AC 3469, 3470 - Natural Good

AC 3469 [2, 3]

. . . a person is regenerated as to the rational
before he is regenerated as to the natural;
because the natural is altogether in the world,
and in the natural as in a plane
there are founded a person's thought and will.
This is the reason why during regeneration
a person observes a combat
between his rational or internal person
and his natural or external person;
and why his external person is regenerated much later,
and likewise with much greater difficulty,
than his internal person.
For that which is nearer to the world
and nearer to the body
cannot be easily constrained
to render obedience to the internal person;
but only after considerable length of time
and by means of many new states
into which the person is introduced,
which are states of self-acknowledgment,
and of acknowledgment of the Lord,
that is, of one's own wretchedness,
and of the Lord's mercy;
thus states of humiliation
resulting from temptation combats.

Everyone knows what natural good is,
namely, that it is the good into which a person is born;
but what the natural good of truth is,
is known to few, if any.
There are four kinds of natural good,
that is, of the good that is born with a person,
namely, natural good from the love of good,
natural good from the love of truth,
and also natural good from the love of evil,
and natural good from the love of falsity.
For the good into which a person is born
he derives from his parents,
either father or mother;
for all that which parents have contracted
by frequent use and habit,
or have become imbued with by actual life
until it has become so familiar to them
that it appears as if natural,
is transmitted into their children,
and becomes hereditary.
If parents who have lived
in the good of the love of good
and in this life have perceived
their delight and blessedness,
conceive offspring in this state,
the offspring receive therefrom
an inclination to similar good;
and if parents who have lived
in the good of the love of truth
and in this life have perceived their delight,
are in this state when they conceive offspring,
the offspring receive therefrom
an inclination to the like good.

AC 3470 [2, 3]

As just stated natural good is from parents;
but spiritual good is from the Lord;
and therefore
in order that a person may receive spiritual good,
he must be regenerated . . ..

. . . natural good is such that of itself
it is unwilling to obey and serve the rational
as a slave does his master
but wishes to take command.
To render it submissive and subservient however
it is chastened
by means of states of vastation and temptation
to the point when its cravings die down.
At that point it is moderated
by means of an influx from the Lord,
by way of the internal person,
of the good of faith and charity,
even to the point where good acquired by heredity
is gradually rooted out
and a new good implanted in place of it.
Into this new good
truths of faith are introduced,
like new fibers into the human heart,
along which fibers new fluid is borne in,
until a new heart has by degrees grown there.