Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/97

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The Blood of Christ.
91

and to subdue the lusts which proceed from them." (N. J. D. n. 194.)

"Regeneration has this for its end: that the life of the old man may die, and the new life which is celestial may revive or be established. Hence it may be seen that there must at all events be conflict; for the life of the old man resists, nor is it willing to be extinguished; and the life of the new man cannot enter unless where the life of the old is extinct. . . .

"He who thinks from an enlightened rational principle, may see from this that man cannot be regenerated without combat, that is, without spiritual temptations; and further, that he is not regenerated by one temptation, but by many; for there are many kinds of evil which constituted the delight of his former life, that is, the old life; and all these evils cannot be subdued at once and together, for they inhere tenaciously, since they were rooted in the parents for many ages back, and hence are become innate in man, and confirmed by actual evils of his own from childhood; all of which evils are diametrically opposite to celestial good which is to be insinuated and to constitute the new life." (A. C. n. 8403.)

IX.—The Blood of Christ.

"Salvation by the blood of Christ," is an expression often on the lips of Christian teachers; and has been of frequent occurrence in their writings for many centuries. And there is ample war-