4369. How expeditiously they exercise punishments
About punishments, a hypocrite
I was surrounded by diabolical demons, and in fact because of a hypocrite, for a hypocrite has the kind of aura that gathers together the worst spirits from all around, and for fixed on himself, fills the aura with his image, thus from all sides collecting the evil and the upright - the evil who then delight in laying snares, and having a hypocrite as their medium, the upright whom they stir up to favor the hypocrite when he is speaking in a holy manner and attesting his own innocence, making himself out as innocent, among other things. Therefore a large crowd including unnaturals was thus summoned around me, also many from hell, who were standing below, whom I had not noticed before.
[2] Finally, because they were of that character, punishers were summoned, the kind who knew at once where they were, what they had thought and discussed among themselves, and those who imagined they could do all things and had thought out all the tricks, as cats attract mice - having no more regard than that for their tricks. They even added mockery, and then so tore them to pieces by frontal collisions and the unnatural ones by breaking of bones, that not anything was left whole, and they did this to one after the other. They wanted to practice their arts, as indeed they did, but to them it was all capricious, as when cats are catching a mouse. They did this to one after the other. 1749, 22 Aug. 1
Footnotes:
1. Astrological symbol of Mars, meaning Tuesday.
4369. HOW EXPEDITIOUSLY PUNISHMENTS ARE INFLICTED; CONCERNING PUNISHMENTS; A HYPOCRITE.
I was surrounded by diabolical genii, and that too on account of the hypocrite, for a hypocrite has such a sphere that he collects around him from all sides the very worst of spirits; the reason is, that he regards himself supremely and fills his sphere with the image [or reflection] of himself, and thus gathers around him from all sides the evil and the upright - the evil as being delighted to plot and hold the hypocrite as a subject, and the good, that they may be excited to favor the hypocrite when he speaks sanctimoniously, protests his innocence, and makes himself without guile, and other things of like kind. Many similar spirits therefore of the female sex together with unnatural ones [cum innaturalibus] flocked around me, and also many from hell who stood below, and whom I had not before observed. At length, from being of such a quality, they virtually summoned the punishers, who were such that they could at once know where they were, what they thought, what they said to each other, and who treated as cats do mice those that supposed themselves able to effect everything and to have mastered all arts, making in fact no more of their boasted cunning. Indeed they added scoffs and jeers to their tortures which were effected in regard to the first named party by collisions frontwise [antrosum], and in regard to the unnatural ones by such fractures of the bones as that there was scarcely anything left whole, and this from one to another, in order. The punishers then proposed to them to exercise their arts, which they also did, but they were all children's play to them, while they regarded them from one to another, as the cat does the mouse. - 1749, August 22.
4369. Quam expedite poenas exercent, de poenis, hypocrita
Circumcinctus fui diabolicis geniis, et quidem ex causa hypocritae, nam hypocrita talem sphaeram habet, ut colligat ab undique pessimos spiritus, nam se intuetur, et imagine sui implet sphaeram, sic ab undique colligit malos et probos, malos qui tunc delectantur insidiari, et pro subjecto habere hypocritam, probos quos excitent ut faveant hypocritae cum sancte loquitur, et testatur suam innocentiam, seque innocentem facit, praeter plura: turba itaque multa, cum innaturalibus circum me erant sic accersita, etiam ab inferno plures qui infra stabant, quos non observavi prius: tandem quia tales, punitores arcessiverunt, qui tales erant, quod scirent illico ubinam essent, quid cogitaverint, inter se loquuti sint, et illos qui putabant se omnia posse, et omnes artes excogitavisse, sicut feles tractant mures, non magis eorum artes aestimando, ludibria etiam adjungebant, et sic eos per collisiones antrorsum, et innaturales per ossium fractiones ita lacerabant, ut non aliquid integrum magis, et hoc ab uno ad alterum; volebant ut artes suas exercerent, quod etiam faciebant, sed omnia illis levia erant, sicut dum feles murem habent; hoc ab uno ad alterum. 1749, 22 Aug.