762. Spiritual temptations however are scarcely known nowadays, nor are they allowed to take place as they did in the past, because man is not governed by the truth of faith. If they did take place he would go under. Instead of temptations he undergoes other experiences, such as misfortune, grief, and anxiety which arise from natural or from bodily causes. There are also bodily illnesses and diseases, which to some extent weaken and break down the life of his pleasures and desires, and fix his thoughts on and raise them to higher and nobler things. But these are not spiritual temptations, which do not exist except among people who have received from the Lord a conscience for truth and good. Conscience itself is the level on which temptations take place.