AC 3030 - The Birth of the Genuine Rational

AC 3030 [2-4]

The genuine rational is from good,
but comes forth from truth.
Good flows in by an internal way;
but truth by an external way.
Good thus conjoins itself with truth in the rational,
and they cause the rational to be.
Unless the good therein is conjoined with truth,
there is no rational;
although there appears to be,
because the man can reason.
This is the common way
in which the rational is formed with man.

As the Lord was born like another man,
and as it was His will
to be instructed like another man,
so did He will
to make His rational Divine in a similar way, namely,
as to good by influx
from His Divine by the internal way,
and as to truth by influx through the external way.
When therefore the rational as to good
had been so far formed
as to be in a state for receiving truth
(which is meant by the words
in the beginning of this chapter,
"Abraham being old was come into days,
and Jehovah blessed Abraham in all things," . . .)
there next follows
that truth is to be conjoined
with the good of the rational,
and this, as before said, by the common way,
that is, by means of memory-knowledges
and knowledges from the natural man.

The good itself of the rational,
which is formed by the internal way,
is the very ground;
but truth is the seed which is to be sown in this ground.
The genuine rational is never born in any other way.
In order that it might come forth with the Lord
in the same way,
and be made Divine by His own power,
the Lord came into the world,
and it was His will to be born as are other men.