358. * uncleanness, cannot but be a very hidden matter, for experience alone can bear witness to such facts. For evil spirits are made use of to arouse evils in man, and in this way the evils are not only recognized, but also acknowledged. Before this, they are not taken away. But it is evil or damned spirits who then take these evils into themselves, or swallow them up, and so the person is freed of them. This, of course, is what also occurs during struggles and temptations, but the person is then not at all aware that it is happening. Through the Divine mercy of God the Messiah, I am able to bear witness of this phenomenon, from long experience; for I have frequently spoken with certain spirits about it, whenever it occurred. And often I was driven to great indignation that such unclean spirits were stirring up so many evils that lay hidden within my nature. But I learned that without them, there was no medicine; for this is the way the wounds must be opened up, and healed. This, then, is why unclean ashes could remove the dead things in a person, etc. etc. Therefore, when one believes that one is most unclean, because of such a character, then he is in the best state of mind - and the reverse, which I have also learned by experience, as I can testify. [Evil; Spirit]
[See WE 7320-26, explaining Num. 20:1-21.] 7327. But what is meant here [verses 14-21] in the spiritual sense by the land of Edom, is plain from the sequence of events, namely, that the people had undergone their temptations, and thus portrayed the Messiah, Who Alone overcame temptations by Himself. The children of Israel must also all undergo temptations, yet they all give in. It is God the Messiah Alone Who upholds us, and Who conquers for us. This I have very clearly experienced in myself,
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