[2] In so far as a person's faith and charity become spiritual, so far is he withdrawn from the self and does not have in view himself, a reward or recompense, but only the delight of perceiving the truths which make up faith and of performing the good actions which make up love. In so far as that spirituality is increased, so far does that delight become blessedness; this is the source of his salvation, which is what is called everlasting life. The state a person is then in can be compared with the loveliest and most beautiful sights in the world; indeed it is compared with these in the Word. For instance, it is compared with fruit-trees and gardens full of them, with flowery meadows, with precious stones, with delicious food, and with weddings, as well as festivities and celebrations.

[3] In the opposite case, however, that is, when the natural is within the spiritual, and the person is consequently inwardly a devil, though outwardly like an angel, then he can be compared with a dead man in a casket of costly and gilded wood. He can also be compared with a skeleton dressed up in clothes like a person and riding in a splendid carriage; and also with a corpse in a tomb built like the temple of Diana.* In fact his internal state can be represented as like a knot of snakes in a pit, but his external state as like butterflies with wings displaying every sort of colour, but which stick their filthy eggs on the leaves of useful trees, so that their fruit is eaten up. In fact, their internal can be compared with a hawk, and their external with a dove; then the person's faith and charity are like the hawk flying above a dove which is trying to get away, and at length it tires, whereupon the hawk pounces and devours it.

* A reference to the celebrated temple of Diana or Artemis at Ephesus, one of the wonders of the ancient world.