8. The second state is when a distinction is made between the things that are the Lord's and those that are man's own. Those which are the Lord's are called in the Word 'remnants', and here they are chiefly the cognitions of faith which a person has learned since he was a small child. These are stored away and do not come out into the open until he reaches this state. Nowadays this state rarely occurs without temptation, misfortune, and sorrow, which lead to the inactivity and so to speak the death of bodily and worldly concerns - the things which are man's own. In this way what belongs to the external man is segregated from what belongs to the internal. Within the internal are the remnants, stored away by the Lord until this time and for this purpose.

1526. I was led away from ideas of particulars, ¹ that is, things of the body, so that my mind might be kept to spiritual ideas; at that time a brilliance was seen produced by flashes of light as from a diamond, and it remained for quite a long time. I cannot describe the light in any other way, for it was indeed like a diamond with a flashing brilliance in every tiniest facet. And while I was being kept in that light I perceived the particulars, which were things of a worldly and bodily kind, as being so to speak beneath me and far away. This taught me how much light those persons have who have been led away from material into spiritual ideas. Moreover I have seen the light spirits and angels have so many times that it would fill up page after page if I were to recount all my experiences.

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