. (A.E., n., 1073.)

As the Divine truth, in passing from the Lord Himself through the three
heavens down to men in the world, is recorded and becomes the Word in
each heaven, so the Word is a bond of union of the heavens with each
other, and a bond of union of the heavens with the church in the world.
For the Word is the same everywhere, differing only in perfection of
glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are;
consequently the holy Divine from the Lord flows in through the heavens
into the man in the world who acknowledges the Lord’s Divine and the
holiness of the Word whenever he reads the Word; and so far as such a
man loves wisdom he can be instructed and can imbibe wisdom from the
Word as from the Lord Himself, or from heaven itself, and can thus be
nourished with the food with which the angels themselves are nourished,
and in which there is life; according to these words of the Lord:

“The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life” (John vi. 63).
“The water that I will give you shall become . . . a fountain of water
springing up unto eternal life” (John iv. 14). “Man doth not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”
(Matt. iv. 4). “Work . . . for the meat that abideth unto eternal life,
which the Son of man shall give unto you” (John vi. 27).

Such is the Word.  (A.E., n. 1074.)

It has been said that the Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and
that the Word is from that, and that through the Word angels and men
have wisdom.  But so long as it is unknown how Divine truth goes forth
from the Lord, this may be said but it cannot be understood.  Divine
truth, which is the same as Divine wisdom, goes forth from the Lord as
light and heat do from the sun.  The Lord is Divine love itself, and
love appears in the heavens from correspondence as fire, and the Lord’s
Divine love as a sun, glowing and resplendent like the sun of the world.
From that sun, which is high above the heavens where the angels are, and
which is Divine love, heat and light go forth; the heat therefrom is
Divine good, and the light therefrom is Divine truth.  The heat is
Divine good, because all heat of life going forth from love is felt as
good, for it is spiritual heat; and the light is Divine truth because
all light going forth from love is felt as truth, for it is spiritual
light; consequently it is from that light that the understanding sees
truths, and it is from that heat that the will is sensible of goods; and
this is why in the Word love is meant by heavenly fire and wisdom by
heavenly light.

It is the same with a man and with an angel.  Every angel and man is his
own love, and a sphere flowing out from his love encompasses every man
and angel.  That sphere consists of the good of his love and of the
truth of his love, for love gives forth both, as fire gives forth both
heat and light; from the will of a man or angel it gives forth good, and
from his understanding it gives forth truth.  This sphere, when the man
or angel is good, has an extension into the heavens in every direction
according to the character and amount of the love, and into the hells in
every direction when the man or angel is evil.  But the sphere of the
love of a man or an angel has a finite extension into a few societies
only of heaven or hell, while the sphere of the Lord’s love, being
Divine, has an infinite extension, and creates the heavens themselves.
(A.E., n. 1076.)

The Word of the Lord is wonderful in this respect, that in every
particular of it there is a reciprocal union of good and truth, which
testifies that the Word is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord,
which is Divine good and Divine truth reciprocally united; and also
testifies that in the Word there is a marriage of the Lord with heaven
and the church, which also is reciprocal.  There is a marriage of good
and truth, also of truth and good, in every particular of the Word, in
order that it may be a source of wisdom to angels and of intelligence to
men, for from good alone no wisdom or intelligence is born, neither from
truth alone, but from their marriage when the love is reciprocal.  This
reciprocal love the Lord sets forth in John:

“He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in
him” (vi. 56).

In the same,

“In that day ye shall know, that . . . ye are in Me and I in you.  He
that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; . . .
and I will love him” (xiv. 20, 21).

The reciprocality is that such are in the Lord and the Lord is in them,
also that whoever loves the Lord, the Lord also will love him.  “To have
His commandments” is to be in truths, and “to do them” is to be in good.

Reciprocality is also described by the Lord in His union with the
Father, in these words,

“Philip, . . . How sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not
that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?  . . . Believe Me, that I
am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John xiv. 9-11).

From this reciprocal union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord the
reciprocal union of Divine good and Divine truth goes forth; and this
goes forth from the Lord’s Divine love; and the same is true of the
Lord’s reciprocal union with heaven and the church, and in general the
reciprocal union of good and truth in an angel of heaven and in a man of
the church.  And as good is of charity and truth is of faith, and as
charity and faith make the church, it follows that the church is in a
man when there is a reciprocal union of charity and faith in him.
Again, as good is of the will and truth is of the understanding, and as
the will and understanding make man, it follows that a man is a man
according to the union of the will and all things belonging to it with
the understanding and all things belonging to it, and this reciprocally.
This union is what is called marriage, which from creation is in every
particular of heaven and in every particular of the world; and from this
is the production and the generation of all things.  That in every
particular of the Word there is such a marriage that good loves truth
and truth loves good, thus mutually and in turn, is disclosed in the
spiritual sense of the Word; and it is from this marriage that good and
truth are one and not two, and are one when good is of truth and truth
is of good.  (A.E., n. 1077).

