Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/384

288 charity in the will, and of faith in the understanding. Afterwards the man speaks and acts from that life, which is the life of charity and faith; from charity which is of the will goes forth the speech of the mouth and also the acts of the body, each by an intellectual way, that is by the way of faith. From these things it is evident that the cycle of man's regeneration is like the cycle of his life in general; and that in like manner it is begun in the will, by influx out of heaven from the Lord. (A. C. n. 10,057.)

The faculty of understanding what is good and true although he does not will it, is given to man in order that he may be reformed and regenerated; and therefore this faculty exists with the evil as well as with the good, yea, sometimes more acutely with the evil; but with this difference, that with the evil there is no affection of truth for the sake of life, that is for the good of life from truth, and therefore they cannot be reformed; but with the good there is an affection of truth for the sake of life, that is for the good of life, and they therefore can be reformed. But the first state of their reformation is, that truth of doctrine appears to them to be in the first place, and the good of life in the second; for they do good from truth; and their second state is, that the good of life is in the first place, and the truth of doctrine in the second; for they do good from good, that is from the will of good; and when this is the case, because the will is conjoined to the understanding as in a marriage, man is regenerated. (A. C. n. 3539.)

It is known that the soul of man has its beginning in an ovum of the mother, is afterwards perfected in her womb, and is there encompassed with a tender body, of such a nature that the soul may suitably act by means of it in the world into which it is born. The case is similar when man is born again, that is when he is regenerated. The new soul which he then receives is a purpose of good, which has its beginning in the rational, at first as it were in an ovum there, and afterwards is there perfected as in a womb; the tender body with which this soul is encompassed is the natural [degree] and the good therein, which becomes such that it acts obediently to the purposes of the soul; the truths therein are like the fibres in the body, for truths are formed from good. Hence it appears that an image of the reformation of man is presented in his formation in the womb; and if you