2158. to the end that they may so correspond as to be almost ignorant that they possess a natural principle; for if correspondence is given them, the natural principle is as it were nothing, and is as it were absent, as if it were something transparent, so that the more interior things are displayed. This is the gift of the Lord alone, which is manifest from experience sometimes shown, that even souls recently from the body, or who are yet in their phantasies or corporeal things, yea, spirits not good can also be brought into heaven by the Lord, but only while they are in certain states, in which agreement can be given. In a word, correspondence is what causes, that angels seem to themselves not to be natural spirits, when yet they are natural; but the natural principle, as it were, disappears in certain states, through correspondence. But still such is man, such is spirit, and such the angel, so depraved that never to eternity can correspondence occur, did not the Lord continually bring it about. Wherefore also when they disagree, then are they driven from heaven to the spirits, and there undergo [castigations] chastisements, till correspondence is granted by the Lord. - 1748, May 31.