2051. That 'he must be circumcised' ¹ means that they, namely those inside the Church meant by him 'born in the house' and him 'bought with silver', must completely remove from themselves self-love and love of the world is clear from the representation of 'circumcision' as purification from self-love and love of the world, dealt with above in 2039. Here the requirement for them to be circumcised is repeated in the command 'he must be circumcised ¹ ' which expresses the necessity for them to be purified completely from those loves. And because it means those who are inside the Church no reference is made here to sons who are foreigners, for the latter, as shown above in 2049, mean those outside the Church.

[2] From this repetition of what has been stated in the previous verse concerning those 'born in the house' and those 'bought with silver', anyone may see that there is a Divine arcanum that is not evident from the sense of the letter. The arcanum is that purification from those foul loves is absolutely vital inside the Church, for the reason also that people inside the Church are capable of rendering sacred things unclean, something that those outside the Church, that is, gentiles, cannot do. For this reason those inside the Church stand in greater danger of condemnation. What is more, those inside the Church are capable of formulating and adopting false assumptions that are contrary to truths of faith themselves, whereas those outside the Church cannot do so because they have no knowledge of those truths. Thus those inside the Church are capable of profaning sacred truths, but not those outside. For more on these matters, see Volume One, in 1059, 1327, 1328.

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571. When anyone is such that he immerses the truths of faith in his own insane desires he renders truths unholy and deprives himself of remnants which, though with him still, cannot be brought out. For the instant they are brought out they in turn are rendered unholy by those things which are already profaned. For profanations of the Word create hard skin so to speak which blocks and absorbs into itself the goods and truths constituting remnants. This being so, let man be on his guard against profaning the Word of the Lord in which eternal truths are present that have life within them, though the person who is under the influence of false assumptions does not believe that they are truths.