AC 1038 - "And God said, This is the sign of the covenant" (Genesis 9:12)

AC 1038
That a "covenant" is the presence of the Lord in love and charity,
is evident from the nature of a covenant.
Every covenant is for the sake of conjunction,
that is, for the sake of living in mutual friendship, or love.
Marriage also is for this reason called a covenant.
There is no conjunction of the Lord with person
except in love and charity;
for the Lord is love and mercy itself.
He wills to save everyone
and to draw him with mighty power to heaven, that is, to Himself.
From this everyone may know and conclude
that no one can ever be conjoined with the Lord
except through that which He Himself is,
that is, except by becoming like or making one with Him -
in other words, by loving the Lord in return
and loving the neighbor as himself.
By this alone is the conjunction effected.
This is the very essence of a covenant.

[2] Because the "covenant"
is the conjunction of the Lord with a person by love,
or what is the same,
the presence of the Lord with a person in love and charity,
it is called in the Word the "covenant of peace;"
for "peace" signifies the kingdom of the Lord,
and the kingdom of the Lord consists in mutual love,
in which alone is peace.

[5] Since a "covenant" is the conjunction of the Lord with a person by love,
it follows that it is also by all things that pertain to love,
which are the truths of faith, and are called precepts;
for all precepts, indeed the Law and the Prophets,
are founded on the one Law,
to love the Lord above all things and the neighbor as oneself . . ..
And therefore the tables on which were written the ten commandments,
are called the "Tables of the Covenant."
Since a covenant, or conjunction,
is effected through the laws or precepts of love,
it was effected also through the laws of society
given by the Lord in the Jewish Church, which are called "testimonies;"
and also through the rites of the church
ordered by the Lord, called "statutes."
All these things are said to be of the "covenant" . . ..

[6] From these things it is now evident what a "covenant" is,
and that the covenant is internal;
for the conjunction of the Lord with a person takes place by what is internal,
and never by what is external separate from what is internal.
External things are only types and representatives of internal,
as the action of a person
is a type representative of his thought and will;
and as the work of charity
is a type representative of the charity which is within, in the heart and mind.
So all the rites of the Jewish Church were types representative of the Lord,
consequently of love and charity, and of all things therefrom.
Wherefore it is through the internals of a person
that a covenant and conjunction is made,
and externals are only signs of the covenant,
as indeed they are called.