6804. 'And God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob' means on account of being joined to the Church through the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'the covenant' as a joining together, dealt with below; and from the representation of 'Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob', with whom a covenant had been made, as the Lord's Divine Human. 'Abraham' represents the Lord in respect of the Divine itself, 'Isaac' in respect of the Divine Rational, and 'Jacob' in respect of the Divine Natural, see 1893, 2011, 2066, 2072, 2083, 2630, 3194, 3210, 3245, 3251, 3305 (end), 3439, 4538, 4570, 4615, 6098, 6185, 6276, 6425. When Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned in the Word those patriarchs are not meant in the spiritual sense, as may be recognized from the consideration that names never pass through into heaven. Only what is really meant by the people who are referred to - real things, the essential nature of real things, and the states of real things, that is to say, aspects of the Church, of the Lord's kingdom, and of the Lord Himself - passes through.

[2] But in addition to this the angels in heaven never fix their thoughts on specific persons; that would restrict their thoughts and remove them from that all-inclusive perception of real things that lies behind angelic speech. This explains why the things that the angels in heaven say are indescribable, far surpassing human thought, whose range does not extend to seeing things in their totality but is restricted to particular aspects. When one reads therefore in Matthew 8:11 that many will come from the east and the west and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, the angels perceive the Lord's presence and the way people make the truth and goodness emanating from His Divine Human their own. Also when one reads in Luke 16:22 that Lazarus was carried into Abraham's bosom, the angels perceive that he was carried into heaven, where the Lord is present. This too goes to show that 'a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob' means in the internal sense being joined through the Lord's Divine Human.

[3] The fact that the Divine Human is 'a covenant', that is, the actual joining together, may be seen from many places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

I will give You as a covenant of the people', a light of the nations. Isaiah 42:6.

In the same prophet,

I have given You as a covenant of the people, ¹ to restore the land, to share out the devastated inheritances. Isaiah 49:8.

In the same prophet,

Incline your ear and come to Me; hear, and let your soul live. So will I make with you an eternal covenant, even the sure mercies of David. Lo, I have given Him as a witness to the peoples, a prince and lawgiver to the peoples. ² Isaiah 55:3-4.

In Malachi,

Suddenly there comes to His temple the Lord whom you seek, and the angel of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming. Malachi 3:1

In the second Book of Samuel,

He has established an eternal covenant for Me, to be set in order for all and to be kept safe. 2 Samuel 23:5.

[4] These places plainly refer to the Lord and to the joining of the human race to the Lord's Divine Being itself through His Divine Human. In respect of His Divine Human the Lord is the Mediator, and no one can come to the Divine Being itself within the Lord, called the Father, except through the Son, that is, the Divine Human, as is well known in the Church. Thus the Lord in respect of His Divine Human is the actual joining together. Can anyone in his thought begin to comprehend the Divine Being itself? And if he cannot do this in thought how can he be joined to the Divine itself in love? But the Divine Human anyone can comprehend in thought and be joined to in love.

[5] The meaning of 'a covenant' as a joining together may be seen in the fact that covenants between countries join them together. They are bargains made by both parties which must be kept if their alliance is to remain intact. These bargains or agreements are also called a covenant. On man's side the bargains or agreements that are called 'a covenant' in the Word are in a restricted sense the ten commandments or the Decalogue. In a wider sense they are all the statutes, orders, laws, testimonies, and commandments that the Lord decreed from Mount Sinai through Moses; and in an even wider sense they are the Books of Moses. The contents of these books were what the children of Israel were required on their side to carry out. On the Lord's side it is mercy and election.

[6] The ten commandments or the Decalogue are a covenant.

This is clear from the following places: In Moses,

Jehovah declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the ten words which He wrote on two tablets of stone. Deuteronomy 4:13, 23.

And since the two tablets of stone on which the ten commandments had been written were placed in the ark, Exodus 25:16, 21, 22, 31:18; 32:15, 16, 19; 40:20, the ark was called the ark of the covenant, Deuteronomy 31:9, 24-26; Joshua 3:3, 6, 14; 4:7; Judges 20:27; 2 Samuel 15:24; 1 Kings 8:21. In the last of these references Solomon says,

I have made a place there for the ark, where there is the covenant of Jehovah which He made with our fathers.

And in John,

The temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. Revelation 11:19.

[7] All the judgements and statutes which the Lord commanded the people of Israel through Moses are called a covenant; so too are the actual Books of Moses. In Moses,

According to the tenor ³ of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. Exodus 34:27.

What are called a covenant here were many regulations regarding sacrifices, feasts, and unleavened bread. In the same author,

Moses took the book of the covenant, and read it in the ears of the people, who said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do and hear. Exodus 24:7-8.

