Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 4322

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4322. Who at the present day does not believe that a person comes into being by a natural process involving a seed and an ovum, and that this seed has within it the capacity passed down from the beginning of creation to bring itself forth in such forms, first within an ovum, then in a womb, and after that to exist by itself, and that there is no longer any need of the Divine to help bring it forth? The reason for such belief today is that no one knows about an influx from heaven, that is, from the Lord by way of heaven; and the reason why no one has any knowledge is that none wish to know about the existence of any heaven. For in meetings with one another the learned openly discuss whether there is a hell, and so whether there is a heaven. And being in doubt about a heaven they are also unable to accept any notion of an influx from the Lord by way of heaven. Yet that influx brings forth all things in earth's three kingdoms, especially those in the animal kingdom, and in particular those in the human being, and holds them together in their forms that are determined by the uses they serve. Consequently they cannot know the existence of any correspondence between heaven and the human being, let alone about the nature of this, which is such that every. single detail, indeed every smallest detail in him, comes into being from, and is also kept in being by, that influx. For to be kept in being is constantly to come into being, and therefore the preservation of something in connection and form is the constant creation of it.


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