like things; although he says and believes otherwise when he is
thinking by himself apart from doctrine. All this has been said to
make known what power angels have with man.

229. But so great is the power of angels in the spiritual world that
if I should make known all that I have witnessed in regard to it it
would exceed belief. Any obstruction there that ought to be removed
because it is contrary to Divine order the angels cast down or
overthrow merely by an effort of the will and a look. Thus I have
seen mountains that were occupied by the evil cast down and
overthrown, and sometimes shaken from end to end as in earthquakes;
also rocks cleft asunder to their bottoms, and the evil who were upon
them swallowed up. I have seen also hundreds of thousands of evil
spirits dispersed by angels and cast down into hell. Numbers are of
no avail against them; neither are devices, cunning, or combinations;
for they see through them all, and disperse them in a moment. (But
more may be seen on this subject in the account of The Destruction of
Babylon.) Such power do angels have in the spiritual world. It is
evident from the Word that they have like power in the natural world
also when it is permitted; for instance, that they have given to
destruction entire armies; and that they brought on a pestilence from
which seventy thousand men died. Of this angel it is said:

The angel stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to
destroy it but Jehovah repented Him of the evil, and said
to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough, now
stay thy hand. And David saw the angel that smote the
people (2 Samuel 24:16, 17);

besides other passages. Because the angels have such power they are
called powers; as in David:

Bless Jehovah, ye angels, mighty in power (Psalm 103:20).

230. But it must be understood that the angels have no power whatever
from themselves, but that all their power is from the Lord; and that
they are powers only so far as they acknowledge this. Whoever of them
believes that he has power from himself instantly becomes so weak as
not to be able to resist even a single evil spirit. For this reason
angels ascribe no merit whatever to themselves, and are averse to all
praise and glory on account of any thing they do, ascribing all the
praise and glory to the Lord.

231. It is the Divine truth that goes forth from the Lord that has
all power in the heavens, for the Lord in heaven