9726. 'And you shall make for it a grating, a network' means the level of sensory perception, which is the last and lowest. This is clear from the meaning of 'a grating, a network' as external sensory perception, thus that which forms for a person the last and lowest level of life; and since this lowest level is meant by the grating it was placed all the way round the altar. Such sensory perception was represented by the grating because it first sifts so to speak and sorts out those things which enter the human mind and present themselves to the understanding and will, namely truths and forms of good. If the sensory perception is composed of good it does not let anything through other than forms of good, and truths derived from good, and rejects evils and the falsities arising from evil. For sensory perception is the actual ability to perceive things which belong to the understanding and to sense those which belong to the will as they exist on outermost levels, an ability that is perfectly fashioned for the affections for those things. The nature of all this may be illustrated by very many things in the body. Everywhere in the outermost parts within the body there are forms that resemble nets and there are so to speak gratings which sort out the things that flow towards them from the world. Those that are suitable are let through because they are desirable, and those that are unsuitable are rejected because they are loathsome. Extremely sensitive systems such as these exist in the stomach. These let through into the blood the suitable juices of the chyle, because these juices are useful and therefore desirable, and reject the unsuitable because they are harmful and therefore loathsome. The situation is similar with sensory perception, which is the last and lowest level of a person's life. But this level with a person has become totally wrecked, the reason why being that it stands right next to and is exposed to the world and is therefore the last to be regenerated, indeed scarcely anyone at the present day is able to be regenerated down to that level. As regards what the level of sensory perception is like with these people, see what has been shown already concerning it in 4009, 5077, 5081, 5084, 5094, 5125, 5128, 5580, 5767, 5774, 6183, 6201, 6310-6318, 6564, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948, 6949, 7442, 7645, 7693, 9212, 9216.

Therefore if a person is to see and have an understanding of the truths of faith and the forms of the good of love he must be raised by the Lord above that level to more internal levels. But the sensory perception meant by 'the grating, the network' around the altar is the sensory perception belonging to the Lord's Divine Human, since the altar is representative of the Lord and of the worship of Him that springs from the good of love, 9714.

6183. 'And you are to carry me out of Egypt' means so that there may be a raising up from factual knowledge. This is clear from the meaning of 'carrying me' as a raising up (for when people pass from Egypt to the land of Canaan they are said 'to go up , which means a raising up, 3084, 4539, 4969, 5406, 5817, 6007; and the same is meant by 'carrying someone there out of Egypt'); and from the meaning of 'Egypt' as factual knowledge, dealt with already. A brief statement must be made to explain what a raising up from factual knowledge is. The regeneration of the natural is effected by an instilling of spiritual life from the Lord through the internal man into the known facts residing in the natural (this instilling has been the subject in the present chapter). But once a person has been regenerated thus far, and if he is the kind whose regeneration can go further, he is raised up from the exterior to the interior natural, which is subject to the direct control of the internal man. But if he is not that kind of person, his spiritual life exists in the exterior natural. The raising up is effected by a withdrawal from sensory impressions and factual knowledge and so by a raising up above them, and then the person comes into a state of interior thought and affection; thus interiorly he is raised into heaven. People who attain this state are in the internal Church, whereas those who attain only the first state are in the external Church. The latter are represented by 'Jacob', the former by 'Israel'. It was therefore so that Jacob might be Israel, and so that spiritual good present in the interior natural - thus the internal spiritual Church - may thereby be represented by him as Israel, that these words were uttered by Jacob.