, 1877-03-04

is Ut sucl, nature Us to co,.+ain what is holy IN
| every verso. in every word, and in some cases
in cvery letter; and hence the Woru conlolas ~
man with the Lord. aud opens Heaven. Ihere
are two things which proceed from the LORD,
| Divine Love and Divine Wisdom; or, wilat i
! the same. Divine Good and Divine truth. 1oI
Divine Good Is OF Divine Love itself, and Divine
| Truth is Of Divine Wisdom itself; aud the Word
in its essence, is both Of these; and iuasn,ncl
/ rs it coutoil,s man With the Lord, anu opens
| Ncasen. as Just observed, therefore the WORD
fills the man who reads it under the LORDS III
ts1eucc, aul not under the influence OF his pro
Truths Of wisdom.-his will with the good o.
love, and his understanding with the truths Of
| wisdom. Hence lnan has life by and through
the Word.
I lOncur III doubt concerning the divinity OF the
! Word, it has pleased the Lord to fcyea! to me
its Internal sense, which it Its csscnse Is spirit
ual, and whlc is, to tic external sense, which
! is natural, what the soul Is to the body. lhis
| internal sense il the spirit which gives life to
tho letter; wherefore this sense will cynce the
divinity and sanetity Of the Word, aud may con-
yi-cc even the patusal man, if hi Is III dlspo-
! sitlon to be conyiuSel.h
| s''ihc litc1al sense OF the Word is the Basis,
Continent, aid Fir1ua,ne,t Of its Spiritual anu
Celestial senses. In everything divine there is
Il first, middle, and last, and the first goes
through the middle to the last, and thus exists
md subsists; thence the last is the basis. The
| first, also, is i'll the middle, and, BY
! the middle, in the last; thus the last is
tincnt and the Gasis, it is also the firIha'ncnt
In every complete thing there Is 4 tr:nc, which
is called iirst middle, and last: or cEd, cause,
aud effect. Thus every dirnc work is complete
and perfect i'll the last, or the elect, because
| the former are together in it.''
''Iilerc are three heavens, the highest, the
middle, and the lowest. The highest heaven
! makes the celestial Kingdom Of the Lord; the
| middle heaven makes His spiritual Kingdom,
anu the lowest heaven makes his. natural King
dom. as there arc three heavens, so. likewise,
| there are three senses OF ti,c Word tile
celestial, the spiritual, and the natural, with
| which, ALSO those things coincide which were
said above, viz, that the tirsr is in the middle
AMI, by the middle, in the last; just the end
| is i'll the cause. and, py the cause, is If. the
| effect. Thence, 1t Is manifest what the Word
| is, viz, that il the SENSE Of its letter,
I which is natural, there is an inferior sense,
| which is spiritual, and in this an iEtnost sense,
which is celestial; and thus that the last sense,
which is natt1ral and Is called the sef1se OF the
letter, is the continent, and 50 the basls and
tirmal1tnt Of tue two interior SENSES"
''Henee it may he evident that the Word is
the Word itself in its sense Of the letter; for in
this interiorly there is spirit and life. This Is
what the Lord says: THE words which speak
unto yon are Spril and Iifc.' *'oiln, vi, t3.
For the Lord spoke His words in tile natnral
scllsc. The celestial and spiritual scuses are
they are like spirit aud life, soul, without
body. The internal setse Of tile Word, also, is
its soul, and the sense Of the letter Is its body"
!s'Tlle spiritual sccsc OF the Word is not
that which breaks forth as light: out Of
the literal sense, whilst person is study
ing and explaining the Word, with intent
to establish some particular tenet uf the
Church: this sense may be called the literal
se:seof thu Word, but the spiritual sense does
not appear il, the literal sense, bcing Within it.
fb il. In fEh {t13{ f3t,tt1fY
thr understanding Is i'll the eye, or us the atfcc-
tiol, Of love is in the eountcnalrc, which act to-
gether as ca,1s. and effect. II 10 this sense,
principally, which renders the Word spiritual,
and by Which it is adapted not only to tue use of
men, nut also Of angels; whence, also, by means
OF that sense, the Word communicates with the
leavcnS.'
