1164. Weeping and mourning signifies grief of soul and heart. This is evident from the signification of "weeping," as being grief of soul, and from the signification of "mourning," as being grief of heart. Grief of soul and grief of heart differ as truth and good differ, for in the Word "soul" is predicated of truth, which is of faith, and "heart" of good, which is of love; so the expression occurs in the Word, "from the soul and heart." They differ also as will and understanding in man differ, and also as the respiration of the lungs and the motion of the heart differ. And as there is in the Word a marriage like the marriage of truth and good, or of faith and love, or of understanding and will, so it is here with "weeping and mourning," that is, "weeping" is from grief of soul, and "mourning" from grief of heart.

(Continuation)

[2] That a man may be led out of hell and led into heaven by the Lord, he must himself resist hell, that is, evils, as if from himself. If he does not resist as if from himself, he remains in hell and hell in him, nor is he separated from it to eternity. This follows from the laws of the Divine providence that are stated above and that have been explained. Moreover, experience will teach that this is true. Evils are removed from man either by punishments, or by temptations, and consequent turning away, or by the affections of truth and good. With those not reformed evils are removed by punishments; with those about to be reformed they are removed by temptations and consequent turning away; and with the regenerate by the affections of truth and good. The experience is this: When an unreformed or evil person endures punishments, as takes place in hell, he is kept in the punishments until it is perceived that of himself he does not will the evils; not until then is he set free. Thus is he compelled of himself to put away evils. If he is not punished even to that intention and will he continues in his evil. Yet even then the evil is not rooted out, because he has not compelled himself. The evil remains within, and returns when the fear ceases. With those about to be reformed evils are removed by temptations, which are not punishments but combats. Such persons are not compelled to resist evils, but they compel themselves and pray to the Lord, and thus are delivered from the evils which they have resisted. Such afterwards refrain from evils, not from any fear of punishment but from an aversion to evil; and at length this aversion to evil is their resistance. But with the regenerate there are no temptations or combats, but the affections of truth and good that keep evils far away from them; for they are wholly separated from hell, which is the source of evils, and are conjoined to the Lord.

[3] To be separated and removed from evils is the same thing as to be separated and removed from infernal societies. The Lord has the power to separate and remove from infernal societies, that is, from evils, and the power to transfer to heavenly societies, that is, to goods, anyone He may wish; but such a change can continue only for a few hours, after which the evils return. I have frequently seen this done; and seen that the evil continued evil as before. In the whole spiritual world there is not an instance of anyone's having been removed from evils in any other way than by combat or resistance as if from himself, or of anyone doing this except of the Lord alone.