1098. And is become a habitation of demons, signifies where there are direful falsities from the profaned truths and goods of the church. This is evident from the signification of "habitation," as being where those have been since the Last Judgment who are meant by "Babylon" as a harlot. Also from the signification of "demons," as being those who are in direful falsities from profaned truths and goods (see above, n. 586, 1001). Here the hell of such is described, namely, that it is "a habitation of demons, a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird." That their hell is such is evident from the exhalations therefrom, which are the profaned truths and goods of heaven and the church, for in speech, countenance, and gesture they are in holy externals, which they raise heavenward, and yet in soul and heart they do not look to any God, but only to themselves as deities of the earth. Thus they make one with those who are in hell. They profane holy things, because their interiors, which pertain to the soul and heart, flow into exteriors that are disposed in a holy manner. Such are here meant by "demons."
(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)
[2] The thought alone that there is a God and that the Lord is the God of heaven opens heaven and presents man as present there, and yet so slightly as to be almost unseen, appearing afar off as in the shade. But in proportion as his thought of God becomes more full, true, and just, he appears in the light. Thought becomes more full by the knowledges of truth from the Word that pertain to faith and of good that pertain to love; for all things from the Word are Divine, and Divine things taken together are God. A man who thinks merely that there is a God and who gives no thought to what God is, is like one who thinks that the Word exists and that it is holy, and yet knows nothing of its contents; or like one who thinks that the law exists, but knows nothing of what is in the law. But the thought of what God is, is so great that it fills heaven, and makes all the wisdom of the angels, which is ineffable, for in itself it is infinite, because God is infinite. The thought that there is a God, derived from what He is, is what is meant in the Word by "the name of God" (see above, n. 102, 135, 148, 695, 959).
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