The Word in the sense of the letter appears very simple, and yet there
is stored up in it the wisdom of the three heavens, for each least
particular of it contains interior and more interior senses; an interior
sense such as exists in the first heaven, a still more interior sense
such as exists in the second heaven, and an inmost sense such as exists
in the third heaven.  These senses are in the sense of the letter, one
within the other, and are evolved therefrom one after the other, each
from its own heaven, when the Word is read by a man who is led by the
Lord. These interior senses differ in a degree of light and wisdom
according to the heavens, and yet they make one by influx, and thus by
correspondences.  How they thus make one shall be told in what follows.
All this makes clear how the Word was inspired by the Divine, and that
it was written from an inspiration to which nothing else in the world
can in anywise be compared.  The mysteries of wisdom of the three
heavens contained in it are the mystical things of which many have
spoken.  (A.E., n. 1079.)

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Since the Word is Divine truth, and this goes forth from the Lord’s
Divine Esse (being), as light from the sun, it follows that the Lord is
the Word because He is Divine truth.  The Lord is the Word, because He
is Divine truth, and this goes forth His Divine Esse (being), which is
Divine love, because the Divine love was in Him when in the world as a
soul is in its body; and as Divine truth goes forth from Divine love as
light goes forth from the sun, as has been said, so the Lord’s Human in
the world was Divine truth going forth from the Divine love that was in
Him.  That the Divine itself, which is called “Jehovah” and the
“Father,” and which is the Divine love, was in the Lord from conception,
is evident in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In Matthew from these
words:

When Mary the mother of Jesus had been betrothed to Joseph, “before they
came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.”  And the
angle said to Joseph in a dream, “Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” . . .
This came to pass that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the
Lord by the prophet: . . . “Behold a virgin shall be with child, and
shall bring forth a son.”  And Joseph “knew her not until she had
brought forth her firstborn son; and he called His name Jesus” (i.
18-25).

And in Luke from these words:

The angel said to Mary, “Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and
bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus; He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Most High.” . . . Then Mary said unto the
angel, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”  The angel answered
her, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most
High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also the Holy Thing that shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (i. 30-35).

It was because He was conceived of Jehovah that He is so frequently
called in the Word “the Son of God,” and Jehovah is called His “Father.”
Jehovah in respect to His Esse (being) is Divine love, and in respect to
His Existere (outgo) He is Divine good united to Divine truth.

From this it can be seen what is meant by:

The Word that was with God and that was God, and also was the light that
enlighteneth every man (John i. 1-10), namely, that it was Divine truth
going forth from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect to His Existere
(outgo).  That the Lord in respect to His Existere was Divine truth, and
that this was His Divine Human, because this came forth from His Divine
Esse as a body from its soul, these words in John clearly certify:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory
as of the only begotten of the Father (i. 14).

“The Word” is the Divine truth, which also is “glory”; “flesh” means the
Divine Human; “the only begotten of the Father” means the springing
forth or going forth from the Divine Esse in Him.  (A.E., n. 1069.)

But as the world does not know how the words in John (i. 1, 2, 14) that
the Lord is the Word, are to be understood, this shall be further
explained.  It is known in the church that God is good itself and truth
itself, and thus that all the good that an angel has and that a man has
is from God, and likewise all truth.  Now since the Lord is God He is
also Divine good and Divine truth; and this is what is meant by “the
Word, that was with God, and was God,” and also was “the light that
enlighteneth every man,” and that also “became flesh,” that is, Man in
the world.

That when the Lord was in the world He was the Divine truth, which is
the Word, He Himself teaches in many passages where He calls Himself
“the Light,” also where He calls Himself “the Way, the Truth, and the
Life”; and where He says that “the Spirit of truth” goes forth from Him.
“The Spirit of truth” is the Divine truth.  When the Lord was
transfigured He represented the Word, “His face that shone as the sun”
represented its Divine good; and His garments, which were “bright as the
light” and “white as snow,” represented its Divine truth.  “Moses and
Elijah,” who then talked with the Lord, also signified the Word, “Moses”
the historical Word and “Elijah” the prophetic Word. Moreover, all
things of the Lord’s passion represented the kind of violence that the
Jewish nation offered to the Word. Again, the Lord from Divine truth,
which He is, is called “God,” “King,” and “Angel,” and is meant by “the
rock in Horeb,” and “the rock” where Peter is spoken of.  All this makes
clear that the Lord is the Word, because He is Divine truth.  The Word
in the letter, which is with us, is the Divine truths in outmosts.
(A.E., n. 1070.)

