9274. 'And in the seventh you shall let it rest, and let it lie fallow' means the second state, when the member of the Church is governed by good, and so enjoys peace and serenity. This is clear from the meaning of 'the seventh year' or 'the sabbath' as the time when a person is governed by good and is led by the Lord through good, dealt with in 8495, 8510, 8890, 8893; from the meaning of 'letting the land rest', or not sowing it, as not being led by truths as before; and from the meaning of 'letting it lie fallow' as enjoying peace and serenity. Also, the sabbath was representative of a state of peace in which [goodness and truth] are joined together, see 8494; for letting the land rest and lie fallow represented the rest, serenity, and peace enjoyed by those who are governed by good received from the Lord. Regarding the two states of a person who is being regenerated and coming to have the Church within him, the first being a time when he is led by the truths of faith towards the good of charity, and the second being a time when he is governed by the good of charity, see 7923, 7992, 8505, 8506, 8512, 8513, 8516, 8539, 8643, 8648, 8658, 8685, 8690, 8701, 8772, 9139, 9224, 9227, 9230.

[2] These two states of a person who is being regenerated and coming to have the Church within him have not been known up to now, the chief reason for this being that members of the Church have not drawn a clear distinction between truth and good, nor therefore between faith and charity. Another reason is that they have had no clear idea of the two powers of mind a person has - the understanding and the will - nor any clear idea that the function of the understanding is to see truths and forms of good, and that of the will to be stirred by affection for them and to love them. Consequently it was not possible for them to know that the first state of a person who is being regenerated consists in learning truths and seeing them, and the second state in willing and loving them, and that a person has made them his own only when he desires and loves those he has learned and seen. For the will is the person's true self, and the understanding is its servant. Had people known these things they could then have known and come to see clearly that a person who is being regenerated is endowed by the Lord with both a new understanding and a new will, and that unless he is endowed with both he is not a new person; for understanding is no more than the seeing of things that a person desires and loves, and so is simply a servant, as has been stated. And if people had known this they could consequently have known that the first state of a person who is being regenerated consists in being led by means of truths towards good, and the second state in being led by means of good. They could have known that in this second state order is turned around, that the person is now led by the Lord, and that therefore the person is now in heaven and so enjoys peace and serenity.

[3] This state is what is meant by the seventh day, by the seventh year, and also by a jubilee - which are the sabbath, and the sabbath of sabbaths - and by the land's resting in those years, in keeping with the following in Moses,

Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its produce; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of sabbaths for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap. Leviticus 25:3-5.

And in reference to a jubilee,

In the year of a jubilee you shall not sow, nor shall you reap what grows of its own accord, nor shall you harvest the unattended ¹ vines. Leviticus 25:11, 12.

The person who does not know anything about those two states cannot know either about very many things contained in the Word; for in the Word, especially the prophetical part, the first state is depicted clearly and so is the second. Indeed that person cannot understand the internal sense of the Word, nor even much that is contained in its literal sense, such as the following predictions by the Lord regarding the final period of the Church at the present day, which is there called 'the close of the age', in Matthew,

Then let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house; and let him who is in the field not return to take his clothes. Matthew 24:16-18.

And in Luke,

On that day, whoever will be on the housetop with his vessels in the house, let him not come down to take them away; and whoever is in the field, let him likewise not return to the things behind him. Remember Lot's wife. Luke 17:31-32.

The second state is described in these places, together with a warning not to go back from it to the first, see 3650-3655, 5895 (end), 5897 (end), 8505, 8506, 8510, 8512, 8516.

[4] The fact that those states are distinct and separate from each other is also implied by the following words in Moses,

When you build ² a new house you shall make a parapet for your roof. You shall not sow your vineyard and your field with mixed seed. You shall not plough with an ox and an ass together. You shall not wear a garment made of wool and flax mixed together. ³ Deuteronomy 22:8-11; Leviticus 19:19.

