581. There were certain spirits from that earth [with me] when I was reading John xvii, and they heard it. They wondered that the One Only Lord became a Man, and had been upon earth as any other man. But still, they later said that all things are Divine. Spirits of our earth who were infidels continually suggested that He was a man, that He was crucified, that He was born a man, and like another man, and similar things. The spirits of Jupiter heard this without saying anything. Afterwards, however, they said that such spirits are altogether devils, taking what they say from the things that are mundane, corporeal, and the like, which they themselves reject as dross, and esteem as nothing; they want to speak from such things, thus from dross, which blinds the mind and casts darkness over the light of truth. They now admonish the spirits of our earth that as long as they remain in such things and from them form their arguments and judge, they are no different from their devils whom they cast out from all consociation; they cast them beneath their feet and spit them out as into the mire. They could also judge their evil genius from this, that in their phantasy our spirits dwelt upon nothing else concerning them, than their nakedness; the other things which they had heard concerning them, which are heavenly, they do not even think about; hence they conclude that there is almost nothing heavenly in them. 1748, Jan. 26.