1. The Sacred Scripture, or Word, Is Divine Truth Itself

Everyone says that the Word comes from God, is Divinely inspired, and so is holy. But even so, no one has known before this wherein the Divinity in it lies. For in its letter the Word appears as though written in the ordinary way, in a foreign style, neither as sublime or nor as lucid as writings of the present age seem to be.

As a result, a person who worships nature as God, or in preference to God, and so thinks prompted by self and his own self-interest, and not prompted by heaven in response to the Lord, may easily fall into error regarding the Word, and into scorning it, and when reading it, saying to himself, “What is this? What is that? Is this Divine? Can God, whose wisdom is infinite, speak so? Where is the holiness in it, and what makes it holy, other than some teaching of religion and so conviction?”

28. An educated person sees that these three elements can be termed end, cause and effect, also being, becoming, and expression, and that the end is the being, the cause is the becoming, and the effect is the expression. He sees, too, that as a consequence, every complete entity has in it a trine comprising a first, intermediate, and final element, or an end, cause and effect, and also a being, a becoming, and an expression.

Seeing this, he also sees that every Divine work is complete and perfect in its final expression, and also that the whole of any trine is found in the final expression, because the prior elements are at the same time present in it.