AC 3665 - Knowledges & Truths Through the Ages

AC 3665 [2-3, 5]

When a person is being regenerated,
he is at first led by the Lord as an infant,
then as a child,
afterwards as a youth,
and at last as an adult.
The truths he learns as an infant child
are altogether external and corporeal,
for as yet he is unable to apprehend interior truths.
These truths are no other than
knowledges of such things as contain,
in their inmost, things Divine;
for there are knowledges of things
that do not contain anything Divine in their inmost;
and there are knowledges that do contain it.
The knowledges that do contain what is Divine
are such that they can admit interior truths
more and more, successively, and in order;
whereas the knowledges which do not contain
what is Divine are such that they do not admit,
but reject these interior truths;
for the knowledges of external and corporeal
good and truth are like ground,
which according to its quality
admits seeds of one nature and not of another,
bringing to maturity one kind of seeds,
and suffocating another.
Knowledges which
contain in their inmost what is Divine,
admit into them
spiritual and celestial truth and good,
possessing this capacity from the Divine
which is within,
and which disposes;
but the knowledges which do not
contain in them what is Divine,
admit only what is false and evil,
such being their nature.
Those knowledges of external and corporeal truth
which admit spiritual and celestial truth and good,
are here meant by the
"daughters of Laban of the house of Bethuel;"
but those which do not thus admit them,
are meant by the "daughters of Canaan."

The knowledges which are learned
from infancy to childhood
are like most general vessels,
which are to be filled with goods,
and in proportion as they are filled
the person is enlightened.
If the vessels are such
as to admit into them genuine goods,
then the person is enlightened
from the Divine that is within them,
and this successively more and more;
but if they are such
that genuine goods cannot be in them,
then the person is not enlightened.
It does appear that he is enlightened,
but this is from a fatuous light,
which is that of falsity and evil,
whereby he is more and more darkened
in respect to good and truth.

With regard to these very knowledges
of external or corporeal truth
which are from collateral good,
and which as before said
contain in them what is Divine,
and thus are capable of admitting genuine goods --
such as are the knowledges with young children
who are afterwards regenerated --
they are in general such
as are contained in the historicals of the Word,
such as what is said there concerning paradise,
concerning the first man in it,
concerning the tree of life in its midst,
and concerning the tree of knowledge,
where was the serpent that practiced the deception.
These are the knowledges
that contain within them what is Divine,
and admit into them
spiritual and celestial goods and truths,
because they represent and signify (mean)
these goods and truths.
Such knowledges also are all other things
in the historicals of the Word,
as what is said concerning
the tabernacle and the temple
and concerning the construction of these;
in like manner what is said concerning
the garments of Aaron and of his sons;
also concerning the feasts of tabernacles,
of the firstfruits of harvest, of unleavened bread,
and concerning other like things.
When such knowledges as these
are known and thought of by a young child,
the angels who are with him
think of the Divine things
which they represent and mean;
and because the angels are affected from them,
their affection is communicated,
and causes the delight and pleasure
which the child experiences from them;
and prepares his mind to receive
genuine truths and goods.
Such and very many others are the knowledges
of external and corporeal truth
that are derived from collateral good.