2938. CONCERNING PERSUASIONS WITH [apud] MAN: THAT SPIRITS CANNOT ASSAIL THEM. Take [this] for an example - when I was persuaded that the holy spirit was the third person, and that from eternity there were holy spirits when I was in that persuasion, then if I said the least word [verbulum] against certain spirits, they were infested to such an extent, that they astonished me to that degree, that I scarcely dared to think concerning the holy spirit: for then there were many who supposed themselves to be the holy spirit: but afterwards, I became persuaded that the Lord alone is holy, and that all, both angels and spirits, are in themselves profane, and are called holy from those true and good things which are of the Lord: then I am no longer infested, although the same [spirits] I think, are present, for now they the persuasion is of such a nature, as to be familiar as it were do not in the least infest me, because I am in persuasion, and to the disposition. Hence, as from example may be evident, what is persuasion, of what quality, that it puts on nature, and that spirits can effect nothing against persuasion, yea that with [apud] man, they are as it were, in the like persuasion, for they put on his persuasions, which are of the memory, because [proceeding] from intellectuals. - 1748, August 26.