AC 1224 - The Ancient Church; AC 1226 - "The Sons of Shem"; AC 1228 - When a Church Is Internal

AC 1224

. . . the Ancient Church, which was internal,
was endowed with wisdom,
intelligence, memory-knowledge,
and the knowledges of truth and of good.
Such things are contained in the internal sense,
although here are only names
from which nothing else appears in the literal sense
than that there were so many origins or fathers of nations,
thus nothing doctrinal,
much less anything spiritual and celestial.
Such is the case also in the Prophets,
where, whenever a series of names occurs,
which in the internal sense signify actual things,
they follow one another in a beautiful order.

AC 1226

That by "the sons of Shem"
are meant the things that are of wisdom,
is evident merely from Shem's being an internal church,
the sons of which are none other than things of wisdom.
Everything is called wisdom that is begotten of charity,
because it comes by means of charity from the Lord,
from Whom is all wisdom,
for He is wisdom itself.
From Him comes true intelligence,
and also comes true memory-knowledge,
and also comes true knowledge,
which are all sons of charity,
that is, sons of the Lord through charity.
And because they are sons of the Lord through charity,
wisdom is predicated of each of them,
for wisdom is in each of them,
and they draw their life from it,
and this in such a manner that neither intelligence,
nor memory-knowledge, nor knowledge,
has life except from the wisdom which is of charity,
which is of the Lord.

AC 1228

A church is internal when charity is the principal of it,
from which it thinks and acts.
The first offspring of charity is none other than faith;
for faith is from it,
and from no other source.