2044. They were afterwards instructed that by nothing [in this case] was meant that a man should lose all that was his own, that is, his cupidities, and so his iniquities, and thus that he should come to exist as another person, and that they could never be anything until they had lost that which was theirs, and that in proportion as they experienced that loss, or was reduced to nothing, they would begin to be something; and that then they would have whatever they desired or thought, like the soul above mentioned, for it is given to him by the Lord to desire such things as are suitable, and those also he obtains in abundance, enjoying them with delight, and without cessation, so long and so far as he is nothing to himself. On this ground he has indefinite favors granted him, which he enjoys with inmost joy and delight, and with a perception vastly fuller than that of which other men are conscious in the possession of their delights, to say nothing of the boundless variety which attends them. The sensation and perception, which they thought would be extinguished, are infinitely heightened when self-love ceases to be the ruling principle of their delights. Thus instructed, the spirits began to reflect and to desire; and although they were not good, yet they were in a certain species of sleep [in which their evils were in abeyance.] - 1748, May 22.