2737. CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL BONDS, WHEREIN ALL ARE HELD. These spiritual bonds cannot so [easily] be described to the apprehension, for [the spirits] are held, like as was given me to observe with [apud] spirits, or in the world of spirits, that they are so held, that they cannot think as much evil as do [it]. Thus they are kept by the good of the Lord from evil, as if they were held suspended away from evil; which also was granted to learn from living experience. For as soon as the bond was relaxed, the spirit was borne away into evil, and indeed into enormous [evil], as much the willing as the thinking of evil [tam velle, malum, quam, cogitare malum]. So the Lord alone is he who thus detains [keeps] heaven, the world and spirits and the human race from evil, and indeed in such a manner, that if [the bond] were relaxed, everyone would rush into enormous evil, yea into all destruction - likewise also into falsehoods [mendacia]. - 1748, August 5.