The quality of every man is according to his love, and all the delight of his life is from his love; for whatever favours his love he perceives to be delightful, and whatever is adverse to his love, undelightful. Hence, whether it be said that the quality of man is according to his love, or according to the delight of his life, it amounts to the same thing. Those therefore, who are loves of self and of the world, that is, in whom these loves reign, have no other delight of life, or no other life, than infernal life. For those loves, or the delights of life therefrom, which are perpetual, turn all their thoughts and intentions to self and the world, and in proportion as they do this, in the same proportion they immerse them in man's proprium, which he has from heredity, and thus at the same time in evils of every kind; and so far as man's thoughts and intentions are turned to his hereditary proprium, which in itself is nothing but evil, so far are they turned away from heaven.

For the interiors of man, which belong to his mind, that is, those of his thought and intention, or to his understanding and will, are actually turned downwards to his own loves, that is, to self, where the love of self and the delights thereof reign, and outwards, that is, from heaven to the world, where the love of the world reigns with its delights. But it is otherwise when a man loves God above all things, and his neighbour as himself in this case the Lord turns the interiors of man's mind or of his thought and intention to Himself, and thus averts them from his proprium, and raises them up, and this in a manner altogether unknown to him. This is why man's spirit, which is the man himself, after its release from the body, is actually turned to its own love, because that constitutes the delight of his life, and indeed is his life. (That all spirits are actually turned to their own loves, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell, n. 17, 123, 142-145, 151, 153, 272, 510, 548, 552, 561; and above, n. 41.) [3] What has been said may receive some degree of illustration from the fact, that all the most minute parts of the body turn themselves to the common centre of our earth, which is called the centre of gravity; this is why men, wherever they are, even those who are in the opposite direction, and are called antipodes, stand upon their feet. But this centre of gravity is only the centre of gravity in nature; but there is another centre of gravity in the spiritual world, and this, with man, is determined from the love in which he is; downwards if his love is infernal, and upwards if his love is heavenly. Wherever man's love is determined, there also his thoughts and intentions are determined; for these are in the spiritual world, and are actuated by the forces which are there. From these things it is now evident, that the perversion of the church, signified by the woman Jezebel, takes place with man solely from the loves of self and of the world, because these loves turn the interiors of his mind downwards, and thus avert them from heaven. It is said, the perversion of the church with man, because the church Is in man, as heaven is in an angel; every church is constituted of those who belong to it, and not of others, although born where the church is. This can be clearly understood from the fact that love and faith constitute the church; and love and faith must be in man, therefore the church also must be in him. (That heaven is in an angel, and that the church is in man, may be seen in the work, Heaven and Hell, n. 33, 53, 54, 57, 454; and in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 232, 233, 241, 245, 246.)