4751. [4772] CONCERNING HIM WHO CAME TO THE FEAST, OR HEAVEN, [WITHOUT] A WEDDING GARMENT, AND WAS CAST DOWN. A certain one among the more deceitful, with whom I was acquainted in the life of the body [Jacob Benzelius], perceived that I was in heaven, in a certain society there. He wished, formerly, to infest me, but did not know how to come thither; wherefore he betook himself to his deceits [for he was able to devise interior deceits], and then, by pretences of good and truth, he allured certain simple good spirits, of whom part were in the world of spirits and part in an interior sphere: for he knew where they were. This he effected by means of previous craftiness, which he had practiced. And he then devised deceits in an interior or more subtle way, and counterfeited good; for such things do not take place in the other life by manifest speech, but by tacit speech, and by thoughts; for these penetrate round about like sound from the mouth. Hence certain ones were taken from angelic spirits, who are on the threshold of the second heaven, and associated themselves with him, and so helped him that he came into that society where I was in company with others; and he then began to feign himself an angel of light. But by his presence [he began] to infest me; for the sphere of such a one's presence infests those who are in a heavenly society. But at last he lost all power of thinking, whence he appeared bound as to hands and feet and was cast out. The appearance of the binding of the hands, is because he had no power of willing and thinking, consequently neither of plotting anything by his artifices; for, indeed, when he was below, he received a broad girdle so that he might be distinguished from others. Hence it is plain, how the deceitful can force their way into certain heavenly societies, because namely, they can counterfeit innocence. This appeared by means of an infant which he held in his hands, and which he rolled up and folded in various ways; for the thought of any one, when he deceives by innocence, appears thus: and afterwards, by various thoughts of good and truth, he penetrated as far as to the simple there, who assisted him. He was skilled in that art of counterfeiting sincerity; but he had inwardly cherished deceits, so that he had thought deceitfully, while he spoke with [apparent] sincerity.