6686. 'Before the midwife comes to them they have given birth' means that the natural knows nothing until life is imparted to it - to true factual knowledge which the Church possesses. This is clear from the meaning of 'the midwife' as the natural where the Church's true factual knowledge resides, dealt with above in 6681; and from the meaning of 'giving birth' as expressions of faith and charity, dealt with in 3860, 3868, 3905, 3915, thus manifestations of spiritual life. The fact that the natural knows nothing is meant by the words 'before the midwife comes to them'. The implications of this - that the natural knows nothing until life is imparted to true factual knowledge - are these: All the life present in true factual knowledge in the natural is received from good flowing in through the internal. While that good is flowing in, the natural knows nothing whatever, because the natural is virtually in the dark. And it is in virtual darkness because it exists in the light of the world and consequently at the same time among worldly things; and when the light of heaven flows into these, it produces just a dim awareness. A further reason for that virtual darkness lies in the fact that within the natural there are general outlines in which it is impossible to see specific details; for the more general anything is, the less one can detect any details, and the less therefore one can detect the things that are going on with oneself. Furthermore within the natural there are no actual forms of goodness or truth, only things that represent them. So it is that the natural knows nothing while life is being imparted to true factual knowledge, consequently while it is being regenerated. Nor does it know how it is being regenerated, according to the Lord's words in John,

The spirit blows where it wishes, and you hear its voice; but you do not know where it comes from, and where it goes away to. So it is with everyone who is born from the spirit. John 3:8.

By the natural is meant the external man, also called the natural man.