As it cannot but transcend the comprehension that the Lord in relation
to His Human in the world was the Word, that is, Divine truth; according
to these words in John,

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (i. 14), it shall be
explained, as far as possible, to the comprehension.  It can be said of
every regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, since
the thought which belongs to his understanding is from truths, and the
affection which belongs to his will is from goods. Whether you say,
therefore, that a man is his own understanding and his own will, or that
a man is his own truth and his own good, it amounts to the same thing.
The body is mere obedience; for it speaks that which man thinks from the
understanding, and does that which he wills from affection. Thus these
things and the body mutually correspond and make one, like an effect and
its effecting cause; and these taken together constitute the human.

As it can be said of the regenerate man that he is his own truth and his
own good, so it can be said of the Lord as Man, that He is truth itself
or Divine truth, and good itself or Divine good.  All this makes evident
the truth that the Lord in relation to His Human in the world was Divine
truth, that is the Word; and that everything that He then said was
Divine truth, which is the Word; and that since the time when he went to
the Father, that is, became one with the Father, the Divine truth going
forth from Him is the Spirit of truth, which goes out and goes forth
from Him, and at the same time from the Father in Him. (A.E., n. 1071.)

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It was said of old that the Word is from God, Divinely inspired, and
thus holy; and yet it has not been known heretofore where in the Word
the Divine is.  For the Word appears in the letter like a common writing
in a foreign style, and a style not so sublime or so lucid as appears in
the writings of the present ages.  For this reason a man who worships
nature more than God, or in place of God, and thus thinks from himself
and what is his own (proprium), and not from the Lord out of heaven, can
easily fall into error respecting the Word, and into contempt for it,
saying in his heart when he reads it, What is this, or what is that?  Is
this Divine?  Can God who has infinite wisdom speak in this manner?
Where is its holiness, and from what source, unless from the religion
whose ministers it serves? and other like things.  But that it may be
known that the Word is Divine, not only in every meaning but also in
every expression, its internal sense, which is spiritual, and which is
in its external sense, which is natural, as a soul in its body, has now
been revealed.  This sense can bear witness to the Divinity and
consequent holiness of the Word; and can convince even the natural man
that the Word is Divine if he is willing to be convinced.  (A.E., n.
1065.)

In brief, the Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels
and enlightens men.  As Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and as
what goes forth is Himself out of Himself, the same as light and heat go
forth from the sun and are the sun, that is, are of the sun out of it,
and as the Word is Divine truth, it is therefore the Lord, as it is
called in John (i. 1-3, 14).  In as much as Divine truth, which is the
Word, in its descent into the world from the Lord, has passed through
the three heavens, it has become accommodated to each heaven, and lastly
to men also in the world.  This is why there are in the Word four
senses, one outside of the other from the highest heaven down to the
world, or one within the other from the world up to the highest heaven.
These four senses are called the celestial, the spiritual, the natural
from the celestial and spiritual, and the merely natural.  This last is
for the world, the next for the lowest heaven, the spiritual for the
second heaven, and the celestial for the third.  These four senses
differ so greatly from one another that when one is exhibited beside the
other no connection can be recognized; and yet they make one when one
follows the other; for one follows from the other as an effect from a
cause, or as what is posterior from what is prior; consequently as an
effect represents its cause and corresponds to its cause, so the
posterior sense corresponds to the prior; and thus it is that all four
senses make one through correspondences.

From all this these truths follow.  The outmost sense of the Word, which
is the sense of the letter, and the fourth in order, contains in itself
the three interior senses, which are for the three heavens.  These three
senses are unfolded and exhibited in the heavens when a man on the earth
is reverently reading the Word.  Therefore the sense of the letter of
the Word is that from which and through which there is communication
with the heavens, also from which and through which man has conjunction
with the heavens.  The sense of the letter of the Word is the basis of
Divine truth in the heavens, and without such a basis Divine truth would
be like a house without a foundation; and without such a basis the
wisdom of the angels would be like a house in the air.  It is the sense
of the letter of the Word in which the power of Divine truth consists.
It is the sense of the letter of the Word through which man is
enlightened by the Lord, and through which he receives answers when he
wishes to be enlightened.  It is the sense of the letter of the Word by
which everything of doctrine on the earth must be established.  In the
sense of the letter of the Word is Divine truth in its fullness.  In the
sense of the letter of the Word Divine truth is in its holiness. (A.E.,
n. 1066.)

