they could from time to time come together and for the time feel the
delight of hatred as the delight of love; but this came from a hankering
of the flesh.

What the delight of hatred and thus of doing evil is with those who are
in hell can neither be described nor believed. To do evil is the joy of
their heart, and this they call their heaven. Their delight in doing
evil derives its all from hatred and vengeance against good and truth;
when, therefore, they are moved by a deadly and devilish hatred they
rage against heaven, especially against those who are from heaven and
who worship the Lord; for they violently burn to slaughter them, and
because they cannot destroy their bodies they desire to destroy their
souls. It is, therefore, the delight of hatred which, becoming a fire
in the extremes and being injected into the lusting flesh, becomes for
the moment the delight of adultery,--the soul in which the hatred lies
concealed then withdrawing itself. It is for this reason that hell is
called adultery, and also that adulterers are desperately unmerciful,
savage, and cruel. This, then, is the infernal marriage. (A.E., n.
991.)

It has been said that the love of adultery is a fire enkindled from
impurities that soon burns out and is turned into cold, and into an
aversion corresponding to hatred. But the reverse is true of the love of
marriage. This is a fire enkindled from a love of good and truth and
from a delight in well-doing, thus from love to the Lord and from love
toward the neighbor. This fire, which from its origin is heavenly, is
full of innumerable delights, as many, in fact, as are the delights and
blessednesses of heaven. It has been told me that the charms and
pleasantnesses of that love, which are manifested from time to time, are
so many and such that they cannot be numbered or described. Moreover,