2571. 'Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you' means the Lord's perception regarding the doctrine of love and charity. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as thinking, dealt with in 2506, and from the meaning of 'land' here as the doctrine of love and charity. 'Land' or 'earth' has various meanings in the internal sense, 620, 636, 1066, but what is meant in a specific instance is clear from the train of thought. For 'land' or 'earth' means the external member of the Church when 'the sky' or 'heaven' means the internal, 82, 913, 1411, 1733; it also means the region where the Church is, 662, 1066; it means the Church itself, and also in the universal sense the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, since 'the land of Canaan' or 'the holy land' was representative of that kingdom, 1437, 1585, 1607. The same was also meant by 'a new heaven and a new earth', 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118. And because 'land' or 'earth' means the member of the Church, the Church, and the Lord's kingdom, it also means that which is the essential component of these, namely love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbour, for it is on these that they all depend, 537, 540, 547, 553, 2130. Consequently 'land' or 'earth' means the doctrine of love and charity which belongs to the Church, and to which here 'the land of Abimelech' refers. For 'Abimelech as a king' means the doctrine of faith, as has been shown, while his land, from which he sprang and in which he dwelt, means the doctrine of love and charity, from which faith springs and in which faith dwells.

[2] The reason why up to this point the Lord's thought had been concerned with the doctrine of faith but was now concerned with the doctrine of love and charity is that the Lord joined the Human to the Divine by means of truths which are matters of faith, yet at the same time by means of Divine Goods which are matters of love that were present within those truths. This He did according to the order by which also man becomes spiritual and celestial but not Divine so as to have life in himself, in the way that the Lord became so. But when the marriage had taken place in the Lord of Divine Truth to Good, and of Good to Truth, which is meant by the words 'Abimelech restored to Abraham Sarah his wife', 2569, His thought was now concerned with the doctrine of love and charity, and this also was according to order; for once man has become spiritual and celestial he no longer thinks from truth but from good, yet not as the Lord did - from Divine Good united to Divine Truth. This is the reason why the doctrine of love and charity is only now mentioned for the first time, even though the doctrine of faith regarded in itself is the same, and the Lord's perception and thought always sprang from Divine love within every thing of faith. Hence it is that the doctrine of love and charity is Divine doctrine itself, and was the doctrine which was cultivated in the Most Ancient Churches. And because that doctrine made one with the doctrine of faith, they rejected people who separated these; see 2417.

620. That 'the earth' ¹ means that set of people dealt with already is clear from what has been shown concerning the meaning of 'the earth' ¹ and 'the ground'. 'The land' is a term which is used very often in the Word, and means the land where the Lord's true Church is, such as the land of Canaan. 'The land' may also mean where the Church is not, such as the land of Egypt, and the lands of the heathen nations, and so stands for the nation which inhabits the land. And since it stands for the nation, it also stands for any such individual who is there. It is called 'a land', for example, the land of Canaan, on account of heavenly love, and 'the lands of the heathen nations' are so called on account of loves that are foul. It is called 'ground' however on account of the faith sown in it. For, as has been shown, a land includes the ground, and the ground includes the field, just as love includes faith, and faith includes the cognitions of faith that are sown in it. Here 'the earth' ¹ stands for the people among whom heavenly love and the Church perished utterly. It is from the subject that one may know what is attributed to it.

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