9334. 'Lest perhaps the land becomes desolate' means a deficiency in that case, and little spiritual life, that is to say, if the removal were hurried. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as the Church in general and also in particular, the Church in particular being a person who becomes an embodiment of the Church, since the Church exists within a person and comprises one who has been regenerated (for the meaning of 'the land' as the Church in general, see 9325, and for its meaning as the Church in particular, or a person who has been regenerated, 82, 620, 636, 913, 1411, 1733, 2117, 2118 (end), 2571, 3368, 3379; this person is also called 'the land' in Malachi,

All the nations will declare you blessed, and you will be a land of delight. Malachi 3:12.) and from the meaning of 'desolate' as a deficiency, and little spiritual life. For 'desolate', when used in reference to the Church within a person, means a deficiency of truth and good, thus also a deficiency of spiritual life since that life is provided by these. The implications of this, that there is a deficiency and little spiritual life if falsities and evils are removed hurriedly, are that when a person undergoes regeneration, which is accomplished by the implantation of spiritual truth and good, and at the same time by the removal of falsity and evil, the regeneration is not hurried but takes place slowly.

[2] The reason for this is that all the things the person has thought, intended, or done since early childhood have entered into the composition of his life. They have also formed themselves into a network which is such that one cannot be moved without all of them together being moved. For a wicked person is an image of hell, and a good person is an image of heaven; and also the evils and falsities with a wicked person are interconnected in the same way as the communities of hell are with one another, of which that person is a part, while the forms of good and the truths with a good person are interconnected in the same way as heavenly communities are with one another, of which this person is a part. From this it is evident that the evils and falsities with a wicked person cannot be removed suddenly from where they are. They can be removed only in the measure that forms of good and truths in their proper order have been implanted more deeply within the person; for heaven with a person removes hell. If the removal were done suddenly the person would pass out, for the whole network of things, every single one, would be thrown into confusion and deprive him of his life.

[3] The fact that regeneration or the implantation of the life of heaven with a person begins when he is a young child and continues right on to the final phase of his life in the world, and the fact that after life in the world his perfection continues for evermore, see 2679, 3203, 3584, 3665, 3690, 3701, 4377, 4551, 4552, 5126, 6751, 8772, 9103, 9296, 9297, and in particular 5122, 5398, 5912, 9258. Also, and this is an arcanum, a person's regeneration in the world is merely the foundation for the unending perfection of his life. The person who has led a good life undergoes perfection in the next life; see what has been shown regarding young children, in 2289-2309, and regarding the state and condition of gentiles there, in 2589-2604.

2045. 'Shall be circumcised among you' means purification. This is clear from the representation and meaning of 'circumcision' as purification from filthy loves, dealt with above in 2039. People who are immersed in self-love and love of the world are quite incapable of believing that they are under the influence of such filthy and unclean loves as in fact they are. Indeed a certain pleasure and delight exists which coaxes, encourages, and allures, and causes them to love that life, to prefer it to every other kind of life, and so to imagine that there is nothing bad about it at all. For whatever encourages anyone's love and resulting life is considered to be good. For this reason also the rational agrees to and produces confirmatory falsities which lead to blindness so great that people see nothing at all of what heavenly love is. And if they did see it they would in their hearts say that it was something wretched, or not really anything at all, or something in the nature of a delusion which takes possession of the mind as it does in sickness.

[2] That the life which belongs to self-love and love of the world, together with its pleasures and delights, is filthy and unclean may become clear to anyone if he is willing to think from the powers of reason which have been given to him. Self-love is the source of all the evils that destroy civilized society. From it, as from a filthy pit, all forms of hatred, revenge, and cruelty stream forth, and indeed of adultery. For anyone who loves himself either holds in contempt or reviles or hates everybody else who does not serve him or who does not further his interests or who fails to show him favour; and in hating he breathes nothing but revenge and cruelty - doing so in the measure that he loves himself. Such love is for these reasons destructive of society and of the human race. That this is its nature, see also what has been stated in Volume One on the same subject, in 693, 694, 760, 1307, 1308, 1321, 1506, 1594, 1691, 1862. That self-love is in the next life utterly filthy and diametrically opposed to the mutual love that constitutes heaven will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on.

[3] And since that love is the source of all hatred, revenge, cruelty, and adultery, it is the source of all things that are called sins, crimes, abominations, and profanations. When therefore self-love is present in a person's rational, and in the desires and delusions of his external man, the influx of heavenly love from the Lord in that case is constantly intercepted, degraded, and defiled. It is like foul excrement which dispels, indeed pollutes, every pleasant odor. It also resembles an object which is constantly converting inflowing rays of light into dark and hideous colours. Or it is like a tiger or a serpent that hisses when fondled and kills with its bite or poison those who feed it. Or else it is like a villain who converts even the best intentions of other people, and sheer acts of kindness, into what is reprehensible and wicked. From this it is clear that those loves - self-love and love of the world - are what were represented and meant by the foreskins that were to be cut off.