9215. It is his garment for his skin. That this signifies that they also clothe exterior things, is evident from the signification of a “garment,” as being the sensuous in general, or the things of sense, as above; and from the signification of the “skin,” as being what is exterior, which also clothes interior things, but still within the sensuous. (The signification of “the skin,” and who in the other life correspond to the skin, may be seen above, n. 3540, 5552-5559, 8977, 8980.) The natural of man is interior, exterior or middle, and outermost. The interior natural communicates with heaven; the middle or exterior natural communicates on the one side with the interior, and through it with heaven, and on the other with the outermost, and through it with the world (n. 4009, 4570, 5118, 5126, 5497, 5649, 5707). The outermost natural is the sensuous, which is here signified by the “garment.” This receives the objects belonging to the world, and thus is of service to interior things. It is called the “only covering,” because it is the ultimate, and thus is common to all. The exterior or middle natural is what is signified by the “skin.” From this it is evident that by “it is his garment for his skin,” is signified that the sensuous also clothes exterior things. (That the sensuous is the ultimate of man’s life, and thus the general covering, see n. 4009, 5077, 5125, 5128, 5767, 5774, 6201, 6313, 7442, 7693)

7693. In the whole land of Egypt. That this signifies on all sides in the natural, is evident from the signification of “the land of Egypt,” as being the natural mind, thus the natural ((7674) see n. 7674). As by the “locust,” which is the subject here treated of, is signified falsity in the extremes, that is, in the sensuous of man, it must here be told what the sensuous is, so that it may be known what falsity in the extremes is. The sensuous man, or he who thinks and acts from the sensuous, is he who believes nothing except what is obvious to the outward senses, and who is led solely by the bodily appetites, by pleasures, and by concupiscences, and not by reasons, believing those to be reasons which favor such things. Such being the sensuous man, he therefore rejects everything internal, until at last he is not willing even to hear it mentioned; consequently at heart he denies whatever is of heaven; the life after death he certainly does not believe in, because he makes life to consist solely in the body, and therefore he supposes that he himself will die like a beast. He thinks as it were in the surface, that is, in the ultimates or in the extremes, and is quite ignorant of the existence of an interior thought according to the perception of truth and good. The reason why he does not know this, nor even that there is an internal man, is because his interiors look downward to the things of the world, of the body, and of the earth, with which they make a one; consequently they have been removed from looking upward, or to heaven, because they look in the opposite direction. To look upward, or to heaven, is not to think about the things that belong to heaven, but it is to have these things as the end, that is, to love them more than all other things; for a man’s interiors turn to where his love turns, and consequently so does his thought. From all this it can be seen what is the nature of man’s sensuous, that is, of his natural in the extremes; for that man is called sensuous who thinks from what is sensuous.