AC 8397 - Movements, Journeys; AC 8403, 8413 - Temptations, Regeneration, Good Changes

AC 8397

. . . movements do not signify movements,
nor journeyings, journeyings;
but changes and successions of states.

AC 8403 [2-3]

Those who have not been instructed
about man's regeneration
suppose that a man
can be regenerated without temptation;
and some that he has been regenerated
when he has undergone one temptation.
But be it known that without temptation
no one is regenerated,
and that many temptations follow on,
one after another.
The reason is that regeneration takes place to the end
that the life of the old man may die,
and the new heavenly life be insinuated,
which shows that there must needs be a fight,
for the life of the old man resists,
and is not willing to be extinguished,
and the life of the new man cannot enter
except where the life of the old man
has been extinguished.
Hence it is evident that there is a fight on both sides,
and this fight is a fiery one, because it is for life. 

He who thinks from enlightened reason
can see and perceive from this
that no man can be regenerated without a fight,
that is, without spiritual temptation;
and also that he is not regenerated by one temptation,
but by many.
For very many kinds of evil
have made the delight of his former life,
that is, have made his old life;
and it is impossible for all these evils
to be suddenly and simultaneously mastered,
because they cling to the man very firmly,
having been rooted in parents from time immemorial,
and consequently are innate in him,
besides having been confirmed in him from his infancy
through his own actual evils.
All these evils are diametrically opposite
to the heavenly good that is to be insinuated,
and that is to make the new life.


AC 8413 [2-3]

When the good of charity,
which makes the spiritual life,
is to be insinuated,
the delight of the pleasures
which had made the natural life is removed.
When this delight is removed,
the man comes into temptation,
for he believes that if he is deprived
of the delight of pleasures,
he is deprived of all life,
because his natural life consists in this delight,
or good, as he calls it.
But he does not know
that when this delight of life is removed,
spiritual delight, or good,
is insinuated by the Lord in its place.
It is this good that is signified by the "manna;"
the former good or delight being meant by
the "flesh and bread in the land of Egypt,"
and the privation of this being meant by "hunger." 

But it is to be carefully observed
that the man who is being regenerated
is not deprived of the delight
of the pleasures of the body and lower mind,
for he fully enjoys this delight after regeneration,
and more fully than before, but in inverse ratio.
Before regeneration,
the delight of pleasures was everything of his life;
but after regeneration,
the good of charity becomes everything of his life;
and then the delight of pleasures serves as a means,
and as an ultimate plane,
in which spiritual good
with its happiness and blessedness terminates.
When therefore the order is to be inverted,
the former delight of pleasures expires
and becomes no delight,
and a new delight from a spiritual origin
is insinuated in its place.