363. However, so that this article of faith - that the Lord, charity and faith make one, just as in a person life, will and understanding do, and if they are divided, each of them is destroyed, like a pearl collapsing into dust - may be seen and recognised as truth, it needs to be discussed in the following sequence.

(i) The Lord flows into every human being with all His Divine love, all His Divine wisdom, and so with all His Divine life.

(ii) He does this likewise with the whole essence of faith and charity.

(iii) But how these are received by the person depends upon his form.

(iv) The person, however, who separates the Lord, charity and faith is not a form which can receive them, but rather one which destroys them.

4492. 'All who went out of the gate of his city' means that they departed from the doctrine of the Church among the Ancients. This is clear from the meaning of 'going out' here as departing from, and from the meaning of 'the gate of the city' as doctrine, dealt with in 2943, 4477, here the doctrine of the Church among the Ancients, since it was the gate of 'his', that is, Shechem's, city. For 'Shechem' represents the truth of the Church among the Ancients, 4454, the phrase 'the Church among the Ancients' being used to mean that which descended from the Most Ancient Church, as also stated already. The implications of this will be evident from what follows next.