1023. The symbolism of And I — yes, I — am setting up my pact as the presence of the Lord in charity can be seen from the symbolism of a pact, given in §§ [665,] 666. That section showed that a pact symbolizes rebirth, and more especially the Lord's close connection with a regenerate person through love. It also showed that the heavenly marriage is the most genuine compact, and in consequence that the heavenly marriage inside everyone who has regenerated is such a covenant too.

The nature of this marriage — this covenant — has also been shown before [§§155, 162, 252].

[2] For the people of the earliest church, the heavenly marriage existed within the sensation that they had their own power of will. For the people of the ancient church, however, the heavenly marriage developed within the sensation that their power of understanding was their own. When the human race's willpower had become thoroughly corrupt, you see, the Lord split our intellectual sense of self off from that corrupted voluntary sense of self in a miraculous way. Within our intellectual selfhood he formed a new will, which is conscience, and into conscience he injected charity, and into charity innocence. In this way he joined himself to us or, to put it another way, entered into a compact with us.

[3] To the extent that our self-will can be detached from this sense of intellectual autonomy, the Lord can be present with us, or bind himself to us, or enter into a pact with us.

Times of trial and other similar means of regeneration suppress our self-will to the point where it seems to disappear and almost die out. To the extent that this happens, the Lord can work through the conscience implanted in charity within our intellectual selfhood. This, then, is what is being called a pact in the present verse.

252. The meaning of the woman as the church can be seen from the heavenly marriage described above in §155. The heavenly marriage is a relationship in which heaven (and so the church) is united to the Lord through its sense of self. In fact heaven and the church are to be found in the feeling of independent existence, because without it there could never be union. When the Lord in his mercy infuses our selfhood with innocence, peace, and goodness, it still seems to be our own, but it becomes heavenly and full of the greatest blessings, as you may see above at §164.

I cannot yet say, though, what a heavenly, angelic identity received from the Lord is like, nor a hellish, diabolical identity generated by ourselves. ¹ The difference between them is like the difference between heaven and hell.

Footnotes:

665. The meaning of setting up a pact as the fact that they would be reborn can be seen clearly from this: No pact can mediate between the Lord and humanity except that of being united by love and faith. So a pact symbolizes union. This kind of union is the heavenly marriage, which is the truest compact. The heavenly marriage, or union, can exist only in those who are reborn, and accordingly a pact in the broadest sense symbolizes rebirth itself. The Lord enters into a compact with us when he regenerates us, and for this reason the ancients saw a pact as representing nothing but regeneration.

The literal meaning gives no clue that the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and so often renewed with their descendants had to do with any others than those actual people. But they were people incapable of rebirth, since they equated worship with outward observances alone. They also saw holiness in external elements without considering any connection to internal values. So the pacts struck with them could do no more than represent regeneration.

None of their rituals did more than this. Neither did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob themselves, who represented different aspects of love and faith. These men were like the priests and high priests, who were able to represent a heavenly and very holy priesthood no matter what their character was — even those who were criminal. When people serve to represent something, no thought is given to their personality, only to the quality represented. By the same token, all the monarchs of Israel and Judah — even the worst ones — represented the Lord's royal power. In fact the pharaoh who raised Joseph up over the land of Egypt also represented that power.

This consideration and many others (to be mentioned later, by the Lord's divine mercy) show that the numerous covenants with the children of Jacob were nothing more than rituals that held a representative meaning. ¹

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