In man there is a perpetual correspondence between what takes place naturally and what takes place spiritually, or between what takes place in his body and what takes place in his spirit. This is because man as to his soul is born spiritual, and is clothed with what is natural, which forms his material body. Therefore when this body is laid aside, his soul, clothed with a spiritual body, enters a world where all things are spiritual, and is there affiliated with its like. Since then, the spiritual body must be formed in a material body, and is formed by means of truths and goods which flow in from the Lord through the spiritual world, and are inwardly received by man in such things in him as are from the natural world, which are called civil and moral, the way in which its formation is effected is evident; and since, as before said, there is in man a constant correspondence between what takes place naturally and what takes place spiritually, it follows that this formation is like conception, gestation, birth, and education. It is for this reason that natural births in the Word mean spiritual births, which are births of good and truth; for whatever is mentioned in the sense of the letter of the Word, which is natural, involves and signifies what is spiritual.
... in each and all things of the sense of the letter of the Word there is a spiritual sense
... That the natural births mentioned in the Word involve spiritual births is very obvious from the following passages:
- We have conceived, we have travailed, we have as it were brought forth; we have not wrought salvation (Isa. 26:18).
- At the presence of the Lord the earth bringeth forth (Ps. 114:7).
- Hath the earth travailed for one day? Shall I break forth and not bring forth? Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut up? (Isa. 66:7-10).
- Sin shall travail, and No shall be rent asunder (Ezek. 30:16).
- The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon Ephraim; he is a son not wise, because he doth not stay his time in the womb of sons (Hos. 13:12, 13).
(So also in many other places. )
As natural generations in the Word signify spiritual generations, and these are from the Lord, He is called the Maker and the former from the womb, as appears from the following:
- Jehovah thy Maker and thy Former from the womb(Isa. 44:2).
- Thou art He that took me out of the womb (Ps. 22:9).
- Upon Thee have I been laid from the womb; Thou art He that took me out of my mother's bowels (Ps. 71:6).
- Attend unto me, carried from the womb, borne from the matrix (Isa. 46:3).
(Besides other passages.)
For this reason the Lord is called, Father (as in Isa. 9:6; 63:16; John 10:30; 14:8, 9).
And those who are in goods and truths from Him are called, Sons, and born of God, and brethren to each other (Matt. 23:8, 9).
And again the church is called, Mother (Hos. 2:2, 5; Ezek. 16:45).
From all this it is now clear that there is a correspondence between natural generations and spiritual generations; and because of this correspondence it follows that conception, gestation, birth, and education may not only be predicated of the new birth, but that they actually exist. In this chapter on Regeneration the nature of these are being presented to view in their proper order; here let it be said merely that man's semen is conceived interiorly in the understanding, and is given form in the will; is transferred therefrom to the testicle where it clothes itself with a natural covering, and is thus conducted into the womb and enters the world. Moreover, there is a correspondence of man's regeneration with all things in the vegetable kingdom; therefore in the Word man is also pictured by a tree, his truth by its seed and his good by its fruit. That an evil tree may be born anew, as it were, and afterward bear good fruit and good seed, is evident from grafting and budding, for although the same sap ascends from the root through the trunk to the graft or bud, it is then changed into good sap and makes the tree good. It is the same in the church with those who are engrafted into the Lord, as He teaches in these words:
- I am the Vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and is cast into the fire
(John 15:5-6).
It has been taught by many of the learned that the processes of plant growth,
not only of trees but also of all shrubs, correspond to human prolification. I
will, therefore, add something on this subject by way of appendix. In trees and
in all other subjects of the vegetable kingdom there are not two sexes, a
masculine and a feminine, but everything there is masculine; the earth alone or
the soil is the common mother, and is thus as it were feminine; for it receives
the seeds of all fruits, opens them, carries them as it were in a womb, and then
nourishes them and brings them forth, that is, ushers them into the light of
day, and afterward clothes and sustains them.
When a seed is first opened
by the earth it begins with the root, which is a kind of heart; from this it
emits and transmits sap like blood, and so forms as it were a body provided with
limbs; its body is the trunk itself, while the branches and their branchlets are
its limbs. The leaves which it puts forth immediately after its birth serve as
lungs; for as the heart without the lungs produces no motion or sensation, and
it is by means of these that man is made alive, so the root without leaves does
not cause a tree or shrub to vegetate. The blossoms which precede the fruit are
means for purifying the sap, the tree's blood, for separating its grosser from
its purer elements, for forming a new little trunk for the influx of these purer
elements contained in the bosom of this sap, through which trunk the purified
sap may flow in and thus initiate and gradually form the fruit (which may be
compared to the testicles), in which the seed is perfected. The vegetative soul
which inmostly governs in every particle of sap, or which is its prolific
essence, is from no other source than the heat of the spiritual world; and as
this heat is from the spiritual sun there, it aspires to nothing but generation,
and a continuance of creation thereby; and because it essentially aspires to the
generation of man, it induces upon whatever it generates a certain resemblance
to man.
That no one may be astonished at the statement, that the subjects
of the vegetable kingdom are masculine only, and that the earth alone or the
soil is like a common mother, or is like the feminine, let it be illustrated by
something similar among bees. According to the observation of Swammerdam,
reported in his Book of Nature, bees have only one common mother, from which the
offspring of the entire hive is produced. As there is but one common mother for
these little insects, why not the same for all plants?
That the earth is
a common mother may also be illustrated spiritually; and is so illustrated by
the fact that in the Word "the earth" signifies the church, and the church is a
common mother, and is so called in the Word. As to the earth's signifying the
church, consult the Apocalypse Revealed (n. 285, 902), where it is shown. But
the earth or the soil can enter into the inmost of a seed even to its prolific
principle, calling this forth and giving it circulation, because every least
particle of dust or powder exhales from its essence a kind of subtle penetrating
effluvium, which is an effect of the active force of the heat from the spiritual
world.
That man can only be regenerated gradually, may be illustrated by each and all
things that come into existence in the natural world. A tree cannot reach its
full growth in a day, but there is first growth from the seed, then from the
root, and then from the shoot, which becomes the trunk, and from this go forth
branches and leaves, and finally blossoms and fruit. Wheat or barley does not
ripen for the harvest in a day; a house is not built in a day, nor does a man
acquire his full stature in a day, still less wisdom; a church is not
established and perfected in a day, nor is there any progression to an end
except from a beginning. Those who have a different conception of regeneration
know nothing of charity and faith, nor of the growth of either according to
man's cooperation with the Lord. From all this it is clear that regeneration is
effected in a manner analogous to that in which man is conceived, carried in the
womb, born and educated.
(True Christian Religion 583 - 586)
