Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/162

 Here we see the inward depth of the temptation and regeneration which Swedenborg was now undergoing. All his previous efforts were external in comparison, and futile. Indeed he is learning the inefficacy and error of all merely human efforts for goodness, even those of the angels themselves. And all this was to the end that he might yield himself wholly into the Lord's hands, and become His humble, faithful servant, with a new heart and a new spirit. Nor was his personal regeneration all that was at stake. The great question as to how regeneration is accomplished was to be experimentally solved and intelligently comprehended. From the time of the Christian Fathers it had become more and more misunderstood. The Roman Catholic Church taught that it was effected by baptism and confirmed by good works. The Reformed Churches had adopted the same belief in baptism as regeneration, for those who should receive faith as the elect—denying that men can do anything about it. For the implanting of a new, true, interior Christian Church, it was essential that the real means of regeneration should be understood. Swedenborg by inheritance was a mild Lutheran. By experience he now learns that