Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/383

Rh truth of faith increases, and truth is regarded for the sake of the end; namely, for the sake of good, or what is the same, for the sake of life,—and this more and more. Truth is thus insinuated into good; and when this is so man imbibes the good of life according to the truth which was insinuated, and thus acts or seems to himself to act from good. Before this time the principal thing to him was truth, which is of faith; but afterwards it becomes good, which is of the life. When this comes to pass man is regenerated; but he is regenerated according to the quantity and quality of the truth which is insinuated into good, and when truth and good act as one according to the quality and quantity of good. Thus it is with all regeneration. (ib. n. 2979.)

It is known that the things seen by the eyes and heard by the ears are apperceived by man inwardly, and as it were pass from the world through the eyes or through the ears into the thought, and so into the understanding; for thought is of the understanding. And if they are such things as are loved they pass thence into the will; and afterwards from the will by an intellectual way into the speech of the mouth, and also into the act of the body. Such is the cycle of things from the world through the natural man into his spiritual, and from this again into the world. But it should be known that this cycle is set in operation from the will, which is the inmost of man's life; and that it begins there, and from thence is carried to completion. And the will of the man who is in good is governed from heaven by the Lord, although it appears otherwise. For there is an influx from the spiritual world into the natural, thus through the internal man into his external, but not the reverse; for the internal man is in heaven, and the external in the world. As this cycle is the cycle of man's life, therefore while man is being regenerated he is regenerated along the same cycle; and when he is regenerated, through the same he lives and acts. For this reason, during man's regeneration the truths which will become truths of faith are insinuated through the hearing and sight; and they are implanted in the memory of his natural man. From this memory they are elevated into the thought, which is of the understanding; and those that are loved become of the will. And so far as they become of the will they become of the life; for the will of man is his very life. And so far as they become of the life they become of his affection, thus of