That the Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels and
enlightens men, can be perceived or seen only by a man enlightened.  For
to a worldly man, whose mind has not been raised above the sensual
sphere, the Word in the sense of the letter appears so simple that
scarcely anything could be more simple; and yet Divine truth, such as it
is in the heavens and from which angels have their wisdom, lies
concealed in it as in its sanctuary.  For the Word in the letter is like
the adytum [sanctum] in the midst of a temple covered with a veil,
within which lie deposited mysteries of heavenly wisdom such as no ear
hath heard.  For in the Word and in every particular of it there is a
spiritual sense, and in that sense a Divine celestial sense, which
regarded in itself is Divine truth itself, which is in the heavens and
which gives wisdom to angels and enlightenment to men.

The Divine truth that is in the heavens is light going forth from the
Lord as a Sun, which is Divine love.  And as the Divine truth that goes
forth from the Lord is the light of heaven, so it is the Divine wisdom.
It is this that illuminates both the minds and the eyes of angels, and
it is this also that enlightens the minds of men, but not their eyes,
and that enables them to understand truth and also to perceive good when
man reads the Word from the Lord and not from self; for he is then a
participator with angels, and has an inward perception like the
spiritual perception of angels; and that spiritual perception which the
angel-man has flows into his natural perception which is his own while
in the world and enlightens it.  Consequently the man who reads the Word
from an affection for truth has enlightenment through heaven from the
Lord.  (A.E., n. 1067.)

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A fourth kind of profanation is to live a life of piety, by frequenting
churches, listening devoutly to preachings, observing the sacrament of
the Supper, and the other appointed forms of worship, reading the Word
at home, and sometimes books of devotion, and habitually praying morning
and evening, and yet making the precepts of life that are in the Word,
particularly in the Decalogue, of no account, by acting dishonestly and
unjustly in business and in judgments for the sake of gain or influenced
by friendship; committing whoredom and adultery when lust inflames and
urges; burning with hate and revenge against those who do not favor
their gain or honor; lying, and speaking evil of the good, and good of
the evil, and so on.  When a man is in these evils, and has not been
purified from them by turning away from them and hating them, and still
worships God devoutly, as has been said above, then he profanes; for he
mingles his internals which are impure with externals that are pious,
and these he defiles.

For there can be nothing external that does not proceed and have
existence from internals.  The actions and speech of man are his
externals, and thoughts and volitions are his internals.  Man can speak
only from thought, and can act only from volition.  When the life of the
thoughts and of the will is infected with craft, cunning, and violence,
it must needs be that these, as interior evils of the life, will flow
into the speech and actions pertaining to worship and piety, and defile
them as filth defiles waters.

This worship is what is meant by “Gog and Magog” (Apoc. xx. 8), and is
thus described in Isaiah:

“What is the multitude of sacrifices unto Me, meat offerings, incense,
sabbaths, new moons, appointed feasts, and prayers, when your hands are
full of bloods?  Wash you, make you clean, put away the wickedness of
your doings . . . ; cease to do evil”  (i.  11-19).

This kind of profanation is not hypocritical like the former, because
the man who is in it believes that he will be saved by external worship
separate from internal, and does not know that the worship by which he
can be saved is external worship from internal.  (A.E., n. 1061.)

Those who give themselves up wholly to a life of piety, who walk
continually in pious meditations, who pray frequently upon their knees,
and talk about salvation, faith, and love at all times and in all
places, and yet do not shun frauds, adulteries, hatreds, blasphemies,
and the like, as sins against God, nor fight against them, such are the
kind that are more fully profaners; for by the impurities of their minds
they defile the piety of their lips, especially when they renounce the
world and lead solitary lives.  Of this kind there are some who are
still more profaners; these are like those just described, but by
reasonings and by the Word falsely interpreted they defend their vices
as adulteries and lusts that belong to their nature, and thus to their
enjoyment.  Such first regard themselves as free from danger, afterward
as blameless, and at length as holy; and thus under the veil of sanctity
they cast themselves into uncleannesses with which both themselves and
their garments are polluted. (A.E., n. 1062.)