These laws serve to mean that anyone who is in the state of truth, that is, in the first state, cannot be in the state of good, that is, in the second state, nor vice versa, the reason being that one state is the inverse of the other. For in the first state a person looks from the world to heaven, but in the second from heaven to the world. In the first state truths come from the world by way of the understanding into the will, where they become forms of good because they are loved. But in the second state the forms of good so created come from heaven by way of the will into the understanding, where they appear in the form of faith. This faith is saving faith, because it comes out of the good of love, that is, comes from the Lord by way of the good of love; for this faith is charity in outward form.

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1038. That 'this is the sign of the covenant' means a token of the Lord's presence in charity is clear from the meaning of 'a covenant' and of 'the sign of a covenant'. That the covenant means the Lord's presence in charity has been shown already at Chapter 6:18, and above at verse 9 of the present chapter; and that a covenant is the Lord's presence in love and charity is clear from the very nature of a covenant. The purpose of any covenant is conjunction, that is to say, its purpose is that people may live together in friendship or in love. This also is why marriage is called a covenant. The Lord's conjunction with man does not exist except in love and charity, for the Lord is love itself and mercy. He wills to save everyone and by His mighty power to draw them towards heaven, that is, towards Himself. From this anyone may know and conclude that it is impossible for anybody to be joined to the Lord except by means of that which He Himself is, that is, except by acting like Him, or becoming one with Him - that is to say, by loving the Lord in return, and loving the neighbour as oneself. In this way alone is conjunction brought about; this constitutes the very essence of a covenant. When conjunction results from this, it quite plainly follows that the Lord is present. The Lord is indeed present with each individual, but that presence is closer or more remote, all depending on how near the person is to love or distant from it.

[2] Since 'the covenant' is the conjunction of the Lord with man by means of love, or what amounts to the same, the Lord's presence with man in love and charity, the covenant itself is called in the Word 'a covenant of peace', for 'peace' means the Lord's kingdom, and the Lord's kingdom consists in mutual love, in which alone peace resides, as is said in Isaiah,

The mountains will depart and the hills be removed, but My mercy will not depart from you, and the covenant of My peace will not be removed, said Jehovah, the One who takes pity on you. Isaiah 54:10.

Here mercy, which is an attribute of love, is called 'a covenant of peace'.

In Ezekiel,

I will raise up over them one shepherd, and He will pasture them - My servant David. He will pasture them and He will be a shepherd to them. And I will make with them a covenant of peace. Ezekiel 34:23, 25.

Here 'David' is plainly used to mean the Lord, and His presence with a regenerate person is described by the words 'He will pasture them'.

[3] In the same prophet,

My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. And I will make with them a covenant of peace; it will be an eternal covenant with them. And I will bless ¹ them and cause them to multiply, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst for evermore. And I will be their God and they will be My people. Ezekiel 37:14, 16-17.

Here similarly the Lord is meant by David. Love is meant by the 'sanctuary in their midst', the Lord's presence and conjunction in love by the promise that 'He will be their God, and they will be His people', which is called 'a covenant of peace' and 'an eternal covenant'.

In Malachi,

You will know that I have sent this command to you, that it may be My covenant with Levi, said Jehovah Zebaoth. My covenant was with him, [a covenant] of life ² and peace, and I have given them to him in fear, and he will fear Me. Malachi 2:4-5.

In the highest sense 'Levi' means the Lord, and from this the person who has love and charity; and this being so 'a covenant of life' and peace with Levi' means in love and charity.

[4] In Moses, in reference to Phinehas,

Behold, I am giving to him My covenant of peace, and it will be to him and his seed after him a covenant of eternal priesthood. Numbers 25:12-13.

Here 'Phinehas' is not used to mean Phinehas but the priesthood which he represented and which means love and what belongs to love, as does the entire priesthood of that Church. Everyone knows that the priesthood did not remain with Phinehas for ever.

