AC 9336 - Weeding and Planting Happens Little By Little

AC 9336

By little and little I will drive him out from before you.
(Exodus 23:30)

That this means a removal by degrees according to order,
is evident from the meaning of "by little and little,"
as being by degrees, thus slowly;
from the meaning of "driving out,"
when said of the falsities and evils
which are meant by the nations of the land of Canaan . . ..
It is said "by degrees according to order,"
because with the person who is being regenerated
all things are disposed according to the order of heaven;
for the regenerate person is a heaven in the least form,
and therefore there is in him
an order like that which is in heaven.

When a person is born,
in respect to hereditary evils
he is a hell in the least form;
and he also becomes a hell
insofar as he takes the hereditary evils to himself,
and adds to them things which are his own.
So it is that both from birth and from actual life
the order of his life is opposite to the order of heaven;
for from his own a person loves himself more than the Lord,
and the world more than heaven;
when yet the life of heaven
consists in loving the Lord above all things
and the neighbor as oneself.
From this it is evident that the former life,
which is of hell,
must be utterly destroyed
(that is to say, the evils and falsities must be removed),
in order that the new life,
which is the life of heaven,
may be implanted.
This cannot possibly be done hastily;
for every evil that is rooted in with its falsities
has a connection with all evils and their falsities;
and such evils and falsities are innumerable,
and their connection is so complex
that it cannot be comprehended,
not even by the angels,
but only by the Lord.
From this it is evident that the life of hell with a person
cannot be destroyed suddenly;
for if it were, he would straightway expire;
and neither can the life of heaven be implanted suddenly,
for if it were, he would also expire.