Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/385

Rh will believe it, it is celestial good and spiritual truth which come from the Lord that form him, and then give him ability successively to receive each; and this in such manner and in the degree that he as a man regards the ends of heaven, and not, as a brute animal, the ends of the world. (A. C. n. 3570.)

While man is being regenerated, which is effected in adult age (because before that he does not think from himself about the truths of faith), he is governed by the Lord through angels by this means; that he is kept in the truths which he has impressed upon himself are truths, and by means of these is kept in the affection with which they are conjoined; and as that affection, namely the affection of truth, is from good, he is thus led by degrees to good. That this is so is evident to me from much experience; for when evil spirits have suggested evils and falsities, I have apperceived that angels from the Lord then kept me in the truths which had been implanted, and so withheld me from evils and falsities. From this it was also clear that the truths of faith, inrooted by means of the affection of truth, are the plane in which angels operate. They therefore who have not this plane cannot be led by the angels, but suffer themselves to be led by hell; for then the operation of the angels can be nowhere fixed, but flows through. And this plane cannot be acquired unless the truths of faith are suffered to go into act, and so are implanted in the will, and through the will in the life. It is also worthy of remark that the operation of angels upon the truths of faith in man rarely becomes manifest, that is, so that thought is excited concerning that truth; but there is produced, with an affection, a general idea of such things as agree with that truth. For this operation is effected by imperceptible influx; which when presented to the sight appears as light flowing in, which light consists of innumerable truths in good. These truths encompass some single thing in man, and keep that, while in truth, in the love also which is of that truth. Thus the angels elevate the mind of man from falsities and defend from evils. But these things are entirely unknown to a man. (A. C. n. 5893.)

With those who are being regenerated interior and exterior things are arranged in order by the Lord for all following states