7649. 'Which your fathers and your fathers' fathers have not seen, from the day they have been on the ground even to this day' means that since ancient times no such falsity had existed in the Church as existed there now. This is clear from the meaning of 'which (that is, the locusts) they have not seen' as no such falsity had existed, 'locusts' being falsity in outermost parts, see above in 7643; from the meaning of 'fathers, and fathers of fathers' as since ancient times; and from the meaning of 'the ground' as the Church, dealt with in 566, 1068. 'From the day they have been on it even to this day' means the state in which the Church existed from that time to this, the state being meant by 'the day', see 23, 487, 488, 493, 2788, 3462, 4850. For more on this, see 7686.

1068. That 'Noah began to be a man of the ground' means in general a person who has been instructed from matters of doctrine concerning faith is clear from the meaning of 'the ground', dealt with already in 268, 566, as the member of the Church, or what amounts to the same, the Church. For if the Church is to exist at all the individual must be the Church. The Church is called 'the ground' from the fact that it receives the seeds of faith, which are the truths and goods of faith. 'The ground' is distinguished from 'the earth' or 'the land' - which, as has been shown, also means the Church - as faith is from charity. As charity includes faith within itself so does earth or land include the ground. Consequently when the Church is dealt with in general it is called 'the earth' or 'the land', and when dealt with specifically it is called 'the ground', as here. For that which is general is a complex whole consisting of the things deriving from it. The matters of doctrine which the members of the Ancient Church possessed had come down, as stated already, from revelations and perceptions of the Most Ancient Church which had been preserved, and in which they had faith, such as those we have today in the Word. Those matters of doctrine were their Word. 'Noah began to be a man of the ground' therefore means a person who has been instructed from matters of doctrine concerning faith.