The reason is that the church is the Lord's kingdom on earth, corresponding to His kingdom in the heavens, and the Lord also links them together to make one. He divides those who are there, as He divides heaven and hell, and He does so according to their loves. Those who are given to the improper and obscene pleasures of scortatory love attract to themselves similar people from hell; but those who are given to the proper and chaste pleasures of conjugial love are associated by the Lord with similar angels from heaven. These angels of theirs, when they [are present] with a person [and]* stand beside deliberate and confirmed adulterers, notice the foul smells (mentioned in 430 above) and withdraw a little.

On account of the correspondence of filthy loves with dung and mud, the Children of Israel were commanded to carry with them a trowel to cover up their excrement, so that Jehovah God walking in the midst of the camp should not see the nakedness of the thing, and turn back (Deut. 23:13, 14). This command was given because the camp of the Children of Israel represented the church, and the filth corresponded to the lewdness of fornication. 'Jehovah God walking in the midst of their camp' meant His presence there together with angels. They were to cover it because all the places in hell where groups of such people live are covered over and shut off. That too is why it say 'so that He should not see the nakedness of the thing.' I have been allowed to see that all parts of hell are shut off; moreover, when they were opened to allow the entry of a new demon, such a stench was given off that it turned my stomach. The extraordinary thing is that these smells are as pleasant to them as dung is to pigs. From this it is obvious how we must understand the statement that uncleanness in the church comes from scortatory love and cleanliness there from conjugial love. * There appears to be a defect in the text here. The translation represents the reading: [adsunt et] adstant.