2576. WHAT IS SIGNIFIED IN THE WORD BY THEIR LEARNING WAR, AND WHY THEY UNDERGO TEMPTATIONS. There are very many reasons why the faithful must needs sustain persecutions and temptations: I will mention only one, which it was now given to learn; that [it is] because there is such a multitude of evil spirits, especially in the interior sphere, as they can learn to be the case, and because the Lord wills to govern each and all things according to order, so that thus they may be faithful in the state of resisting them, so that there may be an equilibrium; for the evil continually assault; the faithful resist; not resisting from themselves, but from the Lord. - 1748, July 9.