4284. CONCERNING INNOCENCE AND SLEEP OF A SPIRIT. Evil spirits again infested me in my sleep and were punished. Being afterwards awakened, and remaining so for an hour, the same thing occurred again, the spirits around me being meantime asleep; from which it appears that while man is awake spirits may be sleeping around him. While some were then prompted to produce disquiet, others wishing them to be silent said to them from innocence, "Keep still - the Lord is asleep," which, because it was from a kind of infantile innocence, was highly acceptable; from whence we may conclude how the case is with innocence - that it is accepted though it be ignorant of truth. - 1749, June 1.