359. And he went forth conquering, and to conquer. That this signifies the removal of evils and thence of falsities at the end of life, and afterwards to eternity, is manifest from the signification of conquering in the Word, as denoting to conquer spiritually, which is, to subjugate evils and falsities; but because these are conquered only as they are removed by the Lord, hence by conquering is signified the removal of evils and falsities. (That evils and falsities are removed and not obliterated, or that man is withheld from them, and kept in good and truth by the Lord, may be seen in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 166; and in the Arcana Coelestia 865, 868, 887, 894, 929, 1581, 2116, 2406, 4564, 8206, 8393, 8988, 9014, 9333-9338, 9446-9448, 9451, 10057, 10060.) It is said, He went forth conquering, and to conquer, and by, He went forth conquering, is signified the removal of evils and of the falsities thence to the end of life; and by to conquer, is signified, and afterwards to eternity; for he who combats against evils and falsities, and conquers them in the world even to the end of life, conquers them to eternity; for according to the character of a man at the end of his life in consequence of his past life, such he remains to eternity. The reason why to conquer signifies to conquer spiritually is, because the Word in its inmost is spiritual, or in its inmost treats of spiritual things, and not of earthly things; the earthly things which are in the sense of the letter, serve only its spiritual sense for a basis, in which spiritual things terminate and in which they are. The same is signified by conquering in the following passages:

[2] In the 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" (2:7). "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death" (2:11). "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations" (2:26). "I will make him that overcometh a pillar in the temple of God" (3:12). "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne" (3:21). "They overcame the dragon by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of the testimony" (12:11). "He that overcometh shall be master of all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son" (21:7).

And in John:

Jesus [said] to the disciples, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but trust confidently, I have overcome the world (16:33).

By the Lord's overcoming the world, is meant that He subjugated all the hells; for the world here signifies all evils and falsities, which are from hell (as also in John 8:23; 12:31; 14:17, 19, 30; 15:18, 19; 16:8, 11; 17:9, 14, 16).

[3] The same is signified by conquering, where it is said of the Lord, in Isaiah:

"Who is this that cometh from Edom, sprinkled as to his garments from Bozrah? I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people not a man was with me; therefore have I trodden them in mine anger, and trampled them in my wrath; whence their victory is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have polluted all my raiment. But I have made their victory to descend into the earth" (63:1, 3, 6).

The Lord is here treated of, and His combats against the hells, and the subjugation of them. He Himself as to His Divine Human is here meant by "Edom, sprinkled as to his garments from Bozrah," and by His garments is signified the Word in the letter, for garments signify truths investing; and when said of the Lord, they signify Divine truths, consequently, the Word, for all Divine truths are therein (see above, n. 195). The Word in the sense of the letter is here also meant by garments, because therein are truths investing, for the sense of the letter serves for a garment to the spiritual sense; and because the Word, as to that sense, was torn asunder by the Jewish people, and thereby the Divine truth adulterated, it is said, "sprinkled as to his garments from Bozrah, their victory is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have polluted all my raiment." The garments from Bozrah signify the ultimate of the Word, which is the sense of its letter; their victory upon my garments, signifies the wrong interpretation and application of the truth by those who wrest the sense of the letter to favour their own loves, and the principles thence conceived, as was done by the Jews, and is also done at this day by many. This is meant by their victory upon my garments. That the Lord alone fought, is signified by, I have trodden the wine-press alone; and of the people there was not a man with me. The wine-press signifies combat from Divine truths against falsities, because in the wine-presses the wine is pressed out from the grapes; and by wine is signified Divine truth; hence to tread it alone, and of the people not a man was with me, signifies, alone, without the aid of any one. That the Lord subjugated the hells, is signified by, I have trodden them in mine anger, and trampled them in my wrath. It is said, I have trodden and I have trampled, because of the wine-press, and they signify that he destroyed; it is said anger and wrath, because they were destroyed, and they are attributed in the sense of the letter to the Lord, when, notwithstanding, there is nothing of anger and wrath in Him, but in those who are against Him; from the appearance it is so said here and in many places elsewhere. That they were subjugated, and condemned to hell, is signified by, I have made their victory to descend into the earth, into the earth denoting into damnation, thus into hell. That by the earth is also signified damnation, may be seen above (n. 304 at the end).

10057. 'And you shall take the second ram' means the following state, which is that of Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good in the heavens. This is clear from the things described in what has gone before and in what comes after. Those in what has gone before have to do with the sacrifice of the young bull and the burnt offering of the first ram, those in what comes after with the second ram and 'filling the hand with it', and finally with the sacrifice of a young bull and the daily burnt offering of lambs. Is there anyone at all rational in his thinking who does not see that these things in every detail have heavenly arcana lying within them? What other explanation could there be for the sacrifices and burnt offerings with so many ritual requirements? Why else was it necessary that the altar should be flooded with blood; that blood should be put on the tip of the ear, on the thumb, and on the big toe of Aaron and his sons, and also [sprinkled] over their garments; that in the case of the sacrifice the fat on the intestines, liver, and kidneys, and the kidneys themselves, should be burned on the altar (and all other parts burned with fire outside the camp, or else be eaten), and that in the case of the burnt offering the intestines and legs should be placed on top of the pieces and the head and burned on the altar; and also that the parts which were taken from the second ram should first be waved on the palms of Aaron and his sons, and that the other parts of it should be eaten? Let anyone who is willing to do so ask himself, Would not such requirements be earthly matters of no importance at all if they did not hold holy arcana within them? And if they are holy arcana, they must be altogether such as have to do with heaven and the Church, and in the highest sense such as have to do with the Lord; for these alone, being Divine, are holy. If people believe that the Word is holy and has been inspired by God in every single part, they must also believe that every single established practice in the sacrifices and burnt offerings embraces and contains such arcana within it. Yet what it is that those practices embrace and contain within them cannot by any means be known on earth unless it is known what is meant in heaven by such things. What is meant, however, the internal sense of the Word alone teaches, since this unfolds correspondences. For all things that exist in the natural world correspond to those which exist in the spiritual world, because the former comes into being from and is held in being by the latter.

