173. [173.] 38. I was persecuted by people caught up in faith alone. Those who persecuted me attacked me forcibly, putting me into a state like that in which they were by inducing in me a similar respiration and similar pulse, thus impelling me also to a like thought and affection, and I found myself in a foggy murkiness regarding God and salvation, as though immersed in water. I then perceived that I had no communication with heaven, and I was told that their state is similar.