577. In the same degree in which angels have wisdom and intelligence, infernal spirits have malice and cunning; for the case is the same, since the spirit of man when released from the body is in his good or in his evil-if an angelic spirit, in his good, and if an infernal spirit, in his evil. Every spirit is his own good or his own evil because he is his own love, as has often been said and shown before. Therefore, as an angelic spirit thinks, wills, speaks, and acts from his good, so does an infernal spirit from his evil; and to think, will, speak, and act from evil itself; is to think, will, speak, and act from all things included in the evil. So long as man lived in the body it was different. [2] Then the evil of the man's spirit was in the bonds that every man has from the law, from hope of gain, from honour, from reputation, and from the fear of losing these; and therefore the evil of his spirit could not then burst forth and show what it was in itself. Moreover, the evil of the man's spirit then lay wrapped up and veiled in outward probity, honesty, justice, and in the affection of truth and good, which such a man professes and counterfeits for the sake of the world; and under these semblances the evil has lain so concealed and obscured that he himself scarcely knew that his spirit contained so much malice and craftiness, that is, that in himself he was such a devil as he becomes after death, when his spirit comes into itself and into its own nature. [3] Such malice then manifests itself as exceeds all belief. There are thousands of evils that then burst forth from evil itself; among which are such as cannot be described in the words of any language. What they are has been granted me to know and also to perceive by much experience, since it has been granted me by the Lord to be in the spiritual world as to my spirit and at the same time in the natural world as to my body. This I can testify, that their malice is so great that it is hardly possible to describe even a thousandth part of it; and so great that if man were not protected by the Lord he could never be rescued from hell; for with every man there are spirits from hell as well as angels from heaven (see above, n. 292, 293); and the Lord cannot protect man unless he acknowledges the Divine and lives a life of faith and charity; for otherwise man turns himself away from the Lord and turns himself to infernal spirits, and thus his spirit becomes imbued with a malice like theirs. [4] Nevertheless, man is continually led by the Lord away from the evils that he attaches and, as it were, attracts to himself by his association with infernal spirits. If this is not done by the internal bonds of conscience, which he fails to receive if he denies the Divine, he is nevertheless withdrawn by external bonds, which are, as said above, fears in respect of the law and its penalties, and fears of the loss of gain and the deprivation of honour and reputation. In fact, such a man may be led away from evils by means of the delights of his love and through fear of the loss or deprivation of those delights; but he cannot be led thereby into spiritual goods. For to the extent that he is led into these, to that extent he begins to give his thought to pretences and devices by simulating or counterfeiting what is good, honest, and just, for the purpose of persuading and thus deceiving. Such cunning adds itself to the evil of his spirit and forms it to be such evil as is his own nature.