In the same author,

Jehovah your God is God Himself, a faithful God who keeps a covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and who keep His commandments, to the thousandth generation. Deuteronomy 7:9, 12.

Here the Lord's presence with man in love is clearly meant by 'the covenant', for it is said to be 'with those who love Him and keep His commandments'.

[5] Because the covenant is the conjunction of the Lord with man by means of love, it follows that it is also achieved by means of all the things allied to love, which are the truths of faith and are called commandments. For all the commandments, indeed the Law and the Prophets, are based on that single law that men ought to love the Lord above all things and the neighbour as themselves. This is clear from the Lord's words in Matthew 22:35-40; Mark 12:28-34. This is also why the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written are called 'the tablets of the covenant'. Since a covenant or conjunction is achieved by means of the laws or commandments of love it was also achieved by means of the social laws introduced by the Lord into the Jewish Church, which are called 'testimonies', as well as by the religious observances commanded by the Lord, which are called 'statutes'. All of these are called [laws] of the covenant because they have regard to love and charity.

As is said of King Josiah,

The king stood upon the pillar, and made a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, and to keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to establish the words of the covenant. 2 Kings 23:3.

[6] From these references it is now clear what a covenant is, and that the covenant is internal, for the conjunction of the Lord with man is achieved by means of internal things, and never by means of external things separated from internal. External things are merely images and representatives of those that are internal, as the action of a person is an image representative of his thought and will, and as a charitable act is an image representative of charity present within, in intention and mind. Thus all the religious observances of the Jewish Church were images representative of the Lord, and so of love and charity, and of all things deriving from these. It is by means of the internal things of a person therefore that the covenant or conjunction is achieved. External things are no more than signs of the covenant, which also is what they are called. That internal things are the means by which the covenant or conjunction is achieved is quite clear, as in Jeremiah,

Behold, the days are coming, says 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 hearts. Jeremiah 31:31-33.

This refers to a new Church. It is plainly stated that the covenant itself is achieved by means of internal things, and indeed within conscience on which the Law is written, the whole of which Law, as stated, is that of love.

[7] That external things do not constitute the covenant unless internal things are joined to them and so through that union act as one and the same cause, but are merely 'signs of the covenant' by means of which, as by representative images, the Lord might be called to mind, is clear from the fact that the sabbath and circumcision are called 'signs' of the covenant. That the sabbath is so called is clear in Moses,

The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout their generations, an eternal covenant. Between Me and the children of Israel this is a sign eternally. Exodus 31:16-17.

And that circumcision is called 'a sign of the covenant' is clear in the same author,

This is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you is to be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. Genesis 17:10-11.

For the same reason also blood is called 'the blood of the covenant', Exodus 24:7-8.

[8] The chief reason why external religious ceremonies were called signs of the covenant was so that from them people might call interior things to mind, that is, the things meant by them. All the religious observances of the Jewish Church were nothing else. For this reason they were also called signs that would serve to remind the people of interior things - for example, the practice of binding the chief commandment on the hand and of wearing frontlets, as stated in Moses,

You shall love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And you shall bind these words as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. Deuteronomy 6:5, 8; 11:13, 18.

Because it means power 'the hand' here means the will, for power is an attribute of the will; while 'frontlets between the eyes' means the understanding. Thus 'a sign' means calling to mind the chief commandment, or epitome of the Law, that it may be constantly in the will and constantly in the thought, that is, that the Lord and love may be present within the whole will and the whole thought. Such is the presence of the Lord and from Him of mutual love existing with angels. That constant presence and the nature of it will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on. And in like manner here the statement, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I give between Me and you; I have given My bow in the cloud, and it will be for a sign of the covenant', means no other sign than a token of the Lord's presence in charity, and so man's remembrance of Him. But in what way the bow in the cloud provides that token and so remembrance will in the Lord's Divine mercy be discussed later on.

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