De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 1

1. ON THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD
from experience

I

A representation of the literal sense of the Word, containing a spiritual sense.

I was allowed to see great money-bags looking like sacks, in which a large sum of money was stored. Since the bags were open, it seemed as if anyone could help himself to the money in them, or even carry it all off; but near to them sat two angels as guards. The place where the sacks were stored looked like a manger in a stable. In the next room were to be seen some modest young women together with a chaste wife; and near that room were two children, and I was told they were to be played with not childishly, but wisely. Afterwards a prostitute was to be seen, and then a horse lying dead.
I then perceived that these represented the literal sense of the Word, in which there is a spiritual sense.* The large money-bags full of money meant knowledge about truth being present there in great quantity. Their being open, yet guarded by angels, meant that anyone could gain knowledge of truth from these, but care must be taken to avoid falsifying the internal sense, in which the bare truths are exposed. The manger in the stable, where the bags lay, meant spiritual instruction for the intellect. This meaning of a manger also applies to that in which the Lord lay when He was born; for a horse means the intellect, so a manger that which feeds it. The modest young women seen in the next room meant the truths of the church, and the chaste wife the linking of truth and good which is found throughout the Word. The children meant the innocence of the wisdom in it; they were angels from the third heaven, all of whom look like children. The prostitute with the lifeless horse meant the way many people today falsify the Word, as a result of which all understanding of the truth is lost. A prostitute means falsification, and a dead horse the absence of any understanding of truth.
* Added in the margin: `This is what the foundation of the wall of Jerusalem is, and the twelve precious stones in it, as well as the Urim and Thummim on Aaron's ephod.'-Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 2

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 2

2. II

The Word is inwardly alive.

When the Word is read by a person who treats it as holy, then in the second heaven its natural sense becomes spiritual, and in the third celestial, as the natural is successively shed. This happens because there is a correspondence between the natural, spiritual and celestial, and the Word is written by means of nothing but correspondences. The Word's natural sense is as it is in the literal sense, all of which becomes spiritual, and then celestial, in the heavens. And when it becomes spiritual, then it there lives from the light of truth in it, and when it becomes celestial it lives from the flame of good in it. For the spiritual ideas of the angels of the second heaven derive from the light there, which is in essence Divine truth; but the celestial ideas of the angels of the third heaven derive from the flame of good, which is in essence Divine good. For in the second heaven the light is brilliant white, and this enables the angels there to think; and in the third heaven the light is flame-like, and this enables the angels there to think.
The thoughts of angels are utterly different from those of people on earth. Their thinking takes place by means of light, either brilliant white or flame-like; these are beyond the range of a natural description. These facts make it clear that the Word is inwardly alive, and so is not dead but living for a person who has holy thoughts about the Word when he reads it. Moreover, everything in the Word is made alive by the Lord, for it becomes life with the Lord, as the Lord says in John:

The words I speak to you are spirit and life. John 6:63.

The life which flows from the Lord through the Word is the light of truth working on the intellect, and the love of good working on the will. This love and that light linked together make the life of heaven for a person, what is called everlasting life. The Lord too teaches:

The Word was God. In Him was life and His life was the light of men. John 1:4.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 3

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 3

3. III

The difference in general terms between the natural, the spiritual and the celestial.

There are three heavens, the last, the middle and the highest. In the last heaven are the natural people, but their natural has a touch either of the spiritual, which belongs to the middle heaven, or of the celestial, which belongs to the third heaven. In the second heaven are the spiritual people, and in the third are the celestial people. There are also intermediate people who are called spiritual-celestial. Many of these are preachers in the highest heaven.

[2] The difference between the natural, spiritual and celestial is such that they have no standard of comparison between them; the natural therefore cannot in any way or by any approximation approach the spiritual, nor the spiritual the natural. This is why the heavens are distinct. I have been allowed to know this as the result of much experience. I have often been sent among spiritual angels, and I then talked with them in a spiritual manner. What I said I then retained in my memory, but when I returned to the natural state, that of everyone in the world, and wanted to recall it from my earlier memory and describe it, I was unable to do so. It was impossible; there were no words available, and not even ideas in my thinking, by means of which I could express it. The ideas of thinking and words were spiritual, so far removed from the ideas and words of natural thought that there was no similarity at all. The remarkable thing is that when I was in that heaven and talked with the angels, I was then quite unaware that I was speaking in any other way than when speaking with people on earth. But I learned later that thoughts and speech are so different that they cannot be compared, and consequently they have no standard of comparison.

[3] There is a similar difference between the spiritual and the celestial. I have been told that this difference is similar and such that no proportion or comparison can exist between them; but I have been unable to confirm this by personal experience, not being an angel of the middle heaven. Some angels therefore of the middle heaven have been allowed to associate with angels of the third heaven, to think there and speak with them, to retain in their memory what they thought and said, and then to return to their own heaven. These told me they were unable to express a single idea or a single word of their previous state, and that this would be impossible. Finally they said there is no proportion or comparison between them.

[4] So I have been allowed a number of times to be in the company of angels of the middle and highest heavens, and hear them talking to one another. I was then in an inward natural state, far removed from worldly and bodily concerns, in fact in the state of first waking after sleep. I heard things which cannot be said or expressed, as we read happened with Paul [2 Cor. 12:4]; and at times I have been given the ability to perceive and understand the things they said. Their talk was full of secrets, about the Lord, redemption, regeneration, providence and other such matters. I was afterwards given to understand that these could not be spoken of or described in any spiritual or celestial words, but none the less they could be described by the words of a natural language so as to allow them to be grasped rationally. I was told that there do not exist any Divine secrets which cannot be perceived and expressed naturally too, although in a more generalised and imperfect form. Those who perceive them naturally by their rational intellect as a result of an affection for truth, can, when they later become spirits, perceive and speak about the same things in a spiritual or celestial manner, when they become angels, but no others can. For a single Divine truth perceived and loved naturally is like a crystal or porcelain vessel, which is later filled with wine, the wine having the quality of the truth, and its taste being the quality of the affection for truth.

[5] The existence of such a difference, which can be called limitless, between the natural, the spiritual and the celestial can be established from the difference between the thoughts of people on earth and those of angels, and from the difference in their speech, and also the kinds of work they do, as well as the difference between their scripts. All of these will be evident proofs of the nature of one and the other, and of the way in which everything reaches a higher degree of perfection, as it passes over from the world into heaven, and from one heaven to another.

[6] As regards thoughts, all the thoughts of people on earth, including the separate ideas in them, are to some extent affected by space, time, personality and matter. These are evident in natural light, that of the world; for nothing can be thought about without light, just as nothing can be seen without light. Natural light, the light of the world, is dead, since it comes from its sun, which is nothing but fire. Yet the light of the heavens everywhere and constantly flows into that light, and gives it life, so allowing a thing to be perceived and understood. The light of the world cannot by itself confer any power of perception or understanding, that is, bring about any natural or rational illumination; but the light of the world coming from the light of heaven confers this power and produces this result, because the light of heaven comes from its sun, which is the Lord and therefore life itself.
The influence of the light of heaven on the light of the world is like the influence of the cause on the effect; the nature of this will be discussed elsewhere [see 49-51]. These facts reveal the nature of natural thought or the ideas thought by people on earth. That is to say, they are indissolubly bound up with space, time, personality and matter. Consequently these thoughts, or ideas composing thoughts, are very limited and restricted, and are thus gross and to be called material. However, the thoughts of the angels of the middle heaven are all devoid of space, time, personality and matter. They are therefore limitless and unrestricted. The subjects of their thoughts are, like the thoughts themselves, spiritual, so that they think about them spiritually and not naturally. As for the angels of the highest heaven, they do not have thoughts but perceptions of things which they hear and see. The place of thoughts is for them taken by affections, which take various forms with them, just as thoughts do with spiritual angels.

