8857. It is similar with love to the Lord. When that love is dominant it is present in every aspect of his life, as when he loves his monarch or loves his parent. While he is in their presence love towards them shines from every part of his face, is heard in every syllable of his speech, and is apparent in every one of his gestures. This is how to understand the command ¹ to have the Lord unceasingly before one's eyes and to love Him above all, with all one's soul and all one's heart.

Footnotes:

183. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

What Regeneration is, and why it is effected.

At this day little is known concerning regeneration; the reason (n. 3761, 4136, 5398). Man is born into evils of every kind, and thence as to his proprium by birth, he is nothing but evil (n. 210, 215, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047, 2307-2308, 3518, 3701, 3812, 8480, 8549-8550, 8552, 10283-10284, 10286, 10731). Man's hereditary nature is nothing but evil, see the extracts above in this doctrine (n. 83). Man's proprium is nothing but evil, see the same (n. 82). Man of himself, so far as he is under the influence of his hereditary nature and the proprium, is worse than the brute animals (n. 637, 3175). Therefore of himself he continually looks to hell (n. 694, 8480). Therefore, if man should be led by his own proprium, he could not possibly be saved (n. 10731).

Man's natural life is contrary to spiritual life (n. 3913, 3928). The good which he does from himself or from proprium, is not good, because he does it for the sake of self, and the world (n. 8480). Man's proprium must be removed so that the Lord and heaven may be able to be present (n. 1023, 1044). It is actually removed when he is regenerated by the Lord (n. 9334-9336, 9452, 9454, 9938). Therefore he must be created anew, that is, regenerated (n. 8548-8549,9452, 9937). "Creating" man, in the Word, signifies to regenerate him (n. 16, 88, 10634).

Man is conjoined to the Lord by regeneration (n. 2004, 9338). And consociated with angels in heaven (n. 2474). He does not come into heaven, until he is in a state to be led by the Lord by means of good, which is the case when he is regenerated (n. 8516, 8539, 8722, 9139, 9832, 10367).

The external or natural man rules, and the internal man serves, in the man who is not regenerated (n. 3167, 8743). Thus the state of man's life is inverted from his birth, and must be entirely inverted again in order that he may be saved (n. 6507, 8552-8553, 9258). The end of regeneration is, that the internal or spiritual man may rule, and the external or natural man serve (n. 911, 913). This is actually effected after man is regenerated (n. 5128, 5651, 8743). For after regeneration the love of self and the world no longer reigns, but love to the Lord and towards the neighbor, thus the Lord and not man (n. 8856-8857). Hence it is plain that man cannot be saved unless he is regenerated (n. 5280, 8548, 8772, 10156).

Regeneration is a plane to perfect the life of man to eternity (n. 9334). The regenerate man is perfected to eternity (n. 6648, 10048). The quality of the regenerate and the unregenerate man described (n. 977, 986, 10156).

10731. 'Everyone doing work on it shall die' means spiritual death to those who are led by self and selfish loves, and not by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of '[doing] work on the sabbath day' as being led by self and selfish loves, and not by the Lord, dealt with in 8495, 10360, 10362, 10364; and from the meaning of 'dying' as damnation or spiritual death, dealt with in 6119, 9008. Those led by self and selfish loves do not believe in the Lord, for belief in the Lord consists in being led by Him and not by self. Nor, as a result of this, do they see any value at all in the union of His Human with the Divine itself, nor indeed any value at all in being regenerated by the Lord, nor thus any value in the Church's truths either. For they say to themselves, What are such things? Or, What advantage do we have if we know them, indeed think about them and desire them? Surely we live in the way others do, so what difference does it make? The reason why they think like this is that the life of the world, not the life of heaven, governs their thinking; the life of heaven is something about which they are ignorant and no one's thought can be governed by that of which he is ignorant. People such as these therefore cannot be saved, for they do not have heaven within them and consequently cannot be in heaven; their interiors are not in accord with it. For unless their interiors have been rearranged by the Lord to conform to an image of heaven there can be no joining to heaven. This is what those people are like who refuse to believe in those all-embracing realities. This condition in a person is what is meant by '[doing] work on the sabbath day', and the spiritual death of such is what is meant by their natural death.