576. II. A new birth or creation can only be brought about by the Lord through charity and faith as the two means with the person's co-operation.

It follows from the proofs offered in the chapters on charity and faith that regeneration is brought about by the Lord through charity and faith; in particular, from the statement there that the Lord, charity and faith make one, just as do life, will and understanding; and if they are divided each of them perishes like a pearl collapsing into dust. These two, charity and faith, are called means, because they link a person with the Lord and make charity charity and faith faith. This is only possible if the person plays a part in his regeneration; this is why we say, with the person's co-operation. In previous sections the co-operation of a person with the Lord has been discussed several times. But because the human mind is so constituted that it cannot help perceiving this action as being effected by the person by his own ability, it needs to be illustrated again.

[2] Every motion, and so every action, contains an active and a passive principle. In other words, the agent acts, and the object acts as a result of the agent. So the two together produce an action. This may be compared to a mill driven by a wheel, a carriage pulled by a horse, a movement responding to an effort, an effect to a cause, inertia to energy, in general, an instrumental part responding to a principal one. Everyone knows that the two together perform a single action. In the case of charity and faith the Lord acts, and the person acts in response to the Lord, for the Lord's activity is in the person's passivity. Therefore the ability to act aright is from the Lord, so that the will to act is as if it were the person's. This is because he enjoys free will, so that he can act together with the Lord, and so link himself to Him, or he can act by the power of hell, which is outside him, and so cut himself off from the Lord. It is the person's action in harmony with the Lord's action which is meant here by co-operation. To render this even clearer, further comparisons will be supplied below.

760. III. This final period of the Christian church is absolute night, in which the previous churches ended.

Since the creation of this earth there have been, to speak in general terms, four churches, each succeeding the one before. This can be established from the historical as well as the prophetical books of the Word, especially the book of Daniel. Here the four churches are described by the statue Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream (chapter 2), and later by the four beasts coming up out of the sea (chapter 7). The first church, which may be called the Most Ancient Church, came into existence before the flood, and its ending or departure is described by the flood. The second church, which may be called the Ancient Church, was in Asia and in parts of Africa; this came to an end and perished as the result of idolatrous practices. The third was the Israelite Church, begun by the proclamation of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and continued through the Word written by Moses and the Prophets. This came to an end and terminated as the result of profaning the Word, a process which reached its full development at the time the Lord came into the world. That was why they crucified Him who was the Word. The fourth is the Christian Church founded by the Lord by means of the Evangelists and the Apostles. This has had two phases: one from the Lord's time down to the Council of Nicaea, the other from that Council down to the present day. But in its development it split into three, the Greek, Roman Catholic and Reformed Churches. Yet all of these have been called Christian churches. Moreover, within each wide division of the church there have been a number of special churches; despite leaving the main stream they have still kept the general name, as heresies in the Christian church.