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.

1524. A blazing flame streamed down unexpectedly in front of me, blinding with its power not only the sight of my eyes but also my interior sight. Shortly afterwards a kind of obscurity appeared like a dark cloud containing so to speak something earthy. While I wondered at this I was led to realize that the light among angels in heaven is, in contrast to the light in the world of spirits, so much greater. Although spirits do live in light it is nevertheless as different as that. And as is the case with the light, so too are the intelligence and wisdom of angels superior to the intelligence and wisdom of spirits; and not only their intelligence and wisdom, but also everything connected with these, such as speech, thought, joy, and forms of happiness, for these correspond to the light. From this it has also become clear to me how great angelic perfection is, and what its nature is in contrast to that of men whose obscurity is even greater than that of spirits.