2886. CONCERNING CERTAIN SPIRITS OR ANGELS, WHO WHEN THEY COME, SEEM TO HAVE THE LORD'S PRESENCE WITH THEM. I have sometimes perceived that spirits or angels remitted into the state of spirits, when they spoke, alleged [praetulerint] that it was, as it were, the Lord Himself who spoke, so that they infused or insinuated in spirits, the persuasion, as it were, that the Lord Himself was present; but still after they had spoken, I could know from indications [indiciis] that they alleged [this] and that it is permitted or conceded to them to allege this. Now, also, about evening, a similar spirit or angel remitted into the spirit, was with me, and indeed next [very near] above the head, as is wont to happen; and then evil spirits around me could not infest me, nor anything inflow from them, for by his presence, this was intercepted from them; but he afterwards said, that he [had] become another. It seems that through such [spirits] is the presence of angels, with whom the Lord is perceived [as] present; hence, also [his] presence is perceived. - 1748, August 22.