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Spiritual Life and the Word of God by Emanuel Swedenborg
page 108 of 136 (79%)
These four senses are called the celestial, the spiritual, the natural
from the celestial and spiritual, and the merely natural. This last is
for the world, the next for the lowest heaven, the spiritual for the
second heaven, and the celestial for the third. These four senses
differ so greatly from one another that when one is exhibited beside the
other no connection can be recognized; and yet they make one when one
follows the other; for one follows from the other as an effect from a
cause, or as what is posterior from what is prior; consequently as an
effect represents its cause and corresponds to its cause, so the
posterior sense corresponds to the prior; and thus it is that all four
senses make one through correspondences.

From all this these truths follow. The outmost sense of the Word, which
is the sense of the letter, and the fourth in order, contains in itself
the three interior senses, which are for the three heavens. These three
senses are unfolded and exhibited in the heavens when a man on the earth
is reverently reading the Word. Therefore the sense of the letter of
the Word is that from which and through which there is communication
with the heavens, also from which and through which man has conjunction
with the heavens. The sense of the letter of the Word is the basis of
Divine truth in the heavens, and without such a basis Divine truth would
be like a house without a foundation; and without such a basis the
wisdom of the angels would be like a house in the air. It is the sense
of the letter of the Word in which the power of Divine truth consists.
It is the sense of the letter of the Word through which man is
enlightened by the Lord, and through which he receives answers when he
wishes to be enlightened. It is the sense of the letter of the Word by
which everything of doctrine on the earth must be established. In the
sense of the letter of the Word is Divine truth in its fullness. In the
sense of the letter of the Word Divine truth is in its holiness. (A.E.,
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