3622. 'Like these of the daughters of the land' means because they are not from that ground, that is, from truths which the genuine Church knows. This is clear from the meaning of 'the daughters of the land' as Churches, for 'the daughters' means affections for good and truth, 2363, and 'the land' means the region where the Church is situated, and so means the Church itself, dealt with in 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928, 3355. 'The daughters of the land' accordingly means the goods and truths of the Church.

1873. Spirits once spoke about the internal sense of the Word, and to present the nature of that sense intelligibly, they illustrated it by means of the example, What are the fruits of faith? They said that in the external sense, or sense of the letter, good works are meant by the fruits of faith, but that those good works are soulless unless they spring from charity, and this being so, that in the proximate interior sense by the fruits of faith is meant charity. But because charity, or love towards the neighbour, ought to spring from love to the Lord, the latter is meant in the internal sense by the fruit of faith. And because all love derives from the Lord, it is the Lord Himself. Thus a good work holds charity within itself, charity holds love to the Lord within it, and love to the Lord holds the Lord Himself within it.