—­The Doctrine Concerning Charity, n. 146

THE GREAT ARENA

In temptations the hells fight against man, and the Lord for him.  To every falsity which the hells inject, there is an answer from the Divine.  The falsities inflow into the outward man, the answer into the inward man, coming to perception scarcely otherwise than as hope, and the resulting consolation, in which, however, there is a multitude of things of which the man is unaware.

—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 8159

In temptations a man is left, to all appearance, to himself alone; yet he has not been left alone, for God is then most present in his inmost being, and upholds him.  When anyone overcomes in temptation, therefore, he enters into closer union with God.

—­True Christian Religion, n. 126

“BY LITTLE AND LITTLE”

When man is being regenerated, he is not regenerated speedily but slowly.  The reason is that all things which he has thought, purposed and done since infancy, have added themselves to his life and have come to constitute it.  They have also formed such a connection among themselves that no one thing can be removed unless all are at the same time.  Regeneration, or the implantation of the life of heaven in man, begins in his infancy, and continues to the last of his life in the world, and is perfected to eternity.

—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 9334

A NEW MAN

When a man is regenerated, he becomes altogether another, and a new, man.  While his appearance and his speech are the same, yet his mind is not; for his mind is then open toward heaven, and there dwell in it love for the Lord, and charity toward the neighbor, together with faith.  It is the mind which makes another and a new man.  The change of state cannot be perceived in man’s body, but in his spirit.  When it [the body] is put off then his spirit appears, and in altogether another form, too, when he has been regenerated; for it has then a form of love and charity with inexpressible beauty, in the place of the earlier form, which was one of hatred and cruelty with a deformity also inexpressible.

—­Arcana Coelestia, n. 3212

CHILDHOOD

     “It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one
     of these little ones should perish.”

—­Matthew, XVIII, 14

Never could a man live,—­certainly not as a human being,—­unless he had in himself something vital, that is, some innocence, neighborly love, and mercy.  This a man receives from the Lord in infancy and childhood.  What he receives then is treasured up in him, and is called in the Word the remnant or remains, which are of the Lord alone with him, and they make it possible for him truly to be a man on reaching adult age.  These states are the elements of his regeneration, and he is led into them; for the Lord works by means of them.  These remains are also called “the living soul” in all flesh.