7195. 'And I also established My covenant with them' means the joining together that existed even then through the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the meaning of 'covenant' as a joining together, dealt with in 665, 666, 1023, 1038, 1864, 1996, 2003, 2021, 6804; and from the representation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom 'with them' - those with whom the covenant had been established - refers here, as the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with in 6804, 6847. From this it is evident what the internal sense of these words is, that the proximate or most immediate meaning of them is the union of the Divine itself with the Divine Human; and that the meaning following on from this is the joining together of the Divine itself with those who belonged to the spiritual Church through the Divine Human. For as has been shown a number of times already, those who belonged to the spiritual Church were saved through the Lord's Divine Human, see 6854, 6914, 7035, 7091 (end). The expression even then is used to link the meaning here to what comes immediately before - to indicate that the joining together existed when they were in a state involving temptations and gave no thought to Divine things within the Church. For the Lord is more present within a state involving temptations than He is outside it, though that is not at all how it seems, 840.