5058. There was another spirit who in the world had been one of the quite distinguished. I had been acquainted with him then, though not with what he was like inwardly. In the next life however, after his state of life underwent a number of changes, he was shown to be deceitful. Having been some while among deceitful ones in the next life and having suffered severely there, he wished to be parted from them. I heard him saying at this time that he wished to enter heaven, for he too had believed that acceptance there was attributable to mercy alone. But he was told that if he entered heaven he would not be able to remain there and that he would suffer torment like those in the world experiencing death-throes. But in spite of being told this he persisted with his desire. He was allowed into a community where some of the simple good dwelt, in front overhead. But once he entered that community he began, in keeping with the life he had led, to act cunningly and deceitfully. Soon after this the simple good there started to complain that he was taking away their perception of what was good and true and consequently their delight, and that he was destroying their state as he did so. At that point some light from a more internal heaven was let in. In that light he looked like a devil, with the upper part of his nose horribly disfigured from some dreadful wound; and he also began to suffer torment within himself. Having experienced that torment he thrust himself away from there into hell. From this it is evident that what leads to heaven is not election and acceptance attributable to mercy, but a person's life. Yet every aspect of a life consisting of goodness and every aspect of a faith composed of truth is, so far as those in the world who are recipients of mercy are concerned, attributable to mercy. To them being accepted into heaven is an act of mercy, and these are the ones who are called the elect, 3755 (end), 3900.

7045. 'And cut off the foreskin of her son' means the removal of filthy kinds of love, as a result of which the internal is laid bare. This is clear from the meaning of 'cutting off' as removing; from the meaning of 'the foreskin' as earthly and bodily love which defiles spiritual and celestial love, dealt with in 3412, 4462; and from the meaning of 'son' as the truth which the representative Church possesses. For the meaning of 'son' as truth, see 489, 491, 533, 1147, 2623, 3773; and the reason why the truth which that Church possesses is meant here is that 'Zipporah' represents that Church and calls him 'her son'. She also uses him to show the actual nature of that nation and consequently the actual nature of its worship. 'The foreskin' means filthy kinds of love for the following reason: The loins and genital organs correspond to conjugial love, 5050-5062; and since they correspond to conjugial love they also correspond to every kind of celestial and spiritual love, 686, 4277, 4280, 5054. The foreskin therefore corresponds to the kinds of love that are very much external, which are called bodily and earthly loves. If these loves are devoid of the internal kinds of love that are called spiritual and celestial loves, they are filthy, as they were with that nation which had externals without an internal. The words 'without an internal' are used, and by this is meant no acknowledgement of truth and no affection for good, thus no faith and no charity; for these are qualities that belong to the internal man and from them spring ways of exercising charity, which are external forms of good. The Lord speaks of that internal, when it is devoid of faith and charity and yet full of evils and falsities, as that which is 'empty', in Matthew 12:43-45. This is what 'external without an internal' serves to describe. So then 'the foreskin' means the kinds of love that are very much external; therefore when those kinds of love have been removed, meant by Zipporah's cutting off the foreskin, the actual nature of them is seen, and the internal is accordingly laid bare.