7233. This is the Aaron and Moses. That this signifies that from them is doctrine and the law Divine with that church, is evident from the representation of Aaron, as being the doctrine of the church (see n. 6998, 7009, 7089); and from the representation of Moses, as being the law Divine (see n. 6723, 6752). These, namely, the law Divine and doctrine, with those of the spiritual church, arise chiefly from the Word, but still with reference to the faith and charity that had existed with its founders. It is said “from them,” but it is not meant from Aaron and Moses, but from the charity and faith which are represented by Levi, Simeon, and Reuben (of whom just above).

[2] In respect to this matter, be it known further that the doctrine of the spiritual church is not that of truth Divine itself, because those who are of the spiritual church have no perception of truth Divine, as have those who are of the celestial church; but instead of this perception they have conscience, which is formed from the truth and good which they have acknowledged within their own church, of whatever kind these may be. (That those who are of the spiritual church are relatively in obscurity in respect to the truths of faith, see n. 86, 2708, 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 3833, 6289, 6500, 6865, 6945.) Hence it is that everyone within the spiritual church acknowledges as the truth of faith that which its founders have dictated, nor do they search further from the Word whether it be the very truth; and moreover if they did search they would not find it unless they had been regenerated and at the same time enlightened in an especial manner; and this for the reason that their intellectual can indeed be enlightened, but the new will cannot be affected with any other good than that which has been formed by means of conjunction with the truth received within the church. For their own will has been destroyed, and a new will has been formed in the intellectual part (see n. 863, 875, 1023, 1043, 1044, 1555, 2256, 4328, 5113); and when their own will has been separated from the new will which is in the intellectual part, the light in this is feeble, such as is the nocturnal light from the moon and stars compared with the diurnal light from the sun. Hence also it is that by the “moon” in the Word, in the internal sense, is meant the good of spiritual love, and by the “sun” the good of celestial love (n. 30-38, 1529-1531, 2495, 4060).

[3] The case being so with the spiritual church, it is not to be wondered at that with most persons faith is the essential of the church, and not charity, and also that they have no doctrine of charity. Their doctrinal things being from the Word does not make them Divine truths, for from the sense of the letter of the Word any doctrinal thing whatever can be hatched, and that which favors the concupiscences can be readily learned; thus also what is false can be taken for what is true, as is the case with the doctrinal things of the Jews, of the Socinians, and of many others; but not so if doctrine is formed from the internal sense. The internal sense is not only that sense which lies concealed in the external sense, as has heretofore been shown, but is also that which results from a number of passages of the sense of the letter rightly collated, and which is discerned by those who are enlightened by the Lord in respect to their intellectual. For the enlightened intellectual discriminates between apparent truths and real truths, especially between falsities and truths, although it does not judge about real truths in themselves. But the intellectual cannot be enlightened unless it is believed that love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor are the principal and essential things of the church. He who proceeds from the acknowledgment of these, provided he himself is in them, sees innumerable truths; nay, he sees very many secrets disclosed to him, and this from interior acknowledgment, according to the degree of the enlightenment from the Lord.

1023. And I, behold, I establish My covenant. That this signifies the presence of the Lord in charity, is evident from the signification of “covenant” as shown above n. 666), where it was shown that a “covenant” signifies regeneration, and indeed the conjunction of the Lord with the regenerate man by love; and that the heavenly marriage is that veriest covenant itself, and consequently so is the heavenly marriage with every regenerate man. This marriage or covenant has been treated of before. With the man of the Most Ancient Church the heavenly marriage was in the Own of his will part, but with the man of the Ancient Church the heavenly marriage was effected in the Own of his intellectual part. For when man’s will part had become wholly corrupt, the Lord miraculously separated the Own of his intellectual part from that corrupt Own of his will part, and in the Own of his intellectual part He formed a new will, which is conscience, and into the conscience insinuated charity, and into the charity innocence, and thus conjoined Himself with man, or what is the same, made a covenant with him. So far as the Own of man’s will part can be separated from this Own of the intellectual part, the Lord can be present with him, or conjoin Himself, or enter into a covenant with him. Temptations and the like means of regeneration cause the Own of man’s will part to be quiescent, to become as nothing, and as it were to die. So far as this is done the Lord through conscience implanted in the Own of man’s intellectual part can work in charity. And this is what is here called a “covenant.”