[2] They wish for this reason
that I should declare from their lips that in the entire heaven there
is not a single angel who was created such from the beginning, nor in
hell any devil who was created an angel of light and cast down; but
that all, both in heaven and in hell, are from the human race; in
heaven those who lived in the world in heavenly love and belief, in
hell those who lived in infernal love and belief, also that it is
hell taken as a whole that is called the Devil and Satan-the name
Devil being given to the hell that is behind, where those are that
are called evil genii, and the name Satan being given to the hell
that is in front, where those are that are called evil spirits.{1}
The character of these hells will be described in the following
pages. [3] The angels said that the Christian world had gathered such
a belief about those in heaven and those in hell from some passages
in the Word understood according to the mere sense of the letter not
illustrated and explained by genuine doctrine from the Word; although
the sense of the letter of the Word until illuminated by genuine
doctrine, draws the mind in different directions, and this begets
ignorance, heresies, and errors.
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