AC 3318 - Temptation Softens

AC 3318 [2-3]

Man is nothing other than an organ or vessel
which receives life from the Lord,
for man does not live of himself.
The life flowing in with man from the Lord
comes from His Divine Love.
This Love, that is, the life from it,
flows in and applies itself to the vessels
that are in man's rational and that are in his natural.
On account of the hereditary evil into which man is born,
and on account of the evil of his own doing
which man acquires to himself,
these vessels with him are set the wrong way round
for receiving that life.
But insofar as it is possible for this inflowing life to do so,
it resets those vessels to receive it.
These vessels within the rational man
and within his natural
are such as are called truths.
In themselves they are nothing else than perceptions
of the variations in form possessed by those vessels
and of the changes of state
which in different ways give rise to those variations,
which are produced
in the most delicate of organic substances,
and in ways that defy description.
Good itself, which possesses life from the Lord,
that is, which is life,
is that which flows in and resets them.

When therefore those vessels,
varying in the forms they take,
are set and turned,
as has been stated,
the wrong way round for inflowing life,
they clearly have to be re-positioned to receive that life,
that is, to be controlled by it.
This cannot possibly be effected
as long as the person remains
in that condition into which he was born
or which he has brought upon himself.
Indeed at that time they are unsubmissive
because they resolutely withstand
and harden themselves against
the heavenly order governing the way that life acts.
Indeed the good which moves them,
and to which they are subservient,
is that which stems
from self-love and love of the world.
From the dull warmth it contains
that good makes these vessels what they are.
Consequently before they can be made submissive
and capable of receiving any of the life
that belongs to the Lord's love,
they have to be softened.
The only ways that such softening can be achieved
is by temptations,
for temptations take away the things
that constitute self-love
and contempt for others in comparison with oneself,
consequently that constitute self-glory,
and also hatred and revenge on account of that.
When therefore they have to some extent
been subdued and mellowed
by means of temptations
those vessels start to become yielding and compliant
to the life which belongs to the Lord's love
and which is constantly flowing in with man.