368. That a "field" signifies doctrine, and consequently whatever belongs to the doctrine of faith and charity, is evident from the Word, as in Jeremiah:
O My mountain in the field, I will give thy possessions [facultates] and all thy treasures for a spoil (Jer. 17:3).
In this passage "field" signifies doctrine; "possessions" and "treasures" denote the spiritual riches of faith, or the things that belong to the doctrine of faith. In the same:
Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of My field? (Jer. 18:14).
It is declared concerning Zion, when destitute of the doctrine of faith, that she shall be "plowed like a field" (Jer. :26:18, Micah 3:12). In Ezekiel:
He took of the seed of the land, and set it in a field of sowing (Ezek. 17:5),
treating of the church and of its faith; for doctrine is called a "field" from the seed in it. In the same:
And let all the trees of the field know that I Jehovah bring down the high tree (Ezek. 17:24).
In Joel:
The field is laid waste, the ground mourneth, for the corn is wasted, the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth, the husbandmen are ashamed, the harvest of the field is perished, all the trees of the field are withered (Joel 1:10-12),
where the "field" signifies doctrine, "trees" knowledges, and "husbandmen" worshipers. In David:
The field shall exult and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the forest sing (Ps. 96:12),where it is perfectly evident that the field cannot exult, nor the trees of the forest sing; but things that are in man, which are the knowledges of faith. In Jeremiah:
How long shall the land mourn, and the herb of every field wither? (Jer. 12:4),
where it is also evident that neither the land nor the herbs of the field can mourn; but that the expressions relate to something in man while in a state of vastation. A similar passage occurs in Isaiah:
The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (Isa. 55:12).
The Lord also in His prediction concerning the consummation of the age calls the doctrine of faith a "field:"
Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left (Matt. 24:40; Luke 17:36),
where by a "field" is meant the doctrine of faith, both true and false. As a "field" signifies doctrine, whoever receives a seed of faith, whether a man, the church, or the world, is also called a "field."