AE 654 - Natural, Rational, Spiritual

 AE 654 [48, 52, 57, 62-63, 64]

. . . a person becomes merely natural
when in his life he has regard to himself and to the world
and not to the Lord;
for he is then in the pride of self-intelligence,
which is common with the learned,
and this perverts the rational in them,
and closes up the spiritual mind.

. . . all truth and good,
even in the natural person,
are from the Lord . . ..

The person of the church
from becoming spiritual becomes natural
when he separates faith from charity,
that is, believes the Word
but does not live according to its commands;
so also when he claims to himself intelligence
and does not attribute it to the Lord;
from this is the conceit
whereby a person becomes natural.
For a person is first natural,
afterwards he becomes rational,
and lastly spiritual.
When a person is natural he is in Egypt,
when he becomes rational,
he is in Assyria,
and when he becomes Spiritual
he is in the land of Canaan, thus in the church.

. . . in order that a person
from being rational may become spiritual
he must needs endure temptations,
for by these the rational is so subdued,
as not to call forth from the natural
such things as favor the lusts,
and destroy the rational.
Finally when a person has in this way been made rational
he then is made spiritual,
for the rational is the medium
between the spiritual and the natural,
consequently the spiritual flows into the rational,
and through this into the natural.
In a word, a person must first
enrich the memory with knowledges,
afterwards by these
his understanding must be cultivated,
and finally the will.
The memory belongs to the natural person,
the understanding to the rational,
and the will to the spiritual.
This is the way of a person's reformation and regeneration.

But those who are not willing
to be reformed and regenerated
stop at the first stage,
and remain natural;
and this is why the sons of Israel,
who were not willing,
so often desired to return to Egypt.