Temporary Quiescence of Evils.
There are two loves, so called, and their desires which obstruct the influx of heavenly love from the Lord; for while they reign in the inner and outer man, and hold possession of him, they either cast back or suffocate, and also pervert and defile, the inflowing heavenly love; because they are utterly opposed to it. But in proportion as they are removed, the heavenly love flowing in from the Lord begins to appear, aye, to dawn upon his inner man; and he begins to see that he is in evil and falsity; and then indeed that he is in uncleanness and defilement; and at last, that this is his very proprium. These are they who are regenerated with whom those loves are removed. This may also be apperceived by the unregenerate; while the desires of those loves in them are quiescent,— as they are sometimes when they are in pious meditation, or while those loves are asleep, as is the case when men are in misfortunes, in sorrows and in sickness, and especially at the moment of death,—then, because corporeal and worldly things are asleep, and as it were dead, they apperceive somewhat of heavenly light and comfort from this influx. But with them there is no removal, but only a torpidity of those desires; for when they return to their former state they instantly relapse into them. (A. C. n. 2041.)
Difference between the Regenerate and the Unregenerate.
With the regenerate man there is a conscience of what is good and true, and from conscience he does good and thinks truth; the good that he does is the good of charity, and the truth that he thinks is the truth of faith. The unregenerate man has no conscience; or if any it is not a conscience of doing good from charity and of thinking truth from faith, but from some love regarding himself or the world. It is therefore a spurious or false conscience. With the regenerate man there is joy when he acts according to conscience, and anxiety when he is constrained to do anything or to think against conscience. But with the unregenerate it is not so; very many do not know what conscience is, much less what it is to do anything according to conscience or against conscience; but they act according to what favours their loves, while to act against them gives them anxiety. With the regenerate man there is a new will and a new understanding; and the new will and new understanding are his conscience, that is, they are in his conscience, by which the Lord operates the good of charity and the truth of faith. With the unregenerate
