AC 10038 - "hell fire"

AC 10038
That "to be burned with fire"
denotes to be consumed by the evils of the love of self,
is because this love consumes all the goods and truths of faith.
That the love of self does this is known to scarcely anyone at this day,
and consequently neither is it known that this love is hell with a person,
and that it is meant by "hell fire."

[2] For there are two fires of life with a person;
one is the love of self,
the other is love to God.
They who are in the love of self cannot be in love to God,
because these loves are opposite.
They are opposite because the love of self produces all evils,
which are contempt for others in comparison with self,
enmity against those who do not favor,
and finally hatreds, revenges, ferocities, cruelties;
which evils wholly resist the Divine influx,
and consequently extinguish the truths and goods of faith and of charity,
for these are what flow in from the Lord.
Anyone who reflects
is able to know that everyone's love is the fire of his life;
for without love there is no life, and such as the love is such is the life;
and from this it can be known
that the love of self produces evils of every kind,
and that it so far produces them as it is regarded as the end,
that is, so far as it reigns.
The worst kind of the love of self is the love of ruling for the sake of self,
that is, solely for the sake of honor and self-advantage.
They who are in this love
are indeed able to make a profession of faith and charity;
but they do this with the mouth, and not with the heart;
nay, the worst of them regard the things of faith and charity,
thus the holy things of the church, as means to attain their ends.