[7] As regards speech, human speaking is like the ideas making up their thought, for these turn into words when converted into speech. Each word therefore in human speech has some share in space, time, personality and matter. However, the speech of the angels of the middle heaven is also like the ideas of their thought; for the words of their speech express these. But the speech of the angels of the highest heaven is entirely derived from variations in their affections. But when they talk with spiritual angels they speak like they do, differently, however, when they talk among themselves.
Such being the nature of the speech of angels and that of people on earth, their modes of speech are so different that they have nothing in common. The difference is such that a person cannot understand any word spoken by an angel, nor can an angel any word spoken by a person. I have heard the speech of angels and kept in mind the words, and afterwards checked whether that word was the same as any word in human speech or language; there was not one. There is one spiritual speech for all, which is innate in every person; and he acquires it as soon as he becomes a spirit.
As regards writing, this is like their speech. The writing of spiritual angels resembles the writing of people in the world as regards the use of letters; but every letter has a meaning. So you would say, if you saw it when in the natural state, that it is nothing but letters. But writings in the highest heaven are not similar as regards letters. Their letters are drawn with various curves, not unlike the letters of the Hebrew language, but everywhere bent so that there is never a straight line in them. Each letter refers to a thing, which they grasp by perceiving, not by thinking about it. This is why one who is natural understands nothing of spiritual writing, nor does one who is spiritual that of natural writing. Nor does one who is spiritual understand anything of celestial writing, nor does one who is celestial understand anything of spiritual writing, unless he is in the company of one who is spiritual.

[8] It is the same with their kinds of work, which are numerous, since everyone has some work to do. What sort of work the spiritual angels do cannot be described to a natural person, nor what the celestial do to one who is spiritual. The difference is as great as that between their thoughts, modes of speech and writing.

[9] These facts may establish that the difference between the natural, spiritual and celestial is such that they can only agree by means of correspondences. This too is the reason why people on earth are unaware of being in the company of spirits, and spirits are unaware of being in the company of people. Yet they are perpetually in each other's company. For a person cannot live for a minute without being among spirits as regards his thoughts and affections; nor can a spirit or an angel live for a moment without being present with people. The reason is that there is a perpetual link operating from first to last things, and so from the Lord to man. Linking by means of correspondences was established from creation, and the influence comes by way of angels and spirits. Everything celestial exerts an influence upon the spiritual, and the spiritual on the natural, and at the ultimate level of this, the bodily and material, it comes to an end and there remains. Nothing can continue in existence without such an ultimate level to be acted on by the intermediate levels. Otherwise it would be like houses built in the air. The human race is therefore the basis and foundation of the heavens.

[10] The reason why no angel knows that there is this difference between the natural, spiritual and celestial is that an angel does not change state; that is, he does not pass from the spiritual state into the natural one, so as to be able to check out the differences. I have talked with them on this subject, and they said they were unaware of the differences. They thought they were thinking, speaking, writing and working in the same way as in the world, but they were given a demonstration by undergoing changes of state, so that they did their thinking by turns, first in one and then in the other mode. Likewise they spoke by turns, first in one way and then in the other; and they also read their writings in the spiritual state and in the natural, and did their work likewise. Then they learned that the difference is indescribable. On this subject I was permitted to instruct even angels, since I am permitted to be by turns in either world, and to check out one against the other. Afterwards they all admitted this was so.

[11] However, the likeness of the natural, spiritual and celestial states lies in the kind of things which are the objects of sight, taste, smell and hearing, as well as the varieties of the sense of touch. Everyone appears to their sight like people in the world; their clothes are to be seen, their houses, and also gardens or parks, as well as fields, likewise well-watered grounds; also food and drink of various kinds, as well as terrestrial animals, the birds of the sky and in the waters fishes of various kinds and in various forms.
Their speech is to be heard as in the world, also singing and pieces of music. Taste is similar, and so is smell. In short, so is everything which is to be seen or perceived by any of the senses. But still these are of spiritual origin, and they therefore think spiritually about them and give them spiritual names. But all of these things, as they are to be seen or perceived in the middle and highest heavens, in respect of excellence of forms and harmonies, and in respect of perfections, which are outstanding and transcendental, are impossible to describe except imperfectly, only as resembling the most perfect things in the world, which are none the less imperfect compared with those in heaven.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 4

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 4

4. IV

The Word is holy, even in its characters and points.

I once had a paper sent me from heaven written in the Hebrew alphabet, but as in the most ancient texts, where the letters, which today are to some extent composed of straight lines, were then curved with serifs pointing upwards. An angel who was with me said that he knew whole meanings simply from the letters, and each letter has its own particular meaning. They knew this from the curves of the lines in each letter, in addition to the subject which they knew separately from the letter as a whole. He then explained to me the meaning of yod ( ), aleph ( ) and he ( ), the two letters separately and when put together. He said that he, which is in [YHWH], and which was added to the names of Abraham and Sarah [Gen. 17:5, 15] meant what is infinite and eternal. He said that in many places the Word is so written; and when it is read in the Hebrew text by a Jew or a Christian, the meaning of the individual letters is known in the third heaven. For the angels of the third heaven have the Word written in such letters, and they read it letter by letter. They said that in the sense to be drawn from the letters the Word deals only with the Lord. The reason is that the curves in the letters derive from the flow of heaven, which influences especially the angels of the third heaven. Those angels therefore have an innate knowledge of this script, because they are subject to the order of heaven and live altogether in accordance with it.*
[2] They explained to me also the meaning of Psalm 32 verse 2 in the Word from the letters or syllables alone, and said that their meaning might be summarised as `the Lord is merciful even to those who do evil'. They went on to say that the vowels there are to denote the sound corresponding to the affection. They could not pronounce the vowels i and e, but for i they pronounce y** or eu, for e they say eu. They use the vowels a, o and u, because these vowels give a full sound, but i and e a close sound. Also they do not pronounce some consonants with a hard, but a soft sound, and hard letters such (daleth) and (qoph),*** etc. have no meaning for them unless pronounced softly. This too is the reason why many hard letters are also used with points inside them, meaning that [they are pronounced with a hard sound, but without a point] they are pronounced with a soft sound.**** They added that hardness in letters is in use in the spiritual heaven, because those there are in possession of truths, and have understanding by their means. But in the celestial heaven all are in possession of the good of love and consequently of wisdom, and truth allows hardness, but good does not. These facts may establish what is the meaning of the Lord's saying that not a jot or a tittle or a serif will pass away from the Law (Matt. 5: 18; Luke 16: 17); and it is also clear from these facts that the Lord's Divine Providence ensured that all the letters in the Hebrew text of the Word were counted by the Massoretes.
* On the heavenly scripts see further 33, 62. The Author uses language appropriate to the alphabetical scripts he knew, but it is clear that he is really describing ideographic scripts similar to Chinese, where each character has a meaning rather than primarily a sound.-Tr.
** As in French u or German. -Tr.
*** Probably an error for kaph.-Tr.
**** The letters b, g, d, k, p, t seem to be meant, since in Hebrew these are pronounced as spirants except when they have a dot in the middle. The correction is due to B. Rogers.-Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 5

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 5

5. V

The spiritual sense of the Word and its natural sense.

