9961. 'From the loins even to the thighs they shall be' means the range of those things, that is to say, of those composing that more external level of conjugial love, meant by 'the linen undergarments'. This is clear from the meaning of 'the loins' and 'the thighs' as those things which constitute conjugial love, 'the loins' those that belong to the more internal levels of conjugial love, 'the thighs' those that belong to the more external levels, so that the range of that love from internal to external levels is meant. The reason why the more internal levels of that love are meant by 'the loins' is that these are above; and the reason why the more external levels are meant by 'the thighs' is that these are below. For parts of a person that are above mean things which are more internal, and parts that are below mean those which are more external; this is why in the Word more internal things are meant by higher ones, and more external by lower ones, see 3084, 4599, 5146, 8325. The higher parts of a person correspond to celestial and spiritual things, which are the more internal ones, and the lower parts correspond to natural things, which are the more external. This is why natural things are meant by 'the feet', 2162, 3147, 3986, 4382, 4938-4952. And since the lower part of the loins which leads down towards the feet is understood by 'the thighs' the more external or lower levels of conjugial love are meant by them, see 4277, 4280.

[2] The loins in general however mean conjugial love, 3021, 3294, 4575, 5050-5062; they have this meaning by virtue of their correspondence. Regarding the correspondence with heaven of everything present with a human being, see what has been shown abundantly in the places referred to in 9276(end), 9280. The words 'range of conjugial love from internal to external levels' are used because all aspects of love and all matters of faith, or what amounts to the same thing, all those of good and all those of truth, have a wide range in the heavens; for all who are there are joined together in accord with the degree of similarity between the truths of their faith and the forms of good of their love. A range such as this exists in each separate heaven. But the range in each heaven also extends into heavens that are below, because all the heavens make one. Indeed they extend right down to mankind, in order that mankind also may make one with the heavens. This range is what is meant by the range from higher or more internal levels to lower or more external ones. The higher or more internal levels are called celestial and spiritual, and the lower or more external ones are called natural or worldly.

[3] As regards conjugial love specifically, whose range is the subject here, this love is fundamental to all other kinds of love; it descends from the marriage of good and truth in the heavens. And since the marriage of good and truth exists in and makes the heavens, truly conjugial love constitutes heaven itself with a person. But the marriage of good and truth in the heavens descends from the joining of the Lord to the heavens; for what emanates from the Lord and flows into the heavens is the good of love, and what is received there by the angels is the truth springing from it, thus truth which originates in good or in which there is good. This is why in the Word the Lord is called bridegroom and husband, and heaven together with the Church is called bride and wife.

[4] All this makes clear how holy marriages are in heaven, and how profane adulterous relationships are there. For in themselves marriages are so holy that there is nothing holier, and are so for the added reason that they are the seed-bed of the human race, and the human race is the seed-bed of heaven, since all people who have led an angelic life in the world go there. On the other hand adulterous relationships are so profane that nothing is more profane, because they are destructive of heaven and the Church with a person. For the truth of all this, see what has been stated and shown in 2727-2759 regarding marriages and regarding adulterous situations.

[5] All this once again makes it clear why foul and hellish things are meant by the kinds of 'nakedness' dealt with in 9960 above, and why it was commanded so strictly that when they ministered Aaron and his sons should be wearing the undergarments covering the loins, and that if they did not they would die, for it says,

Make for them linen undergarments to cover their naked flesh; from the loins even to the thighs they shall be. And they shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they go into the tent of meeting or when they approach the altar to minister in the holy place, that they may not bear iniquity and die. It shall be the statute of an age ⁶ for him and his seed after him.

[6] It should be recognized therefore that by conjugial love all celestial and spiritual love is meant, because truly conjugial love, as has been shown above, is fundamental to all other kinds of love. People therefore in whom that fundamental love is present have all other loves belonging to heaven and the Church present in them; for as has been stated, it descends from the marriage of good and truth in the heavens, the marriage that makes heaven. This also explains why heaven is compared in the Word to a marriage, and is also actually called a marriage. From this too it is evident why precautions were taken to prevent the nakedness of Aaron or his sons from being visible while they ministered; for their nakedness served to mean all loves contrary to heavenly loves, which in general are called self-love and love of the world when they are the ends in view, and are foul and hellish loves. People at the present day have no knowledge that all this is so because they are steeped in these loves and take delight in nothing except that which arises from them. So it is that when spiritual love and celestial love are mentioned they are perplexed, not knowing what they may be, nor consequently what heaven may be; and perhaps they are astonished when they hear and consider that spiritual and celestial love separated from self-love and love of the world holds eternal happiness within it that is indescribable.

