AC 4447 - The Land of Canaan

AC 4447 [2, 3]

The remains of the Most Ancient Church which was celestial
still existed in the land of Canaan,
especially among those called Hittites and Hivites.
The reason why these remains did not exist anywhere else
was that the Most Ancient Church called "Man" or "Adam"
was in the land of Canaan,
and therefore the "garden of Eden,"
by which was meant
the intelligence and wisdom of the men of that church,
and by the trees in it their perception,
was in that land.
And because intelligence and wisdom
were meant by this "garden" or paradise,
the church itself was meant by it;
and because the church was meant,
so also was heaven;
and because heaven,
so also in the supreme sense, was the Lord;
and therefore in this sense
the "land of Canaan" itself signifies the Lord,
in the relative sense heaven and also the church,
and in the individual sense the person of the church;
and therefore also the term "land" or "earth"
when mentioned alone in the Word has a like meaning;
the "new heaven and new earth" being a new church
in respect to its internal and its external.
That the Most Ancient Church
was in the land of Canaan . . . and the result of this was
that the places there became representative,
and for this reason Abram was commanded to go there,
and the land was given to his descendants
the sons of Jacob
in order that the representatives of the places
in accordance with which the Word was to be written,
might be retained.

All this shows what is here meant by the
"Church among the Ancients," namely,
remains from the Most Ancient Church.
And as these remains existed
among the Hittites and Hivites,
therefore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
together with their wives,
obtained a place of burial with the Hittites in their land;
and Joseph with the Hivites.