I have sometimes talked with spirits who were unwilling to know anything about the spiritual sense of the Word, saying that its natural sense is the only meaning the Word has, and this is holy because it comes from God. They asserted that if a spiritual sense were to be accepted, the literal form of the Word would be worthless. Many of them insisted on this, but they received a reply from heaven, that the Word without a spiritual sense in it would not be Divine, and because the spiritual sense is its soul, it is consequently Divine, in fact alive; for without this the literal sense would be as if dead. The real holiness of the Word consists in this. Thus the Word can be compared to the Divine Man, who is the Lord; in Him there is not only a natural Divine, but also a spiritual Divine and a celestial Divine. This is why the Lord calls Himself the Word. It was also said that the real holiness of the Word lies in its literal sense, and that this is more holy than the others, the internal senses, because it is the wrapping and container of the others, and it is like the body which is made alive by the soul. So the Word in its literal or natural sense possesses its fullness and also its power; and by its means a person is linked with the heavens, which would be separated from mankind but for the literal sense. Everyone knows and acknowledges that the Word is in its depths spiritual, but up to now it has been obscure where this spirituality was hidden.
[2] But since the spirits who took a stand on behalf of the literal sense alone were unwilling to be convinced by these arguments, there was produced countless passages from the natural sense, which could never be understood without the spiritual sense. For instance there are in the Prophets lists of nothing but names; many kinds of animals are named, such as lions, bears, oxen, calves, dogs, wolves, owls, ojim,* dragons; also mountains and forests, and many other things besides, which would mean nothing without a spiritual sense.
For instance, what might be the meaning of a dragon described as red with seven heads and seven diadems on its heads, pulling down with its tail a third of the stars of heaven, and wanting to swallow the baby to which the woman was about to give birth; the woman being given the two wings of the great eagle to fly into the desert, where the dragon ejected water from its mouth after her like a river? Again, without the spiritual sense it would not be known what was the meaning of the dragon's two beasts; by the one which came up out of the sea, resembling a leopard, with feet like a bear's and a mouth like a lion's; and by its other beast which came up out of the ground, as described in Revelation Chapters 12 and 13. Again, what is the meaning there of the Lamb opening the seal of the book, horses coming out, first a white one, then a red, then a black and then a pale one, described in Revelation Chapter 6, as well as the other things in that book? Again, in Zechariah, what is the meaning of the four horns and the four smiths (Chapter 1: 18-21); the lamp-stand and the two olive trees next to it (Chapter 4); the four chariots coming out between the two mountains, attached to which were horses, red, black, white and dappled (Chapter 6)? Again, the ram and the he-goat and their horns, with which they fought each other in Daniel (Chapter 8); and the four beasts coming up out of the sea (Chapter 7); not to mention vast quantities of similar things? To convince them further it was cited what the Lord said to the disciples in Matthew (Chapter 24) about the ending of the age and His coming again, which no one could understand without the spiritual sense.
[3] The existence of a spiritual sense in every detail of the Word can also be confirmed by some of the Lord's sayings, which could not be grasped unless understood spiritually. For instance, no one would be allowed to call his father on earth `father', nor `teacher' or `master', because they have one Father, Teacher and Master (Matt. 23:7-10); or that they should not judge for fear of being judged (Matt. 7:1, 2); or that a husband and wife are not two, but one flesh (Matt. 19:5, 6), although they are not one flesh in the natural sense. Nor is there any prohibition of judging one's companion or neighbour as regards his natural life, for this is in society's interest; but the prohibition is on judging him as regards his spiritual life, for this is known to none but the Lord. Again, the Lord did not forbid calling one's father `father', nor a teacher `teacher', nor a master `master' in the natural sense, but He did in the spiritual sense. In this there is only one Father, Teacher and Master. And the same is true in other cases.
[4] They were convinced by this that there is a spiritual sense contained in the natural sense of the Word, and that still the real holiness of the Word resides in its literal sense, because all the inner meanings of the Word are fully present in it. In addition it was proved that the literal sense also exhibits clearly everything which teaches the way to salvation, and so how to live and what to believe. Also, every teaching of the church is to be drawn from the literal sense of the Word, and proved by it; not purely by the spiritual sense, since this does not permit linking with heaven and through heaven with the Lord, but this must take place by means of the literal sense. For the Lord's Divine influence coming through the Word extends from first to last.
* Possibly to be emended to ochim, which are mentioned along with ziim and ijim, apparently nocturnal birds: see Isa. 13:21, 22.-Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 6

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 6

6. VI

The Word and natural theology, as being nothing but the Word and derived from it; the excellence of the style of the Word.

I heard a serious argument between spirits who in the world had been learned, in some cases from the Word, in others as the result of natural illumination. The latter insisted that natural theology is sufficient, and is able to teach, in fact enlighten, a person without the Word. One could see that God exists, there is a heaven and a hell, and that the soul is immortal and life is everlasting. The other party, however, said it is only the Word which teaches these things and gives enlightenment. The spirits who took the part of natural theology alone made a violent attack on the supporters of the Word, and kept it up for several days, thinking in their hearts and eventually saying that the Word is of no value. It was written in a style so simple and at the same time so obscure in very many places that no one could be taught, much less enlightened, by it. They said that the writings of learned people were far superior, such as the writings of Cicero, Seneca and a number of modern scholars.
The reply they were given was that the style of the Word excels that of all the learned people in the whole world, because there is in it not a single phrase, or rather not a single word or letter, which does not contain something of the Lord, and so something of heaven and the church, since it comes from God, and is consequently at its inmost level spiritual. This Divine quality lies hidden within it, like the soul in the body. When a person reads it, this is unfolded in sequence to the eyes of angels. They are affected by the holiness in it as its spirituality is unfolded, and this is communicated to the person. From this it is clear that its very style, however simple it appears, is infinitely superior to any style used by the most learned people in the world. Although their style may be polished,* elegant and sublime, it still does not communicate with heaven, so that compared to the style of the Word it is utterly worthless.
[2] Although the spirits who supported natural theology listened to this, they still rejected it, because it was plain that in the world they had despised the Word. Those who in the world despise the Word, and support this attitude by quoting passages from it, go on perpetually despising it after death. For any principle adopted in the world about God and the Word, and then confirmed, after death remains rooted too deeply to be eradicated. So since they were communicating not with heaven, but with hell, they began to establish links with some satans there, to such an extent that they ended up by talking together with the satans, and gnashing their teeth they breathed slaughter against the souls of the supporters of the Word. Still they were unable to do anything at all to them, for they had the Lord on their side, and the others had Satan on theirs. One group therefore was received into heaven, and the others were thrown into hell.
[3] Afterwards the angels talked about natural theology, saying that without the Word it reveals nothing, but merely confirms the points of the church's teaching known from the Word. Proofs from nature, gathered by means of the illumination of the reason, strengthen spiritual truths, because everyone has some natural idea of spiritual matters. This allows him to keep these things in his memory, and he can take them out to think about them, and use his reason to turn them over and debate them. If therefore proofs are adduced from nature, this strengthens the truth. But care must still be taken that falsity is not seized upon in place of truth, since clever people are just as able to prove falsity as truth. Consequently a heresy can be so strengthened that it destroys the real truth.
[4] They went on to say that no one can approach spiritual theology from natural theology, though anyone can approach natural theology from spiritual, since this is in accordance with Divine order, but the other is contrary to it. For the natural is gross and impure, the spiritual is subtle and pure. It is impossible to approach the subtle and pure from the gross and impure, but the reverse is possible; the angels can look below them and see all that is there. But no one from lower down can see what is in the heavens. In fact an angel can see a spirit, who is more gross, but this spirit cannot see an angel, who is more pure. When therefore such spirits go up into a heaven inhabited by angels, as often happens, they see no one, not even their houses; so they go away saying it is empty and waste space.
[5] It is the same with the Word. Those who do not believe in the Word on the evidence of the Word are quite unable to believe in anything Divine on the evidence of nature. For the Lord teaches:

