The State of a Man's Beginning Regeneration.
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Genesis 28: 10, 11 John 3: 5-7 Arcana Coelestia 3690 § 2
By Rev. Paul Booth
Lessons: Genesis 28: 10, 11 John 3: 5-7 Arcana Coelestia 3690 § 2
And Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haren. And He lighted
upon a place, and passed the night there, for the sun was set; and he took of the
stones of the place, and placed them for his pillows, and lay down in that place.
Genesis 28: 10, 11
upon a place, and passed the night there, for the sun was set; and he took of the
stones of the place, and placed them for his pillows, and lay down in that place.
Genesis 28: 10, 11
We all have read or heard historical stories like the one in our text today, especially when as a child. They have been of service to us even though they are so remote from the essential Divine doctrinal things that we should all come to know. This is because we read and learned them while in an external state or in the natural state, and as such, they are but external truths seen as appearances only. Our life is lived here in the natural or external state and when we 'as a child' live in such a remote state away from the Divine doctrine, then what truths we receive from the Word are just external truths that appear to be true. However, by historical truths, as we read in today's Old Testament lesson, we begin to be led by degrees into interior doctrinal matters of truth and of good and at last into Divine things themselves. Therefore, there must be a communication between the Lord and us so that we might be led back to Him and into Heaven.
It has been revealed to the person who is in the Lord's New Church that the Word has within it an internal sense - a spiritual and celestial sense - which inmost is Divine. So, even though we live an external life and, even if we are taught in the Word that within these stories and histories, which are so remote from Divine truths, that we learn that there is some hidden truths and goods within. Because we, from the Latin Word - the Third Testament - learn that names written in God's Word signify the nature and quality of a person or thing and, so, we can come to see that the Word primarily speaks about the Lord, for that is what the Word primarily reveals to mankind. Thus, we learn that the name 'Jacob' represents a certain quality of the Lord; that quality, in this case, is the 'good of truth' that is signified. (cf. AC 3679).
The Lord, when He came on earth and put on the 'life' of mankind, which was the natural state, He was without any direct knowledge of communication with the Divine, is seen here as that 'good of truth'. Here, we need to remember "that the Lord is with every one, the good a well as the evil" (TCR 766). Of course, He is with us in our innocence. Thus, by "Jacob went out from Beer-sheba" is meant the Lord, while a child on earth came into a 'Life' more remote from the Divine even as we are, if we have not been reformed and, so, are not led into regeneration.
In such a state, the Lord lived in a remote state away from the Divine doctrinal things, that is, from Divine Good and Truth. The Lord in such a state desired to be in communication with the Divine, which He called His Father. It is a life that is lived in the external state that needs to be regenerated in order that there is not only communication with the Lord, but conjunction with the Lord and Heaven as well. In such a state the Lord Himself comes into in order to save man and He united His natural with the Divine and became the Divine Human.
So, as children, even as the Lord was once a child as we are here on earth, we are in the truths of good when we read the historical stories in the Word in innocence, even though they are far removed from the Divine truth. They serve to introduce us into interior doctrinal matters of truth and good by degrees. Let us examine this concept closer. As a child reads or is told of these stories, the child becomes effected by them from innocence. The angels, who are with the child, are in a happy celestial state, for they are in the internal sense from the Lord in that the histories represent and signify internal truths. Of course, the person, who from rejecting these histories and prophesies as being divine within, will not see such a connection or communication, for such often believe it is through their own intelligence and by their own work that has brought them into reformation not seeing or knowing that angels and spirits are with them. So, they, in their sophistication, have closed their minds and hearts as they grow into youth and into adulthood.
The state that we are speaking of here is the first state of infancy and of childhood in our regeneration. Such a state can be seen as a parallel to the natural state of a person's life in that he or she is born into the natural state and must be born again in the spiritual in order that he or she be regenerated. In this state a person begins with truths - truths that are remote from the Divine Truth - in other words, external truths such as are given and understood in their literal sense. A child delights in these stories and histories found in the Word. Yet, doesn't the person, when he accepts the Lord as coming to save him, also delight in the truths taught in the Word even though he or she is unaware that there lies hidden within even greater truths or more spiritual and celestial truths and even Divine doctrinal things? You see, there is delight in just knowing that one can have the truth, just as a child delights in reading and in hearing of the histories and stories written in the Word.
The life at that time or state of a man is only an external life. However, as he begins to live according to these truths, he comes into the life of truth, though still remote from knowing divine doctrinal things. Still, a man's life is not a spiritual life, but all can and should live according to civil laws - laws which are similar to the commandments taught in the Word. Anyone who lives according to these laws can live a moral life. Just because one lives according to the country's civil and moral laws does not mean he is in spiritual life.