To this class of profaners those especially belong who read the Word and
know about the Lord; because from the Lord through the Word are all
things holy that can be profaned; things not from that source cannot be
profaned.  That is said to be profane that is the opposite of what is
holy, and that offers violence to what is holy and destroys it.  From
this it follows that those who do not read the Word and do not approach
the Lord, as is the case with the Papists, still less those who know
nothing about the Lord and the Word, like the Gentiles, do not belong to
this class of profaners.

Those who belong to this class of profaners appear after death at first
with a face of human color, around which float many wandering stars; and
those of them that had been leaders sometimes appear shining about the
lips.  But as they are brought into the light of heaven, the stars and
the shining of the lips vanish, and the color of the face is changed to
black, and likewise their garments.  But the blackness of these
profaners tends to blue, as the blackness of the other kind of profaners
tends to red, for the reason that the latter profane the goods of the
Word and of the church, while the others profane the truths of the Word
and of the church.  For red derives from the sun its signification of
good, while blue derives from the sky its signification of truth.
(A.E., n. 1063.)

The fifth kind of profanation is not like the others that have been
treated of, for it consists in jesting from the Word and about the Word.
For those who make jokes from the Word do not regard it as holy, and
those who joke about it hold it in no esteem.  And yet the Word is the
very Divine truth of the Lord with men, and the Lord is present in the
Word, and heaven also; for every particular of the Word communicates
with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; therefore to jest from
the Word or about the Word is to bespatter the holy things of heaven
with the dust of the earth.  (A.E., n. 1064.)

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In the third kind of profanation are those who with devout gestures and
pious utterance worship Divine things, and yet in heart and spirit deny
them; thus who venerate the holy things of the Word and of the church
and of worship outwardly or before the world, and yet at home or in
secret deride them.  When those of this class are in a holy external,
and are teaching in a church or conversing with the common people, they
do not know otherwise than that what they are saying is so; but as soon
as they return into themselves their thought is reversed.  Because these
are such they can counterfeit angels of light, although they are angels
of darkness.

From this it is clear that this kind of profanation is a hypocritical
kind.  They are not unlike images made of filth and gilded, or like
fruits rotten within but with a beautiful skin, or like nuts eaten by
worms within but with a whole shell.  From all this it is evident that
their internal is diabolical, and therefore that their holy external is
profane.

Such are some of the rulers in the Babylon of the present day, and many
of a certain society in Babylon, as those of them know who claim to
themselves dominion over the souls of men and over heaven.  For to
believe as they do, that power has been given them to save and to admit
into heaven, is the very opposite of acknowledging in heart that there
is a God, and for the reason that man, in order to be saved and admitted
into heaven, must look to the Lord and pray to Him. But a man who
believes that such power has been given him looks to himself, and
believes the things that are the Lord’s to be in himself; and to believe
this, and at the same time to believe that there is a God or that God is
in him, is impossible.  For a man to believe that God is in him when he
thinks himself to be above the holy things of the church, and heaven to
be in his power, is like ascribing that belief to Lucifer, who burns
with the fire of ruling over all things.  If such a man thinks that God
is in him he cannot think this otherwise than from himself; and thinking
from himself that God is in him is thinking not that God is in him, but
that he himself is God, as is said of Lucifer in Isaiah (xiv. 13, 14),
by whom is there meant Babylon, as is evident from the fourth and
twenty-second verses of the same chapter.

Moreover, such a man of himself, when power is given him, shows forth
what he is of himself, and this by degrees according to his elevation.
From this it is clear that such are atheists, some avowedly, some
clandestinely, and some ignorantly.  And as they regard dominion as an
end, and the holy things of heaven and the church as means, they
counterfeit angels of light in face, gesture, and speech, and thus
profane holy things.  (A.E., n. 1058.)

Those who are in this kind of profanation, which is hypocritical, differ
in this respect, that there are those who have less ability and those
who have more ability to conceal the interiors of their mind, that they
may not be disclosed, and to shape the exteriors, which pertain to face
and mouth, into an expression of sanctity.  When such after death become
spirits they appear encompassed with a cloud, in the midst of which is
something black, like an Egyptian mummy.  But as they are raised up as
it were into the light of heaven, that bright cloud changes to a
diabolical duskiness, not from any shining through it, but from a
breathing through it, and the consequent disclosing.  In hell,
therefore, these are black devils.  The differences in this kind of
profanation are known from the blackness, as being more or less
horrifying.  (A.E., n. 1059.)

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