Arcana Coelestia #872
872. 'The face 1 of the ground' means those things that reside with the member of the Church, and the expression 'the ground' is used because it is the first stage at which man comes to be the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'the ground', dealt with already, as the member of the Church who is at that point called 'the ground' when the goods and truths of faith can be sown within him. Previously he is called 'the land', as in Genesis 1 where 'the land' refers to man prior to his becoming celestial, while Chapter 2, when he has become celestial, refers to him as 'the ground' and 'the field'. It is similar in the present chapter. The expression 'the land' and the expression 'the ground' are sufficient by themselves to enable someone to recognize what is meant in the internal sense, not only here but also anywhere else in the Word. 'The ground' in the universal sense means the Church, and as the Church is meant so too is the member of the Church for, as stated already, every member of the Church is the Church.
Footnotes:
1. literally, The faces
Arcana Coelestia #6050
6050. 'Both we and our fathers' means that this was so from when the earliest forms of good existed. This is clear from the meaning of 'fathers' as forms of good, dealt with in 2803, 3703, 3704, 5581, 5902. Consequently the fact that they were keepers of livestock as their fathers had been means from when the earliest forms of good existed. There are in addition many other places in the Word where 'fathers' is not used in the internal sense to mean Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but members of the Ancient Church, who were governed by good.