10049. And shalt wash its intestines. That this signifies the purification of the lowest things, is evident from the signification of "washing," as being to purify (see n. 3147, 5954, 9089); the purification that was represented by washing is purification from evils and falsities, for these are impurities in the spiritual sense; and from the signification of the "intestines," as being the lowest things (see above, n. 10030). It is said that the intestines and the legs were to be washed, because by them are signified lowest and natural things, and lowest or natural things are more defiled with evils and falsities than the interior ones; for those evils and falsities are in the world, and sensuous things, which are lowest, stand forth in the world, and therefore immediately receive what is in the world. The things which they receive are the delights of the loves of self and of the world, together with the delights of the senses and their fallacies. But the interior things are not so, for these are not in the world, but in heaven, and the things which are of the world cannot enter into those which are of heaven, physical influx being impossible; whereas the things of heaven can enter into those which are of the world with man.
Therefore as soon as the external man seeks to enter into the internal, which is done by means of reasonings from the loves of self and of the world, and from the fallacies of the senses, the internal man is closed. Thus does the Lord provide; and therefore the purification of the internal man during man's regeneration is effected in heaven by the Lord. Consequently, while a man is in the world he does not perceive what is being accomplished in his internal man during regeneration. This is what is meant by the words of the Lord in John:
The spirit bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the spirit (John 3:8);
"the spirit" denotes the life of charity through faith.