TEMPTATION (pt. 6)

The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine
Emanuel Swedenborg
• Doctrinal Series •
TEMPTATION
(pt. 6)

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When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. (Matt. 12: 43 -45)

If man succumbs in temptation, his state after it becomes worse than before, because evil has acquired power over good, and falsity over truth.

Since at this day faith is rare because there is no charity, for the church is at its end, therefore few at this day are admitted into any spiritual temptations; hence it is scarcely known what they are, and to what they are conducive.

(The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 192-193)