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.

5089. 'And they were in custody for days' means that they lay in a state when they were cast aside for a long time. This is clear from the meaning of 'days' as states, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850; so that 'for days' here means lying in a particular state for a long time - in a state when they were cast aside, meant by 'custody', 5083. A more lengthy explanation of the details contained in the internal sense here is not possible because they are not the kind of matters about which any idea can be gained with the help of things in the world, such as details about the celestial-of-the-spiritual man, about this man's state within the natural when the interior natural is being made new, and after that when it has been made new and the exterior natural has been cast aside. But some idea of these matters and others like them can be gained from things in heaven, which is the kind of idea that does not pass into any notion gained from things in the world, except in the case of people who, in their thinking, can be led away from sensory impressions.

[2] Unless a person's thought can be raised above sensory impressions so that these are beheld as existing so to speak beneath him, he cannot possibly discern any interior aspect of the Word, let alone things of heaven such as are totally removed from those of the world, since the senses take hold of them and stifle them. This explains why people who rely on their senses and have focused their attention on known facts rarely understand anything about the things of heaven; for they have immersed their thoughts in the kinds of things that belong to the world, that is, in terms and in definitions formed from these, and so in what the senses perceive, from which they can no longer be raised up and so preserved in a way of looking at things that is higher than the senses. Nor can their thought range freely any longer over the whole field of matters recorded in the memory, selecting those which agree and casting aside those which are contrary, and using those which are in any way appropriate. For their thought is locked up and immersed in terms, as has been stated, and consequently in sensory impressions, so that it cannot look round about. This is the reason why the learned possess less belief than the simple, and also indeed why they possess less discernment in heavenly matters. For the simple can view something from a position that is above mere terms and above known facts, and so above sensory evidence. This the learned cannot do; their viewpoint is based on terms and known facts because their mind is immersed in these. Thus they are bound so to speak in a dungeon or prison.