In this, you can see the Lord working to regenerate a person by degrees by leading the person from such a remote state of life, of childlike innocence, those who is in delights of the truths of the Word to a moral and civil life - one not of murdering or committing adultery or theft - and from there can be led into a spiritual life.
Again, here, in the text, in the supreme sense, it is the Lord who is signified as the truths of good, who comes into the external good and truths of that first degree or state of regeneration. There is a distinction of good and truth according to degrees - interior goods and truths being of a higher degree than exterior ones. Example: the lowest and sensuous goods and truths are of the body, the next degree of goods and truths are of the natural man and the higher ones are called the rational truths and goods - these are the sensuous, the natural, and the rational states of man. The rational is the interior degree and the natural, of course, is the exterior degree, while the lowest degree is the external or sensuous. All things of truth and good flow from the higher to the lower and not the reverse, from the lower to the higher. So, interior goods and truths flow into exterior goods and truths, which are lower and there exhibit themselves in an image; thus, there is seen a separation of goods and truths in the various degrees.
Can man, unless he is enlightened, know of these degrees if he does not know how the case is with his body and spirit? Does not a man's body, which is natural and physical, appear separate from his spirit? Yet, by the Word one learns that there are three Heavens, one more interior than the other, the third being the inmost. That these three are perfectly distinct from each other according to the degrees is evident. As such, those in the third Heaven are nearest to the Lord, those in the middle or second Heaven more remote and the first Heaven is even still more remote. Thus, we can see that as we come to know of these things we learn that there is a communication between them, even as our external life is connected with our exterior and that with our interior or what is the same, our sensuous with our natural and our natural with our rational and, so, we have communication and conjunction, even as there is between the degrees of Heaven. This is why the Word says that a man is made as a 'little Heaven'. Example: what we learn as a child is developed on until we live as those of a youth and we eventually can reason as an adult. It is the same when we become born again spiritually; we advance in the spiritual states of infancy and childhood to youth and a young person and finally into an adult state.
The lowest degree of good and truth, which is referred to in our text, is 'as it were' the lowest or the first Heaven and is more remote from the Lord than are those higher degrees of good and truth. Therefore, a person who is in the lowest or external degree of good and truth are in a certain type of charity towards the neighbor, and thus are in a certain image of the Lord, though remote. Here, we are reminded of the written Word in Genesis where it tells that man was made in the Lord's image and after His likeness. The likeness is seen in those of the middle or second Heaven and those who are in the celestial or third Heaven are likenesses of the Lord. Thus, the Lord, when He came into the world, came to the place or the state where He could receive natural and exterior truths and goods from the Divine and, so, likewise does a man, who is also in such a state as being one of infancy and childhood or in the state of reformation, which is before one comes into regeneration.
Such external life of a man is obscure from Divine Truth, that is, in respect to the truth one is in obscurity of any intelligence or of spiritual, celestial - Divine truths - and is also in obscurity of wisdom, which is of Divine good. Here, we should know that angels are in the light that comes from the Lord and that that light is both Intelligence and Wisdom from the Lord, thus angels signify truths and goods.
Therefore, without such light, we live in a state that is very remote from the Divine truth. To help us understand this, we can see that in common speech 'light' is predicated of the things of understanding; nonetheless, a person is not aware of this, and so, he reasons that the use of the word 'light' in the Word is only for a comparison. Thus, he is not in any perception of truths and goods as are the angels. He is not living 'as it were' in his interior and Rational, but in the exterior. The Rational here spoken of is of the Lord and is not a man's own reasoning.
We read in our text, "And he took the stones of the place and placed them for his pillows." What is it that the stones signify? Isn't it lower or natural truths? For why else is the Lord called the 'corner stone' which the Church is formed upon? Doesn't all Divine truth proceed from the Lord? So, under the head or neck natural truths are placed, which are external truths and, so, in a general way there is communication with interior truths and eventually with spiritual and celestial things, thus with Divine things. To help understand how this is effected with a man, you need only to know and believe that one's life is the Lord's life within him; that is, that it comes from the Lord and that that life is of the Good and Truth of the Lord. Without such a life no one could live and, that if life were cut off mankind would perish, for there is no true life without the Lord.
