2023. 'And to your seed after you' means the Divine from that source with those who have faith in Him. This is clear from the meaning of 'seed' as the faith that inheres in charity, dealt with in 1025, 1447, 1610, and also from the meaning of 'after you' as following Him, dealt with just above in 2019. The Divine as it resides with those who have faith in Him is love and charity - love to the Lord being understood by 'love', and love towards the neighbour by 'charity'. Love to the Lord cannot possibly be separated from love towards the neighbour, for the Lord's love is directed towards the whole human race whom He wishes to save eternally and to join so completely to Himself that not a single one of them perishes. Anyone therefore who has love to the Lord possesses the Lord's love and so cannot help loving the neighbour.

[2] But not all people who are moved by love towards the neighbour are on that account moved by love to the Lord. This is so in the case of honest gentiles with whom, though they do not know the Lord, the Lord is nevertheless present in their charity, as shown in Volume One, in 1032, 1059. And this also applies to others inside the Church, for love to the Lord is of a higher order. People who have love to the Lord are celestial, but those who have love towards the neighbour, which is charity, are spiritual. The Most Ancient Church which existed before the Flood and was celestial was moved by love to the Lord, whereas the Ancient Church which existed after the Flood and was spiritual was moved by love towards the neighbour, which is charity. This distinction between love and charity will be maintained, when they are mentioned, in what follows.

1059. 'This is the sign of the covenant that I am establishing between Me and all flesh that is on the earth' means that it was a token of the Lord's presence in charity not only with the member of the Church but also with him who is outside the Church. This is clear from the meaning of 'all flesh' as all people, and therefore the whole human race. That the whole human race is meant, both those inside the Church and those outside the Church, is clear not only from the fact that the expression 'all flesh' is used but also that the expression 'living soul in all flesh', which appeared previously, is not used. And the point is made plainer still by the addition of the phrase 'which is on the earth'.

[2]That the Lord is as much present in charity with those outside the Church who are called gentiles as with those inside the Church may be seen above in 932, 1032. Indeed He is more present with them, for the reason that there is less cloud in the understanding part of their minds than is normally the case with so-called Christians. Indeed gentiles have no knowledge of the Word and do not know what the Lord is, and as a consequence do not know what the truth of faith is. This being so, they are incapable of opposition to the Lord and to the truth of faith. Consequently their cloud does not stand in opposition to the Lord or to the truth of faith, such cloud being dispersed easily when they are enlightened.

[3] But the cloud existing with Christians does stand in opposition to the Lord and to the truths of faith, and this cloud is so obscure as to be darkness. And when hatred is there instead of charity it is thick darkness. This applies even more to people who profane the truths of faith, something gentiles are incapable of doing because they live in ignorance of the truth of faith. Nobody can profane that of which he does not know the nature or the existence. This explains why more of the gentiles are saved than of Christians, as also the Lord said, in Luke 13:23, 28-30, in addition to saying that their children all belong to the Lord's kingdom, Matthew 18:10, 14; 19:14; Luke 18:16.