10489. 'Go to and fro from gate to gate in the camp' means wherever anything lies open from what is internal into what is external. This is clear from the meaning of 'going to and fro' as considering and looking around from one end to the other; from the meaning of 'gate' as an opening, dealt with above in 10483, so that 'from gate to gate' means wherever anything lies open; and from the meaning of 'the camp' as hell, also dealt with above in 10483, thus also what is external, for what is external separated from what is internal constitutes hell in a person. From these meanings it is evident that 'going to and fro from gate to gate in the camp' means considering and looking around wherever that which lies open from what is internal into what is external exists. The implications of this will be stated in the next paragraph. The reason why what is external separated from what is internal constitutes hell in a person is that heaven resides in what is internal in him, as shown above in 10472; consequently what is external when separated from that heaven constitutes hell. All this is made clearer still by the consideration that those who are interested only in external things separated from internal ones are ruled by hellish kinds of love, namely self-love and love of the world. Also the person whose external has been separated from his internal is in actual fact in hell, though he is not aware of it while he lives in the world.

301. As regards the second arcanum, if they had been instructed in mysteries of faith they would have perished for ever, meant by the words 'Now by chance he will put out his hand and also take from the tree of life ¹ and eat, and live forever', the position is this: Once people have become reversed orders of life and are unwilling to rely on anything but self and the proprium as the source of their life and wisdom, they are given to reasoning as to whether any matter of faith which they hear about is so or not so. And because self, sensory evidence, and facts are the basis of their reasoning, they inevitably adopt a negative attitude. And when their attitude is negative they also speak blasphemy and practise profanation, and at length do not care whether or not they mingle together unholy things with holy. When man becomes such he stands so condemned in the next life that there is no hope of salvation for him, for the things that have been mingled through acts of profanation remain that way permanently. The moment some idea of what is holy enters in, so does the idea joined to it of what is unholy, and this makes it impossible for that person to live in any but a community of people who are condemned. Anything at all that has been joined to, and is present as, an idea within a person's thought is in the next life perceived very precisely even by spirits in the world of spirits, but more so by angelic spirits. It is perceived so precisely that from merely one idea they know his whole character. Getting rid of unholy things such as are joined on to those that are holy is not possible without hellish torment, which is so intense that if man knew about it he would beware of profanation as of hell itself.

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