9043. 'And her offspring come out' means if in spite of this it is made stronger in the natural. This is clear from the meaning of 'coming out' - when it refers to good that is being formed out of truths - as the passing of that good from the internal or spiritual man into the external or natural man, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'offspring' as forms of good that have developed out of truths and then been acknowledged because they are both known and perceived and thereby been made stronger. For 'bearing offspring' in the spiritual sense means acknowledging in faith and action, 3905, 3915, 3919, 6585. The situation is that a person who is conceived anew, carried so to speak in the womb, and born - that is, who is being regenerated - first of all takes in from the teachings of the Church or from the Word matters of faith and charity. These are stored away at this time among items of knowledge in the memory that belongs to the external or natural man. From there they are summoned into the internal man and stored away in the memory belonging to the internal man. Regarding both these memories a person possesses, see 2469-2494. This is the beginning of spiritual life with a person; but the person is not as yet regenerate. For him to be regenerate his external or natural man must be subservient, and as a result must be in agreement with his internal man.

A person has not been regenerated until his external or natural man has also been regenerated, see 8742-8747.

The external man is regenerated by the Lord by means of the internal, 3286, 3321, 3493, 4588, 5651, 6299, 8746.

The whole person has been regenerated when his natural has been, 7442-7443.

[2] Now seeing that aspects of regeneration are expressed in the Word by the phases of a person's generation or birth from his parents in the world, one may recognize from the process of regeneration described above what is understood or meant in the spiritual sense by 'conception', 'being carried in the womb', 'going out of the womb', and 'offspring'. That is to say, 'going out of the womb' means passing from the internal man into the external or natural man; and 'offspring' means spiritual good, or the good of charity springing from the truths of faith, that comes from the internal man and is present in the external or natural. When good is present in the natural, then the person is new. Good now constitutes his life, and truths emanating from good constitute his outward form He is like an angel, for good constitutes angels' life and truths their outward form, which is the human form. But this makes no sense to the natural man.

7442. 'And the houses of the Egyptians will be full of the noxious flying insects, and also the land on which they are' means that malevolent falsities will take possession of everything in the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of 'filling' as taking possession of; from the meaning of 'the houses of the Egyptians' as the interior parts of the natural mind, dealt with above in 7407; from the meaning of 'noxious flying insects' as malevolent falsities, dealt with immediately above in 7441; and from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as the natural mind in general, dealt with in 5276, 5178, 5180, 5288, 5301.

[2] A brief statement needs to be made about what is implied in the meaning here - by the idea that even the interior parts of the natural mind will be taken possession of by the falsities arising from evil which are present in the outermost parts of that mind. What a person has flowing into him from the Lord by way of heaven flows into the interior parts of him, and then spreads right down to the lowest or outermost levels, where he becomes conscious of it. Consequently it comes right down into the level of the senses, and through this into parts of the body. If the level of the senses is filled with mistaken ideas based on illusions and appearances, and especially if they are based on falsities, the truths that flow in are turned there into similar ideas, since they are received there in accordance with the form imposed on them, see 7743. Also to the extent that truths are turned into falsities the interior parts of the mind serving as channels for the passage of truths are closed. Eventually the opening is only just large enough for the smallest amount of influx that the person needs to engage in reasoning and to use falsities to justify evils.

[3] This being the situation with a person, it is necessary when he is being regenerated for his natural to be regenerated right down to the sensory level. For unless that level is regenerated no reception of truth and good takes place, because - as stated above - truth that is flowing in is perverted there and the interiors parts are in those circumstances closed. Consequently when the exterior parts have been regenerated the whole person has been regenerated. This was what the Lord meant by His words to Peter when He washed his feet, in John,

Simon Peter said, Lord, You are not to wash my feet only, but also my hands and head. Jesus said to him, He who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, and the whole person is clean. John 13:9-10.

'Feet' means the parts forming the natural, 2162, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952; 'washing' means purifying, 3147, 5954 (end); 'hands' means the interior parts of the natural; and 'head' means the parts forming the spiritual. These meanings show what precisely one should understand by 'he who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, and the whole person is clean' - that a person has been regenerated when even the exterior parts forming the natural have been regenerated. When therefore a person has had even his natural regenerated everything on that level is subordinated to more internal levels. And when the contents of the more internal levels enter they flow into images on that level which serve as the general vessels to contain them, and through those images the person is made conscious of them. When this is the situation with a person, he has conscious feelings of an affection for the truth of faith and of an affection for the good of charity.

[4] But it is difficult for the actual level of the senses, which is the lowest of the natural, to be regenerated, because it is completely filled with material ideas formed from earthly, bodily, and worldly things. For this reason a person who is being regenerated, especially at the present day, does not undergo regeneration at the sensory level, only at the natural level immediately above it, to which the Lord raises him from the level of the senses when he thinks about the truths and forms of the good of faith. The ability to be raised from the sensory level is what is imparted to the person who is being regenerated by the Lord. Regarding what the sensory level is like, and the raising of thought above it, see 5084, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5118, 5767, 6183, 6201, 6310, 6311, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948.