AC 8413 - The Natural Life Is Removed and Spiritual Life Given

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 person 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 person 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.