3489. They confessed that they acknowledged the only Lord, which led me to conclude that they were from the earth Jupiter, as also that the proprium with them was only polluted. Concerning these things, and also perhaps a third topic, I conversed with them, but the third I do not recollect, though I inferred that they were in the true faith. They then said that I was impure, for they declared of what character I had formerly been, which they perceived immediately from my sphere; wherefore I said to them that it was as they had confessed (:which was the third topic just mentioned as forgotten:) viz. that all good is of the Lord, and that in themselves there was nothing but evil, therefore all their good was from the Lord, and they themselves, considered in themselves, were devils and infernals; consequently the Lord alone had delivered and saved them from hell, as he had us. In farther conversing, they asked me why I spoke with devils? I replied that it was permitted me, and that too with the very worst of the devils, from whose inflatus alone man, as to all that is his own, is liable to be spiritually destroyed. I informed them also that the devils of this character were once men, and some of them, whom I had known in the life of the body, were men of eminence, and of whom I had never supposed any such thing as that they were devils, or would become devils, but that they would rather become better;* for it would be unreasonable to suppose that the Lord would permit anyone to be punished in hell, much less to eternity, for [the sins of] a short life, especially as each one considered his principles to be true, and was thus fixed in his persuasion. It is not to be thought therefore that the Lord would suffer anyone to be punished, much less without intermission forever, except with a view to reformation, as whatever is from the Lord is good, and for a good end, but eternal punishment could have no [such] end. This was the reason that I answered them so harshly, and called them, as to their proprium, infernals and devils. * Dr. Tafel's note on this passage implies that Swedenborg's meaning here is, not that be supposed such persons would be regenerated, but that they would be subdued, and thus ameliorated. As to the paragraph that follows, respecting, the eternity of punishment, it is probably to be considered as expressing Swedenborg's opinion during the life-time of the persons spoken of, and before he became the subject of that full enlightenment which he afterwards received; for he is elsewhere extremely clear and emphatic on this subject. Thus, AC 10,749, "The life of man cannot be changed after death; it remains then such as it had been, nor can the life of hell be inscribed into the life of heaven, since they are opposite. Hence it is evident that they who come into hell remain there to eternity. " -Tr.