AC 1680, 1690, 1692 - The Lord's Combats and Temptations

AC 1680

As regards the evils and falsities
against which the Lord combated,
it is to be known
that what He fought against was the infernal spirits
who were in the evils and falsities,
that is, it was the hells filled with such spirits,
which continually infested the human race.
The infernals desire nothing else
than to destroy everyone;
and they perceive no greater pleasure
than in torturing others.

AC 1690 [3]

All temptation is an assault upon the love
in which the person is,
and the temptation
is in the same degree as is the love.
If the love is not assaulted,
there is no temptation.
To destroy anyone's love
is to destroy his very life;
for the love is the life.
The Lord's life was love toward the whole human race,
and was indeed so great, and of such a quality,
as to be nothing but pure love.

AC 1692

Scarcely anyone can know what
temptations, or combats of temptations, effect.
They are the means by which
evils and falsities are broken up and dispersed,
and by which horror of them is induced;
and not only is conscience given,
but it is also strengthened thereby,
and so the person is regenerated,
which is the reason why
those who are being regenerated
are let into combats, and undergo temptations;
and those who do not undergo them
in the life of the body,
do so in the other life,
if they are capable of being regenerated,
on which account the Lord's church is called militant.
But the Lord alone
sustained the most cruel combats of temptations
by His own strength or His own power;
for He was surrounded by all the hells,
and continually conquered them.

It is the Lord alone also who fights in the people
who are in the combats of temptations,
and who overcomes.
A person from his own power
can effect nothing at all against evil or infernal spirits;
for they are so connected with the hells
that if one were overcome,
another would rush in, and so on forever.
They are like the sea
which presses upon every part of a dike;
and if the dike should be broken
through by a cleft or a crack,
the sea would never cease
to burst through and overflow,
until nothing was left standing.
So would it be with person
unless the Lord alone
sustained in him the combats of temptations.