7195. 'And I also established My covenant with them' means the joining together that existed even then through the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'covenant' as a joining together, dealt with in 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804; and from the representation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom 'with them' - those with whom the covenant had been established - refers here, as the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with in 6804, 6847. From this it is evident what the internal sense of these words is, that the proximate or most immediate meaning of them is the union of the Divine itself with the Divine Human; and that the meaning following on from this is the joining together of the Divine itself with those who belonged to the spiritual Church through the Divine Human. For as has been shown a number of times already, those who belonged to the spiritual Church were saved through the Lord's Divine Human, see 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091 (end). The expression even then is used to link the meaning here to what comes immediately before - to indicate that the joining together existed when they were in a state involving temptations and gave no thought to Divine things within the Church. For the Lord is more present within a state involving temptations than He is outside it, though that is not at all how it seems, 840.

665. That establishing a covenant' means that he would be regenerated becomes quite clear from the fact that the only kind of covenant that can exist between the Lord and man is conjunction by virtue of love and faith. And so a covenant means conjunction; indeed it is the heavenly marriage that is the supreme covenant of all. The heavenly marriage or conjunction does not show itself however except with people who are being regenerated. Regeneration itself therefore in the broadest sense is meant by a covenant. The Lord enters into a covenant with man when He regenerates him, and consequently among men of old a covenant had no other representation. From the sense of the letter no other impression is gained than that the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and so often with their descendants, concerned just those personages. But those people were by nature such as to be incapable of being regenerated, for they focused worship exclusively on things that were external, and imagined external things to be sacred without things that are internal allied to them. Consequently the covenants made with them were no more than representations of regeneration, as were all their religious ceremonies, and as were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob themselves who represented the things of love and faith. In a similar way priests or high priests, whatever their character, including infamous ones, could represent the heavenly and most holy priesthood. In representations no attention is paid to the person who represents but to that which is represented by him. Thus all the kings of Israel and Judah, including the worst of them, represented the Lord's kingship, and so indeed did the Pharaoh who promoted Joseph over the land of Egypt. These and many other considerations which in the Lord's Divine mercy will be dealt with later on show that the covenants made so often with the sons of Jacob were nothing more than religious ceremonies which were representative.