AC 2967 - Our Reception of Gifts From the Lord

AC 2967 [2]

All who are being reformed and regenerated
are gifted with charity and faith by the Lord,
but each according to his capacity and his state;
for there are evils and falsities
with which a person has instilled himself from infancy,
which stand in the way
of one person's receiving a like gift with another;
these evils and falsities must be vastated
before the person can be regenerated;
and insofar as there is a residue
of heavenly and spiritual life after vastation,
this can be enlightened with truth
and enriched with good.
It is the remains,
which are goods and truths from the Lord
stored up with person,
that then receive life.
These goods and truths are acquired
from infancy even to the time of reformation,
with one person more,
with another fewer.
These are reserved in his internal person;
nor can they be brought forward
until his external person
has been reduced to correspondence,
which is effected chiefly by temptations,
and by many kinds of vastation;
for until corporeal things,
which are contrary to them,
become quiescent
(such as the things of the love of self and of the world),
celestial and spiritual things,
which are of the affection of good and truth,
cannot flow in;
this is the reason why everyone is reformed
according to his state and capacity.
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vastation -  a renewal or purification
through the burning away or destruction
of evil attributes.