Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 3891existence through influx from the Lord, the man who has beenregenerated acknowledges and believes that the good and truth withwhich he is affected are not from himself but from the Lord, andalso that whatever is from himself, or of his own, is nothing butevil.[3] From all this it is plain what it is to be born again, and alsowhat the new will and new understanding are. But the regenerationthrough which come the new understanding and the new will isnot accomplished in a moment, but goes on from earliest infancyeven to the close of life, and afterward in the other life to eternity,and this by Divine means, innumerable and unspeakable; for manof himself is nothing but evil, which continually exhales as from afurnace, and continually endeavors to extinguish the nascent good.The removal of such evil, and the inrooting of good in its place,cannot be effected short of the whole course of life, and throughDivine means numberless and unspeakable. Of these meansscarcely any are known at the present day, for the reason that mandoes not suffer himself to be regenerated, nor does he believeregeneration to be anything, because he does not believe in a lifeafter death. The process of regeneration, which includesindescribable things, makes up the main part of angelic wisdom,and is of such a nature that it cannot be fully exhausted by anyangel to eternity. Hence it is that this is the chief subject treated ofin the internal sense of the Word.[4] That “Ephraim” is the new understanding in the natural isplain from very many passages in the Word, especially in theprophet Hosea, which treats much of “Ephraim,” and in which weread as follows:I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me, in that thou hastwholly committed whoredom, O Ephraim, Israel is defiled. Israel andEphraim shall go to ruin by their iniquity; Judah shall also go to ruinwith them. Ephraim shall become a solitude in the day of reproof. And Iam as a moth to Ephraim, and as a boring-worm to the house of Judah.And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, and Ephraimwent to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb; and this one could not healyou (Hos. 5:3, 5, 9, 12–13).