Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3882gatherings is signified a state of regeneration through truthsadjoined to good, stored up in the interiors.[2] The secret is this: from earliest infancy even to the first ofchildhood, man is being introduced by the Lord into heaven, andindeed among celestial angels, by whom he is kept in a state ofinnocence; a state in which (as is known) infants are up to the firstof childhood. When the age of childhood begins, the childgradually puts off the state of innocence, though he is still kept in astate of charity by means of the affection of mutual charity towardthose like himself, which state with many continues up to youth,and meanwhile he is among spiritual angels. Then, because hebegins to think from himself and to act accordingly, he can nolonger be kept in charity as before; for he then calls forth inheritedevils, by which he suffers himself to be led. When this state comes,the goods of charity and innocence that he had previously received,are banished according to the degree in which he thinks evils andconfirms them by act; and yet they are not banished, but arewithdrawn by the Lord toward the interiors and there stored up.[3] But as he does not yet know truths, the goods of innocenceand charity he had received in the two preceding states have not yetbeen qualified, for truths give quality to good, and good givesessence to truths; wherefore from this age he is imbued with truthsby instruction, and especially by means of his own thoughts andconfirmations from them. Insofar therefore as he is then in theaffection of good, so far truths are conjoined with good in him bythe Lord (see n. 5340), and are stored up for use. This state is whatis signified by the “seven years of abundance of produce.” It is thesetruths adjoined to good that in the proper sense are called“remains.” Insofar therefore as the man suffers himself to beregenerated, so far the remains serve for use; for so far a supplyfrom them is drawn forth by the Lord, and is sent back into thenatural, in order to produce a correspondence of the exteriors withthe interiors, or of what is natural with what is spiritual; and this iseffected in the state signified by the “seven years of famine.” Such isthe secret.