7. The first state is the state which precedes, both the state existing from earliest childhood onwards and that existing immediately before regeneration; and it is called a void, emptiness, and thick darkness. And the first movement, which is the Lord's mercy, is 'the Spirit of God hovering over the face ¹ of the waters'.

Footnotes:

8538. 'Until they came to an inhabited land' means before they reached heaven, where good resides everywhere. This is clear from the meaning of 'land', at this point the land of Canaan, as the Lord's kingdom, thus heaven, dealt with in 1607, 3038, 3481, 3686, 3705, 4240, 4447, 5136. Heaven is called 'an inhabited land' because of the good present there, for 'inhabited' means having life as a result of the existence of good, 2268, 2451, 2712, 3613, 8269, 8309.