2053. My covenant shall be in your flesh. That this signifies the conjunction of the Lord with man in his impurity, is evident from the signification of a “covenant,” as being conjunction (explained above); and from the signification of “flesh,” as being what is man’s own (also explained above, n. 2041: how impure what is man’s own is was also stated there, and was shown in Part First, n. 141, 150, 154, 210, 215, 694, 731, 874-876, 987, 1047). As regards the words “my covenant in your flesh” denoting the conjunction of the Lord with man in his impurity, the case is this: With man there is no pure intellectual truth, that is, truth Divine; for the truths of faith appertaining to man are appearances of truth, to which fallacies of the senses adjoin themselves, and to these the falsities that belong to the cupidities of the love of self and of the world. Such are the truths appertaining to man. How impure these are may be seen from the fact that such things are adjoined to them.

[2] But still the Lord conjoins Himself with man in these impure truths, for He animates and vivifies them with innocence and charity, and thereby forms conscience. The truths of conscience are various, that is, they are according to each person’s religion; and these truths, provided they are not contrary to the goods of faith, the Lord will not do violence to, because the man has been imbued with them, and has regarded them as holy. The Lord breaks no one, but bends him, as may be seen from the fact that in every dogma within the church there are some who are being gifted with conscience, which conscience is a better one in proportion as its truths approach more closely to the genuine truths of faith. As conscience is formed from truths of faith of this kind, it is evident that it has been formed in the intellectual part of man, for it is the intellectual part that receives these truths; and therefore the Lord has miraculously separated this part from the will part-an arcanum not previously known, and concerning which see Part First (n. 863, 875, 895, 927, 1023). That a “covenant in your flesh” also denotes what is significative, namely, of purification, is evident from what has been shown in respect to circumcision in n. 2039.

731. Every substance that I have made will I destroy from off the faces of the ground. That this signifies man’s Own, which is as if destroyed when vivified, is evident from what has been said before respecting this Own. Man’s Own is all evil and falsity. So long as this continues, the man is dead; but when he comes into temptations it is dispersed, that is, loosened and tempered by truths and goods from the Lord, and thus is vivified and appears as if it were not present. That it does not appear and is no longer hurtful, is signified by “destroyed;” and yet it is not destroyed, but remains. It is almost as with black and white, which when variously modified by the rays of light are turned into beautiful colors—such as blue, yellow, and purple—whereby, according to their arrangement are presented lovely and agreeable tints, as in flowers, yet remaining radically and fundamentally black and white. But as here at the same time the final vastation of those who were of the Most Ancient Church is treated of, by “I will destroy every existing thing that I have made, from off the face of the ground” are signified those who perished (as likewise in the following verse,). The “substance that I have made” is all that, or every man, in which there was heavenly seed, or who was of the church; and therefore, both here and in the following verse, “ground” is mentioned, which signifies the man of the church in whom good and truth have been implanted. This seed, in those called “Noah”—evils and falsities being dispersed, as before said—gradually grew up; but with the antediluvians who perished it was extinguished by tares.