2488. With the forms of inward things it is different. These have been distorted by hereditary evil, and therefore their state is an evil one, to which all and the very least things in them conspire. And the distortion from this inborn condition can by no means be restored, but only be reduced to nothing, so that it is rendered senseless as by sleep, or by death, and so it seems as if it were submitting itself, when yet this is not a real submission, because it conspires, from every point and center, toward evil, which is its state. Therefore this is only its mortification and being put to sleep, so that the very inward qualities, which are the Lord's, can operate. 1748, 2 July.