8858. A person's whole character is determined by the nature of whatever dominates his life; this is what marks him off from others. His heaven is formed in accordance with it if he is good, or his hell if he is bad. For it constitutes his true will and so the true being of his life, which is unchangeable after death. From all this one may see what the life is like in a person who has been regenerated, and what it is like in one who has not been regenerated.

8865. How to understand 'reigning universally' becomes clear from what has been stated and shown above in 8853-8858. What reigns universally with a person is that which is present in every idea of his thought and every desire of his will, consequently which constitutes his actual mind or life. That which reigns universally within a person should be the Lord, for that which reigns universally within the angels in heaven is the Lord, and they are for this reason said to be 'in the Lord'. The Lord starts to reign in a person when he not only believes that everything good and everything true comes from Him but also loves it to be so. Angels not only truly believe but also perceive it to be so, and that is why their life is the Lord's life within them. The life of their will is the life of love coming from the Lord, and the life of their understanding is the life of faith coming from the Lord. All this shows what is meant when it is said that the Lord is the All in all of heaven, and that He is heaven. When the Lord reigns universally with a member of the Church, as He does with angels in heaven, the Lord is within every truth and good of faith residing with him, just as the heart is within all the blood vessels, since they derive from it their origin, and the blood which is their life.

[2] In addition it should be recognized that the kind of spirits or the kind of angels who are present with a person is determined by the nature of what reigns universally in him. The reason for this is that what reigns universally is the being (esse) of anyone's life, 8853, 8858. All the cheerfulness and all the contentment a person has, even when thinking about other matters, springs from it. For in it the angels and spirits present with him reside and so to speak have a dwelling-place; their gladness enters the person and creates the cheerfulness and contentment. The person does not realize that they are the source of it because a person does not know that his life flows in, or that what reigns universally constitutes his life, or that when something touches this core of his life the effect is like that which visual objects have on the pupil of the eye, that is, pleasure when they are beautiful and pain when they are not beautiful. The term 'universally' is used because it implies every single thing within the whole, so that what reigns universally is that which exists in each individual part, see 1919 (end), 5949, 6159, 6338, 6482, 6483, 6571, 7648, 8067.

5136. 'Out of the land of the Hebrews' means from the Church; that is to say, evil caused celestial things to be alienated from it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land of the Hebrews' as the Church, 'the land of the Hebrews' being in this case the land of Canaan, for this was the place from which Joseph was taken away. The reason why in the Word 'the land of Canaan' means the Church is that the Church had existed there since most ancient times, first the Most Ancient Church, which came before the Flood; then the Ancient Church, which came after the Flood; after that the second Ancient Church, which is called the Hebrew Church; and at length the Jewish Church. So that the Jewish Church might be established there Abram was commanded to move from Syria to that land, where he received the promise that the land would be given as an inheritance to his descendants. This explains why in the Word 'land' or 'earth' means the Church, and 'the whole land' - an expression found in various places - the universal Church, and why 'a new heaven and a new earth' means a new Church, internal and external.

[2] The reason the Church existed there continuously since most ancient times was that the member of the Most Ancient Church, who was celestial, was the kind of person who saw within every single object in the world and on earth something representative of the Lord's kingdom. Worldly and earthly objects were the means that enabled him to think about heavenly realities. This was where all the representatives and meaningful signs known subsequently in the Ancient Church had their origin, for these had been gathered together by the people meant by 'Enoch', and preserved for the use of others descended from them, 519, 521, 2896. This was how it came about that each specific place, and also each specific mountain or river in the land of Canaan, where the most ancient people lived, came to be representative, as did all the surrounding kingdoms. Now because the Word could not be written unless representatives and meaningful signs were used, including those connected with places, those consecutive dispensations of the Church were to that end kept in existence in the land of Canaan. But after the Lord's Coming the Church was transferred elsewhere because representatives were now done away with. From all this it is evident that the land of Canaan, called the land of the Hebrews here, means the Church.

[3] But see what has been presented already on these matters - in the following places:

The Most Ancient Church, the one before the Flood, existed in the land of Canaan, 567, 3686, 4447, 4454.

Part of the Ancient Church, the Church after the Flood, existed there, 3686, 4447.

The second Ancient Church, called the Hebrew Church, also existed there, 4516, 4517.

Abram was therefore commanded to go there, and the land was given to his descendants, 3686, 4447.

Consequently the land of Canaan represented the Lord's kingdom, 1607, 3038, 3481, 3705, 4240, 4447.

This explains why in the Word 'the land' means the Church, 566, 662, 1066, 1067, 1262, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 3355, 4447, 4535.