leading on from one thing to another, that unless the Lord came to man's help, he would never know but that he was really such as their suggestions make him feel himself to be. In like manner, they assault the affections of truth, which form man's conscience. As soon as they perceive anything of conscience whatever, they form to themselves an affection out of the falses and infirmities that are with man, and by means of this they overshadow the light of truth, and so pervert it as to produce anxiety, and thus cause torment. Moreover, they have the art of keeping the thought fixed intently on one object, and so fill it with phantasies, and at the same time secretly infuse lusts into those phantasies. Not to mention innumerable other artifices, which it is impossible to describe so as to give any just conception of them."[1]
From this vivid description of the nature of spiritual temptations, we may begin to realize the truth of the Apostle's words, "Be sober, be vigilant; for your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour;"[2] and of the Lord's words, in the parable of the sower, "Then cometh the evil one, and catcheth away that which was sown in the heart."[3] We may understand now the source of many of the mental torments and anxieties which spiritually-minded men undergo,—having no relation whatever to worldly affairs, or to anything outside of them, but altogether connected with states of conscience and of the soul. How often are the perceptions of truth darkened in the mind, and the man
- ↑ Arcana Cœlestia, n. 8120.
- ↑ 1 Peter v. 8.
- ↑ Matthew xiii. 19.
