Verse 20. But the Lord has taken the regenerate and brought them forth out of the evil loves of the natural man, a state in which religion is made to consist in mere knowledges, and the mind is under the dominion of the evil proprium, to receive the life derived from Divine truth operating on the soul as is being developed in the present state.

271. Arrayed in white garments, signifies all truths from good in the lower heavens. This is evident from the signification of "white garments," as being truths that invest, which specifically are true knowledges [scientifica] and cognitions (See above, n. 195, 196, 198); and because the lower heavens are in these truths, they are meant.

That "white garments" signify the lower heavens may seem strange to those who know nothing about appearances and representatives in heaven. All in the heavens are clothed according to truths, and lower truths correspond to garments, and because the lower heavens are in these truths, therefore the garments of the angels in the higher heavens also correspond to these. (But this arcanum may be more clearly understood from what is said and shown respecting the Garments in which the Angels are Clothed, in the work on Heaven and Hell 177-182; likewise from what was represented and signified by the garments of Aaron and his sons, explained in Arcana Coelestia 9814, 10068; as also by the garments of the Lord when He was transfigured, n. 9212, 9216)