In the second Book of Kings,

Josiah the king of Judah read before them all in the house of Jehovah the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of Jehovah. And he made a covenant before Jehovah, to establish the words of the covenant that were written in that book. And all the people took a stand on the covenant. The king commanded all the people to keep the Passover to Jehovah their God, in accordance with what was written in the book of the covenant. 2 Kings 23:2-3, 21.

In David,

If your sons keep My covenant and My testimony which I have taught them, their sons also will sit even forever on your throne. Psalms 132:12.

[8] A covenant is a joining together through love and faith.

In Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming, said Jehovah, in which I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers, for they made My covenant invalid. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will put My law in the midst of them, and will write it on their heart, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Jeremiah 31:31-33.

'Putting the law in their midst, and writing it on their heart' is endowing with faith and charity, faith and charity being the means by which the joining together described by 'I will be their God, and they will be My people' is effected. In the same prophet,

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not any more turn away from them, and I will do good to them. But I will put My fear into their heart so that they do not depart from Me. Jeremiah 32:40.

A joining together through love, which is a covenant, is meant by 'I will put My fear into their heart so that they do not depart from Me'.

[9] In Ezekiel,

I will make with them a covenant of peace; it will be an eternal covenant with them. And I will bless ⁴ them and will multiply them, and I will set a sanctuary in their midst, and it will be My dwelling-place among them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Ezekiel 37:26-27.

Here a joining together through love and faith, which are a covenant, is described by 'a sanctuary in their midst' and 'dwelling-place among them', and by 'I will be their God, and they will be My people'. In the same prophet,

When I passed by you and saw you, behold, it was your time, the time of love; ⁵ and I entered into a covenant with you, so that you would be Mine. Ezekiel 16:8.

This refers to Jerusalem, by which the Ancient Church is meant, 'entering into a covenant, so that you would be Mine' plainly being a marriage or spiritual joining together. Since 'a covenant' means a joining together a wife is also called in Malachi 2:14 the wife of a covenant, while a joining together that exists among brothers is called in Amos 1:9 a covenant of brothers. 'A covenant' is also used in David to mean a joining together,

I have made a covenant with My chosen one, I have sworn to David My servant. Psalms 89:3.

[10] The agreement in a covenant on the Lord's side is mercy and election. This is clear in David,

All the ways of Jehovah are mercy and truth to those keeping His covenant and His testimonies. Psalms 25:10.

In Isaiah,

The mountains will depart and the hills be removed, but My mercy will not depart from you, nor the covenant of My peace be removed, said Jehovah, who has mercy on you. Isaiah 54:10.

In Moses,

Jehovah your God, He is God, the faithful God keeping covenant and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to the thousandth generation. Deuteronomy 7:9, 11.

In the same author,

If you keep My covenant, you will be to Me a peculiar treasure from among all peoples. Exodus 19:5.

In the same author,

I will have regard for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and confirm My covenant with you. Leviticus 26:9.

'Having regard for them' is viewing with mercy. 'Making them fruitful and multiplying them' is endowing with charity and faith, and those endowed with them are called 'the elect'. Thus the words used here have to do with election and so do those which say that they will be 'a peculiar treasure'.

[11] In the representative Church they also had signs of the covenant. These served to remind people of the joining together. Circumcision was one such sign, Genesis 17:11; for circumcision was a sign meaning purification from filthy loves. After these loves are removed, heavenly love is introduced, through which a joining together is effected. The sabbath too is called an eternal covenant, Exodus 31:16; and of the loaves of the presence it is said that to the children of Israel they should be for an eternal covenant, Leviticus 24:8-9. Blood in particular was a sign, as is clear in Moses,

Moses took the book of the covenant, and read it in the ears of the people, who said, All that Jehovah has spoken we will do and hear. Then Moses took the blood of the sacrifice of a peace-offering and sprinkled it over the people, and said, Behold, the blood of the covenant which Jehovah has made with you, upon all these words. Exodus 24:7-8.

In Zechariah,

Through the blood of your covenant I will let out the bound ones from the pit in which there is no water. Zechariah 9:11.

'The blood' was the covenant or sign of the covenant because it meant a joining together through spiritual love, that is, through charity towards the neighbour. This was why, when the Lord instituted the Holy Supper, He called His blood 'the blood of the new covenant', Matthew 26:28. From all this one may now see what 'the covenant' is used to mean in the internal sense of the Word.

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182. (Verse 1) And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write. That this signifies those whose life is moral, but not spiritual, because they make light of the knowledges (cognitiones) of spiritual things, and thence of wisdom and intelligence, is evident from what is written to the angel of this church, viewed in the internal or spiritual sense; from which it is evident that the subject here treated of is those whose life is such because they make light of the knowledges (cognitiones) of spiritual things, and thence of intelligence and wisdom. But before unfolding the spiritual sense of the things that follow, it must be explained and shown what moral life and spiritual life are, also what moral from spiritual life is, and what moral life without spiritual.

