Before stating summarily what has been written in the Heavenly Arcana concerning temptations, something has to be premised on this subject, so that the source from whence temptations are, may be known more definitely. A temptation is said to be spiritual, when interiorly in a man the truths of faith are assaulted which he believes at heart, and according to which he loves to live; especially when the good of love, in which he places spiritual life, is assaulted. These assaults take place in various ways: as for instance, by an influx into the thoughts, and also into the will of stumbling-blocks against good and truth; further, by a constant rising up and bringing into remembrance, of the evils which a man has done, and also of the falsities which he has thought - and thus by a flooding of such things; and at the same time by an apparent closing up Of the interiors of the mind, and thus of the communication with heaven, whereby there is intercepted from a man the thought flowing from his own faith, and the volition springing from his own love. These things are caused by the evil spirits who are with a man; and when they happen, they take place under the form of an interior distress and of pangs of conscience; for such things affect and torture a man's spiritual life, the man not believing that they arise from evil spirits, but from himself in his interiors. A man does not know that these things arise from evil spirits, because he does not know that there are spirits with him; evil spirits in his evils, and good spirits in his goods; and that they are in his thoughts and affections. These temptations are most grievous, when conjoined with pains inflicted on the body; and still more so, if these pains continue long, and become intensified, and if the Divine Mercy is implored, and there is no deliverance: hence comes despair which is the end. Some statements shall first be adduced from the Heavenly Arcana, concerning the Spirits who are with a man; because temptations are from them. With every man there are spirits and angels, nos. 697, 5846-5866. They are in his thoughts and affections, nos. 2888, 5846, 5848. If spirits and angels were removed, a man could not live, nos. 2887, 5849, 5854, 5993, 6321; because through spirits and angels he communicates, and is conjoined, with the spiritual world, without which he would not have any life, nos. 697, 2796, 2886, 2887, 4047, 4048, 5846-5866, 5976-5993. The spirits with a man are changed according to the affections belonging to his love, no. 5851. The spirits from hell are in the loves peculiar to a man, nos. 5852, 5979-5993. The spirits enter into all things of a man's memory, nos. 5853, 5857, 5859, 5860, 6192, 6193, 6198, 6199; the angels into the ends from which, and for the sake of which, a man thinks, wills, and acts so, and not otherwise, nos. 1317, 1645, 5854. The man is not visible to the spirits, even as the spirits are not visible to the man, no. 5862. Wherefore it is impossible for spirits through a man to see anything which is in our solar world, no. 1880. Though there are spirits and angels with a man, in his thoughts and affections, still he is in the freedom of thinking, willing, and acting, nos. 5982, 6477, 8209, 8307, 10777; see also the work on Heaven and Hell, where The Conjunction of Heaven with the Human Race is treated of, nos. 291-302.