9336. 'Little by little I will drive them out from before you' means a removal effected gradually according to order. This is clear from the meaning of 'little by little' as gradually, thus slowly; and from the meaning of 'driving out' - when it has reference to falsities and evils, meant by the nations of the land of Canaan - as a removal, dealt with just above in 9333. The words 'gradually according to order' are used because everything with a person who is being regenerated is rearranged in accordance with heavenly order. For a person who has been regenerated is a miniature heaven, 9276, and therefore also within that person order exists akin to that which obtains in heaven.

[2] When a person is born he is, so far as his hereditary evils are concerned, a miniature hell. He also becomes an embodiment of hell to the extent that he draws on hereditary evils and adds his own to them. This being so, the order of a person's life which exists by reason of what he receives at birth, and by reason of his own acts in life, is the opposite of heavenly order. For what is a person's own leads him to love self more than the Lord and to love the world more than heaven, whereas the life of heaven consists in loving the Lord above all things and the neighbour as oneself. From this it is evident that the first life, which is that of hell, must be completely destroyed, that is, evils and falsities must be removed, in order that the new life, which is that of heaven, may be implanted, see 4551, 4552, 4839, 6068. This cannot possibly be done hurriedly, for every deep-rooted evil, together with its falsities, is interconnected with all other evils and their falsities. Such evils and falsities are countless, and their interconnection is so complex that it cannot be comprehended, not even by angels, only by the Lord. From this it is evident that the life of hell with a person cannot be destroyed suddenly; for if it were destroyed suddenly the person too would perish. Nor can the life of heaven be implanted suddenly, for if this were implanted suddenly the person would again perish.

[3] There are thousands and thousands of hidden ways, scarcely a single one of which is known to mankind, by which the Lord leads a person from the life of hell to the life of heaven. I have been informed from heaven that this is so, and it has also been corroborated for me by many things that I have been made aware of. Since mankind knows scarcely anything at all about these things many have fallen into errors concerning human deliverance from evils and falsities, which is the forgiveness of sins. They think that the life of hell with a person can be changed to the life of heaven with him in an instant, by mercy. But in actual fact mercy lies in the whole act of regeneration; and none undergo regeneration apart from those who receive the Lord's mercy in faith and life while they are in the world, in keeping with the Lord's words in John,

As many as received Him, to them He gave power to be sons of God, to those believing in His name, who were born, not of blood ¹ , nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man (vir), but of God. John 1:12-13.

What 'blood', 'the will of the flesh', and 'the will of man', also 'born of God' mean, see 5826.

[4] The proper way to understand 'a removal from evils and falsities, effected gradually according to order' must also be stated briefly. Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord's Divine Good arranges all things into order in heaven; consequently this Divine Truth, holding good from the Lord within it, is order itself, see 1728, 1919, 2247, 2258, 5703, 6338, 8700, 8988. In accordance with that order all things there come into being, and in accordance with that same order they remain in being; for remaining in being is a constant coming into being. Therefore to enable heaven to come into being in a person, it is necessary for him to receive Divine Truth in the good he has from the Lord. This can be brought into effect only gradually, according to the order similar to that which governs the way the Lord arranges heaven; for if the essential nature of the thing is the same, then the situation on the smaller scale is the same as on the larger scale. This arranging step-by-step is what should be understood here by order brought into effect gradually. From all this it is also evident that the new creation of a person, which is his regeneration, resembles the creation of heaven and earth. For this reason also in the Word a new heaven and a new earth is used to mean a new Church, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355 (end), 4535; and the creation of heaven and earth in the first chapter of Genesis serves to mean the new creation of a celestial Church, called Man, dealt with in the explanations of that chapter.

Footnotes:

2069. 'Kings of peoples will be from her' means truths that are the product of truths and goods joined together, meant by 'kings of peoples'. This is clear from the meaning of 'kings' as all truths in general, dealt with above in 2015, and from the meaning of 'peoples' also as truths, in general all things that are spiritual. For 'kings' are spoken of in reference to peoples, and not so much in reference to nations except when the nations mean evils, dealt with in 1259, 1260. In the prophetical part of the Word kings and peoples are mentioned many times, but nowhere are they used to mean kings and peoples, for at no point are kings and peoples the subject in the Word proper, which is the internal sense, but the celestial and spiritual things comprising the Lord's kingdom, and so goods and truths. The sense of the letter expresses itself by means of perceivable objects, as anyone does with words, merely to enable understanding.

[2] Since the subject here is Sarah and the promise that 'kings of peoples will be from her', and since 'Sarah' means Divine Truth which was the Lord's, 'kings of peoples' clearly means truths that are the product of truths and goods joined together, which are all the truths of the internal Church, that is, the interior truths of faith. Because these truths come from the Lord, they are frequently called 'kings' in the Word, and also 'a king's sons', as shown above in 2015.

[3] Anyone may see that some internal Divine matter lies concealed in the words that 'kings of peoples will be from her'. For the subject in this verse is Isaac, of whom it is said, 'I will bless him, and he will become nations', but of Sarah that 'kings of peoples will be from her'. Almost the same was also said of Abraham in verse 6 above, that 'kings will go out of him'; but it did not say as it does of Sarah, 'kings of peoples'. The arcanum within this lies too deep to allow it to be uncovered and described in a few words. From the representation and meaning of 'Abraham' as Divine Good and from the representation and meaning of 'Sarah' as Divine Truth the arcanum is to some extent evident, namely that from the Lord's Divine Good meant by 'Abraham' all celestial truth will come forth and have its being, and from the Lord's Divine Truth meant by 'Sarah' all spiritual truth will do so. Celestial truth is the truth which exists with celestial angels, and spiritual truth that which exists with spiritual angels. Or what amounts to the same, celestial truth was the truth which existed with members of the Most Ancient Church which came before the Flood and which was a celestial Church, spiritual truth that which existed with members of the Ancient Church which came after the Flood and was a spiritual Church. For angels, as also members of the Church, are distinguished into celestial and spiritual. That which distinguishes the celestial from the spiritual is love to the Lord, and that which distinguishes spiritual from celestial is love towards the neighbour.

[4] No more can be said about celestial truth and spiritual truth however until the difference between the celestial and the spiritual is known, or what amounts to the same, the difference between the celestial Church and the spiritual. For this see Volume One, in 202, 337, 1577; then concerning the nature of the Most Ancient Church and the nature of the Ancient Church, in 597, 607, 640, 765, 1114-1125, and in many other places. On the point that possessing love to the Lord constitutes the celestial, and possessing love towards the neighbour the spiritual, see 2023.

[5] These considerations now show what the arcanum is, namely that 'the kings who will go out of Abraham', referred to in verse 6, mean celestial truths that flow in from the Lord's Divine Good, while 'the kings of peoples who will be from Sarah', referred to in the present verse, mean spiritual truths that flow in from the Lord's Divine Truth. For the Lord's Divine Good is unable to flow in except with the celestial man since it is an influx into the will part of his mind, as was the case with the Most Ancient Church, whereas with the spiritual man the Lord's Divine Truth is flowing in since the influx is solely into the understanding part, which in him has been separated from the will part, 2053 (end). Or what amounts to the same, celestial good is flowing in with the celestial man, and spiritual good with the spiritual man. As a consequence the Lord is seen by celestial angels as the Sun, but by spiritual angels as the Moon, 1529, 1530.