[2] Moral life is to act well, sincerely, and justly, in the discharge of the various duties and occupations of life; in a word, it is the life which is seen by men, because lived amongst them. But this life has a two-fold origin, either the love of self and of the world, or love to God and love towards the neighbour. Moral life from the love of self and the world is not in itself moral life, although it appears to be such; for such a man acts well, sincerely and justly for the sake of himself and the world only, and to him, what is good, sincere and just, serve but as means to an end, that is, either that he may be raised above others and rule over them, or that he may gain wealth. He thinks in this way in his spirit, or when he is by himself in private; but he dare not openly avow what he thus thinks, because it would destroy the esteem which others have of him, and thus annul the means by which he desires to attain his ends.

From these considerations it is evident, that in the moral life of such a man there lurks nothing else but the desire of obtaining all things in preference to others, thus a desire that all others may serve him, or that he may possess their goods: it is evident from this that his moral life is not moral in itself; for if he obtained what he aimed at, he would enslave others and deprive them of their goods. And because all means savour of the end, and are, in their essence, such as are their ends, on which account they are also called intermediate ends, therefore such a life, regarded in itself, is nothing but craftiness and fraud. And this is clearly evident when those external bonds that unite society are loosened, as is the case with persons of this description when they are engaged in law-suits against their fellow citizens; they then desire nothing more than to pervert right, and to gain the favour of the judge or the grace of the king, and this secretly, in order that they may deprive others of their possessions; and when they succeed they are filled with inward delight. The same is still more evident in the conduct of kings who regard honour in wars and victories, the chief delight of their hearts being to subjugate provinces and kingdoms, and, where resistance is made, to despoil the subjugated of all their goods, and also of their life; this, in most instances, is the delight of those who go out to war.

The nature of the moral life treated of above is still more manifest in all such persons when they become spirits, which takes place immediately after the death of the body, when, because they think and act from their spirit, they rush into every kind of wickedness according to their love, however morally they may, in appearance, have lived in the world.

[3] But spiritual life is altogether of another quality, because it has a different origin, for it springs from love to God and love towards the neighbour; and therefore the moral life of those who are spiritual is also different, and is truly moral; for these, when they think in their spirit, which is the case when they are in private, do not think from self and the world but from the Lord and heaven; for the interiors of their mind, that is, of their thought and will, are actually raised up by the Lord into heaven, and are there conjoined to Him; thus the Lord flows-in into their thoughts, intentions and ends, and rules them, and withdraws them from their proprium, which is entirely derived from the love of self and of the world. The moral life of such persons is, in appearance, similar to that of those mentioned above, but still it is spiritual, for it has a spiritual origin, being only the effect of spiritual life, which is the efficient cause, and thus the origin of it; for they act well, sincerely and justly towards their fellow citizens from the fear of God and the love of the neighbour, in which the Lord keeps their minds and spirits; when, therefore, they become spirits, as is the case when their bodies die, they think and act intelligently and wisely, and are raised up into heaven. Of these it may be said, that all the good of love and all the truth of faith flow into them out of heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord; but this cannot be said of those of whom we have spoken above, for their good is not the good of heaven, nor is their truth the truth of heaven, but it is the delight of the lusts of the flesh which they call good, and the falsity therefrom which they call truth, which flow into them from self and from the world. From these considerations the nature of moral life from spiritual life, and of moral life without spiritual can be known, that is, that moral life from spiritual life is truly moral life, which may be said to be spiritual, because its cause and origin is therefrom; but that moral life without spiritual life is not moral life, and may be said to be infernal, for so far as the love of self and of the world reigns in it, so far it is fraudulent and hypocritical.

[4] From what has been now said, a conclusion may be formed as to what the quality of a holy external is, by which is meant worship in churches, prayers and the gestures at the time, among those who are in the love of self and of the world, and yet apparently lead a moral life, namely, that nothing of those things is raised up to heaven and heard there, but that they flow forth from some thought of the external or natural man, and thus from their mouth into the world; for the interior thoughts of their spirit are full of craftiness and fraud against their neighbour, and yet elevation into heaven is always effected by means of the interiors. And moreover their worship in churches, and their prayers and gestures at such time, are either from habit and familiarity from infancy, or from a belief that such external things are all that is necessary to salvation, or from there being nothing for them to do on the feast days at home or out of doors, or from the fear of being thought by their fellows to be wanting in piety.

But the worship of those who live a moral life from a spiritual origin is altogether different, for it is truly the worship of God, because their prayers are raised up to heaven, and are there heard, for the Lord receives their prayers through heaven. (More may be seen upon these subjects in the work, Heaven and Hell 468, 484, 529, 530-534; and in the explanation above, n. 107.) These things are here premised, because the subject treated of in what is written to the angel of this church is those whose life is moral but not spiritual, because they lightly esteem the knowledges (cognitiones) of spiritual things.