They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone comes back from the dead. Luke 16:29, 31.

The same is true, if anyone rejects the Word and wants to believe solely on the evidence of nature. As for certain of the ancients, who were pagans, such as Aristotle and Cicero and others, writing about the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, they did not acquire this knowledge first from their own natural illumination, but from the religion of the ancients. They had received a Divine revelation, which was spread successively to other heathens.
* Reading tersus as proposed by B. Rogers.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 7

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 7

7. VII

The spiritual sense of the Word; on correspondences.

Every single thing in nature has a correspondence with spiritual things. The same is true of every single part of the human body, as may be seen demonstrated in two chapters of my book on Heaven and Hell [87-115]. But today it is not known what correspondence is. However, in the most ancient times the knowledge of correspondences was the queen of sciences, and so universally known that the most ancient people wrote all their tablets and books by means of correspondences. The myths of the earliest peoples were the same, as were the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians. The Book of Job, which was a book of the ancient church, is full of correspondences.
[2] All ancient churches were intended to represent heavenly things; all their rituals, and also all the laws for the establishment of their worship, were composed entirely of correspondences. The same was true of the church of the sons of Jacob; the whole burnt offerings and the sacrifices in all their details were correspondences. The same was true of the tabernacle and everything in it; as also their festivals, such as the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of tabernacles and the feast of first-fruits; so also were their laws and judgments. Since they were correspondences, they are things of the kind which come into existence at the ultimate level of nature; and since everything in nature has a correspondence, and such things also have a meaning, it follows that the literal sense of the Word is composed entirely of correspondences. The Lord too, since he spoke from His Divinity, also spoke the Word; and it also follows that He spoke by means of correspondences. That which comes down from the Divinity and is in itself Divine at the ultimate level passes into such things as correspond to what is Divine, celestial and spiritual, that is, those which hold at their inmost level celestial and spiritual things, and have this meaning.
For a further demonstration of what correspondences are, see my Arcana Caelestia, in which the correspondences in Genesis and Exodus are explained, and in addition see what has been collected from that source on the subject in my Teaching of the New Jerusalem* and Heaven and Hell. The spiritual or internal sense of the Word is nothing but the literal sense unfolded by means of correspondences, for it teaches the spiritual lesson which the angels in heaven perceive, when a person in the world thinks in a natural fashion about what he reads in the Word.

[3] I have heard and perceived from heaven that the people of the most ancient church, who are those meant in the spiritual sense in the first chapters of Genesis by Adam and Eve, were in such close contact with angels that they could speak with them by means of correspondences. Consequently their state of wisdom was such that whatever they saw on earth they perceived at the same time spiritually, that is, jointly with angels. I was told that Enoch, who is mentioned in Genesis [5:21-24], together with his companions made a collection of correspondences from the angels' lips, and transmitted the knowledge of them to their descendants. As a result the knowledge of correspondences was not only widespread, but prized in many kingdoms of Asia, especially in Egypt, Assyria and Babel, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and also Canaan. From there it spread to Greece, but there it was converted into myths.
This can be established merely by considering Olympus, Helicon and Pindus near Athens,** and also from the winged horse named Pegasus using its hoof to make a spring burst forth, by which the nine maidens*** made their dwelling. For a mountain, such as Helicon, by correspondence means the higher heaven, the hill beneath the mountain of Pindus the heaven below that, the winged horse Pegasus means the intellect enlightened by the spiritual, a spring intelligence and learning, the nine maidens the knowledge of truth and sciences. The rest of the stories known as myths written by the earliest peoples in Greece are similar; these have been collected and described by Ovid in his Metamorphosis.****

[4] But when with the passage of time the representative practices of the church became idolatrous, the Lord's Divine Providence ensured that this knowledge was progressively blotted out, and with the Israelite and Jewish race it was completely destroyed and became extinct. Certainly the worship of this people was entirely representative, but still there was no knowledge of what any representation meant. For they were utterly natural people, so that they were neither able nor willing to know anything about the spiritual man, and his faith and love, and so nothing about correspondence.
[5] The reason why the idolatrous practices of peoples of antiquity originated from their knowledge of correspondences was that everything to be seen upon the earth has a correspondence; so not only trees, but also cattle and birds of every kind, as well as fishes and other things. The ancients, possessing the knowledge of correspondences, made themselves images corresponding to spiritual ideas, and took pleasure in them, because they meant things to do with heaven and the church. Thus they placed such images not only in their temples but in their homes, not for them to be worshipped, but as a reminder of their heavenly meaning. So in Egypt there were erected calves, oxen, snakes, boys, old men, girls and many more things; because a calf meant the innocence of the natural man, oxen his affections, snakes the prudence of the sensual man,***** a boy innocence, old men wisdom, girls affections for truth, and so on. After the knowledge of correspondences had been blotted out, their descendants in ignorance of their meanings began to worship as holy and finally as deities the images and likenesses set up by the ancients, because they were placed in or near temples.
The hieroglyphs of the Egyptians are of the same origin.****** It was much the same with other peoples, as Dagon among the Philistines at Ashdod; he was above like a man, below like a fish,******* an image devised because a man means rational intelligence and a fish natural knowledge. This too is why the ancients worshipped in gardens and groves arranged according to the species of the trees; and also why their sacred rituals were held on mountains. For gardens and groves meant spiritual intelligence, and each kind of tree some detail of this. For instance, the olive-tree meant the good of love for it, the vine the truth of faith, the cedar its rational, and so on; and a mountain meant heaven. This is why the ancients worshipped on mountains.
The knowledge of correspondences lasted among many eastern peoples down to the Lord's coming, as may be proved from the wise men from the east who came to the Lord on His birth. So a star went before them, and they brought with them gold, frankincense and myrrh. And the shepherds were told, as a sign that they should know He was the Lord, that they would see Him in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes, because there was no place at the inn. For the star which went before them meant knowledge coming from heaven, since stars in the Word mean pieces of knowledge. Gold meant celestial good, frankincense spiritual good, and myrrh natural good, all worship being from these three sources. The manger in which the baby Lord was found by the shepherds means spiritual nourishment, because horses which feed from a manger mean matters of the intellect. The inn, where there was no place, meant the Jewish church, where at that time there was no spiritual nourishment, because everything in the Word and thus every detail of their worship was adulterated and perverted. This is why it is said that this should be a sign for them that it was the Lord (Luke 2:12).
But there was no knowledge of correspondences at all among the Israelite and Jewish people, despite the fact that the whole of their worship and all the laws and judgments given to them, and everything in the Word, were nothing but correspondences. The reason was that that people was at heart idolatrous, and such that it did not even want to know that any detail of their worship had any celestial or spiritual meaning. For they wanted all these things to be holy in themselves, and to be concerned with outward matters as they were. If therefore spiritual and celestial matters had been revealed to them, they would not only have rejected but also profaned them. On this account heaven was so closed to them that they hardly knew they would live after death.
The truth of this is plain from their failure to acknowledge the Lord, although the whole of the Sacred Scripture contains prophecies and predictions about Him. The sole reason for their rejection of Him was that He taught them about a heavenly kingdom, not one on earth. For they wanted a Messiah to raise them above all peoples throughout the world, not a Messiah to look after their eternal salvation. They say, moreover, that the Word contains many secrets which they call mysteries; but they do not want to know them, because they concern the Lord and His kingdom. But they want to know, if they are told they concern gold and alchemy.