[2] But what the sacrifices and burnt offerings described in the present chapter hold within them will be stated in the course of unfolding correspondences by means of the internal sense. The subject in the highest sense, in which all holy things are Divine, is the glorification of the Lord's Human, and in the representative sense it is the regeneration of a person. The actual process by which the Lord's Human was glorified and a person is regenerated is described fully by means of the things that were commanded regarding the sacrifices and burnt offerings. So that people may have some conception of that process let other things which their minds are capable of understanding serve to explain it. It is well known that the discernment of things seen with the eyes and heard by the ears takes place inwardly in a person; those things pass so to speak from the world by way of the eyes or ears into thought, and so into the understanding since thought belongs to the understanding. And if they are the kinds of things the person loves they pass from there into the will, and then from the will by way of the understanding into words spoken by the mouth and also into actions performed by the body. Such is the cycle in all this, passing from the world by way of the natural man into the spiritual man, and going out from there into the world again. Yet it should be remembered that this cycle is started off by the will, which is the inmost core of a person's life, and that it begins there and is inspired by it to run its full course. The will of a person in whom good is present is governed from heaven by the Lord, though the situation appears to be other than this. Influx takes place from the spiritual world into the natural world, thus through the internal man into the external man, but not the other way round; for the internal man is in heaven, whereas the external man is in the world.

[3] This cycle is the cycle of a person's life, and therefore when someone is being regenerated his regeneration proceeds in accord with that same cycle; and when he has been regenerated his life and actions proceed in accord with it. Consequently, while a person is being regenerated the truths which will compose his faith are instilled through hearing and sight; they are implanted in the memory belonging to his natural man. Then they are transferred from the memory into thought belonging to the understanding, and those which the person loves become part of his will. To the extent that they become part of his will they become part of his life, since a person's will constitutes his actual life; and to the extent that they become part of his life they become part of his affection, and so of charity in his will and of faith in his understanding. That life, which consists of charity and faith, then becomes the source of the person's words and actions. Out of the charity which occupies his will come the words he speaks with his mouth as well as the actions he performs with his body; and both come by way of his understanding, thus by way of his faith. From all this it is clear that the cycle of a person's regeneration is akin to the cycle of his life in general, and that it is in like manner started off in the will by an influx coming from heaven and beginning in the Lord.

[4] From this also it is evident that there are two states that a person undergoing regeneration experiences, the first being a time when the truths of faith are being implanted and joined to the good of charity, the second a time when the good of charity through the truths of faith governs what he says and how he acts. The first state is accordingly one that goes from the world by way of the natural man into the spiritual man, thus into heaven, and the second from heaven by way of the spiritual man into the natural man, thus into the world. The spiritual or internal man, as has been stated above, is in heaven, and the natural or external man is in the world. This cycle is the cycle of a person's regeneration, and therefore is the cycle of his spiritual life. Regarding those two states of a person who is being regenerated, see the places referred to in 9274.

[5] From what has been stated people may gain some idea of the glorification of the Lord's Human; for as the Lord glorified His Human, so He regenerates a person, and therefore, as has already been stated a number of times, the regeneration of a person is an image of the Lord's glorification. From this it is evident that the first state of His glorification consisted in making His Human Divine Truth and uniting it to the Divine Good that was within Him, and that the second state consisted in acting from Divine Good through Divine Truth. For by means of Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good heaven is built and the Church is built, and by means of Divine Truth all within the Church are regenerated. These matters are what the sacrifices, burnt offerings, and their ritual observances spoken of in the present chapter serve to describe. The sacrifice of the young bull and the burnt offering of the first ram serve to describe the first state, and 'the fillings of the hand' with parts of the second ram the second state, while the sacrifice of the young bull and the daily burnt offering of lambs mentioned last in the chapter serve to mean the continuation of that second state.

[6] It should be remembered that purification from evils and consequent falsities in the case of a person who is being regenerated goes on unceasingly; for to the extent that a person is purified from evils and falsities the truths of faith are implanted and joined to the good of charity and the good of charity becomes the source of the person's actions. Purification from evils and falsities in man's case is not a deliverance from them; rather it is a removal or moving away of them, see 868, 887, 894, 929, 1581, 2269, 2406, 4564, 8206, 8393, 8988, 9014, 9333, 9446-9451, 9938. In the Lord's case however it was not a removal but a casting out of those which He had derived from His mother, thus a complete deliverance from them, so complete that He was no longer Mary's son, see the places referred to in 9315 (end).

These matters have been mentioned by way of introduction in order that people may know what is meant by filling the hand with parts of the second ram, spoken of in what follows immediately below.