6677. And if it be a daughter, then she shall live. That this signifies that they should not do so if it is good, is evident from the signification of “daughter,” as being good (see n. 489-491, 2362); and from the signification of “living,” as being not to be destroyed. The reason why the king of Egypt said that a son should be slain, but not a daughter, is plain from the internal sense, which is that they would attempt to destroy truth, but not good; for when the infernals infest, they are allowed to attack truths, but not goods. The reason is that truths are what can be assaulted, but not goods, these being protected by the Lord; and when the infernals attempt to attack goods, they are cast down deep into hell, for they cannot withstand the presence of good, because in all good the Lord is present. Hence it is that the angels, being in good, have such power over infernal spirits that one angel can master thousands of them. Be it known that there is life in good, for good is of love, and love is the life of man. If evil, which is of the love of self and of the world, and which appears good to those who are in these loves, assaults the good which is of heavenly love, the life of the one fights against the life of the other; and as the life from the good of heavenly love is from the Divine, therefore if the life from the love of self and of the world comes into collision with the former life, it begins to be extinguished, for it is suffocated. Thus they are tortured like those who are in the death agony, and therefore they cast themselves headlong into hell, where they again recover their life (n. 3938, 4225, 4226, 5057, 5058). This also is the reason why good cannot be assaulted by evil genii and spirits; and thus that they dare not destroy good. It is otherwise with truth, which has not life in itself; but from good, that is, through good from the Lord.

5057. A large mortar was seen, and standing by it a man with an iron instrument, who from phantasy seemed to himself to pound men in that vessel, torturing them in direful ways. This he did with great delight, which was communicated to me, that I might know the quality and intensity of it in those who are of this nature. It was an infernal delight. I was told by angels that such was the ruling delight with the posterity of Jacob; and that they perceived nothing more delightful than to treat the nations with cruelty, to expose them when slain to be devoured by wild beasts and birds, to cut them alive with saws and axes, to make them pass through the brick-kiln (2 Samuel 12:31), and to dash their little children together and throw them away. Such things were never commanded, nor were they ever permitted except to those the nerve of whose thigh was out of joint (n. 5051). Such spirits dwell under the right heel, where are adulterers who are also cruel.

[2] It is therefore surprising that anyone should ever have believed that that nation was chosen more than others; and from this also many confirm themselves in the idea that the life effects nothing, but that election, and hence reception into heaven, is of mere mercy, whatever the life may have been; when yet everyone from sound reason may see that to think in this way is contrary to the Divine, for the Divine is mercy itself, and therefore if heaven were of mere mercy without regard to the life, everybody would be received. To thrust down anyone into hell to be tormented there, when it would be possible to receive him into heaven, would be unmercifulness and not mercy; and to elect one in preference to another would be injustice, and not justice.

[3] Wherefore they who have believed and have confirmed themselves in the idea that some are elected, and the rest not, and that admission into heaven is of mere mercy, without regard to the life, are told (as I have several times heard and seen) that heaven is never denied by the Lord to anyone, and that if they desire they may know this from experience. For this purpose they are taken up into some society of heaven where are those who have lived in the affection of good, or in charity; but being evil, as soon as they come there they begin to be tormented and to be inwardly tortured, because their life is contrary; and when the heavenly light appears, they appear in it like devils, almost devoid of human form, some with the face sunken, some like grates of teeth, and some monstrous in other ways. Thus they abhor themselves, and cast themselves down headlong into hell, and for them the deeper the better.