Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/391

Rh suddenly he would also expire. There are thousands and thousands of mysteries, of which scarcely one is known to man, whereby man is led of the Lord, when he is led from the life of hell to the life of heaven. It has been given me to know from heaven that this is so; and it has likewise been confirmed by many things which have come to my apperception. Since man knows scarcely anything about these mysteries, many have fallen into errors concerning man's liberation from evils and falsities, or concerning the remission of sins,—believing that, through mercy, in a moment the life of hell in man can be changed into the life of heaven in him; when yet the whole act of regeneration is mercy, and no others are regenerated but those who in the world receive the mercy of the Lord in faith and life. (A. C. n. 9336.)

Every one can be regenerated, but each according to his state. For the simple and the learned are regenerated differently; yet differently those who are in different studies, and also in different occupations; those who are inquisitive about the externals of the Word, differently from those who inquire about its internals; those who from parents are in natural good, differently from those who are in evil; those who from early childhood have entered into the vanities of the world, differently from those who earlier or later have withdrawn from them; in a word, those who constitute the external church of the Lord, differently from those who constitute the internal. This variety like that of faces and dispositions is infinite; but yet every one, according to his state, can be regenerated and saved. That it is so may be seen from the heavens into which all the regenerate come, in that they are three, a highest, a middle, and lowest; and they come into the highest who by regeneration receive love to the Lord; they come into the middle who receive love towards the neighbour; they into the last who only practise external charity; and all at the same time acknowledge the Lord as God the Redeemer and Saviour. All these are saved, but in different ways. That all may be regenerated and thus saved is because the Lord with His Divine good and truth is present with every man; from this is the life of every one,and from this is the faculty of understanding and willing; and from this they have free agency in spiritual things. These are wanting to no man. And means are also given; to Christians in the Word; and to Gentiles in the religion of every one, which teaches that there is a God, and teaches precepts concerning good and evil. From all this it