606. From all this it may be concluded that an unregenerate man is like one who sees phantoms at night, and believes them to be men; and afterwards, when he is being regenerated, he is like the same man seeing in the early dawn that the things he saw at night are delusions, and still later, when he is regenerated and is in the light of day, seeing them to be the offspring of delirium. An unregenerate man is like one dreaming, and a regenerate man like one awake; and in the Word natural life is likened to sleep, and spiritual life to a state of wakefulness. The unregenerate man is meant by the foolish virgins who had lamps but no oil, and the regenerate man by the wise virgins who had both lamps and oil, "lamps" meaning such things as pertain to the understanding, and "oil" such things as pertain to love. The regenerate are like the lamps of the lampstand in the tabernacle; they are like the bread of faces there with the frankincense upon it; and they are those who shall "shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever" (as said in Dan. 12:3). The unregenerate man is like one who is in the garden of Eden, and who eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and is therefore banished from the garden; he is indeed that very tree. But the regenerate man is like one who is in that garden and eats of the tree of life. That it is given to such to eat of it, is obvious from the following in Revelation:
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. 2:7),
"the garden of Eden" meaning intelligence in spiritual things, arising from love of truth (see Apocalypse Revealed, n. 90). In a word, the unregenerate man is a "son of the evil one," and the regenerate a "son of the kingdom" (Matt. 13:38); "the son of the evil one" there meaning a child of the devil, and "the son of the kingdom" a child of the Lord.