664. Verse 11. And after the three days and a half, signifies when it is finished, thus the end of the old church and the beginning of the New Church. This is evident from the signification of "the three days and a half," as being fullness and completion as to the end of the old church, when there is the beginning of the New Church (See above, n. 658). It is said "after the three days and a half" because in the Word "days" signify states, here the last state of the church; for in the Word all times, as "hours," "days," "weeks," "months," "years," "ages," signify states, as here the last state of the church, when there is no longer any good of love or truth of faith left. Because "days" signify states, and the establishment of the Most Ancient Church is treated of in the first chapter of Genesis, and it becomes established successively from one state to another, it is there said:

That there was evening and there was morning the first day, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth days, even to the seventh, when it was finished (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; 2:2);

and the "days" there do not mean days, but the successive states of the regeneration of men at that time, and the consequent establishment of the church with them. So also elsewhere in the Word.

6323. The good of love which flows in from the Lord through angels contains all truth, and truth would reveal itself spontaneously if the human being led a life of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. This is evident not only from things that obtain in heaven but also from those in the natural order beneath. Since the things in the natural order are observable, let some be brought forward to illustrate the matter.

[2] Animals are propelled by nothing else than the loves and accompanying affections into which they have been created and afterwards born; for every animal is carried in the direction its affection and love take it. That being so, animals also have all the knowledge that ever accompanies that love. For they know from a love resembling the love that belongs to marriage how they are to mate, cattle in one way, birds in another. Birds know how they must build nests, lay eggs and sit on them, how they must hatch chicks and feed them. They know these things without any instruction, solely from a love resembling that which belongs to marriage and from a love for offspring, which loves have all that knowledge implanted in them. Similarly they know which food they must eat and how they must look for it. More than that, bees know how to look for food in flowers of various kinds, and also to gather wax to make cells with, in which first they place their offspring and after that store food. They also know how to make provision for the winter, not to mention many other things. All this knowledge is included in their loves and resides in them right from the start. Creatures are born into that knowledge because they exist in the order which belongs to their true nature and into which they have been created; and as such they are driven by a general inflow from the spiritual world.

[3] If the human being were living in the order into which he was created - that is to say, in love towards the neighbour and in love to the Lord, for these loves are peculiar to the human being - he would be born, pre-eminently over all animals, not only into knowledge but also into all spiritual truths over and all celestial forms of good, thus into all wisdom and intelligence. For the human being is able to think about the Lord and to be joined to Him through love, and so to be raised up to what is Divine and eternal, which animals cannot be. Thus if he were living in his true order he would be governed solely by general influx from the Lord through the spiritual world. But because he is not born into his true order but into one contrary to it, he is born totally without knowledge. This being so, provision has been made so that he can be born again and in that way enter into intelligence and wisdom, in the same measure as he embraces good in freedom, and truth through good.