Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 1788

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1788. When I informed them that the case was not in this as in the other life, they wondered at first that they were in the other life, but soon forgetting this, they persisted [in their evil promptings], asking where there were families, in order that they might continue their machinations. I said to them that if they had no regard to spiritual sins in matters of this kind, still they should not endeavor to sunder the love of a wife by such allurements from that of her husband, as this would be to act against spiritual order; but they paid no attention to this, neither did they understand it. I moreover urged them to desist by their fear of the laws and the punishment flowing therefrom, as it was now palpably manifest that they desired to perpetrate such wrongs; but for this they cared nothing. I then appealed to their regard for their reputation, as their good name would in this way suffer, but neither did they care for this, for their quality and what they cared for is at once perceived by a spiritual idea. But when I intimated that the facts might become known, and the domestics be employed to treat them with severity, and even to punish them with sorer stripes than they now dreamt of - this, and this only, seemed to strike them with dread. But forgetting even this, they held on in their purposes, and their interior thoughts were represented to me, which were most filthy; then the wiles which they devised in their minds were declared, and these were of such a character as to make it improper to reveal them to anyone. It thus appears that their interiors are altogether laid open before spirits in the other life, and still more before the angels, who know their interior thoughts with the utmost exactness, while they are held after death in a similar state, and even all the devices of their hearts, for they were represented by them as to their quality, which was most foul. In like manner [they represented] the quality of certain ones in the life of the body who supposed adulteries and the like to be nothing unlawful, when yet they so defile their spiritual life that the effects cannot be removed without punishments quite severe. Concerning these it was said to me that such in the married state afterwards conceive aversions to their partners; differently from those who do not live in such cupidity.


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