666. 'A covenant' means nothing other than regeneration and the things that constitute regeneration. This becomes clear from many places in the Word where the Lord Himself is called 'the Covenant', for it is He alone who regenerates, to whom a regenerated person looks, and who is the All in all of love and faith. That the Lord is the Covenant itself is clear in Isaiah,

I Jehovah have called You in righteousness, taking You by the hand and keeping You, and I will give You for a Covenant of the people, a light of the nations. Isaiah 42:6.

Here 'a Covenant' stands for the Lord, and 'the light of the nations' is faith. Similarly in Isaiah 49:6, 8. In Malachi,

Behold, I am sending My angel, and suddenly there will come to His temple the Lord whom you are seeking, and the Angel of the Covenant in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming. Who will endure the day of His coming? Malachi 3:1-2.

Here the Lord is called 'the Angel of the Covenant'. In Exodus 31:16 the Sabbath is called an eternal covenant because it means the Lord Himself. It also means the celestial man who has been regenerated by Him.

[2] The Lord being the Covenant itself, it is clear that what constitutes the covenant is everything that joins a person to the Lord, that is to say, love and faith and the things that belong to love and faith. In fact these are the Lord's and the Lord is within them, and so the Covenant itself exists within these, where they are received. These things do not exist except with someone who has been regenerated, with whom anything at all that is the Regenerator's, or the Lord's, constitutes the covenant, or is the covenant. As in Isaiah,

My mercy will not depart from you, and the covenant of My peace will not be removed. Isaiah 54:10.

Here 'mercy and covenant of peace' means the Lord and things that are the Lord's. In the same prophet,

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

Here 'David' stands for the Lord. 'The eternal covenant' exists in and acts through those qualities that are the Lord's, which are meant by 'coming to Him' and 'hearing so that your soul may live'.

[3] In Jeremiah,

I will give them one heart and one way, to fear Me all their days, for their own good and that of their sons after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear into their heart. Jeremiah 31:39, 40.

This stands for those who are to be regenerated, and also for those things with someone regenerate which are 'one heart and one way', namely charity and faith, which belong to the Lord and so to the covenant. In the same prophet,

Behold, the days are coming, said Jehovah, when 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 rendered 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.

This is an explicit statement of what constitutes the covenant - love and faith in the Lord, which will be present with him who is to be regenerated.

[4] In the same prophet love is called the covenant far the day, and faith the covenant for the night, Jeremiah 33:20. In Ezekiel,

I Jehovah will be their God, and my servant David will be prince in the midst of them; and I will make with them a covenant of peace, and I will banish the evil wild animal from the land, and they will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. Ezekiel 34:24-25.

This clearly refers to regeneration. 'David' stands for the Lord. In the same prophet,

David will be their prince for ever. I will make with them a covenant of peace, it will be an eternal covenant with them. I will set My sanctuary in their midst for evermore. Ezekiel 37:25-26.

This similarly refers to regeneration. 'David' and 'the sanctuary' stand for the Lord. In the same prophet,

I entered into a covenant with you, and you were Mine. And I washed you with water and washed away your blood from upon you, and anointed you with oil. Ezekiel 16:8-9, 11.

This clearly stands for regeneration. In Hosea,

I will make for them a covenant on that day, with the wild animals of the field, and with the birds of the air, ¹ and with the creeping things of the earth. Hosea 2:18.

This stands for regeneration. 'Wild animals of the field' stands for things of the will, 'birds of the air' ¹ for those of the understanding. In David,

He sent redemption to His people, He commanded His covenant for ever. Psalms 111:9.

This stands for regeneration. This is called 'a covenant' because it is something given and received.

[5] People however who have not been regenerated - or what amounts to the same, who focus worship on things that are external and who set up and worship as gods both themselves and everything they desire and think - are referred to, because they separate themselves from the Lord, as 'rendering the covenant invalid', as in Jeremiah,

They forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God, and bowed down to other gods and served them. Jeremiah 22:9.

In Moses,

He who transgressed the covenant by serving other gods, the sun, the moon, and the host of heaven, was to be stoned. Deuteronomy 17:2 and following verses.

'The sun' stands for self-love, 'the moon' for false assumptions, 'the host of heaven' for falsities themselves. From this it is now clear what 'the Ark of the covenant' is, containing the testimony or covenant, namely the Lord Himself; what 'the Book of the covenant' is, namely the Lord Himself, Exodus 24:4-7, 34:27; Deuteronomy 4:13, 23; what 'the Blood of the covenant' is, namely the Lord Himself, Exodus 24:6, 8; who alone is the Regenerator. Hence 'a covenant' is regeneration itself.

Poznámky pod čarou:

554. And their faces as men's faces, signifies that they seem to themselves to be spiritual affections of truth. This is evident from the signification of "faces," as being the interiors of the mind and affection (of which above, n. 412; and from the signification of "man," as being the spiritual affection of truth, and thus intelligence and wisdom (of which above, n. 280; and as the face is a type of man's interiors, "faces" have the same signification as the men themselves, namely, the affections of truth, but here that they seem to themselves to be affections of truth, and thus intelligent and wise, because it is said of the locusts that their faces appeared "as men's faces."

[2] The locusts appeared with such a face because of the strong persuasiveness in which sensual men are who are in falsities from evil, and who are signified by "locusts;" the persuasiveness itself presents such an appearance, but only before themselves and before such others as are also in falsities from evil, but not before the angels of heaven; and for the reason that angels are in the light of heaven, and whatever they see they see from that light, and the light of heaven, being Divine truth, dissipates everything fantastic that comes from persuasiveness. Sensual men appear thus to themselves because sensual men persuade themselves that they are more in truths from good than others are, although they are in falsities from evil; for they are unable to look inwardly from heaven at anything, but only outwardly from the world; those who see from the world alone see only from a delusive light, from which they suppose themselves to be more intelligent and wiser than others, not knowing what intelligence and wisdom are, or what they are from. From this persuasive faith is their belief that they are in the spiritual affection of truth; this therefore is signified by "the faces of the locusts seemed to be as men's faces."

[3] But this must be illustrated by experience in the spiritual world. All who are in the heavens are men in respect both to the face and to the rest of the body, for they are in the spiritual affection of truth, and the spiritual affection of truth is itself a man in form, because that affection is from the Lord, who alone is Man, and because from Him the universal heaven conspires to the human form; consequently angels are forms of their affections, and these also are apparent in their faces. (But these things are fully explained in the work on Heaven and Hell 59-102.) But those who are in hell, where all are external and sensual, because they are in falsities from evil, while they also appear to themselves in respect to the face to be men, so appear only amongst their own; but when they are looked at in the light of heaven they appear like monsters of direful face, and sometimes in place of the face only something hairy, or with a horrible grate-like set of teeth, and sometimes lurid like something dead, in which there is nothing living and human; for such are the forms of hatred, revenge, and cruelty, wherein is spiritual death, because they are in opposition to the life that is from the Lord. That among themselves they appear with a face like men is from fantasy and consequent persuasion. (But respecting these appearances see also in the work on Heaven and Hell 553.)