3147. 'And water to wash his feet' means purification there. This is clear from the meaning of 'water to wash' or 'washing with water' as purifying, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'feet' as natural things, or what amounts to the same, those things that are in the natural man, dealt with in 2162. In the representative Church washing feet with water was a ceremonial act which meant washing away the filth of the natural man. The filth of the natural man is composed of all the things that belong to self-love and love of the world, and when such filth has been washed away goods and truths flow in, for that filth alone is what hinders the influx of good and truth from the Lord.

[2] For good is flowing in constantly from the Lord, but when by way of the internal or spiritual man it reaches the external or natural man it is either perverted there, or turned away, or stifled. But when indeed the things that belong to self-love and love of the world are removed, good is received there, and bears fruit there, since the person now performs the works of charity. This may become clear from many considerations, such as this: When the things that belong to the external or natural man are quiescent - as they are in times of ill-fortune, wretchedness, and sickness - a person instantly starts to become spiritually-minded and to will what is good, and also to perform acts of devotion insofar as he is able. But when that state alters, these things are altered too.

[3] In the Ancient Church 'washings' were signs meaning these things, and in the Jewish Church the same were representations. The reason why in the Ancient Church they were meaningful signs but in the Jewish Church representations was that members of the Ancient Church regarded that custom as some external act of worship. Nor did they believe that they were purified by that kind of washing but by a washing away of the filth of the natural man, which, as has been stated, is composed of the things that belong to self-love and love of the world. But the member of the Jewish Church did believe that he was purified by such washing, for he did not know, and did not wish to know, that the purifying of a person's interior self was meant.

[4] That 'washing' means the washing away of that filth is clear in Isaiah,

Wash yourselves; purify yourselves; remove the evil of your doings from before My eyes; cease to do evil. Isaiah 1:16.

Here it is evident that 'washing themselves' means purifying themselves and removing evils. In the same prophet,

When the Lord will have washed the excrement of the daughters of Zion and washed away the blood of Jerusalem from its midst in a spirit of judgement and in a spirit of purging. Isaiah 4:4.

Here 'washing the excrement of the daughters of Zion and washing away the blood of Jerusalem' stands for purifying from evils and falsities. In Jeremiah,

Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long will your iniquitous thoughts lodge within you? Jeremiah 4:14.

[5] In Ezekiel,

I washed you with water, and washed away the blood from upon you, and anointed you with oil. Ezekiel 16:9.

This refers to Jerusalem, which is used here to mean the Ancient Church. 'Washing with water' stands for purifying from falsities, 'washing away the blood' for purging from evils, 'anointing with oil' for filling with good at that time. In David,

Wash me from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. You will purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; You will wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Psalms 51:2, 7.

'Being washed' plainly stands for being purified from evils and derivative falsities.

[6] These were the things that were meant by 'washing' in the Representative Church. For the sake of the representation, when they had been made unclean and needed to be cleansed, people were commanded in that Church to wash the skin, hands, feet, and also their garments. All these meant things that belong to the natural man. Also for the sake of the representation, lavers made of bronze were placed outside the Temple - that is to say, 'the bronze sea and the ten bronze lavers' mentioned in 1 Kings 7:23-29; there was also the bronze laver from which Aaron and his sons were to wash themselves, placed between the Tent of Meeting and the Altar, and so outside the Tent of Meeting, Exodus 30:18-19, 21 - the meaning of which was that only external or natural things needed to be purified. And unless they have been purified, that is, unless things belonging to self-love and love of the world have been removed from them, internal things which belong to love to the Lord and towards the neighbour cannot possibly flow in, as stated above.

[7] To enable these matters to be understood more easily, that is to say, regarding the need for external things to be purified, let good works - or what amounts to the same, the goods of charity, which are at the present day called the fruits of faith, and which, since they are actions, are external - serve to exemplify and illustrate the point: Good works are bad works unless the things belonging to self-love and love of the world are removed. For until these have been removed works, when performed, are good to outward appearance but are inwardly bad. They are inwardly bad because they are done either for the sake of reputation, or for financial gain, or for improvement of one's position, or for reward. They are accordingly either merit-seeking or hypocritical, for the things that belong to self-love and love of the world cause those works to be such. But when indeed these evils are removed, works become good, and are the goods of charity. That is to say, they are done regardless of self, the world, reputation, or reward, and so are not merit-seeking or hypocritical, because in that case celestial love and spiritual love flow from the Lord into those works and cause them to be love and charity in action. And at the same time the Lord also purifies the natural or external man by means of those things and orders it so that that man receives correspondingly the celestial and spiritual things that flow in.

