6495. From what has been mentioned so far it may be seen that influx from the Lord comes directly from Him and also indirectly by Way of heaven. But what flows in from the Lord is the good of heavenly love, thus of love towards the neighbour. Within this love the Lord is present, for He loves the entire human race and wishes to save each one for ever. And because the good of that love originates in Him, He Himself is within it and so is present with a person who has the good of that love within him. But when a person places himself in the state in which he accepts the inflow of hell, the life of self-love and love of the world feels delightful to him, and the life of love of the neighbour, unless there is something in it for himself, feels undelightful now because a person whose state is such has none but evil desires, and none but false ideas about spiritual life, to prevent him from acting in the same way as he desires and from speaking as he thinks, he is kept in check by means of his own loves, which he fears to lose. Thus he is restrained by means of his fears that he may lose position, gain, reputation, and life. The Lord flows into these restraints, which provide him with a field of activity on the last and lowest level, and He uses them to govern that person. The outcome of this is that the person appears in his actions to be well behaved and public-spirited, sometimes seeming to be like an angel. He does no harm to society or his neighbour; and should he do harm, there are civil laws to punish him. But that field of activity does not exist in the next life. A person there is in the spiritual world, consequently in the sphere where his interiors reside. That is to say, he is the same kind of person there as he had previously been inwardly, not as he had appeared to be outwardly. For outward forms and appearances are taken away from him; and once these have been taken away, it can be seen whether in the world he had been like a devil or like an angel.