"From the Lord proceed these principles;
the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural, one
Divine Love is called celestial, and is Divine
Good; whatsoever proceeds from His Divine
Wisdom is called spiritual, and is DiNie truth;
the natural partakcs u both, and
h1t,a1 is their ,oeptz ,o!t;, n utima1en inxn The The
compose the third or highest heaven, are in that
Divine principle which proceeds from the Lord, |
that IS called CELESTIAL lor they are in the good |
Of love from the Lord; the angels Of the Lords
spiritual Kingdom, who compose the second Or !
middle heaven, are iii that Divine principle /
which proceeds from the Lord that is called |
spiritual, f0r they are i'll the truths Ut wisdom
from the Lord; but men, who compasc the
Lords Chnrch on earth, are Ill the Diync.nats1-
raj. which also proceeds from the Lord. Hence
It fellows tia: the Divine principle which pro-
reeds from the Lord, iu its progress to its ultf-
mates. descends through three degrees. and is
.er1iitd celestial, spiritual and natural. The
Divine principle which proceeds from the Lord,
hose three degrees, and when it has de-
se s0stans sae those S fnres sns nasuss
If every Divine principle proceeding from the
ord; wherefore, wheu it is in its last degree,
t is lit its full:lcss. Such is the nature aud quail
ty OF the Word; in its last sense it is natural,
II its interior SENSE it is spiritual, and in its in
most sense it is celestial; and il: each sense it is
Divine. That tue Word is Of such nature and
quality does not appear in the sense Of the
heretofore been altogether uiacquainted with
be state of the heavens, and, consequently, |
With the nature OF the spiritual principle, aud
he celestial. and. Of course, with the distinction
,ctWeeu them lad the natural principle. The dis
inctinn between thcse degrees caunot be known
kept by the knowledge of corres pondcnce; for
Lcse three degrees arc altogether distinct IRON
'ach other, ikrcnd, cause, anu cfect, ,or like what
5 prior, posterior, and pustrcme, but yet make
me BY correspondence, fur the natural degree
n principle corresponds with the spiritual, Mnd
lso wit h tie celestial Inusmuch as the Word
its interior is spiritual and celestial therefore
{ is written by mere corrcspondcnces, and what
$ written By mere correspondences, in its ulti-
nate sense, is written in such style as that Of
he prophets and evange1ists, Which, notwith-
tanding its apparent con1nouncss, contains in
ail divine and a1,.ctc wislom.''
Correspondcnces Of natural things with spir-
tuat things arc not au invention of Swedenborg, |
tut are Inherent III tlie nature of things, aud the
vi them which Eas made known by |
'im is called The science Of correspondence, |
nd Is Us fixed aud we'll defined as the science Of
s:ronomr, or any other natural science. 1t |
vas known to the men Of the most ancient |
lines this earth, aud their language was t
INSTRUCTED according to it. All moucrn |
show many traces Of it which have |
from ancient times. As single in |
tance of the use of symbolicul language in ali,
llc word - bIood - may be at:tuccd as the true
meaning Of it is overlooked, or perverted, in the
revalent theology. In every Instance in which |
hood Is used III the Word, 1t can be seen to rep
csent divine truth, ~i,iyl, is the medium Of
piritual life to the world, Just as natural blood
the medium OF life to the natural body. stThe |
lood, US it Is well known, contains in its red
nrreuts ull the Substances which enter into the |
imposition Of the material body. For nothing |
xiSts i'll the body which had not prior exist
nee in the tloou. The blood is the substance ,
{ which tue body is formed; aud this formation
r creation is 4 perpetual one. The body is al
.ays dying, aud always being ,ecreateI In
his work of holding our bodies IN life, the i
lood performs double Office Of repairing the {
Id waste places, anu OF carrying away tho dead .