Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/392

296 follows that every one may be saved; consequently, that if he is not saved the Lord is not in fault but man; and man is in fault in that he does not co-operate. (T. C. R. n. 580.)

That man may become spiritual it is necessary that his natural should become as nothing, that is, should have no power at all of itself; for in so far as the natural has power of itself the spiritual has not power; for from infancy the natural is imbued with nothing but things which are of the lusts of self and the world and therefore contrary to charity. These evils effect that good cannot flow in through the internal man from the Lord; for whatever flows in is turned in the natural into evil. The natural is the plane in which influx terminates; wherefore unless the natural, that is the evil and the false which had formed the natural, become as nothing, good can by no means flow in from the Lord through heaven. It has no abiding-place, but is dissipated; for it cannot dwell in the evil and false. Hence it is that in so far as the natural does not become as nothing the internal is closed. This is known too in the church, from the doctrinal truth that the old man must be put off, that the new man may be put on. Regeneration is for nothing else than that the natural may be subjugated, and the spiritual obtain dominion; and the natural is subjugated when it is brought into correspondence. And when the natural is brought into correspondence it no longer resists but acts as it is commanded, and follows the behest of the spiritual,—scarcely otherwise than as the acts of the body obey the dictates of the will, and as the speech with the countenance is in accordance with the influx of thought. It is therefore plain that in order that man may become spiritual, the natural, in respect to willing, ought to become entirely as nothing. But it should be known that it is the old natural which must become as nothing, because this is formed of evils and falsities; and when it has become as nothing man is gifted with a new natural, which is called spiritual natural. It is called spiritual from the fact that it is the spiritual which acts by it, and manifests itself by it, just as the cause by the effect. It is known that the cause is all of the effect; the new natural therefore as to thinking, willing, and producing effect, is nothing but the representative of the spiritual. When this comes to pass man receives good from the Lord; and when he receives good he is gifted with truths; and when he is gifted with truths he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom; and when he is