6017. 'And the acquisitions they had made in the land of Canaan' means truths acquired from other truths which the Church already possessed. This is clear from the meaning of 'the acquisitions' as truth that has been acquired, dealt with in 4105, and also good that has been acquired, 4391, 4487; and from the meaning of 'the land of Canaan' as the Church, dealt with in 3686, 3705, 4447, 4517, 5136. It follows that the acquisition was made from truths which the Church already possessed, for the reason that when truths are stimulated by good to multiply themselves, they multiply from truths that are already present.

521. 'He was no more for God took him' means that that doctrine reserved for use by descendants. He was no more. As regards Enoch, that which the Most Ancient Church had perceived, as has been stated, was converted by him into doctrine, something that had not been allowed to people of that period. For knowing something from perception is altogether different from learning it from doctrine. People who have perception have no need to learn through the channel of formulated doctrine what they know already. Take, for the sake of illustration, someone who knows already how to think clearly. He has no need to learn rules on how to think. If he did so his ability to think clearly would perish, as happens to people buried in the dust of sheer intellectualism. In the case of people whose knowledge comes from perception, the Lord grants them to know what good and truth are through an internal channel, while those who learn from doctrine are granted it by an external channel, that is, by way of the physical senses. The difference between the two is like that between light and darkness. Furthermore the perceptions of the celestial man lie beyond all description, for they enter into the smallest details and are for ever varied according to states and attendant circumstances. Now as it was foreseen that the perceptivity of the Most Ancient Church would perish, and that subsequently people would learn what truth and good were by means of doctrines, that is, they would come to the light by way of darkness, it is therefore said here that 'God took him', which is to say, He preserved such doctrine for the use of descendants.