726. 'Keeping seed alive over the face^a of all the earth' means truths of faith. This is clear from the fact that by means of this Church the seed was kept alive, 'seed' being used to mean faith. The rest of the descendants of the Most Ancient Church destroyed celestial and spiritual seed by means of filthy desires and dreadful persuasions residing with them. But to guard against the extinction of celestial seed those called Noah were regenerated; and they were regenerated by means of spiritual seed. This is the meaning of these words. The expression 'kept alive' is used of those who receive the Lord's life, because life consists solely in those things that are the Lord's, as may become clear to anyone from the fact that no life in any sense resides in those things which are not part of eternal life, that is, which do not look to eternal life. Life that is not eternal is not life, but perishes in a very short space of time. Nor can Being (Esse) be attributed to things that come to an end, but to those that never come to an end. Life and Being (Esse) therefore reside solely in things that are the Lord's, or Jehovah's, for all Being (Esse) and living to eternity is His. By eternal life is meant eternal happiness. For these matters see what has been stated and shown in 290.

Notes