9. The third state is one of repentance, a state in which he speaks piously and devoutly from the internal man and brings forth goods, like charitable acts which are nevertheless inanimate since he imagines that they originate in himself. They are called a tender plant, then a seed-bearing plant, and finally a fruit tree.

'Spreading themselves on the earth,' as in Genesis 8:17, signifies the internal self operating on the external.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 913)