AC 4131 - Sweeping; AC 4137 - Washing

AC 4132 [1, 3]

The reason "to sweep" means to prepare and to be filled,
is that nothing else is required of a person
than to sweep the house;
that is, to reject the cupidities of evil
and the derivative persuasions of falsity;
for he is then filled with goods,
because good is continually flowing in from the Lord --
but into "the house," that is, into the person
who is purified from such things as impede the influx,
that is, which reflect, or pervert, or suffocate
the inflowing good.
So it was common with the ancients
to speak of sweeping or cleaning the house,
and of sweeping and preparing the way;
and by sweeping the house was meant
to purify one's self from evils,
and thereby to prepare one's self for goods to enter;
but by sweeping the way
was meant to prepare one's self
so that truths might be received.

In the opposite sense "to sweep the house"
is said also of the person
who deprives himself of all goods and truths,
and thus is filled with evils and falsities . . ..

AC 4137 [1-3, 7]

The unclean things of the natural person
are all those things which are of
the love of self and of the love of the world;
and when these unclean things have been washed away,
then goods and truths flow in,
for it is solely these unclean things
that hinder the influx of good and truth from the Lord.

For good is continually flowing in from the Lord,
but when it comes through
the internal or spiritual person
to his external or natural person,
it is there either perverted, turned back, or suffocated.
But when the things which are of
the love of self and of the love of the world
are removed,
then good is received there and is made fruitful;
for then man practices the works of charity.
This is evident from many considerations;
as when in misfortune, distress, and sickness,
the things that belong to the external or natural person
are merely lulled,
the person immediately begins to think piously
and to will what is good,
and also to practice works of piety insofar as he is able;
but when the state is changed,
there is a change also in all this.

These things were meant by
the washings in the Ancient Church,
and the same were represented in the Jewish Church.
The reason why they were meant in the Ancient Church,
but represented in the Jewish church,
was that the person of the Ancient Church
regarded the rite as a something external in worship,
and did not believe
that he was purified by that washing,
but by the washing away
of the impurities of the natural person,
which as before said are the things
which are of the love of self and of the world.
But the person of the Jewish Church
believed that he was purified by that washing;
neither knowing nor desiring to know
that the purification of the interiors was meant.

. . . unless the things that are of
the love of self and of the world
have been removed,
the internal things
which are of love to the Lord
and toward the neighbor
cannot possibly flow in,
as before said.