2632. Abraham circumcised Isaac his son. That this signifies the purification of the rational, is evident from the signification of "being circumcised," which is to be purified (see n. 2039); and from the representation of "Isaac," as being the Divine rational (see n. 2630). [2] That the Lord's first rational was born as with others, namely, by means of knowledges [scientifica et cognitiones], has been stated before, where Ishmael was treated of, by whom that rational is represented. As this was born by means of knowledges, thus by the external way, which is that of the senses, and as with others, it could not but have in itself many things from the outward world, for from them are the ideas of the rational procured; and this the more because it had its hereditary from the mother. It was these worldly things and this hereditary which the Lord successively expelled from His rational, and this until it was such as to be able to receive the Divine (n. 2624, 2625). The Lord's Divine rational was then born, which is represented by Isaac (n. 2630); not however by the external way, which is that of the senses, as the former rational was; but by the internal way from the Divine Itself (n. 2628, 2629). As this was not done at once, but successively (n. 1690, 2033), it was purified, and this continually; which is signified by "Abraham's circumcising his son, a son of eight days." That the Lord made His rational Divine by successive steps, and continually purified it, is evident also in John:
Jesus said, Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven: I have both glorified, and will glorify again (John 12:28). That to "glorify" is to make Divine, may be seen above (n. 1603, 1999). [3] In the Ancient Church nothing else was represented and signified by circumcision than that a man should be purified from the loves of self and of the world, and this also by successive steps and continually (see n. 2039, 2046 at the end, 2049, 2056); especially when he has been born a new man, that is, when he has been regenerated; for the Lord then flows in by the internal way, that is, by the good of conscience, and successively and continually separates the things which adhere both from hereditary and from actual evil.
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