Saturday, January 07, 2012

AC 1667, 1668 - childhood goods and truths; conscience & perception

AC 1667[2]
. . . the goods that belong to earliest childhood,
which though they appear to be goods
are not in fact goods
as long as hereditary evil is befouling them,
for they have ingrained in them and clinging to them
that which derives from self-love and love of the world.
Whatever belongs to self-love or love of the world
appears at the time to be good, but it is not.
. . . Such good and truth as exist with a child before instruction
is meant by Chedorlaomer.

AC1668
The intermediate between no temptation (twelve)
and temptation (fourteen) is "thirteen."

[2] Evils, or evil spirits, are in rebellion to the extent
that a person who wishes to be governed by goods and truths
confirms within himself certain evils and falsities . . ..
It is in evil desires and falsities
that the life of evil spirits consists,
but in goods and truths that the life of angels consists;
and from this, infestation and conflict arise.
This is so with all who have conscience,
and was all the more so with the Lord when a boy, who had perception.
With those who have conscience a dull pain arises,
but with those who have perception intense pain;
and the more interior the perception,
the more intense is that pain.
From this it becomes clear what the temptation of the Lord,
who had interior and inmost perception,
was like in comparison with a person's.

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