1050. And every living soul of all flesh. That this signifies the whole human race, is evident from the signification of “living soul of all flesh.” Every man is called a living soul from what is living in him. No man can ever live, still less as a man, if he has not something living in him, that is, if he has not something of innocence, of charity, and of mercy, or something from it like or emulating it. This something of innocence, charity, and mercy man receives from the Lord during infancy and childhood, as is evident from the state of infants and also from that of childhood. What the man then receives is preserved in him, and the things that are preserved are called in the Word “remains” and are of the Lord alone in the man. What is thus preserved is what causes the man, when he comes to adult age, to be capable of being a man. (Concerning remains see what is said above, n. 468, 530, 560-563, 576)

[2] That the states of innocence, charity, and mercy which a man has had in infancy and during the years of childhood, cause him to be capable of being a man, is plainly evident from this, that man is not born into any exercise of life, as brute animals are, but has everything to learn, and what he learns becomes by exercise habitual, and thus as it were natural to him. He cannot even walk or speak until he learns, and so with everything else. By use these things become as it were natural to him. And such is the case also with the states of innocence, charity, and mercy with which he is in like manner imbued from infancy, and without which states he would be much viler than a brute. Yet these are states which man does not learn, but receives as a gift from the Lord, and which the Lord preserves in him. Together with the truths of faith, they are also what are called “remains” and are of the Lord alone. Insofar as a man in adult age extinguishes these states, he becomes dead. When a man is being regenerated, these states are the beginnings of regeneration, and he is led into them; for the Lord works through the remains, as already stated.

[3] These remains with every man are what are here called the “living soul of all flesh.” That “all flesh” signifies every man, and thus the whole human race, is evident from the signification of “flesh” everywhere in the Word. (See what was shown in n. 574.)

As in Matthew:

Except those days should be shortened, no flesh would be saved (Matthew 24:22; Mark 13:20).

In John:

Jesus said, Father glorify Thy Son, as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh (John 17:2).

In Isaiah:

And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together (Isaiah 40:5).

And again:

And all flesh shall know that I Jehovah am thy Savior (Isaiah 49:26).

574. That “flesh” signifies that man had become corporeal, appears from the signification of “flesh” in the Word, where it is used to signify both every man in general, and also, specifically, the corporeal man. It is used to signify every man, in Joel:

I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy (Joel 2:28),

where “flesh” signifies man, and “spirit” the influx of truth and good from the Lord.

In David:

Thou that hearest prayers, unto Thee shall all flesh come (Psalms 65:2),where “flesh” denotes every man.

In Jeremiah:

Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm (Jeremiah 17:5),

where “flesh” signifies man, and “arm” power.

In Ezekiel:

That all flesh may know (Ezekiel 21:4-5).

In Zechariah:

Be silent, all flesh, before Jehovah (Zechariah 2:13),

where “flesh” denotes every man.

[2] That it signifies specifically the corporeal man, is evident from Isaiah:

The Egyptian is man and not God, and his horses are flesh and not spirit (Isaiah 31:3),

signifying that their memory-knowledge [scientificum] is corporeal; “horses” here and elsewhere in the Word denoting the rational.

Again:

He shall withdraw to the right hand, and shall be hungry; and he shall devour on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat everyone the flesh of his own arm (Isaiah 9:20),

signifying such things as are man’s own, which are all corporeal. In the same:

He shall consume from the soul, and even the flesh (Isaiah 10:18),

where “flesh” signifies corporeal things.

Again:

The glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; the voice said, Cry; and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass (Isaiah 40:5-6),

“flesh” here signifies every man who is corporeal.

[3] In the same:

In fire will Jehovah dispute, and with His sword with all flesh, and the slain of Jehovah shall be multiplied (Isaiah 66:16),

where “fire” signifies the punishment of cupidities; the “sword” the punishment of falsities; and “flesh” the corporeal things of man.

In David:

God remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away, and cometh not again (Psalms 78:39),

speaking of the people in the wilderness desiring flesh, because they were corporeal; their desiring flesh represented that they desired only things corporeal (Numbers 11:32-33, 34).