SPIRITUAL LIFE AND THE WORD OF GOD - { PT. 72 }


 { PT.  72 } - And what was wonderful, although they hated each other they could from time to time come together and for the time feel the delight of hatred as the delight of love; but this came from a hankering of the flesh. What the delight of hatred and thus of doing evil is with those who are in hell can neither be described nor believed. To do evil is the joy of their heart, and this they call their heaven. Their delight in doing evil derives its all from hatred and vengeance against good and truth; when, therefore, they are moved by a deadly and devilish hatred they rage against heaven, especially against those who are from heaven and who worship the Lord; for they violently burn to slaughter them, and because they cannot destroy their bodies they desire to destroy their souls. It is, therefore, the delight of hatred which, becoming a fire in the extremes and being injected flesh, becomes for the moment the delight of adultery,--the soul in which the hatred lies concealed then withdrawing itself. It is for this reason that hell is called adultery, and also that adulterers are desperately unmerciful, savage, and cruel. This, then, is the infernal marriage. ( A.E., n. 991 ). It has been said that the love of adultery is a fire enkindled from impurities that soon burns out and is turned into cold, and into an aversion corresponding to hatred. But the reverse is true of the love of marriage. 

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