AC 3570 - The Natural and the Rational

AC 3570 [1-2, 6]

When the natural is in the state
in which it is outwardly good and inwardly truth,
it then admits many things which are not good,
but which nevertheless are useful,
being means to good in their order.
But the good of the rational
does not conjoin and appropriate to itself
from this source anything
but that which is in agreement with its own good;
for good receives nothing else,
and whatever disagrees, it rejects.
The rest of the things in the natural it leaves,
in order that they may serve as means
for admitting and introducing more things
that are in agreement with itself.

The rational is in the internal person,
and what is there being transacted
is unknown to the natural,
for it is above the sphere of its observation;
and for this reason the person
who lives a merely natural life
cannot know anything of what is taking place with him
in his internal person, that is, in his rational;
for the Lord disposes all such things
entirely without the person's knowledge.
So it is that a person knows nothing
of how he is being regenerated,
and scarcely that he is being regenerated.
But if he is desirous to know this,
let him merely attend to the ends
which he proposes to himself,
and which he rarely discloses to anyone.
If the ends are toward good,
that is to say,
if he cares more for his neighbor and the Lord
than for himself,
then he is in a state of regeneration;
but if the ends are toward evil,
that is to say,
if he cares more for himself
than for his neighbor and the Lord,
let him know that in this case
he is in no state of regeneration.

. . . the rational disposes the natural,
in order that it may serve it as the soul
or what is the same,
may serve the end, which is the soul,
to perfect itself,
that it may be of use in the Lord's kingdom.