I was in a kind of peace, thus far from the passions that spirits would instil, and observing this, they were surprised. They asked how I could then have any life, with no desires, thinking that there is no life but one of passions because such life is from them. They know no other life than the life they think is their own, thus one of desires. It was given me to reply that then I have much greater life. For then they are in the life of the Lord, Who is Peace Itself, and heavenly life, the life of heavenly feelings, which they do not know about. Then again they thought that that life was outside of someone, not within them, but they were prompted to consider that they regard the life of desires, which they think is their own, as being within them, so that sins are even ascribed to it-and yet these would not be their own and would therefore not be accounted to them, if they had faith in the Lord. As for the life of the Lord, that becomes even more one's own, because it is inwardly and more inwardly, and inmostly appropriated, so [the angels] have also a much keener perception of joys. 1748, 28 May.