4679. About the hells
I observed attentively how a person destroys and casts himself into hell. There was a heavenly society which the Lord was protecting, thus where the Divine of the Lord was present. A certain evil one, one of the worst, was infesting it in secret; and when he was finally discovered, it was noticed how he was more and more let down into hell. For meanwhile, because he had been successful, he had found new tricks for infesting and had thus allied himself more and more with the hells; and the more closely he had become associated with them, the more he infested that society. He imagined that he could refrain, but he was told that he could not, because he was tied to the hells and led by the ones he had attached to himself. As a result he was now more and more engulfed by falsities, which appeared at first like a dense cloud, after this like waters; and such being the circumstances he cast himself down deeply. In his day he had been a judge and by his cunning had committed many evil deeds in the world.
4679. CONCERNING THE HELLS.
I observed attentively how man devastates and casts himself into hell. There was a heavenly society which the Lord guarded, thus where the Divine of the Lord was. A certain evil one, who was of the worst sort, secretly infested it; and, at length, when he was detected, it was then observed how he was more and more let down into hell; for, meanwhile, because he had been successful, he invented new cunning devices for infesting, and thus associated himself more and more with the hells; and because he was more associated with them, therefore he did the more infest that society. He supposed that he could have refrained; but he was told that he could not, because chained to the hells, and led by those which he had attached to himself. Then was he more and more surrounded with falses thence, which at first appeared like a gross mist, afterwards like waters; and thus he cast himself deeply down. He had been a judge in his time; and, by his cunning, had wrought many evils in that capacity.
4679. De infernis
Observatum est sedulo, quomodo homo seipsum devastat et conjicit in infernum, erat societas coelestis, quam Dominus tutabatur, ita ubi Divinum Domini erat; malus quidam qui pessimus in occulto infestabat illam, et tandem cum detectus, tunc observabatur quomodo magis et magis demitteretur in infernum, nam interea, quia successit ei, invenit novos dolos infestandi, et sic se sociavit magis et magis cum infernis, et quo magis cum illis consociatus est, eo magis infestabat societatem illam, putabat quod potuisset desistere, sed dictum est ei quod non posset, quia vinctus infernis et ab illis ductus, quae sibi alligavit, inde tunc magis et magis circumdabatur falsis, quae apparebant primum sicut crassus nimbus, postea sicut aquae, et sic semetipsum dejecit profunde; fuerat is suo tempore judex, et per astus multa mala ibi fecerat.