AE 897 - the uses of and consolations after temptations

AE 897 [2]
All who are being regenerated by the Lord undergo temptations,
and after temptations experience joys.
But the source of the temptations and of the joys that follow,
which are here meant by consolations,
is not yet known in the world,
because there are few who experience spiritual temptations,
for the reason that there are few who are in the knowledges of good and truth,
and fewer yet who are in the marriage of good and truth,
that is, in truths as to doctrine and at the same time in goods as to life;
and no others are let into spiritual temptations;
for if others were let into temptations they would yield,
and if they yielded their latter state would be worse than their former state.
The true reason why only those who are in the marriage of good and truth
can be let into spiritual temptations
is that the spiritual mind, which is, properly, the internal person,
can be opened only with these (spiritual temptations);
for when that mind is opened temptations exist,
and for the reason that heaven, that is the Lord through heaven,
flows in through a person's spiritual mind into his natural mind;
there is no other way of heaven,
that is of the Lord through heaven,
into a person;
and when heaven flows in it removes the hindrances,
which are evils and falsities therefrom,
which have their seat in the natural mind,
that is, in the natural person;
and these can be removed only
by a living acknowledgment of them by a person,
and grief of soul on account of them.
This is why a person is distressed in temptations
by the evils and falsities that rise up into the thought;
and so far as he then acknowledges his sins,
regards himself as guilty, and prays for deliverance,
so far the temptations are useful to him.
From this it is clear that a person has spiritual temptation,
when his internal, which is called the spiritual mind,
is opened, thus when a person is being regenerated.
When, therefore, a person's evils and falsities are removed
temptations are brought to an end;
and when they are ended
joy flows in through heaven from the Lord and fills his natural mind.
This joy is what is here meant by consolations.
All receive these consolations who undergo spiritual temptations . . .
for through temptations a person is conjoined to heaven and is admitted into it,
and consequently has joy like that of the angels there.