99. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, signifies that their good of life will be infested by evils which are from hell. That this is signified by "being cast into custody" or into "prison" by the devil, is, because by "the devil" is meant the hell where they are who are in evils, and thus, abstractly, the evil which is there and from thence (n. 97). To be cast "into custody" or "prison," is to be infested, because they who are infested by evils from hell are as if they were bound in prison, for they cannot think anything but evil, when yet they will good; hence there is combat and interior anxiety, from which they cannot be released, being scarcely otherwise than like persons who are in chains; the reason is, that their good is not good so far as it coheres with falsities, and so far as it coheres with falsities evil is in it; therefore this is what is infested. [2] But this infestation does not exist in the natural world, but in the spiritual world, thus after death. It has often been granted me to see their infestations. They lament, saying that they have done good, and wish to do good, and yet now they cannot, because of the evils which surround them. But still they are not all infested alike, but more severely according as they have confirmed themselves in falsities, therefore it is said "the devil shall cast some of you into prison." That the confirmation of what is false is hurtful, may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture (n. 91-97). [3] In the Word, by "the bound" the like is signified as here by those "cast into prison," as in these places:
I will give thee for a covenant of the people, to bring out the bound from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house (Isa. 42:6-7; 49:8-9). Jehovah hath sent me to preach liberty to the captives, and to the bound (Isa. 61:1). By the blood of Thy covenant I will send forth the bound out of the pit (Zech. 9:11). God bringeth out those which are bound with fetters (Ps. 68:6). Let the groaning of the bound come before thee (Ps. 79:11). To hear the groaning of the bound, to open to the sons of death (Ps. 102:20). Jehovah who looseth the bound (Ps. 146:7). It is plain that by "the bound" in these places are not meant those who are bound in the world, but those who are bound by hell, thus by evils and falsities. Similar is the signification of these words of the Lord:
I was in prison, and ye came not unto Me (Matt. 25:43). As the Lord "brings out of prison," or delivers from infestation, those who have been in good as to life, though in falsities as to doctrine, He says: "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer;" also, "Be thou faithful, and I will give thee a crown of life."
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