583. IV. The process of regeneration is on the model of a person's conception, gestation in the womb, birth and upbringing.

The natural and spiritual events in a person's life, that is, what happens to his body and what to his spirit, are so ordered as permanently to correspond. The reason is that a person is by birth spiritual as regards his soul, and he is clothed with a natural form which is constituted by his material body. When therefore this is laid aside, his soul, clothed in his spiritual body, comes into the world where all things are spiritual, and there associates with people like him. Now the spiritual body has to be formed in the material one, a process accomplished by the inflow of truths and various kinds of good from the Lord through the spiritual world. These are inwardly received by the person in such things belonging to the natural world as are called civil and moral; so it is evident how the process of formation takes place. Because, as already said, there is a permanent correspondence between the natural and spiritual events in a person's life, it follows that this process must resemble his conception, gestation in the womb, birth and upbringing. That is why natural births in the Word mean spiritual births, that is, the birth of good and truth. For whatever stands in the literal or natural sense of the Word, enfolds and stands for something spiritual. I demonstrated fully in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture that every detail of the literal sense of the Word contains a spiritual sense.

[2] The natural births mentioned in the Word refer to spiritual births, as is evident from the following passages.

We have conceived, we have given birth, we have as it were brought forth [wind], we have not done what is sound, Isaiah 26:18.

At the presence of the Lord you give birth ¹ , O earth, Psalms 114:7.

Has the earth given birth in one day? Shall I break and not bring to birth, and cause to give birth but close ² up the womb? Isaiah 66:7-10. Sin gives birth and No shall be on the point of being breached, Ezekiel 30:16.

The pangs of childbirth shall come upon Ephraim. He is an unwise child, because at the right time he does not stand in the womb of sons, Hosea 13:12-13.

There are many other similar passages. Since natural births in the Word mean spiritual births, and these are the Lord's work, He is called He who forms and brings out of the womb. This is clear from these passages among others:

Jehovah your maker and who forms you from the womb, Isaiah 44:2.

He who brings me from the womb, Psalms 22:9.

I have been placed upon you from the womb, from my mother's inmost parts it was you who brought me forth, Psalms 71:6.

Pay attention to me, you who were carried by the belly, borne by the womb, Isaiah 46:3.

This is why the Lord is called 'Father' (as at Isaiah 9:6; 63:16, John 10:30; 14:8-9), and those who are in possession of good and truth from Him are called 'sons', 'born of God' and 'brothers' among themselves (Matthew 23:8-9). It is also why the church is called 'mother' (Hosea 2:2, 5; Ezekiel 16:45).

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452. And out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. This symbolically means that interiorly regarded, their thoughts and discourses contained nothing else, and issuing from them was nothing but a love of self and the world, which is a characteristic trait of the will, a conceit in their own intelligence, which is a characteristic trait of the intellect, and the lusts attendant on evil and falsity, which are a characteristic trait flowing from them both.

Out of their mouths means from their thoughts and discourses. Fire symbolizes a love of self and the world, which is a characteristic trait of the will (nos. 450, 468, 494). Smoke symbolizes a conceit in one's own intelligence, which is a characteristic trait of the intellect, emanating from the love of self and the world like smoke from a fire (no. 422). And brimstone symbolizes the lusts attendant on evil and falsity, which are a characteristic trait flowing from them both.

This is not, however, apparent from these people's discourses in public in the world. But it is clearly apparent to angels in heaven. Consequently we say that their thoughts and discourses, interiorly regarded, are of this character.

Fire symbolizes hellish love, and brimstone the lusts flowing from that love through a conceit in one's own intelligence, in the following places:

I will rain down on him... fire and brimstone. (Ezekiel 38:22)

Upon the wicked (Jehovah) will rain... fire and brimstone... (Psalms 11:6)

...the day of Jehovah's vengeance... Its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone...; its smoke shall ascend forever. (Isaiah 34:8-10)

On the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone... Even so will it be in the day the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:29-30. Cf. Genesis 19:24)

If anyone worships the beast and his image..., he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone... (Revelation 14:9.10)

The beast, the false prophet, and the devil were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 19:20; 20:10; 21:8).

The breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, shall kindle (the pyre). (Isaiah 30:33)

The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it shall not be sown, nor shall it sprout..., like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah... (Deuteronomy 29:22-23)

Brimstone is scattered on the habitation (of the wicked). (Job 18:15)