AE 654 - Instruction and Becoming Rational

AE 654 [15, 18, 28]

Every person with whom the church is to be implanted
must first be instructed in knowledges,
for unless the natural person is instructed
by means of knowledges,
which are also various experiences
from worldly things and associations,
a person cannot become rational;
and if he does not become rational
he cannot become spiritual;
for the rational of person is conjoined
on one side to the spiritual, that is, to heaven,
and on the other side to the natural, that is, to the world.

When Israel was a child then I loved him,
and called My son out of Egypt.
(Hosea 11:1)
"Israel" signifies in the spiritual sense the church,
and in the highest sense the Lord,
who as He is the all of heaven is also the all of the church.
And as the sons of Israel were to represent the church,
and it was according to Divine order
that they should first be instructed in such things
as would be serviceable to the rational
and through this to the spiritual,
they first sojourned in Egypt,
and afterwards were led into the wilderness
that they might undergo temptations,
and that through these
the natural person might be subdued;
for a person does not become rational
until empty and false knowledges are removed,
and the natural person is thus purified,
which is effected mainly by temptations.

. . . all the intelligence of the spiritual person
has its limit and foundation in the natural person
and in his cognitions and knowledges,
so without these
a person is not intelligent and wise and not even rational,
for the spiritual person must act as one
with the natural person,
as cause with effect,
and it acts as one by correspondences . . ..