363. However, so that this article of faith - that the Lord, charity and faith make one, just as in a person life, will and understanding do, and if they are divided, each of them is destroyed, like a pearl collapsing into dust - may be seen and recognised as truth, it needs to be discussed in the following sequence.

(i) The Lord flows into every human being with all His Divine love, all His Divine wisdom, and so with all His Divine life.

(ii) He does this likewise with the whole essence of faith and charity.

(iii) But how these are received by the person depends upon his form.

(iv) The person, however, who separates the Lord, charity and faith is not a form which can receive them, but rather one which destroys them.

780. 'Of all flesh in which there was the spirit of life ¹ means a new creature, or the fact that they received new life from the Lord. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'flesh' as all mankind in general and a bodily-minded person in particular, as stated and shown already. Consequently 'flesh in which there was the spirit of life' ¹ means a person who has been regenerated, for the Lord's life, which is the life of charity and faith, is there within his proprium. Nobody is anything more than flesh, but when the life of charity and faith is breathed into him by the Lord, his flesh in that case is made alive, becomes spiritual and celestial, and is called 'a new creature', Mark 16:15, from having been created anew.

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