591. VI. THE INTERNAL MAN MUST BE REFORMED FIRST, AND THE EXTERNAL BY MEANS OF IT; AND IN THIS WAY THE MAN IS REGENERATED.

That the internal man must be regenerated first, and by means of it the external, is a doctrine commonly insisted upon in the Church at the present day; but by the internal man nothing else is thought of than the faith that God the Father imputes the merit and righteousness of His Son, and sends forth the Holy Spirit. It is believed that this faith constitutes the internal man, from which proceeds the external or moral natural man, forming an appendage to it, much like the tail of a horse or a cow, or like that of a peacock or bird of paradise, which reaches down to the feet but does not unite with them; for it is asserted that charity follows that faith, but should charity enter from a man's will, the faith is destroyed. Since, however, the Church at this day knows no other internal man than this, there exists for the Church no internal man; for no one knows whether that faith has been given to him. Moreover, it was shown above that it cannot be given, and is consequently a mere figment of the imagination. It follows, therefore, that for those who have confirmed themselves in that faith at this day there is no internal man, but only the natural man which by birth is full of evils in all abundance. It is also asserted that regeneration and sanctification follow that faith of themselves, and that man's co-operation, by which alone regeneration is really effected, must be excluded. Hence it is that a knowledge of regeneration is not attainable in the Church of the present day, although the Lord says that he who is not born again cannot see the kingdom of God.

525. V. REPENTANCE BEGINS WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN AND THE EXAMINATION OF SOME PARTICULAR SIN IN ONESELF.

No one in the Christian world can be without the knowledge of sin, for there every one is taught from infancy what evil is, and from childhood what is the evil of sin. All young persons learn this from parents and teachers, and also from the Decalogue, the first Book placed in the hands of all throughout Christendom; and in the subsequent stages of life, from public preaching and private instruction at home, and in all fullness from the Word. They learn it also from the laws of civil justice, which embody the teaching of the Decalogue and other parts of the Word. For the evil of sin is evil against the neighbor; and evil against the neighbor is also evil against God, and this is sin.

The knowledge of sin, however, is of no avail unless a man examines his own actions, and sees whether he has committed any particular deed, either secretly or openly. Before this is done it is all mere knowledge, and what proceeds from the preacher is only sound, passing in at one ear and out at the other; and it finally becomes nothing more than the expression of pious thought, for the most part unreal and fanciful. But it is altogether different when a man examines himself according to his rational conception of sin, and, coming upon some evil, says to himself, "This is a sin," and abstains from it through fear of eternal punishment. Then for the first time the instruction heard in the church, from sermon and prayer, claims his attention and enters his heart; and the man from being a pagan, becomes a Christian.