9334. 'Lest perhaps the land becomes desolate' means a deficiency in that case, and little spiritual life, that is to say, if the removal were hurried. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as the Church in general and also in particular, the Church in particular being a person who becomes an embodiment of the Church, since the Church exists within a person and comprises one who has been regenerated (for the meaning of 'the land' as the Church in general, see 9325, and for its meaning as the Church in particular, or a person who has been regenerated, 82, 620, 636, 913, 1411, 1733, 2117, 2118 (end), 2571, 3368, 3379; this person is also called 'the land' in Malachi,

All the nations will declare you blessed, and you will be a land of delight. Malachi 3:12.) and from the meaning of 'desolate' as a deficiency, and little spiritual life. For 'desolate', when used in reference to the Church within a person, means a deficiency of truth and good, thus also a deficiency of spiritual life since that life is provided by these. The implications of this, that there is a deficiency and little spiritual life if falsities and evils are removed hurriedly, are that when a person undergoes regeneration, which is accomplished by the implantation of spiritual truth and good, and at the same time by the removal of falsity and evil, the regeneration is not hurried but takes place slowly.

[2] The reason for this is that all the things the person has thought, intended, or done since early childhood have entered into the composition of his life. They have also formed themselves into a network which is such that one cannot be moved without all of them together being moved. For a wicked person is an image of hell, and a good person is an image of heaven; and also the evils and falsities with a wicked person are interconnected in the same way as the communities of hell are with one another, of which that person is a part, while the forms of good and the truths with a good person are interconnected in the same way as heavenly communities are with one another, of which this person is a part. From this it is evident that the evils and falsities with a wicked person cannot be removed suddenly from where they are. They can be removed only in the measure that forms of good and truths in their proper order have been implanted more deeply within the person; for heaven with a person removes hell. If the removal were done suddenly the person would pass out, for the whole network of things, every single one, would be thrown into confusion and deprive him of his life.

[3] The fact that regeneration or the implantation of the life of heaven with a person begins when he is a young child and continues right on to the final phase of his life in the world, and the fact that after life in the world his perfection continues for evermore, see 2679, 3203, 3584, 3665, 3690, 3701, 4377, 4551, 4552, 5126, 6751, 8772, 9103, 9296, 9297, and in particular 5122, 5398, 5912, 9258. Also, and this is an arcanum, a person's regeneration in the world is merely the foundation for the unending perfection of his life. The person who has led a good life undergoes perfection in the next life; see what has been shown regarding young children, in 2289-2309, and regarding the state and condition of gentiles there, in 2589-2604.

5122. 'The three shoots are three days' means continuous derivatives even to the final one. This is clear from the meaning of 'three' as a single period and the continuity of it from start to finish, dealt with in 2788, 4495; from the meaning of 'shoots' as derivatives, dealt with in 5114; and from the meaning of 'days' as states, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850. From all this it follows that 'the three shoots are three days' means the state in which the sensory power represented by 'the cupbearer' undergoes rebirth, from the first to the final degrees of it, its consecutive derivatives being meant by 'shoots'.

[2] The states of rebirth which each sensory power and every aspect of the natural, as well as every aspect of the rational, pass through have from beginning to end their own progressive stages. When they attain any end they also begin at that point something else that is new; that is to say, they pass on from the end they had been striving to attain in a prior state to the realization of some further end, and so on after that. Eventually order is turned around, so that what has been last becomes first. This is what happens when a person is being regenerated, both in the case of his rational and in that of his natural. While his regeneration is taking place the phases that make up the first state are the stages of a movement from the truths of faith towards forms of the good of charity, when the truths of faith seemingly play the leading role while forms of the good of charity play a secondary one; for the truths of faith have the good of charity as their end in view. Phases like these continue until the person's regeneration is completed. Once this is completed charity then moves from the final place to the first in the line, and so becomes the point from which new states begin. These states develop in two directions - in an increasingly inward direction and also in a more outward one. Inwardly they move closer to love to the Lord, while outwardly they move closer first to the truths of faith, then to natural truths, and after that to truths as these are perceived by the senses. Then these three degrees of truths are brought into agreement one after another with forms of the good of charity and love present within the rational and so are brought into heavenly order.

[3] These are the matters that are meant by progressive stages of development and by continuous derivatives even to the final one. Such stages and derivatives are unending in the case of a person who is being regenerated. They begin when he is a young child and continue through to the final phase of his life in the world; indeed they continue for ever after that, though his regeneration can never reach the point when he can by any means be called perfect. For there are countless, indeed a limitless number of things to be regenerated, both within his rational and within his natural. Everything there has limitless shoots, that is, stages of development and derivatives that progress in both inward and outward directions. A person has no immediate awareness at all of this, but the Lord is aware of every particular detail and is making provision for it moment by moment. If He were to stop doing this for a single instant every stage of development would be thrown into confusion. For one stage looks to the next in an unending sequence and produces chains of sequences which never cease. From this it is evident that Divine Foresight and Providence exist in every particular detail, and that if they did not, or did so in a merely overall way, the human race would perish.