10240. As by “washing” is also signified regeneration, something further shall be said about this. He who does not know that the Lord, both in the Prophets and in the Evangelists, spoke by correspondences, consequently that in the Word there is an internal sense, cannot possibly know what is meant by the Lord’s words in John:

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The Spirit bloweth where it willeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit (John 3:5-6, 8).

[2] If these words are unfolded by means of correspondences, it is plain what their meaning is, for they are arcana of heaven. By correspondence “water” is the truth of faith which comes to clear perception in the natural man; “the Spirit” is the Divine truth which flows in from the Lord through the internal of man into his external or natural, whereby the man who is being regenerated has the life of faith; “the flesh” is what is man’s own, which is nothing but evil; by “the Spirit blowing where it willeth” is signified that the Lord in mercy gives new life by means of the Divine truth; by “hearing the voice thereof” is signified that these things come to perception in the external or natural man; “the voice” denotes what is announced from the Word; by “not knowing whence it cometh and whither it goeth” is signified that man does not know how regeneration is effected, for it is effected by the Lord by means of countless and unutterable secret things.

[3] That by correspondence “waters” are truths of faith, see n. 28, 739, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8568, 9323, 10238; also that “the Spirit” is Divine truth, from which is the life of faith (n. 9229, 9818; that “flesh” is what is man’s own, which is nothing but evil (n. 8409); that “breathing” is the state of the life of faith (see n. 9281); that the “voice” is what is announced from the Word, thus truth therefrom (n. 9926); that “hearing” is perception (n. 9311, 9926); that “to come and to go,” or to enter in and go out, is the state of the thing from beginning to end (n. 9927); that the secret things of regeneration are countless and unutterable (n. 3179, 3573, 5398, 9334, 9336); and that what goes on in the internal man is not perceived while the man is in the world, but only what is in the external or natural man (n. 10236).