6389. 'Is a bony ass' means lowest-ranking service. This is clear from the meaning of 'an ass' as service, dealt with in 5958, 5959; and from the meaning of 'bone' as that which possesses little spiritual life, dealt with in 5560, 5561. Thus 'a bony ass' is the lowest-ranking service, for people who do good for the sake of recompense do, it is true, perform useful services and act as servants; nevertheless they belong among those in the Lord's kingdom who occupy the lowest position. For the good that is communicated to them they pass on to none but those who can repay them. They overlook all others who may be in the greatest need; or if they do help them out it is to the end that the Lord may recompense them. They look on what they do as that which earns them merit and so on the Lord's mercy as their due. Thus they depart from a state of humility, and to the extent that they depart from it they depart from a state in which blessing and happiness are received from the Lord through heaven. From all this it may be seen that in the next life such people are, it is true, engaged in the performance of useful services; but they are the lowest ranking servants.

3318. 'And he was weary' means a state of conflict. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'weary' or weariness as the state following conflict. Here however, because the subject is a state of conflict in which good and truth within the natural man are joined together, the state of conflict itself is meant. As regards 'weary' here meaning a state of conflict, this is not apparent except from the train of thought in the internal sense, and in particular from the fact that without conflicts, or what amounts to the same, without temptations, good is unable to be joined to truth in the natural man.

[2] So that the nature of this state may be known - though only as man experiences it - let a brief statement be made regarding it. Man is nothing other than an organ or vessel which receives life from the Lord, for man does not live of himself, 290, 1954, 2021, 2536, 2706, 2886-2889, 3001. The life flowing in with man from the Lord comes from His Divine Love. This Love, that is, the life from it, flows in and applies itself to the vessels that are in man's rational and that are in his natural. On account of the hereditary evil into which man is born, and on account of the evil of his own doing which man acquires to himself, these vessels with him are set the wrong way round for receiving that life. But insofar as it is possible for this inflowing life to do so, it resets those vessels to receive it. These vessels within the rational man and within his natural are such as are called truths. In themselves they are nothing else than perceptions of the variations in form possessed by those vessels and of the changes of state which in different ways give rise to those variations, which are produced in the most delicate of organic substances, and in ways that defy description, 2487. Good itself, which possesses life from the Lord, that is, which is life, is that which flows in and resets them.

[3] When therefore those vessels, varying in the forms they take, are set and turned, as has been stated, the wrong way round for inflowing life, they clearly have to be re-positioned to receive that life, that is, to be controlled by it. This cannot possibly be effected as long as the person remains in that condition into which he was born or which he has brought upon himself. Indeed at that time they are unsubmissive because they resolutely withstand and harden themselves against the heavenly order governing the way that life acts. Indeed the good which moves them, and to which they are subservient, is that which stems from self-love and love of the world. From the dull warmth it contains that good makes these vessels what they are. Consequently before they can be made submissive and capable of receiving any of the life that belongs to the Lord's love, they have to be softened. The only ways that such softening can be achieved is by temptations, for temptations take away the things that constitute self-love and contempt for others in comparison with oneself, consequently that constitute self-glory, and also hatred and revenge on account of that. When therefore they have to some extent been subdued and mellowed by means of temptations those vessels start to become yielding and compliant to the life which belongs to the Lord's love and which is constantly flowing in with man.

[4] From this point onwards good, first of all in the rational man and then in the natural, starts to be joined to the truths there, for as has been stated, truths are nothing else than perceptions of the variations in form which are determined by the states that are changing all the time - those perceptions being a product of the life that is flowing in. This is the reason why a person is regenerated, that is, is made new, by means of temptations, or what amounts to the same, by means of spiritual conflicts, and after that receives an inward disposition different from before, that is to say, becomes gentle, humble, single-minded, and contrite at heart. From these considerations one may now see the use served by temptations, which is that good from the Lord may not only flow in but also render the vessels subservient and so join itself to them. For truths are the recipient vessels of good, see 1496, 1832, 1900, 2063, 2261, 2269. Here therefore, since the subject is the joining together of good and truth in the natural man, and since the first stage of that conjunction comes about through the conflicts brought about by temptations, 'he was weary' clearly means a state of conflict.

[5] As for the Lord however, who is the subject here in the highest sense, He so imposed Divine order on everything within Himself by means of the very severe conflicts that went with temptations that nothing remained of the human He had derived from the mother, 1444, 1573, 2159, 2574, 2649, 3036, so that He was not made new as any other human being but was made altogether Divine. For man, who is made new through regeneration, nevertheless retains within himself the inclination towards evil; indeed he retains the evil itself but is withheld from it by the influx of the life that is the life of the Lord's love, and by an extremely powerful force. But the Lord cast out completely everything evil that was His by heredity from the mother and made Himself Divine, doing so even as to the vessels, that is, as to the truths. This is what in the Word is called Glorification.