50. What the Most Ancient Church understood by 'the image of the Lord' exceeds everything one can say about it. Man is totally unaware of the fact that the Lord is governing him by means of angels and spirits, and that at least two spirits and two angels are present with everyone. By means of the spirits he is in communication with the world of spirits, and by means of the angels with heaven. Without this communication with the world of spirits by means of the spirits, and with heaven by means of the angels, and so by means of heaven with the Lord, a person cannot exist at all. His entire life depends upon that link, and if the spirits and angels were to withdraw he would perish instantly.

[2] As long as a person remains unregenerate he is governed in an entirely different way from when he is regenerate. As long as he is unregenerate, evil spirits reside with him, who have such dominion over him that angels, though present, can accomplish little more than simply distract him from plunging into utter evil and so divert him towards something good. Indeed they use his own unregenerate desires to divert him towards good, and his illusions of the senses to do so towards truth. At that point he is in communication with the world of spirits by means of the spirits who reside with him, but not in the same way with heaven, for the reason that evil spirits have dominion and angels simply forestall them.

[3] When however he is regenerate it is the angels who then have dominion, and they breathe into him every kind of good and truth, as well as a horror and dread of evils and falsifies. Angels do indeed lead, yet they are but servants, for it is the Lord alone who, by means of angels and spirits, governs a person. Now because this is done through the ministry of angels, it is said here, in the plural first of all, 'Let Us make man in Our image'. Yet because it is still He alone who rules and disposes, it is said in the following verse, in the singular, 'God created him in His image'. This the Lord also states plainly in Isaiah,

Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer, He who formed you from the womb, I Jehovah make all things, stretching out the heavens Alone, spreading out the earth by Myself. Isaiah 44:24.

Angels themselves also profess that no power at all resides with themselves but that they act from the Lord alone.

5804. 'And a child of his old age, the youngest one' means truth that is new, springing from that good. This is clear from the representation of Benjamin, to whom 'a child, the youngest one' refers here, as truth, dealt with above in 5801, in addition to which 'child' or 'son' means truth, see 489, 491, 1147, 1623, 3373; and from the meaning of 'old age' as newness of life, dealt with in 3492, 4620, 4676. From this it is evident that 'a child of his old age, the youngest one' means truth that is new. The implications of this are as follows: A person who is being regenerated and becoming spiritual is led initially by means of truth to good; for a person does not know what spiritual good is, or what amounts to the same, what Christian good is, except through truth, that is, through teaching drawn from the Word. This is the way he is introduced into good. After that, once he has been introduced into it, he is led no longer by means of truth to good, but by means of good to truth; for at this point good not only enables him to see the truths he knew previously but also brings forth new ones he did not and could not know previously. Good holds the desire for truths within itself because it is so to speak nourished by them; indeed they make it more perfect. These truths - the new ones - are very different from the truths he knew before; for the truths he knew before possessed little life in them. But those which he receives afterwards possess life coming from good.

[2] Once a person has by means of truth arrived at good he is 'Israel', and the truth which he now receives from good, that is, from the Lord through good, is the new truth that 'Benjamin' represented all the time he was with his father. By means of this truth good in the natural bears fruit, bringing forth countless truths that hold good within them. This is the way the regeneration of the natural proceeds, becoming by its fruitfulness first of all like a tree with good fruit on it and then gradually like a garden. All this shows what is meant by new truth springing from spiritual good.