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158 SWEDENBORG’S TRAVELS AND DIARIES. [ Doc. 209.
sopher, who allows his understanding to come into play, which
at all times would lead him to ask, why God took the wind,
when He called the grasshoppers together [Exodus x, 13 ], why
He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and did not work directly, with
other similar things, which I considered, and the effect of
which was such, that my faith was not firm. I looked upon
the fire, and said to myself, "In this case neither ought I to
believe that the fire is, since the external senses are more
fallacious than what God says, which is the Truth itself; I
ought rather to believe this than myself.* With these and
other similar thoughts I passed an hour, or an hour and a
half, and in my mind was engaged with the Tempter. I must
observe that on the same day I had gone to Delft,† and had
had the grace of being engaged in profound spiritual thought,
my thoughts being more profound and beautiful than they
had ever been before, and, indeed, during the whole day.
This was the work of the Spirit, who had been with me.
27. At ten o’clock I went to bed, and in little more
than half an hour afterwards I heard a noise under my head.
I then thought that the Tempter was gone. Immediately
afterwards a tremor came over me, powerfully affecting me
from the head over the whole body, accompanied by some
sound; this was repeated several times. I felt that some
thing holy had come over me. I then fell asleep, and about
twelve, one, or two o’clock at night a most powerful
tremor seized me from head to foot, with a sound like the
concourse of many winds.§ By this sound, which was inde
scribable, I was shaken, and thrown [from the bed] on my
face. While at the moment I was thus thrown down, I be
came wide awake,** and I then saw that I had been pro
strated. I wondered what all this meant, and then spoke, as
* See Note 166, i, and 165, ix, A.
Delft is a Dutch town, not far from the Hague, in the direction of
Rotterdam.
See Note 162, i, E. § See Note 162, i, F.
** By Swedenborg’s becoming "wide awake" is meant that his spiritual
eyes were opened so that he could see into the spiritual world, where all
those things happened which he relates.
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