worship Him from
their very life, for being in the state of their interiors they are
in their proper life (as has been said just above, n. 505); and as
freedom pertains to interior affection they then acknowledge and
worship the Lord from freedom. Thus, too, they withdraw from external
sanctity and come into that internal sanctity in which worship itself
truly consists. Such is the state of those that have lived a
Christian life in accordance with the commandments in the Word. [2]
But the state of those that have lived an evil life in the world and
who have had no conscience, and have in consequence denied the
Divine, is the direct opposite of this. For everyone who lives an
evil life, inwardly in himself denies the Divine, however much he may
suppose when in external thought that he acknowledges the Lord and
does not deny Him; for acknowledging the Divine and living an evil
life are opposites. When such in the other life enter into the state
of their interiors, and are heard speaking and seen acting, they
appear foolish; for from their evil lusts they burst forth into all
sorts of abominations, into contempt of others, ridicule and
blasphemy, hatred and revenge; they plot intrigues, some with a
cunning and malice that can scarcely be believed to be possible in
any man. For they are then in a state of freedom to act in harmony
with the thoughts of their will, since they are separated from the
outward conditions that restrained and checked them in the world. In
a word, they are deprived of their rationality, because their reason
while they were in the world did not have its seat in their
interiors, but in their exteriors; and yet they seemed to themselves
to be wiser than others. [3] This being their character, while in the
second state they are let down by short intervals into the state of
their exteriors, and into a recollection of their actions when they
were in the state of their interiors; and some of them then feel
ashamed, and confess that they have been insane; some do not feel
ashamed; and some are angry because they are not permitted to remain
permanently in the state of their exteriors. But these are shown what
they would be if they were to continue in that state, namely, that
they would attempt to accomplish in secret ways the same evil ends,
and by semblances of goodness, honesty, and justice, would mislead
the simple in heart and faith, and would utterly destroy themselves;
for their exteriors would at leng