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Matthew 8:6

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6 Saying, Lord, my servant is ill in bed at the house, with no power in his body, and in great pain.

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Arcana Coelestia # 653

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653. The situation is that while a person is being reformed, which takes place by means of conflicts and temptations, the evil spirits associated with him at that time are such as activate nothing else but his factual knowledge and his rational concepts. At that time any spirits who activate evil desires are kept entirely at bay. For there are two kinds of evil spirits, namely those who work upon man's reasonings and those who work upon his desires. The evil spirits who activate man's reasonings draw out all his falsities and try to persuade him that the falsities are truths. Indeed they even convert truths into falsities. In times of temptation a person ought to fight against them, though it is the Lord who in fact fights by means of the angels who are allied to that person. After falsities have been separated by means of conflicts and so to speak dispersed, the individual is then ready and able to receive truths of faith. For as long as falsities rule, a person cannot possibly receive the truths of faith because false assumptions are blocking the way. Once he has been made ready and able to receive the truths of faith, heavenly seeds, which are the seeds of charity, can now for the first time be implanted. Seeds of charity cannot possibly be implanted in ground where falsities reign, only where truths do so. This is how the reformation or regeneration of a spiritual man takes place, and so how it took place with the member of that Church called Noah. This is why the subject now is 'the window and the door of the ark', and the lowest, second, and third storeys, all of which belong to the spiritual or understanding-type man.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.