face is the external and representative form of those affections. No
one there can have any other face than that of his own affection. It
was also shown how this general likeness is varied in particulars
with individuals in the same society. A face like an angel's appeared
to me, and this was varied in accordance with such affections for
good and truth as are in those who belong to a single society. These
changes went on for a long time, and I noticed that the same face in
general continued as a ground work, all besides being what was
derived and produced from that. Thus by means of this face the
affections of the whole society were exhibited, whereby the faces of
those in it are varied. For, as has been said above, the faces of
angels are the forms of their interiors, thus of the affections that
belong to their love and faith.


48. From this it also comes to pass that an angel who excels in
wisdom instantly sees the quality of another from his face. In heaven
no one can conceal his interiors by his expression, or feign, or
really deceive and mislead by craft or hypocrisy. There are
hypocrites who are experts in disguising their interiors and
fashioning their exteriors into the form of that good in which those
are who belong to a society, and who thus make themselves appear
angels of light; and these sometimes insinuate themselves into a
society; but they cannot stay there long, for they begin to suffer
inward pain and torture, to grow livid in the face, and to become as
it were lifeless. These changes arise from the contrariety of the
life that flows in and affects them. Therefore they quickly cast
themselves down into hell where their like are, and no longer want to
ascend. These are such as are meant by the man found among the
invited guests at the feast not clothed with a wedding garment, who