59. The reason only edible and green plants are mentioned here as food for the natural man is this: While a person is being regenerated and becoming spiritual he is involved constantly in conflict, which is why the Lord's Church is called militant. For before regeneration started, evil desires were in control, since the whole person consisted entirely of evil desires and resulting falsities. During the process of regeneration his desires and falsities cannot be done away with instantly, since that would amount to destroying the whole person; indeed he has not acquired any other life for himself. So for a long time evil spirits are left with him to activate his desires, and so release them in countless ways. Indeed the spirits are left there to do this in order that those desires may be turned by the Lord towards something good, and in this way the person may be reformed. In the hour of conflict evil spirits are present who absolutely hate everything that is good and true, that is, every element of love and faith in the Lord - elements that alone are good and true because they contain eternal life. These evil spirits leave a person with no other food than that which is compared to edible and green plants. But the Lord gives him a food as well that is compared to the plant yielding seed and to the tree in which there is fruit. These are periods of peace and calm attended by their forms of delight and happiness. This cycle occurs repeatedly.

[2] If the Lord did not protect man moment by moment, and in every shortest instant, he would immediately perish, for there is such murderous hatred reigning in the world of spirits against all forms of love and faith in the Lord as to defy description. I can positively declare that this is so, because for several years now, although still in the [physical] body, I have also been in the next life in the company of spirits. I have been surrounded by evil spirits, even the worst of them, sometimes by thousands, who have been allowed to pour out their venom and molest me in every possible way, but who nevertheless could do no harm to the tiniest hair on my head, so well did the Lord protect me. From all these years of experience I have become thoroughly informed about the character of the world of spirits and also about the conflict which people who are being regenerated must inevitably undergo if they are to attain the happiness of eternal life. But because nobody from just a general description can be so well informed as to have a faith free from doubt, these matters in the Lord's Divine mercy will therefore be noted in greater detail later on.

4136. 'Why was it that you concealed your flight, and stole from me, and gave me no indication' means the nature of the state if the separation had taken place with its free consent. This is clear from the meaning of 'concealing your flight' as the separating [of genuine good meant by 'Jacob'] without the consent [of intermediate good meant by 'Laban'], for 'fleeing' means being separated, see 4113, 4114, 4120; from the meaning of 'stealing from me' as taking away that which is cherished and holy, dealt with in 4112, 4133; and from the meaning in this case of 'giving me no indication' as through separation, dealt with in 4113. From all these meanings it follows that these words mean that the separation had taken place without its consent, when it ought to have taken place with its free consent. A state of freedom and consent is meant and described by the words which immediately follow - 'I might have sent you away with gladness and with songs, with drums and with harps'. These however are words used by Laban which express what he believed the situation to be then. But as to what happens with those people who are being regenerated, when intermediate good is separated from genuine good, that is to say, how this is effected with its free consent, see above in 4110, 4111.

[2] None of this can be seen by man since he has no knowledge of how different kinds of good exist with him, still less of how the state of each form of good undergoes change. He does not even have any knowledge of how the good present with him in early childhood is different from and is changed into that of later childhood, or of how this is changed into the good succeeding that, which belongs to youth, and after this into the good belonging to adult years, and lastly into that of old age. With people who are not being regenerated no good undergoes change, only affections and accompanying delights; but with those who are being regenerated changes of state take place with every form of good. And this process continues from early childhood through to the last phase of their life. For the Lord foresees what kind of life someone is going to lead and how he is going to allow the Lord to lead him. And since every single thing, even the smallest, is foreseen, it is also provided. But as for the ways in which changes of state take place with those forms of good, man has no knowledge at all, the chief reason being that he does not possess any cognitions concerning this matter and does not at the present day wish to possess them. And because the Lord does not take the direct way into man to teach him but enters into the cognitions he knows and so takes the indirect way, man cannot possibly have any knowledge of changes of state taking place with those forms of good. Man being such, that is to say, one devoid of all knowledge of this subject, coupled with the fact that at the present day those who allow themselves to be regenerated are few, these matters would not be understood even if they were explained more fully.

[3] The fact that few at the present day know anything about spiritual good, and also that few know anything about freedom, has been made known to me by my experience of people who enter the next life from the Christian world. For the sake of illustration let just one example be mentioned. There was a certain Church dignitary who believed that he was more learned than others, and who was also acknowledged as such by others when he was alive. Because he had led an evil life he was so totally ignorant about good and freedom, and about the delight and blessing which flow from these, that he was not aware of even the smallest difference between hellish delight and freedom and heavenly delight and freedom. Indeed he said that there was no difference. Since such ignorance exists even with those reputed to be more learned than others, one can imagine how dark the shadows would be, indeed one can imagine the nature and the greatness of the resulting delusions, to which the things which might be stated here about good and about freedom - the matters dealt with in the internal sense - would be subjected. Yet in actual fact not so much as one single expression is used in the Word which does not embody a heavenly arcanum, though to man it seems to contain nothing of any importance at all. The reason why it does not seem to do so lies in the lack of knowledge, or the ignorance of heavenly things in which people of today live and also prefer to live.