Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1875

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1875. I was allowed to see the angelic ideas surrounding these words in the Lord's Prayer, 'Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil'. Good spirits nearest to me began to remove 'temptation' and 'evil' by a certain idea that was perceptible within me, and this they continued to do until that which was purely angelic, that is, good, remained, and no idea of temptation or evil was there - the literal sense thereby perishing altogether. Of that good countless ideas were being formed when that removal first began - ideas of how good may come out of a person's affliction when yet the affliction originates in that person and in his evil, which holds punishment within it. And coupled with these ideas there was a kind of indignation that people should suppose that temptation and the evil going with it should come from any other source, and that there should be any thought of evil when they thought about the Lord. These ideas were being purified every time they rose up higher. These risings were represented by removals, also described in 1393, which were carried out with a rapidity and in a manner that were indescribable, until they passed into the shadowy side of my thought. At that point they were in heaven where angelic ideas beyond words exist regarding that good which is the Lord's.


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