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?”

80. Every Single Constituent of the Word Contains a Marriage of the Lord and the Church, and So a Marriage of Goodness and Truth

The idea that every single constituent of the Word contains a marriage of the Lord and the church, and so a marriage of goodness and truth, is something not seen previously, nor could it have been seen, because the Word’s spiritual sense was not disclosed before, and the marriage can only be seen by means of that sense. For lying concealed within the Word’s literal sense are two other senses, a spiritual one and a celestial one. In the spiritual sense expressions in the Word relate mainly to the church, and in the celestial sense, mainly to the Lord. In the spiritual sense they relate also to Divine truth, and in the celestial sense to Divine goodness. Hence the aforesaid marriage in the Word’s literal sense.

But this marriage is not apparent to anyone unless he knows from the Word’s spiritual and celestial senses the symbolic meanings of the words and names. For some words and names refer to goodness, and some to truth, and some encompass both. Without that knowledge, therefore, the aforesaid marriage in every constituent of the Word cannot be seen.

It is for this reason that this arcanum has not been disclosed previously.

87. There Is a Correspondence of Everything in Heaven with Everything in the Human Being

People today do not know what "correspondence" is. There are many reasons for this ignorance, the primary one being that we have moved away from heaven because of our love for ourselves and for the world. You see, people who love themselves and the world above all focus on nothing but earthly matters because these provide gratification to their more outward senses and pleasure to their moods. They do not attend to spiritual matters because these offer gratification to their deeper senses and pleasure to their minds. So they set such matters aside, saying that they are too lofty to think about.

The early people behaved differently. For them, knowledge about correspondences was the pearl of all knowledge. By means of it, they gained intelligence and wisdom, and by means of it those who were of the church had a communication with heaven. Knowledge about correspondences is in fact angelic knowledge.

The earliest ones, who were heavenly people, did their thinking from correspondence like angels, so they could even talk with angels. Further, the Lord was quite often visible to them, and taught them. Nowadays, though, this knowledge has been so completely lost that people do not know what correspondence is. ¹

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