purification from
evils; by "washing head and hands" purifying the internal man is meant,
and by "washing the feet" purifying the external. That when the internal
man has been purified, the external must be, is meant by this: "He who
has been washed has no need except to have his feet washed." That all
purification from evils is the Lord's doing, is meant by this, "If I do
not wash you, you have no part with Me." We have shown in many places in
_Arcana Caelestia_ that with the Jews washing represented purification
from evils, that this is signified by "washing" in the Word, and that
purification of the natural or external man is signified by the "washing
of feet."

152. Since man has an internal and an external and each must be reformed
for the man to be reformed, and since no one can be reformed unless he
examines himself, sees and admits his evils, and then quits them, not
only the external is to be examined, but the internal as well. If a man
examines only the external he sees only what he has committed to deed,
and that he has not murdered or committed adultery or stolen or borne
false witness, and so on. He examines bodily evils and not those in his
spirit; yet evils of the spirit are to be examined if one is to be
capable of reformation. Man lives as a spirit after death and all the
evils in his spirit persist. The spirit is examined only when a man
attends to his thoughts, above all to his intentions, for these are
thoughts from the will. There the evils exist at their source and roots,
that is, in their lusts and enjoyments. Unless they are seen and
acknowledged, a man is still in evils though he may not have committed
them outwardly. That to think with intention is to will and do, is plain
from the Lord's words:

If any one has looked on another's woman to lust after her, he has
already committed adultery with her in his heart (Mt 5:28).*

* See footnote at n. 111.

Such self-examination is of the internal man, and from it the external
man is truly examined.

153. I have often marveled that although all Christendom knows that evils
must be shunned as sins and otherwise are not forgiven, and that if they
are not forgiven there is no salvation, yet scarcely one person among
thousands understands this. Inquiry was made about this in the spiritual
world, and it was found to be so. Anyone in Christendom knows it from the
exhortations, read out to those who attend the Holy Supper, in which it
is publicly state