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:

8537. 'And the children of Israel ate the man[na] forty years' means making the good of truth their own in the state involving all temptations. This is clear from the representation of 'the children of Israel' as those who belong to the spiritual Church, dealt with in 6426, 6637, 6862, 6868, 7035, 7062, 7198; from the meaning of 'eating' as making one's own, dealt with in 3168, 3513(end), 3596, 4745; from the meaning of 'the man[na]' as the good of truth, dealt with in 8464; and from the meaning of 'forty years' as states involving temptations, 'years' meaning states, see 482, 487, 488, 493, 893, and 'forty' meaning temptations, 730, 862, 2272, 2273, 8098.