[6] The reason why that knowledge was not revealed after that period was that the Christians of the primitive church were so exceedingly simple, that it could not be revealed to them. For if it had been, it would have been no use to them, nor would it have been grasped. Following this period the whole Christian world was plunged in darkness arising from the Popish religion, which eventually became Babylonia. Those from Babel, who had convinced themselves of its false beliefs, are mostly natural people who rely on their senses. These are neither able nor willing to grasp what is spiritual, that is, what is meant by the correspondence of natural with spiritual things.********
However, after the Reformation, because people began to make a distinction between faith and charity, and to worship the one God in three persons, so as to make three gods, whom they merely named as one, heavenly truths were hidden from them. This was to prevent people, if they had been revealed, falsifying them and applying them to the teaching of faith alone, and none of them to charity and love. If therefore the spiritual sense of the Word had then been revealed, they would also have closed heaven against themselves by falsifying these truths.
[7] For anyone is allowed to understand the literal sense of the Word simply, so long as he does not convince himself so firmly of the appearances of truth it contains as to destroy the real truth. For interpreting the Word in its spiritual sense from the falsities of teaching closes heaven, and cannot open it. But interpreting the spiritual sense from the truths of teaching opens heaven, because this is the sense which the angels possess. Therefore this sense enables a person to think together with angels, thus linking them to himself in his intellectual faculty. But if a person has been taught falsities, and wants to explore the spiritual sense from some knowledge of correspondences, he falsifies it. On the other hand, if a person first possesses real truths, that sense agrees with the truths and is made clear by them, because it is in the light of heaven. But it does not at all agree********* with falsities, and if anything of that truth were to become visible, the light of heaven would be replaced by thick darkness. For the angels turn away from him, and so close heaven to him.
The spiritual sense of the Word is to be understood by the Lord's tunic, which was all of a piece, and the soldiers were not allowed to divide it. However, the natural sense of the Word is meant by the clothes which the soldiers divided among themselves. Clothes in the Word mean truths, and the Lord's clothes Divine truths. That is why when the Lord was transfigured before Peter, James and John, his clothes were seen shining like light.

[8] The reason why the Lord has at the present time revealed the spiritual sense of the Word is that the teaching concerning real truth has now been revealed. This teaching is partly contained in my Teaching of the New Jerusalem, and now in the minor works which are being published.********** Since that teaching and no other is in agreement with the spiritual sense of the Word, that sense, together with a knowledge of correspondences, has now for the first time been disclosed. That sense is also meant by the Lord's appearing in the clouds of the sky with glory and power (Matt. 24:30, 31). This chapter deals with the ending of the age, by which is to be understood the last period of the church. A cloud of the sky there and elsewhere in the Word means the Word in its literal sense, which is like a cloud compared to the spiritual sense. Glory, however, there and also elsewhere in the Word means the Word in its spiritual sense, which is also Divine Truth in light; power means the power it possesses in the Word.
The revelation of the Word in its spiritual sense is also promised in the Book of Revelation. That sense is there to be understood by the white horse (Rev. 19:11-14), and by God's great banquet, to which He invited and assembled everyone (v. 17ff.) The fact that that sense would not be acknowledged for a long time (something that only happens to those who have received false teaching, especially about the Lord) is to be understood by the beast and the kings of the earth, who were going to make war on Him who sits on the white horse (v. 19). The beast is to be understood as the Roman Catholics, as in Chapter 17: 3, and the kings of the earth as the Reformed Christians, who have received false teaching.
The mysteries which some people look for in the Word are simply its spiritual and celestial senses.
* i.e. The New Jerusalem and Heaven's Teaching for it.-Tr.
** An exaggeration, since Helicon is some fifty miles from Athens and the other mountains are much further away -Tr.
*** i.e. the Muses. -Tr.
**** Properly Metamorphoses, a long poem by the Roman poet Ovid (1st century bc); significantly the Author does not refer to the original Greek sources -Tr.
***** i. e. one who is governed by his bodily senses. - Tr.
****** The hieroglyphic script is now known to be a largely phonetic system of writing; but its origin is still unknown. - Tr.
******* A reference to 1 Sam. 5:4, but this detail is not in the text as now accepted. -Tr.
******** Added in margin: `For this would have convinced them that `Peter' did not mean Peter, and also that the Word is Divine even up to its inmost level; and that the Pope's pronouncement is comparatively of no importance.'
********* Reading with B. Rogers at ne hilum concordat. -Tr.
********** i.e. The New Jerusalem and Heaven's Teaching for it and presumably some of the Four Doctrines published in 1763.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 8

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 8

8. VIII

The Lord's marriage with the church, which is the marriage of good and truth in the Word.

It is well known that in the Word the Lord is called bridegroom and husband, and the church bride and wife. The reason these terms are applied to the Lord or the church is because of the linking of good and truth in every individual in heaven and in the church, who has the church within him. For the Lord exerts His influence on an angel or a member of the church from the good of love and charity. The angel or member of the church who is governed by the good of love and charity receives the Lord in the truths of teaching and faith he possesses from the Word. Thus a linking takes place, which is called the heavenly marriage. This marriage is present in the details of the Word, and since it has this in its details the Word may be called the heavenly marriage.
The existence of such a marriage in the details of the Word was demonstrated at length in my Arcana Caelestia and also in the Teaching of the New Jerusalem,* where the Word is discussed. The existence of such a marriage can only be seen by** those who are concerned for its inner or spiritual sense. For there are everywhere, and quite obviously in the prophetic books, two expressions for one thing, one of which refers to good, and so to the Lord, the other to truth and so to the church. Anyone who knows the correspondences can see this clearly; for there are expressions and words which correspond to good, and there are others*** which correspond to truths. This then is how the Lord is linked with heaven and with the church by means of the Word.

