AC 9296 - How the Lord Implants Good and Truth

AC 9296 [2-3]

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month,
when you have gathered in the fruit of the land,
you shall keep the feast of Jehovah seven days.
(Lev. 23:39)

As by this feast is meant
the worship of the Lord from a grateful mind
on account of the implantation of good,
and thus on account of complete liberation from damnation,
it shall first be explained what the implantation of good is.

It has already been everywhere shown
that a person has two faculties of life,
namely, the understanding and the will;
and that the understanding
is allotted to the reception of truth,
and the will to the reception of good;
for there are two things to which all things in the universe,
both in heaven and in the world, bear relation,
namely, truth and good.
From this it is also evident
that these two make the life of a person,
and that the truth of faith and the good of charity
make his new life,
and that unless both of these
have been implanted in a person
he has no new life.
In what way the truth which is of faith
is sown and implanted in a person,
is known in the church;
but it is not as yet so well known in what way
the good which is of charity is implanted.

When he is a little child,
a person receives good from the Lord,
and this good is the good of innocence,
such as little children have.
This good makes the beginning of the new will in a person,
and in the succeeding age it grows in accordance
with his life of innocence with his companions
and in accordance
with his life of goodness and obedience
toward his parents and masters,
but still more with those
who afterward suffer themselves to be regenerated.
This the Lord foresees, and provides
according to the state of life that follows;
for in every present moment
the Lord foresees evil, and provides good;
and this He does
from the first thread of life even to eternity.
Afterward, when the person grows up
and begins to think from himself,
so far as he is then carried away
by the delights of the loves of self and of the world,
so far this new willing, or beginning of a new will, is closed;
and so far as he is not carried away by these delights,
so far it is opened, and is also perfected.

But how it is perfected by the implantation of truth,
shall now be told.
This new will, which is from the good of innocence,
is the dwelling place through which
the Lord enters into a person
and excites him to will what is good,
and from willing to do it.
This influx works in the person
in proportion as he desists from evils.
From this he has the faculty
of knowing, of perceiving, reflecting upon,
and understanding moral and civil truths and goods
in accordance with the delight of use.
Afterward the Lord flows in through this good
into the truths of doctrine of the church with the person,
and calls forth from the memory
such as are of service to the use of life,
and implants these in the good,
and so perfects the good.
It is from this that the good with a person
is wholly in accordance with the use of life.
If the use of life is for the neighbor
(that is, for the good of our fellow citizen, of our country,
of the church, of heaven),
and for the Lord,
then this good is the good of charity.
But if the use of life is only for self and the world,
then this beginning of the new will is closed,
and beneath it is formed a will
from the evils of the loves of self and of the world,
and from this an understanding is formed of falsities.
This latter will is closed above and open beneath,
that is, closed to heaven and open to the world.
From all this it is evident
how truths are planted in good, and form it;
and also that when a person is good
he is in heaven with the Lord;
for as before said,
the new will, in which is the good of charity,
is the dwelling place of the Lord,
and consequently is heaven in a person;
and the new understanding consequently derived
is as it were the tabernacle
through which He comes in and goes out.