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1078 NOTES TO VOLUME II.
the flesh, that he might be able to stand in the presence of God,
and have fellowship with angels, and receive in his understanding
the genuine truths and the internal sense of the Holy Word, and
thus be the instrument by whom the Lord was to effect His Second
Advent. Now according to his own express and oft repeated
teaching, there is no purification without temptation, and there can
be no temptation without the agency of evil spirits, who excite into
activity, and if possible into act, the evils of our nature. For temp
tation does not, according to him, consist in outward allurements,
but in inward incitements to sin, and to sin against God, and in
opposition to our religious principles and convictions. Temptation
is therefore a conflict between the good and the evil within us. And
as angels call forth and support us through our spiritual principles,
and evil spirits excite and assail us through our natural inclinations,
temptation is a conflict between angels and demons, whose we shall
be. By means of temptation evil is seen and felt as a root of bitter
ness, poisoning all the streams of life, and tainting even our best
acts both of mind and body with its deadly quality. It is remark
able, and singularly in harmony with this doctrine of temptation, that
Swedenborg at a subsequent period ascribes these very dreams to
the agency of evil spirits. In the " Spiritual Diary" (no. 3680) he
says, "This night while I was asleep, some who were above the head
attacked me and sought to inflict a mortal injury upon me. This
they did after, as they thought, something had been discovered which
they believed I had committed in actual life. As soon as this had
been discovered, they rushed upon me; for they are of opinion that
when they discover anything evil in man, licence is given them to
destroy him. This, however, was something which, as I believe, had
happened several years ago in my dreams; and I am not sure
whether a spirit had not then appropriated me as his own. These
spirits were afterwards severely punished." There can be no doubt
ofthese being the very dreams of which we are now speaking, there cord
of portions of which we have left untranslated. Some of them appear
indeed to be something more than temptations, to be rather of the
nature of demoniacal possessions. For although the author has
declared that there are no external demoniacal possessions at this
day, yet similar states of the church may give rise to somewhat
similar conditions of spiritual intercourse, and it may have been
necessary that he, who was to describe these states, should know
something of them by experience. Their effect was entirely that
which, according to his own teaching, temptation is the means of
producing in those who overcome. About the same time, therefore,
that Swedenborg had such dreams, he also records "my inclination
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