[2] Since there is a marriage in the Word, it contains a spiritual and a celestial sense. The spiritual sense is for those in the Lord's spiritual kingdom, who make up all the lower heavens; the celestial sense is for those in the Lord's celestial kingdom, who make up all the higher heavens. The angels of the spiritual kingdom possess the truths of the Word, but those of the celestial kingdom its good. When therefore a person reads the Word piously, the spiritual angels perceive by correspondences the truths in it, the celestial angels the kinds of good in it. But, what is a secret, the celestial angels do not perceive the good in it directly from the person, but indirectly through the spiritual angels. The reason is that hardly anyone in the Christian world today possesses the good of celestial love, but some possess only truths. The good of love cannot therefore pass directly from a person to the celestial angels who compose the third heaven, but it passes indirectly through the spiritual angels who compose the second heaven.
Thus the Lord's marriage with the church is also realised in the heavens by means of the Word. For the Word in its spiritual sense deals with the church, but in its celestial sense with the Lord. So the spiritual angels relate everything to the church, but the celestial angels to the Lord. That is why the Lord likens heaven to a marriage and so calls it; and it is the Word which brings about this marriage. But this is a secret which can only dimly be perceived by a person on earth, but it is clearly perceived by an angel in heaven. [3] The reason why celestial angels can relate to the Lord everything which the spiritual angels relate to the church is that the Lord is everything to the church.
* i.e. The New Jerusalem and Heaven's Teaching for it. -Tr.
** The manuscript has `from'. -Tr.
*** The manuscript has `correspondences'. B. Rogers proposes the same emendation-Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 9

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 9

9. IX

Those whose aim is to possess luxury and honours in the world and also in heaven, as well as those who aim at wealth and profit in the world and those who aim at a reputation for learning, do not see or find any real truth in the Word.

I was allowed to talk with many in the spiritual world, who had thought that they would shine like stars in heaven, because, so they said, they had treated the Word as holy, read it through many times, collected many passages from it and used them to prove the dogmas of their belief. So they had a reputation for learning in the world and they themselves together with others believed that they would be Michaels and Raphaels. But many of them were tested to see what love had made them study the Word, and it was discovered that for some it had been self-love, so that they would appear important in the world and be respected as leaders of the church; for some it was to get a reputation for learning and so be promoted to honours; for some it was to acquire wealth, and for some to become learned preachers. When finally they were examined to see whether they had learned any real truth from the Word, it was found that they knew nothing but what is obvious to anyone from its literal sense, and they knew no genuine truth which might serve inwardly for instruction. The reason for this was that their aims were themselves and the world, not the Lord and heaven. When these are their aims a person and his mind are confined to himself and the world, and he thinks constantly from his self, which is in thick darkness as regards everything in heaven. For a person's self is nothing but evil and the falsity it produces. So someone who in reading the Word regards himself, or honours or reputation or profit, cannot be withdrawn by the Lord from the self, and so be raised into the light of heaven; and consequently he cannot receive any influence from the Lord through heaven.
[2] I saw many such people, and each of them made all possible efforts to reach heaven, and they were admitted there. But on arrival they were examined to see if they knew anything of the truth the angels have, but they knew nothing but the bare words of the literal sense without any inner understanding of them. So in the eyes of the angels they looked stripped of their clothes and as if naked, and so they were sent down below. Some of them were deprived of intellectual sight in the light of heaven, and afterwards of their eyesight. Afterwards they were seized by violent pain in the heart, and were thus taken below. But the proud belief that they had deserved heaven lingered.
This is the fate of those who study the Word with the aim of acquiring honours, reputation and profit. But quite different is the fate of those who are led to study the Word by an affection for truth, or who in reading the Word take pleasure in truth for its own sake. Their aim is the love of God and the love of the neighbour, and they have life as their aim. All of these as lovers of truth receive influence from the Lord, seeing and finding real truths in the Word. For their intellects are enlightened, and this allows them to perceive the truths as if of themselves, though not really from themselves; and after death they are raised to heaven, where truth enjoys its own light, so becoming spiritual and angels.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 10

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 10

10. X

The ultimate sense of the Word,* which is the literal sense alone, corresponds to the beard and hair of the head of an angelic person.

It may seem surprising the first time it is said or we hear it said that the hair of the head and the beard correspond to the Word at its ultimate level. But this correspondence is due to the fact that everything in the Word corresponds to everything in heaven, and heaven corresponds to everything in a person. For heaven taken as a whole is like a single person in the Lord's sight; on this correspondence see Heaven and Hell [87-102, 307]. [2] I was allowed to perceive that everything in the Word corresponds to everything in heaven from the fact that each chapter in the books of the prophets corresponds to one particular community in heaven. For on reading through the prophetic parts of the word from Isaiah to Malachi, I was allowed to see that the communities of heaven were aroused one after the other, and they perceived the spiritual sense which corresponded to them. So from this and other proofs it was plain to me that the whole of heaven has, part by part, a correspondence to the Word. Now since there is such a correspondence of the Word to heaven, and heaven as a whole and in its parts corresponds to a person, this is why the ultimate level of the Word corresponds to the ultimate in a person. The ultimate level in the Word is the literal sense, and the ultimate level in a person is the hair of his head and his beard.
[3] This is why when people who have loved the Word even at its ultimate level after death become spirits, they are to be seen with a fair head of hair; and so are the angels. When these same people become angels, they also let their beards grow. On the other hand, all who have despised the literal sense of the Word, on becoming spirits after death, turn bald. This is also a sign that they are devoid of truths. So to avoid embarrassing others, they cover their heads with a head-dress.
[4] Since the hair and the beard mean the ultimate level of heaven, and so also the ultimate level of Divine Truth or the Word, the Ancient of Days is described as having the hair of his head like clean wool (Daniel 7:9). Likewise the Son of Man or the Lord as regards the Word (Rev. 1:14). For the same reason the strength of Samson lay in his hair, and he was weakened by having it cut off. The condition of a Nazarite also lay in his hair; for the Nazarite represented the Lord at His ultimate level, and so also heaven at its ultimate level. This was the reason why the forty-two children were torn in pieces by bears for calling Elisha bald (2 Kings 2:23, 24). [5] Elisha, like Elijah and the other prophets, represented the Lord as regards the Word; and the Word without its ultimate, that is, its literal sense, is no longer the Word. For the literal sense of the Word is like a bottle filled with fine wine; so if the bottle is broken, all the wine is lost. The literal sense of the Word is like the bones and skin of the human body; take them away and the whole person falls to pieces. That is why what holds the Word together and in fact gives it its power is its ultimate sense, the literal sense; for this sustains and holds together all the Divine truth it contains.
[6] Since baldness means the absence of truth, when the Jewish church, since it lacks the ultimate level, abandoned Jehovah and despised the Word, it was called bald, as in Jeremiah:

Every head is bald and every beard is shorn. Jer. 48:37.

