4753. 1# A very striking example of evil men and certain devils endowed understanding truth was (Pres. 2Stjerncrona 3). He was so well endowed with this that he would take in and understand the truths of faith down to the least details when they were explained to him in a living manner, and he also acknowledged them. [The truths] for example were: that there is a Divine order and that the laws of order are the truths of faith; that love for the Lord and love toward one's fellow man and woman makes heaven, and love of the world makes hell; that the Divine order cannot be accepted except by a humble person, and that humility is not possible with those who have a love of self immersed in self-love; that self-love is hard and love of the Divine is soft, and that self-love must be entirely crushed and that this happens in hell; and that still humility cannot develop [there]. These and similar truths he was able to grasp and understand. But still he could not do otherwise than act against these [truths] because he was more imbued with the desire of exercising control than others.
[2] His life in the world was scandalous. He was involved in the foulest adulteries, and although he promised to repent, he still kept on, totally defiling Divine things by acknowledging [his] sins. He prayed devoutly for forgiveness, partaking of the holy supper frequently on this account, and still kept on afterwards. And in the end he confirmed himself in evil and was then entirely given over to evil, so that he could no longer do other than evil, being devoid of any conscience.
Footnotes:
1. Following the author's instruction 4754 has been transferred to this place, and in the online version, has been numbered 4753.
2. President.
3. President (Baron) David Stjerncrona (1715-1784), after having studied at Uppsala became Royal Chamberlain. He was brother of Elizabeth Stjerncrona, wife of Count Frederic Gyllenborg.
4753. CONCERNING THE VASTATION AND CONDEMNATION OF THE EVIL - THAT THESE ARE FROM THEMSELVES.
It is granted me to know, by continued experience of some [years], how the evil vastate themselves, and at length cast themselves into damnation. From their acquired nature, they cannot do otherwise than engage in wicked practices, and so infest those whom the Lord protects; and when they do this they thereby assail the Divine, and summon infernal societies; and the more they infest those the Lord protects, the more of these societies do they summon, and so more and more imbibe the hells, until their acquired nature becomes full. According to the degree of the infestation, the Divine is resisted; and, then, in that degree they summon the hells, that is, imbibe such things from the hells, and associate themselves with them. Hence it is evident that the Lord vastates, or condemns, no one, but that they themselves do it by dashing against the Divine more and more, until at length, when they have become full, they cast themselves into the hells, and then into damnation, or spiritual death.
4753. De devastatione et condemnatione malorum quod sint ab ipsis
Per continuam aliquorum [annorum] experientiam scire datum est, quomodo mali se devastant et tandem conjiciunt in damnationem, ex natura acquisita non possunt aliter quam malitias exercere, et sic infestare illos quos Dominus tutatur, et cum hoc faciunt, ac Divinum per id lacessunt, arcessunt societates infernales, et quo plus arcessunt, eo magis infestant illos quos Dominus tutatur, et sic insorbent magis et magis inferna, usque dum plena fit natura acquisita, ad gradum infestationis resistit Divinum, et tunc ad eum gradum arcessunt inferna, hoc est imbibunt ex infernis talia, et se illis consociant; inde patet quod Dominus nullum vastet aut condemnet, sed quod ipsi, per id quod ruunt contra Divinum, plus et plus, usque tandem cum pleni facti sunt, se conjiciunt in inferna, et tunc in damnationem, seu in mortem spiritualem.