[8] This becomes quite clear from what the Lord taught when He washed the disciples' feet: In John,

He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, Lord, do You wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not know now, but you will know afterwards. Peter said to Him, You will never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head! Jesus said to him, He who is washed has no need except that his feet be washed, but is clean all over. Now you are clean, but not all of you. John 13:4-17.

'He who is washed has no need except that his feet be washed' means that anyone who has been reformed needs to be cleansed only in regard to natural things, that is, to have evils and falsities removed from them. For when that happens all is ordered by the influx of spiritual things from the Lord. Furthermore 'feet-washing' was an act of charity, meaning that one ought not to dwell on the evils of another person. It was also an act of humility, meaning the cleansing of another from evils, like filth from the body, as also becomes clear from the Lord's words in verses 12-17 of that chapter in John, and also in Luke 7:37-38, 44, 46; John 11:2; 1 Samuel 25:41.

[9] Anyone may see that washing himself does not purify a person from evils and falsities, only from the filth that clings to him. Yet because it belonged among the religious observances commanded in the Church it follows that it embodies some special idea, namely spiritual washing, which is purification from the filth that clings to man inwardly. Members of that Church therefore who knew these things and thought of purification of the heart, that is, the removal of the evils of self-love and love of the world from the natural man, and tried to achieve it with utmost zeal, practiced ritual washing as an external act of worship, as commanded. But among those who did not know and did not wish to know those things but who supposed that the mere ritual act of washing garments, skin, hands, and feet would purify them, and who supposed that provided they performed such rituals they would be allowed to continue leading lives of avarice, hatred, revenge, mercilessness, and cruelty - all of which constitute spiritual filth - the performance of the ritual was idolatrous. Nevertheless by means of that ritual they were still able to represent, and by means of the representation to display, some vestige of a Church, by means of which heaven was in a way joined to mankind prior to the Lord's Coming. But that conjunction was such that heaven had little or no influence at all on the member of that Church.

[10] The Jews and Israelites were such that they did not think at all of the internal man, nor did they wish to know anything about the same. Thus they knew absolutely nothing about the celestial and spiritual things which belong to the life after death. Nevertheless to prevent the end of all communication with heaven and so with the Lord, they were bound to the performance of external observances by which internal things were meant. All their captivities and plagues were in general to the end that external observances might be duly carried out for the sake of the representation. It was for this reason that the following laws were given:

Moses was to wash Aaron and his sons with water at the tent door, to sanctify them. Exodus 29:4; 40:12; Leviticus 8:6.

Aaron and his sons were to wash their hands and feet before entering the Tent of Meeting and approaching the Altar to minister, lest they died. This was to them a statute for ever. Exodus 30:18-21; 40:30-31.

Before putting on his vestments Aaron was to wash his flesh. Leviticus 16:4, 24.

Levites were to be purified by sprinkling the water of expiation over them, passing a razor over their flesh, and washing their clothes - then they were pure. Numbers 8:6-7.

Anyone who ate the carcass of a clean animal, ¹ or that which had been torn to pieces, was to wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and if he did not wash himself and bathe his flesh he would bear his iniquity. Leviticus 17:15-16.

Anyone who touched the bed of a person who had a discharge, or sat on a vessel on which that person had sat, and anyone who touched that person's flesh was to wash his clothes and to bathe himself with water, and be unclean until the evening. Leviticus 15:5-7, 10-12 and following verses.

The person who sent the goat away to Azazel was to wash his flesh. Leviticus 16:26.

When a leper was to be cleansed he was to wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, wash himself in water, and then he would be clean. Leviticus 14:8-9.

Even vessels themselves which had become unclean through contact with unclean persons were made to go through water and be unclean until the evening. Leviticus 11:32.

From all these laws it may be seen that nobody was made clean or pure internally through ritual washing, but that such a person merely represented him who was pure or spiritually clean, for the reason stated above. The Lord teaches the same quite explicitly in Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23.

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