In Isaiah:

Baldness on their heads, and a shorn beard. Isa. 15:2.

In Ezekiel:

To shave his head and beard with a razor. Ezek. 5:1.
Shame on all their faces, and baldness on all heads. Ezek. 7:18.
Every head has been made bald. Ezek. 29:18.
And in other places, such as Amos 8:10, Micah 1:16.

[7] But the sense of the Word known as the literal sense corresponds at its ultimate level to the hair of the head, but in other respects to various parts of the human body, as its head, chest, loins and feet. But where those correspondences occur in that sense, the Word is so to speak clothed, and so corresponds to the clothing of those parts. For in general clothes mean truths, and really correspond to them. But there are still many things in the literal sense of the Word which are bare and so to speak unclothed; and they correspond to a person's face and his hands, which are the parts left uncovered. Those parts of the Word serve for the teaching of the church, because they are in themselves spiritual-natural truths. From this it can be established that there is no obstacle to prevent a person being able to find and see bare truths there too.
* Added in the margin: `As the result of the correspondence between natural and spiritual things the ultimate sense of the Word is to be understood by the twelve precious stones composing the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem'.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 11

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 11

11. XI

The wisdom of the angels of the three heavens comes from the Lord by means of the Word; its literal sense serves as its fulcrum and foundation.

I have been told from heaven that the most ancient people on this earth had direct revelation, and therefore they did not have a written Word. But after their time, when direct revelation could not exist without risk to souls and so could not be accepted, to prevent people's communication and linking with the heavens being cut off and destroyed, the Lord was pleased to reveal Divine Truth by means of the Word, which is written entirely by means of correspondences. As a result it is so constructed in its ultimate sense that it holds within it the wisdom of the angels of the three heavens. This wisdom is not visible in our Word, yet it is contained in it, and I must briefly describe how this is done.
There are three heavens, one below the other, and beneath them the world. In the highest heaven the wisdom of the angels reaches the highest degree; this is called celestial wisdom. In the middle heaven the wisdom of the angels reaches the middle degree; this is called spiritual wisdom. In the lower heaven the wisdom of the angels reaches the ultimate degree; this is called spiritual- and celestial-natural wisdom. In the world, which is below those heavens, wisdom is at its lowest degree; this is called natural wisdom. All these degrees of wisdom are present in the Word we possess in the world, but in a simultaneous arrangement. For a successive arrangement becomes simultaneous as it comes down; so that the simultaneous becomes a complex of all the successive stages. The highest in a successive arrangement becomes the inmost in a simultaneous arrangement, the middle becomes its middle, and the ultimate becomes its ultimate.
The Word as it exists in the world has a simultaneous arrangement of this sort; in its inmost is the Lord, like a sun, the source of Divine Truth and Divine Good, light and flame radiating and spreading through the middle stages to the ultimate. In this simultaneous arrangement the Celestial Divine is nearest, as it is in the highest or third heaven, the source of the wisdom of the angels there. Then follows the Spiritual Divine, as it is in the middle or second heaven, the source of the wisdom of the angels there. After this comes the Spiritual-Natural Divine and the Celestial-Natural Divine, as it is in the ultimate or first heaven, the source of the wisdom of the angels there. The ultimate ring of this simultaneous arrangement is made up of the Natural Divine, as it is in the world, the source of the wisdom of people on earth. This outermost ring surrounds, binds and holds together the inner rings, to prevent them falling apart and to act as a fulcrum for them. The literal sense of the Word is like this in general and in every part.
So when it is read piously by a person, then its inner rings are untied and uncovered, and each heaven draws from it what is its own, the spiritual angels their Spiritual Divine, the celestial angels their Celestial Divine, the source of their wisdom. It was not only told and heard from heaven that our Word is like this, but it was demonstrated and proved by many experiences. When the Divine was sent down by the Lord into the world, it must have passed through the heavens one after the other, and come into existence in the world in such a form as to return in the same order through the heavens to its source, the Lord.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 12

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 12

12. XII

Enlightenment by means of the Word.

Everyone who has a spiritual affection for truth, everyone, that is, who loves truth itself because it is true, is enlightened by the Lord when he reads the Word. This does not happen to someone who reads it as the result of nothing but a natural affection for truth, what is known as a desire for knowledge. He sees nothing but what agrees with his love, or with the principles which he has either sought for himself or acquired from listening to others or reading their writings. I must therefore state briefly whence a person gains enlightenment by means of the Word, and which persons are so enlightened.
A person is enlightened if he shuns evils because they are sins, and because they are against the Lord and His Divine laws. In his case and no others the spiritual mind is opened; and the more it is opened, the more the light of heaven enters; and all enlightenment from the Word is due to the light of heaven. For then a person has a will for good, and when this will is directed to this purpose, it becomes in the intellect first an affection for truth, then a perception of truth, next by means of the light of reason thinking about truth, and so a decision and conclusion. As this passes thence into the memory and so also into the way he lives so as to become permanent, this is the path which produces all enlightenment on the Word.
It is also the path followed by a person's reform and regeneration. But there must first be present in the memory a knowledge of both spiritual and natural matters. For these are the stores on which the Lord acts by means of the light of heaven. The fuller they are and the more devoid of confirmed falsities, the clearer is the perception given and the more certain is the conclusion. For Divine action cannot reach a person who is empty and vacant.
For instance, anyone who does not know that the Lord is pure love and pure mercy, good itself and truth itself; and that love itself and good itself are in essence such as to be unable to do anyone harm, or to become angry and seek vengeance; or who does not know that the Word in many passages is based on appearances. Such a person cannot be enlightened on the Word, where Jehovah is said to flare up with wrath and become angry; that fire and rage are His, that His wrath burns down to the lowest hell, as we read in the works of David.* Or that there is no evil in the city which Jehovah has not caused (Amos 3:6); that He rejoices in doing harm, just as He rejoices in doing good (Deut. 28:63); that He leads people into temptations, as in the Lord's prayer, and likewise in other passages.
* E.g. Ps. 2:5; 21:9; 78:49; 89:46; 94:1. But the last clause refers to Deut. 32:22. -Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 13

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 13

13. XIII

How far indirect revelation made by means of the Word is superior to direct revelation by means of spirits.

