399. THAT EVIL SPIRITS CAN INDUCE PERMISSIVELY ALMOST ANY SENSE WHATEVER, AS IF IT WERE HEAVENLY, WHEN YET IT IS FEIGNED AND EXTERNAL Today, being awake during the night, [I was infested] by the worst of spirits, who endeavored to destroy heavenly things. They induced upon me a delicate sense which emulated the sense of heavenly delights, and also the sense of conjugial delight, until the difference was scarcely discerned. But having been warned, I learned that all these things were fictitious and feigned; for they acquired this from their pleasure in destroying, in their own way, heavenly things, and they transferred it into me, as you may see above [n. 379]. Thus man can never discern between diabolical and heavenly things, except from God Messiah, consequently, except through faith in God Messiah. 1747, Dec. 25.