Arcana Coelestia #8
8. The second state is when a distinction is made between the things that are the Lord's and those that are man's own. Those which are the Lord's are called in the Word 'remnants', and here they are chiefly the cognitions of faith which a person has learned since he was a small child. These are stored away and do not come out into the open until he reaches this state. Nowadays this state rarely occurs without temptation, misfortune, and sorrow, which lead to the inactivity and so to speak the death of bodily and worldly concerns - the things which are man's own. In this way what belongs to the external man is segregated from what belongs to the internal. Within the internal are the remnants, stored away by the Lord until this time and for this purpose.
Psalms 129
1
Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
2
Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.
3
The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.
4
The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
5
Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
6
Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up:
7
Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.
8
Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.
