1304. About punning on holy scripture

Some from habit, some from contempt, have acquired the custom of using words of holy scripture in common conversation in humorous phrases, or jokes, thinking that they are then joking in good taste. But those words are then bound to bodily ideas and bring much harm on them in the other life. For these words brought in due to that custom must be separated in the other life from their worldly and bodily mental imagery, every single one. This is done by various methods of dismemberment, as I know from experience, so let them beware of mixing holy words with profane, and thus of profaning holy words. For mental images like these return, so that when worldly mental images come up, the holy words cling to them, and when holy mental images come up, profane ones cling to them. So they have to be separated, which may seem surprising to some, especially those who do not grasp how mental images get joined together. But it is enough to give this warning, for without the use of painful methods of treatment, these disorders can scarcely be healed. 1748, 11 March.