THE LORD, IN THE WORLD ENDURED THE MOST GRIEVOUS TEMPTATIONS FROM THE HELLS, AND ALSO FROM THE JEWISH CHURCH; AND BY VICTORIES OVER THEM, HE REDUCED ALL THINGS TO ORDER, AND AT THE SAME TIME GLORIFIED HIS HUMAN; AND THUS HE REDEEMED ANGELS AND MEN, AND REDEEMS THEM TO ETERNITY.

1. All spiritual temptations are combats against evils and falsities, therefore against the hells; and these temptations are more grievous in the degree in which they invade the spirit of man, and at the same time his body, and torment both. 2. The Lord sustained the most grievous temptations of all, because He fought against all the hells, and also against the evils and falsities of the Jewish Church. 3. His temptations are little described in the Evangelists, only by combats with beasts, that is with satans in hell, forty days in the wilderness, and afterwards by infestations from the devil, and lastly by His sufferings in Gethsemane, and by the dreadful passion upon the cross. [(Mark i. 12, 13; Matt. iv. 1-11; Luke iv. 1-13; Matt. xxvi. 36-46; Mark xiv. 32-42; Luke xxii. 40-46; John xviii. 1; Matt. xxvii. 26-50; Mark xv. 15-37; Luke xxiii. 25-46; John xix. 1-30.)] But that His temptations or combats with the hells, which, because they were invisible, could not be manifested, were more particularly and more fully described in the Prophets and in David (Isa. lxiii.). 4. The Lord underwent these temptations, in order that He might subjugate the hells which infested heaven and at the same time the church; and that He might deliver angels and men from that infestation, and thus save them. 5. The end of all spiritual temptation is the thorough subjugation of evil and falsity, thus also of hell; and at the same time, the entire subjugation of the external man, for into him evils and falsities from hell flow. For in temptations there is a contest for the dominion of evil over good, and of the external man over the internal; wherefore, on whichever side victory remains, on that side also dominion remains. When therefore victory is on the side of good, good holds dominion over evil, and also the internal man over the external. 6. The Lord suffered these temptations from His boyhood even to the last age of His life, and thus He successively subjugated the hells, and successively glorified His Human; and in the last temptation upon the cross, which was the most grievous of all, He fully conquered the hells, and made His Human Divine. 7. The Lord fought with the hells and also against the falsities and evils of the Jewish Church, as the Divine Truth itself, or the Word, which He was; and He suffered Himself to be reproached, to be assailed with insults, and to be slain, just as the church then did with the Word. Almost the same was done with the prophets, because they represented the Lord as to the Word, therefore with the Lord, who was the Prophet Himself, because the Word itself. That it was so done was according to Divine order.* 8. An image of the victories of the Lord over the hells, and of the glorification of His Human, by temptations, is presented in the regeneration of man; for as the Lord subjugated the hells and made His Human Divine, so with man He subjugates them and makes him spiritual, and thus regenerates him. 9. It is known that the Lord snatches man from the jaws of the devil, that is, of hell, and raises him to Himself in heaven; and that He does this with man by withdrawing him from evils, which is effected through contrition and repentance. These two are the temptations which are the means of regeneration.** * [ANNOTATIONS FROM THE MARGIN.] Of the representation of the state of the church by the prophets and also by Ezekiel, of whom four times it is said that "He bears the iniquities of the house of Israel" and that the Lord was called the "Greatest Prophet"-see Doctrine of the Lord (n 15-17). ** [ANNOTATIONS FROM THE MARGIN.] The Lord, as Prophet, bore the iniquities of the Jewish Church and did not take them away. His glorification or union with the Divine of His Father which was in Him as the soul In man, could not be effected except through a reciprocal operation; the Human cooperates with the Divine, nevertheless it is chiefly from the Divine, but still reception, action, or reaction from the Human as from Himself. But so far as it is conjoined He acted at the same time from both. In like manner as man is regenerated and becomes spiritual from the Lord. When an infant He was as an infant; while a boy [He was as a boy] and from boyhood. He increased in wisdom (Luke ii. 40-50). He could not be born wisdom but could become it according to order. He advanced to full conjunction.