because it is from hell but good because it is from heaven, he has taken
the first step in reformation and is on the threshold from hell to
heaven. When he advances farther and resolves to desist from evils, he is
at the second step in reformation and is out of hell but not yet in
heaven; this he beholds above him. There must be this internal for man to
be reformed, but he is not reformed unless the external is reformed as
well as the internal. The external is reformed by the internal when the
external desists from the evils which the internal sets its will against
because they are infernal, and still further reformed when the external
shuns and fights against the evils. Thus the internal provides the will,
the external the deed. For unless a man does the deed he wills, inwardly
he does not will it, and finally he wills not to do it.

[2] One can see from these few considerations how the external man is
reformed by the internal. This is also meant by the Lord's words to
Peter:

Jesus said, If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me. Peter said to
Him, not my feet only but my hands and head. Jesus said to him, he who
has been washed has no need except to have his feet washed, and is
entirely clean (Jn 13:8-10).

By "washing" spiritual washing is meant, which is 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