245. CONCERNING SPIRITS WHO PERVERT HOLY THINGS BY PLASTERING THEM OVER WITH "UNTEMPERED [MORTAR]" It was also shown me today how the worst spirits pervert holy things, namely, that they apply those things that are holy just as if they were their own, and as it were plaster them over, and in this way bring them to man's perception, so that those who are innocent can easily be persuaded that the holy things which are more interior flow from them, when yet it is mere "untempered mortar", as is described in Ezekiel [xiii 10]. At first I supposed that the sensation of the more interior things came forth from them; but after I had been better instructed, it was given me to expose their deceits to them, by speech and representations. This made them angry, namely, that in this way a perception of good can be produced from evil, and of truth from falsity. Thus also was the "plastered wall" explained. [See Ezek. xiii 10]. 1747, Nov. 12, o.s. They think themselves good and holy when they are making profession, like the dragon here and there [spoken of in the Word], when yet inwardly they cherish malice, although in that state they do not know it.