989. And his kingdom became dark. That this signifies the church therefrom in absolutely dense falsities is evident from the signification of a kingdom, as denoting the church as to truths (concerning which see (n. 48, 684, 685); and from the signification of darkness, as denoting falsities (concerning which see n. 526); in the present case, absolutely dense falsities, because it follows, that they gnawed their tongues, and blasphemed the God of heaven by reason of their anguish and sores.
[2] That by faith alone, or by faith separated from good works, they have banished all the truths of the church, and that they have brought in absolute falsities in their place, has been everywhere shown above. Nor can it possibly be otherwise, when life is separated from faith, and thus shut out from religion.
Continuation concerning the Sixth Precept:-
That heaven is from marriages, and that hell is from adulteries, has been said above. It shall now be stated how this is to be understood. The hereditary evils into which a man is born are not from Adam because he ate of the tree of knowledge, but from parents through the adulteration of good and the falsification of truth; thus, through the marriage of evil and falsity, from which the love of adultery exists. The ruling love of the parents is carried over and transmitted into the offspring and becomes part of their nature. If the love of the parents is that of adultery, it is also the love of evil for falsity, and of falsity for evil. From this origin man derives all evil, and through evil he is subject to hell. From these things it is evident that, through adulteries, a man is subject to hell, unless he is reformed of the Lord by means of truths, and by a life according to them. Nor can any one be reformed unless he shuns adultery as infernal and loves marriage as heavenly. Thus, and in no other way, is hereditary evil broken, and rendered milder in the offspring.
[3] It is, however, to be observed that, although a man may be born a hell from adulterous parents, yet still he is born not for hell, but for heaven. For it is provided by the Lord that no one should be condemned to hell on account of hereditary evils, but on account of the evils that the man has actually made his own by his life, as is evident from infants after death, all of whom are adopted by the Lord, educated under His auspices in heaven, and saved. From this it is clear that every man, although from innate evils he is a hell, yet is born not for hell, but for heaven.
The case is similar with every man born from adultery, if he does not become an adulterer himself. By becoming an adulterer is meant to live in the marriage of evil and falsity by thinking evils and falsities from delight in them, and by doing them from the love of them; every man who acts in this way becomes an adulterer. It is also a matter of Divine justice that no one suffers punishments because of the evils of his parents, but on account of his own; therefore it is provided by the Lord that after death a man's hereditary evils shall not recur, but his own evils; and it is because of those evils that recur that a man is then punished.
