Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 1049

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1049. And I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you. That this signifies the mercy of the Lord, specifically toward the regenerate and those who can be regenerated, also follows, for, with the Lord, to "remember" is to have mercy. Remembering cannot be predicated of the Lord, because from eternity He knows all things both in general and in particular; but to have mercy is what is predicated of Him, because He knows that such is man's character-that is to say, as before said-that man's Own is infernal, and that it is his very hell. For by the Own of his will, man communicates with hell, and from hell and from itself this Own desires nothing so much and so strongly as to cast itself down into hell; nor is it content with this, but desires to cast down all in the universe. Since man of himself is such a devil, and the Lord knows this, it follows that His "remembering the covenant" means nothing else than having mercy on man, and by Divine means regenerating him, and drawing him to heaven by a mighty force, so far as the man is such as to render this possible.


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