2632. 'Abraham circumcised his son Isaac' means purification of the rational. This is clear from the meaning of 'being circumcised' as being purified, dealt with in 2039, and from the representation of 'Isaac' as the Divine Rational, dealt with in 2630.

[2] The Lord's first rational was born in the way it is with others, that is to say, by means of facts and cognitions. This has been stated already where Ishmael, who represents that rational, is the subject. Because it was born, as with others, by means of facts and cognitions, thus by the external way, which is that of the senses, this rational inevitably included many things that were worldly in origin, for it is from those things that the ideas which the rational possesses are acquired. This was even more so the case with the Lord on account of the heredity He had from the mother. It was those worldly things and this heredity which the Lord gradually cast out of His rational until it was such that it was able to receive the Divine, 2624, 2625. At this point the Lord's Divine Rational, represented by 'Isaac', was born, 2630, not indeed by the external way, which is that of the senses - as was the case with the previous rational - but by the internal way from the Divine itself, 2628, 2629. As this was not accomplished all at once but gradually, 1690, 2033, the rational was purified, and constantly so. It is this purification that is meant by 'Abraham circumcised his son, a son eight days old'. That the Lord gradually made His Rational Divine and purified it constantly is clear also in John,

Jesus said, Father, glorify Your name. A voice therefore came from heaven, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. John 12:28.

'Glorifying' is making Divine, see 1603, 1999.

[3] In the Ancient Church nothing else was represented and meant by circumcision than that a person should be purified from self-love and love of the world, which is also effected gradually and constantly, see 2039, 2046 (end), 2049, 2056, especially when a person has been born anew or regenerated. For at that time the Lord is flowing in by the internal way, that is, through the good that forms part of conscience; and He gradually and constantly separates the things which cling to that person both as a result of hereditary evil and of the evil of his own doing.

1940. That 'I will multiply your seed greatly' means the fruitfulness of the rational man when it submits itself to the controlling power of the interior man allied to good is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as love and faith, dealt with already in 1025, 1447, 1610. Here however 'multiplying seed' means the fruitfulness within the rational of the celestial things of love when the rational has submitted itself to truth that is interior or Divine. 'Being multiplied' has reference to truths but 'being fruitful' to goods, as is clear from what has been stated and shown already in 43, 55, 913, 983. But as the subject is the Lord, 'being multiplied' means being fruitful for the reason that all truth within His Rational became good and so Divine; and this is what is being referred to here. In man's case it is different - his rational is formed by the Lord from truth or the affection for truth. This affection is in him good from which he acts.

[2] As regards multiplication and fruitfulness within man's rational, this cannot be understood unless one knows about influx, regarding which the following may be said of it in general: Within everybody, as stated already, there is the internal man, the rational man, which is in the middle, and the external man. The internal man is the inmost part of him by virtue of which he is a human being and which makes him distinct and separate from animals, which do not possess that inmost part. The internal man is so to speak the door or entrance for the Lord, that is, for celestial and spiritual things that are the Lord's, to come into a person. What goes on there the individual cannot comprehend since it is entirely above his rational from which he thinks. To this inmost or internal man the rational which appears as the person's own is subordinate. Into this rational by way of that internal man flow heavenly things of love and faith from the Lord; and by way of this rational they flow on into the facts that belong to the external man. But how these things flowing in are received depends on the individual person's state.

[3] Unless the rational is submissive to goods and truths that are the Lord's this rational either stifles, or rejects, or perverts the things that flow in, the more so when they flow into facts in the memory that are derived from sensory evidence. These things when so received are meant by the seed that falls either on the pathway, or over stony ground, or among thorns, as the Lord teaches in Matthew 13:3-7; Mark 4:3-7; Luke 8:5-7. But when the rational is submissive and believes the Lord, that is, His Word, the rational is like the ground or good soil into which the seed falls and bears much fruit.