It can be seen that anyone who in such a state has tranquility or peace, for in such a state one externally feels that his lusts and falsities are removed. Both of these - lusts and falsities - in man cause all unrest. In our life in its beginning as in and during infancy and childhood we are in a state of tranquility. Now, we know that as we advance in spiritual age into the state of adulthood we remove ourselves from such tranquility, for we are no more in innocence, that is, we come into worldly cares and anxieties and these are caused by the lusts for self and for the world. From such are falsities derived. Now, compare this natural life to the spiritual life of a man who is being regenerated. Such a person who comes into his new life, first into a state of tranquility then comes into a state or a time that is not tranquil, but there are disturbances. For evils and falsities, when in man in a new beginning or when born anew spiritually, are tranquil, but soon they - evil and falsity - begin to come forth and make disturbance. The evil diabolic crew strives to destroy the man's life. Yet, with such a man, there is peace and this is that he has power and the strength to combat 'as it were' the evils and falsities that bring him into temptations. However, be it known, it is the Lord within us who is victorious and who overcomes the evils and falsities within and that very often brings us into another new state of peace, and even into Heaven.
Amen.
It has been revealed to the person who is in the Lord's New Church that the Word has within it an internal sense - a spiritual and celestial sense - which inmost is Divine. So, even though we live an external life and, even if we are taught in the Word that within these stories and histories, which are so remote from Divine truths, that we learn that there is some hidden truths and goods within. Because we, from the Latin Word - the Third Testament - learn that names written in God's Word signify the nature and quality of a person or thing and, so, we can come to see that the Word primarily speaks about the Lord, for that is what the Word primarily reveals to mankind. Thus, we learn that the name 'Jacob' represents a certain quality of the Lord; that quality, in this case, is the 'good of truth' that is signified. (cf. AC 3679).
The Lord, when He came on earth and put on the 'life' of mankind, which was the natural state, He was without any direct knowledge of communication with the Divine, is seen here as that 'good of truth'. Here, we need to remember "that the Lord is with every one, the good a well as the evil" (TCR 766). Of course, He is with us in our innocence. Thus, by "Jacob went out from Beer-sheba" is meant the Lord, while a child on earth came into a 'Life' more remote from the Divine even as we are, if we have not been reformed and, so, are not led into regeneration.
In such a state, the Lord lived in a remote state away from the Divine doctrinal things, that is, from Divine Good and Truth. The Lord in such a state desired to be in communication with the Divine, which He called His Father. It is a life that is lived in the external state that needs to be regenerated in order that there is not only communication with the Lord, but conjunction with the Lord and Heaven as well. In such a state the Lord Himself comes into in order to save man and He united His natural with the Divine and became the Divine Human.
So, as children, even as the Lord was once a child as we are here on earth, we are in the truths of good when we read the historical stories in the Word in innocence, even though they are far removed from the Divine truth. They serve to introduce us into interior doctrinal matters of truth and good by degrees. Let us examine this concept closer. As a child reads or is told of these stories, the child becomes effected by them from innocence. The angels, who are with the child, are in a happy celestial state, for they are in the internal sense from the Lord in that the histories represent and signify internal truths. Of course, the person, who from rejecting these histories and prophesies as being divine within, will not see such a connection or communication, for such often believe it is through their own intelligence and by their own work that has brought them into reformation not seeing or knowing that angels and spirits are with them. So, they, in their sophistication, have closed their minds and hearts as they grow into youth and into adulthood.
The state that we are speaking of here is the first state of infancy and of childhood in our regeneration. Such a state can be seen as a parallel to the natural state of a person's life in that he or she is born into the natural state and must be born again in the spiritual in order that he or she be regenerated. In this state a person begins with truths - truths that are remote from the Divine Truth - in other words, external truths such as are given and understood in their literal sense. A child delights in these stories and histories found in the Word. Yet, doesn't the person, when he accepts the Lord as coming to save him, also delight in the truths taught in the Word even though he or she is unaware that there lies hidden within even greater truths or more spiritual and celestial truths and even Divine doctrinal things? You see, there is delight in just knowing that one can have the truth, just as a child delights in reading and in hearing of the histories and stories written in the Word.
The life at that time or state of a man is only an external life. However, as he begins to live according to these truths, he comes into the life of truth, though still remote from knowing divine doctrinal things. Still, a man's life is not a spiritual life, but all can and should live according to civil laws - laws which are similar to the commandments taught in the Word. Anyone who lives according to these laws can live a moral life. Just because one lives according to the country's civil and moral laws does not mean he is in spiritual life.
In this, you can see the Lord working to regenerate a person by degrees by leading the person from such a remote state of life, of childlike innocence, those who is in delights of the truths of the Word to a moral and civil life - one not of murdering or committing adultery or theft - and from there can be led into a spiritual life.
