2828. THAT THE VERIEST [ipsissima] LIFE IS NOT OF MAN, BUT OF THE LORD, A SUBTLE PROPOSITION [PUT FORTH] BY CERTAIN ONES, EITHER ANGELS OR SPIRITS. When I awoke I was in speech with angels, as usual, and then [there were] certain who thought [were thinking] that the life of man, spirit, and angel is of the Lord alone, and that they are only recipients of life; and that we only think we live, that it is granted by the Lord so to think, and that hence we attribute life to ourselves, [that this] is a fallacy, for we suppose to be ours that which is not ours, yea suppose it belongs to the eye to see, and to the ear to hear, when yet it does not belong to the eye and ear, but they are only recipient organs of sight and hearing. In like manner if the fallacy is not removed we also suppose the hands and feet to move themselves of themselves, when yet it does not belong to the hand and foot, but to the spirit, which acts within, as may be well known to anyone. The proposition was of such a character and insinuated with the persuasion that man, spirit, and angel cannot think that [anything] is his, and so is appropriated to him, as appears [to be the case], unless also there is life in the recipient who can perceive and feel this. This lasted some time with the persuasion that so also it appears; but I was kept in the persuasion, that the truth is, that life is of the Lord alone, -