CHAP. VII., VERSE 1.—N. 419[c].

Adam’s nostrils the soul of lives,” namely, spiritual life; for the Holy Spirit signifies Divine truth going forth from the Lord, from which is spiritual life. That they should teach Divine truth from the Lord is signified by “as the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you;” for the Lord when He was in the world was Divine truth itself, which He taught from His Divine good which was in Him from conception. This Divine is what the Lord here and in other places calls “the Father;” and because when He went out of the world He united Divine truth to Divine good that in Him they might be one, and because thenceforth Divine truth goes forth from Him He said, “as the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.”

[c.] That the wind of respiration signifies spiritual life comes from correspondence (see A.C. Arcana Coelestia, n. 3883-3896). The quality of all in the spiritual world is recognized solely by their respiration. Those who are in the life of the respiration of heaven are among angels; but those who are not in that respiration, if they come into heaven, are unable to breathe there, and are therefore in anguish like that of suffocation (respecting which see A.C., n. 1119, 3887, 3889, 3892, 3893). From this correspondence the term “inspiration” is derived, and the prophets are called “inspired,” and the Word is said to be “Divinely inspired.” [6.] From all this it can be seen what is signified by the Lord’s words in John:

“Except one be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. .... Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the spirit” (iii. 5, 7, 8).

“To be born again” means to be regenerated; and as man is regenerated by a life according to Divine truth, and all Divine truth through which man is regenerated goes forth from the Lord, and flows into him he knows not when, so it is said, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth,” thus is described the life of man’s spirit, which he has by regeneration, “wind” meaning the Divine truth through which that life comes. So long as he is in the world man is utterly ignorant of how Divine truth flows in from the Lord, for he then thinks from the natural man, and merely perceives a something that flows in from the spiritual man into the natural; this is what is meant by “thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth.” The “water” of which man is born signifies