1. And Rachel said, With the wrestlings of God have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed. That this signifies in the supreme sense own power; in the internal sense, temptation in which there is victory; and in the external sense, resistance by the natural man, is evident from the signification of the “wrestlings of God” and of “wrestling,” as being temptations; for temptations are nothing else than wrestlings of the internal man with the external, or of the spiritual man with the natural; for each desires to rule, and when dominion is in question, combat arises, which is here called “wrestling.” That “to prevail” is to overcome, is evident without explication…. [3] That in the internal sense the “wrestlings of God” and “prevailing” denote the temptations in which man conquers, is evident from what has been said just above. But that in the external sense there is signified resistance by the natural man is because all temptation is nothing else; for as before said in spiritual temptations there is dispute about dominion, as to which shall have the supremacy, the internal man or the external; or what is the same, the spiritual man or the natural, for these are opposed to each other (n. 3913). For when man is in temptations, his internal or spiritual man is ruled by the Lord through angels; but his external or natural man through infernal spirits; and the combat between them is that which is perceived by the man as temptation. When a man is such in faith and life that he can be regenerated, he will conquer in temptations; but when he is such that he cannot be regenerated, he yields in temptations. That there is resistance by the natural man, is signified by its being said that she “wrestled with her sister;” for by “Leah,” who is here the “sister,” is signified the affection of the external man; but by “Rachel,” the affection of the internal man (n. 3793, 3819).

AC 3928…The external man is indeed such that of itself it lusts for nothing else than corporeal and worldly things, these being the delights of its life. But the internal man, when it is opened toward heaven and desires the things of heaven, such as it is with those who can be regenerated, then finds heavenly delight in these things, and while the man is in temptations there is a combat between these two kinds of delight. This the man does not then know, because he does not know what heavenly delight is, and what infernal delight is; and still less that they are so entirely opposed to each other. But the celestial angels cannot possibly be with man in his corporeal and worldly delight until this delight has been reduced to subservience, so that the corporeal and worldly delight is no longer sought as the end; but for the sake of the use of serving the heavenly delight (as s hown above, n. 3913). When this has been effected, the angels can be with the man in both; but in this case his delight becomes bliss, and finally happiness in the other life. [2] He who believes that before regeneration the delight of his natural man is not infernal, and that it is not possessed by diabolical spirits, is much mistaken, and does not know how the case is with man, namely, that before regeneration he is possessed as to his natural man by genii and infernal spirits, however much he may appear to himself to be like any other man; and even though he may be with others in what is holy, and may reason about the truths and goods of faith, and may indeed believe himself to be confirmed in them; yet if he does not perceive in himself anything of the affection of what is just and equitable in his employment, and of truth and good in company and in life, let him know that his delight is that of the infernals, for there is no other love in it than that of self and the world; and when this love makes his delight, there is in it no charity and no faith. After this delight has become dominant, it is deadened and dissipated by no other means than the affirmation and acknowledgment of the holy of faith and of the good of life…

When things move to the periphery

Divine Providence 79. We say that what a person does in freedom in accordance with his thought also remains. For nothing whatever that a person has attached to himself can be eradicated, as it has been made part of his love and at the same time of his reason, or of his will and at the same time of his intellect, and so part of his life. This can indeed be moved aside, but still it cannot be cast out. And when it is moved aside, it is transferred as though from the center to the peripheries, and there stays. This is what we mean by its remaining.

[2] So, for example, if a person in his childhood and youth attached to himself some evil by doing it out of a delight of his love — if, for instance, he defrauded, blasphemed, took revenge, or behaved licentiously — then because he did these things in freedom in accordance with his thought, he also attached them to him. But if he afterward repents, refrains from them, and views them as sins to be shunned, and so in freedom in accordance with his reason desists from them, then he has attached to him the goods of which those evils were the opposite. These goods then form the center, and they move the evils toward the peripheries, moving them further and further according to the person’s aversion to and rejection of them. But still they cannot be so cast out as to be said to be eradicated. Nevertheless, by their being moved aside they can appear as though eradicated. This is achieved by the person’s being withheld from evils by the Lord and kept engaged in goods. Such is the case with all hereditary evil and likewise with all a person’s actual evil.

[3] I have also seen this attested by my experience with some people in heaven who, because they were kept by the Lord in a state of good, thought themselves to be without any evils. But to prevent them from believing that the state of good in which they were was their own, they were sent down from heaven and conveyed back into their evils, until they acknowledged that they were of themselves impelled by evils, but by the Lord were impelled by goods. And after that acknowledgment they were taken back into heaven.

[4] Be it known, therefore, that these goods become attached to a person only in such a way as to be constantly the Lord’s in the person, and that to the extent a person acknowledges this, the Lord grants that the good appear to the person to be his, that is to say, that it appear to the person that he loves his neighbor or has charity as though of himself, that he believes or has faith as though of himself, and that he does good and understands truth, thus is wise, as though of himself. An enlightened person can see from this the nature and force of the appearance in which the Lord wills a person to be. And the Lord wills it for the sake of the person’s salvation, as no one can be saved without this appearance.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to maintain focus on understanding the Text’s application to the inner life while reinforcing key LP principles highlighted in the exchanges.