3157. 'Now if you are going to show mercy and truth to my master' means investigation of their consent by both mental powers - will and understanding. This is clear from the meaning of 'mercy' as that which is the essence of good or love, dealt with in 3063, 3073, 3120, and from the meaning of 'truth' as that which is the essence of truth or faith, dealt with in 3121, 3122. Now since the good of love belongs properly to the will, and the truth of faith properly to the understanding, and since the words here - which speak of showing mercy and truth - are addressed to Laban and Bethuel, and so to ordinary human beings, those words mean the things which proceed from both mental powers, from both the will and the understanding. The fact that it is investigation of the consent is evident both from the words used here ('if you are going to show') and the words that follow ('tell me; and if not, tell me, and I will look to the right or to the left').

[2] In human regeneration, which is an image of the Lord's glorification, 3138, the truth of faith may indeed be learned, but it is not acknowledged, still less accepted by good, until consent flows from both mental powers - from the will and from the understanding. Consent is acknowledgement itself. Through that acknowledgement acceptance takes place, especially by the will, for there good resides. And when the truth of faith has been accepted by the will, or what amounts to the same, by good, a person is regenerate, for in his case truth is grounded in good, and faith is grounded in charity; that is, as regards life, truth is charity itself, 3121.

932. There is no need to confirm from the Word that 'seedtime and harvest' means the person who is to be regenerated, and consequently the Church, because the comparison and likening of the individual to a field and so to 'seedtime' and of the Lord's Word to 'seed', and of what it accomplishes to 'produce' or 'harvest', occurs so frequently. This anybody can also gather from these same expressions which are part of his everyday vocabulary. In general the reference is to all men, and the fact that not one ever fails to have seed from the Lord sown within him, no matter whether he is inside the Church or outside of it, that is, whether he knows the Lord's Word or whether he does not.

[2] Without this implanting of seed from the Lord nobody can do the least good thing. Every good that stems from charity, even among gentiles, is seed obtained from the Lord. Although with gentiles it is not the good of faith as it may be inside the Church, it can nevertheless develop into the good of faith. In fact gentiles who have led charitable lives, as they are accustomed to do in the world, on being instructed by angels in the next life embrace and accept teaching about true faith and embrace and accept faith that accompanies charity, far more easily than Christians. These matters will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on. In particular however the subject here is the person who is to be regenerated, that is to say, the Church will not fail to emerge somewhere on earth. This is the meaning here of 'during all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest'. The statement that seedtime and harvest, which are the Church, will always be emergent somewhere on earth has regard to the content of the previous verse, that is to say, man will no longer be able to destroy himself in the way that the final descendants of the Most Ancient Church did.