Again, here, in the text, in the supreme sense, it is the Lord who is signified as the truths of good, who comes into the external good and truths of that first degree or state of regeneration. There is a distinction of good and truth according to degrees - interior goods and truths being of a higher degree than exterior ones. Example: the lowest and sensuous goods and truths are of the body, the next degree of goods and truths are of the natural man and the higher ones are called the rational truths and goods - these are the sensuous, the natural, and the rational states of man. The rational is the interior degree and the natural, of course, is the exterior degree, while the lowest degree is the external or sensuous. All things of truth and good flow from the higher to the lower and not the reverse, from the lower to the higher. So, interior goods and truths flow into exterior goods and truths, which are lower and there exhibit themselves in an image; thus, there is seen a separation of goods and truths in the various degrees.
Can man, unless he is enlightened, know of these degrees if he does not know how the case is with his body and spirit? Does not a man's body, which is natural and physical, appear separate from his spirit? Yet, by the Word one learns that there are three Heavens, one more interior than the other, the third being the inmost. That these three are perfectly distinct from each other according to the degrees is evident. As such, those in the third Heaven are nearest to the Lord, those in the middle or second Heaven more remote and the first Heaven is even still more remote. Thus, we can see that as we come to know of these things we learn that there is a communication between them, even as our external life is connected with our exterior and that with our interior or what is the same, our sensuous with our natural and our natural with our rational and, so, we have communication and conjunction, even as there is between the degrees of Heaven. This is why the Word says that a man is made as a 'little Heaven'. Example: what we learn as a child is developed on until we live as those of a youth and we eventually can reason as an adult. It is the same when we become born again spiritually; we advance in the spiritual states of infancy and childhood to youth and a young person and finally into an adult state.
The lowest degree of good and truth, which is referred to in our text, is 'as it were' the lowest or the first Heaven and is more remote from the Lord than are those higher degrees of good and truth. Therefore, a person who is in the lowest or external degree of good and truth are in a certain type of charity towards the neighbor, and thus are in a certain image of the Lord, though remote. Here, we are reminded of the written Word in Genesis where it tells that man was made in the Lord's image and after His likeness. The likeness is seen in those of the middle or second Heaven and those who are in the celestial or third Heaven are likenesses of the Lord. Thus, the Lord, when He came into the world, came to the place or the state where He could receive natural and exterior truths and goods from the Divine and, so, likewise does a man, who is also in such a state as being one of infancy and childhood or in the state of reformation, which is before one comes into regeneration.
Such external life of a man is obscure from Divine Truth, that is, in respect to the truth one is in obscurity of any intelligence or of spiritual, celestial - Divine truths - and is also in obscurity of wisdom, which is of Divine good. Here, we should know that angels are in the light that comes from the Lord and that that light is both Intelligence and Wisdom from the Lord, thus angels signify truths and goods.
Therefore, without such light, we live in a state that is very remote from the Divine truth. To help us understand this, we can see that in common speech 'light' is predicated of the things of understanding; nonetheless, a person is not aware of this, and so, he reasons that the use of the word 'light' in the Word is only for a comparison. Thus, he is not in any perception of truths and goods as are the angels. He is not living 'as it were' in his interior and Rational, but in the exterior. The Rational here spoken of is of the Lord and is not a man's own reasoning.
We read in our text, "And he took the stones of the place and placed them for his pillows." What is it that the stones signify? Isn't it lower or natural truths? For why else is the Lord called the 'corner stone' which the Church is formed upon? Doesn't all Divine truth proceed from the Lord? So, under the head or neck natural truths are placed, which are external truths and, so, in a general way there is communication with interior truths and eventually with spiritual and celestial things, thus with Divine things. To help understand how this is effected with a man, you need only to know and believe that one's life is the Lord's life within him; that is, that it comes from the Lord and that that life is of the Good and Truth of the Lord. Without such a life no one could live and, that if life were cut off mankind would perish, for there is no true life without the Lord.
It can be seen that anyone who in such a state has tranquility or peace, for in such a state one externally feels that his lusts and falsities are removed. Both of these - lusts and falsities - in man cause all unrest. In our life in its beginning as in and during infancy and childhood we are in a state of tranquility. Now, we know that as we advance in spiritual age into the state of adulthood we remove ourselves from such tranquility, for we are no more in innocence, that is, we come into worldly cares and anxieties and these are caused by the lusts for self and for the world. From such are falsities derived. Now, compare this natural life to the spiritual life of a man who is being regenerated. Such a person who comes into his new life, first into a state of tranquility then comes into a state or a time that is not tranquil, but there are disturbances. For evils and falsities, when in man in a new beginning or when born anew spiritually, are tranquil, but soon they - evil and falsity - begin to come forth and make disturbance. The evil diabolic crew strives to destroy the man's life. Yet, with such a man, there is peace and this is that he has power and the strength to combat 'as it were' the evils and falsities that bring him into temptations. However, be it known, it is the Lord within us who is victorious and who overcomes the evils and falsities within and that very often brings us into another new state of peace, and even into Heaven.
Amen.
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