A sower went out to sow ... and as he sowed, some fell by the way-side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon stony places; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it had no root. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundred-fold. Luke viii 5-8; Matt. xiii 3-8; Mark iv 3-8.

The sower here is the Lord, and the seed is His Word, thus truth; the seed by the way-side is with those who do [not] care about truth; and the seed upon stony places is with those who care for truth, but not for its own sake, and thus not interiorly. The seed among thorns is with those who are in the lusts of evil; but the seed in the good ground is with those who from the Lord love the truths which are in the Word, and who from Him practise them, and thus bring forth fruit. That this is the meaning of these things is evident from the Lord's explanation of them, Matthew xiii 19-23; Mark iv 14-20; and Luke viii 11-15.

From these considerations it is clear that the truth of the Word cannot take root with those who do not care about truth; nor with those who love truth outwardly but not inwardly; nor with those who are in the lusts of evil; but with those in whom the lusts of evil have been dispersed by the Lord. With these the seed, that is, truth, becomes rooted in their spiritual mind; concerning this see above, No. 86 at the end.