1865. Saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land. That this signifies the consolation after these temptations and horrors, in that they who are in charity and faith in Him should become heirs, is evident from the signification of “seed,” and from the signification of the “land.” By the “seed of Abram” are signified love and the faith derived therefrom, as has been shown before (n. 255, 256, 1025), consequently all those who are in charity and in faith in the Lord. But by the land of Canaan is signified the Lord’s kingdom; therefore to “give the land unto thy seed” signifies that the heavenly kingdom should be given as an inheritance to those who from charity have faith in Him.

[2] That these things were a consolation to the Lord after His temptations and horrors, may be seen without explication. For after those hard and adverse eventualities which the Lord had seen, that is to say, after he had put to flight evils and falsities-which were signified by the fowls that came down upon the bodies and that Abram drove away (mentioned i (Genesis 15:11) n verse 11)—and yet after all dense falsities infused themselves, at which He shuddered (which were signified by the “terror of great darkness” that fell upon Abram in the deep sleep, spoken of in verse 12), and yet at last mere falsities and evils took possession of the human race (which are signified by “the furnace of smoke” and “the torch of fire” which passed between the pieces, mentioned in verse 17, that precedes this), the Lord could not but be in distress and grief; and therefore consolation now follows, such as was given above (verses 4 and 5); namely, that His seed should inherit the land, that is, that they who are in charity and in faith in Him should become heirs of His kingdom. To Him the salvation of the human race was the only consolation, for He was in Divine and celestial love, and became, even as to His Human Essence, the Divine and celestial Love itself, in which the love of all is alone regarded and is at heart.

[3] That the Divine love is such may be seen from the love of parents toward their children, which increases according to the degree in which it descends, that is, it becomes greater toward the more remote descendants than it is toward the immediate children. Nothing ever exists without a cause and an origin, consequently neither does this love in the human race that is characterized by a constant increase toward the descendants in succession. The cause and origin of this cannot but be from the Lord, from whom inflows all conjugial love, and that of parents toward their children, and the source of which is that His love for all is like that of a father for his sons, who desires to make all His heirs, and provides an inheritance for those who are to be born, as He does for those already born.