2042. And it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and you. That this signifies a representative and significative of purity, is evident from what has been shown just above (n. 2039), namely, that circumcision was nothing but a representative of purification from filthy loves. And as it was only an external rite which represented and signified something internal, it was not a covenant, but a sign of a covenant.

210. What man’s Own is may be stated in this way. Man’s Own is all the evil and falsity that springs from the love of self and of the world, and from not believing in the Lord or the Word but in self, and from supposing that what cannot be apprehended sensuously and by means of memory-knowledge [sensualiter et scientifice] is nothing. In this way men become mere evil and falsity, and therefore regard all things pervertedly; things that are evil they see as good, and things that are good as evil; things that are false they see as true, and things that are true as false; things that really exist they suppose to be nothing, and things that are nothing they suppose to be everything. They call hatred love, darkness light, death life, and the converse. In the Word, such men are called the “lame” and the “blind.” Such then is the Own of man, which in itself is infernal and accursed.