It is believed that a person could be more enlightened and wiser, if he had direct revelation by talking with spirits and angels, but the reverse is true. Enlightenment by means of the Word follows an internal path, but enlightenment by means of direct revelation follows an external path. The internal path is through the will into the intellect, the external path is through the hearing into the intellect. A person is enlightened by the Lord by means of the Word to the extent that his will is governed by good. But by hearing he can be taught and so to speak enlightened, even though his will is governed by evil. What enters the intellect of a person who is governed by evil is not inside him, but outside, being only in the memory and not expressed in the way he lives. What is outside him and not expressed in the way he lives little by little disappears, if not earlier, at any rate after death. For a will governed by evil either rejects or chokes it, or falsifies and profanes it. For the will controls the way a person lives, and continually acts upon the intellect, and it looks upon what the intellect has from memory as extraneous.
On the other hand the intellect does not act upon the will, but only indicates how the will ought to act. If therefore someone knew from heaven all that the angels can ever know, or if he knew everything there is in the Word, and everything in all the teachings of the church, and in addition what the church fathers wrote and the councils laid down, and yet his will was governed by evil, he would still after death be regarded as knowing nothing, because he does not wish what he knows. Since evil hates truth, the person himself then rejects those things, and in their place adopts falsities which agree with the evil in his will.
[2] Moreover, no spirit or angel is given permission to teach anyone on this earth about Divine truths; but it is the Lord Himself who teaches each person by means of the Word. How much he is taught depends upon how far he receives in his will good from the Lord, and he receives the more, the more he shuns evils as sins. Also each person is in the company of spirits as regards his affections and the thoughts they inspire. In this company he is as one with them, so that spirits speaking with people draw on his affections to speak and are guided by them. A person cannot speak with other spirits, unless the communities to which he belongs are first removed. This happens only by reforming his will.
Since a person is in the company of spirits who share his religion, the spirits who speak with him confirm all the religious principles he has adopted. So the spirits of the Enthusiast sect confirm all the details of Enthusiast belief the person has adopted; Quaker spirits all the details of Quaker belief, Moravian spirits all the details of Moravian belief, and so on. This leads to confirmations of falsity which can never be eradicated. These facts make it plain that indirect revelation by means of the Word is superior to direct revelation by means of spirits. As regards myself, I was not allowed to learn anything from the lips of a spirit or angel, but only from the lips of the Lord.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 14

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 14

14. XIV

The Word in the heavens.

The Word exists in all the heavens, and it is read there as it is in the world, and sermons are based on it. For it is the Divine Truth which is the source of the angels' intelligence and wisdom. For without the Word no one knows anything about the Lord, love and faith, redemption, and all the other secrets of heavenly wisdom. In fact without the Word heaven would not exist, just as without the Word there would be no church in the world, so that there would be no linking with the Lord. I demonstrated above that natural theology is impossible without revelation, and in the Christian world without the Word. If it is not granted in the world, neither would it be granted after death. For the nature of a person's religious belief in the world dictates its nature after death, when he becomes a spirit. The whole of heaven is not made up of angels created before the world or at the same time as it, but of those who were people on earth, and were then angels inwardly. By means of the Word these in heaven acquire spiritual, that is, inner wisdom, because the Word there is spiritual.

[2] The Word in the Lord's spiritual kingdom is not the same as the Word in the world. In the world there is the natural Word, but in that kingdom there is a spiritual Word. The difference is like that between its natural and spiritual senses. The nature of the spiritual sense has been demonstrated at length in my Arcana Caelestia, where the whole contents of Genesis and Exodus have been explained in accordance with that sense. The difference is such that no word is the same. Things take the place of names, and likewise of numbers; the histories are replaced by matters concerning the church. The surprising thing is that, when an angel reads it, he is unaware that it is not the same as what he read in the Word while in the world. This is because he no longer has any natural ideas, since they are replaced with spiritual ones; and the natural and the spiritual are linked by correspondences into a kind of unity.
So when someone passes from the natural into the spiritual, it seems to him as if they were the same. In fact an angel does not know that he is wiser than he was in the world, though his wisdom is really so superior as to be comparatively indescribable. He is unable to recognise the difference, because in his spiritual state he knows nothing of the natural state, which he had in the world; and he is unable to compare and differentiate them, because he cannot return to his former state so as to make a comparison. Still an angel in heaven is constantly being brought to a higher degree of perfection in wisdom than he had in the world, because his affection for spiritual truth is purer.*

[3] However, the Word in the Lord's celestial kingdom is far superior and wiser than the Word in His spiritual kingdom. The difference is of the same kind as that which distinguishes the natural Word in the world from the spiritual Word, as has been stated. For that Word contains an inmost sense, called celestial, which in all its details refers to nothing but the Lord. In this Word the Lord is read in place of Jehovah, and of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and also the Lord is named in place of David, Moses, Elijah and the rest of the Prophets; and His divinity is distinguished by special marks. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and also the names of the Apostles, when read there, convey something about the Lord as regards the church; and so with all the rest. From this it became plain to me that the whole of the Sacred Scripture deals in its inmost sense with nothing but the Lord.
The difference which distinguishes the two Words, the spiritual and the celestial, is like that between thoughts, the province of the intellect, and affections, the province of the will. For the angels of the celestial kingdom are guided by love to the Lord and so affection for good; the angels of the spiritual kingdom are guided by faith in the Lord and so by perception of truth.

[4] Another difference between the celestial and spiritual Words is their script. The script of the spiritual Word is made up of letters resembling the printed letters of our world; but each letter has a meaning. If therefore you were to see that script, you would not understand a single word. For one letter succeeds another without a break, with dashes and dots above and below, since it is in accordance with spiritual speech, which has nothing in common with natural speech. The wiser angels are, the more they see of the inner secrets of their Word so written, more so than the simpler angels. What is stored there is plainly visible to the eyes of the wise, but not to the eyes of the simple. It is similar to what happens with our Word, but to a greater degree; here too the wise see more than the simple.
The script of the celestial Word, however, is made up of letters not known in the world. They are indeed alphabetical, but each one of them is composed of curved lines with serifs above and below, and there are small marks or dots in the letters, and also above and below them. I was told that the most ancient people on this earth had such a script. Some details agree with the Hebrew script, but not much. Such a script expresses the affections which make up a love; so it contains more secrets than they themselves can ever utter. They express these unutterable secrets which they perceive from their Word by means of representations. The wisdom hidden away in this Word surpasses the wisdom in the spiritual Word as a thousand does one.

[5] To make the difference between the three Words, the natural, the spiritual and the celestial, intelligible, let us take as an example the first chapters of Genesis, which deal with Adam, his wife and the Garden.** In the natural Word which we have in this world there is a description of the creation of the world, the first creation of man, and the earthly pleasures and delights of man and the world. By the persons named following him up to the Flood are meant his descendants, and the numbers mean their ages. But in the spiritual Word the angels of the spiritual kingdom have, this is not what is meant. The first chapter is a description of the reform and regeneration of the people of the most ancient church; this too is called a new creation. The second chapter describes as the Garden the intelligence of the people of that church; Adam and his wife stand for the church itself, and their descendants down to the Flood describe the changes in the state of that church, up to the time when it came to an end and was finally destroyed by the Flood.
But in the celestial Word possessed by the angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom, the first chapter describes the glorification of the Lord's Human; the Garden describes his Divine wisdom. Adam himself is understood to mean the Lord as regards the Divine itself and at the same time the Divine Human. His wife stands for the church, which since it has life from the Lord is called Eve from [the Hebrew word for] life. Adam says of her that she was to be his bone and his flesh, and [they should be] one flesh, because the church comes from the Lord, and is out of Him and with Him as if one. The names of the descendants of Adam describe the successive states by which the Lord was received by the people of that church and linked with them, until there was nothing at all received and so no linking.
[6] So when the first chapters in our Word are read by upright people, especially by boys and girls, and they feel joy at the state when everything was created and at the Garden, then these meanings are unfolded, and the spiritual angels understand them in accordance with their Word, and the celestial angels in accordance with theirs, without being aware that a person or a child is reading it. These meanings are unfolded in their due sequence because they correspond, and correspondences are from creation like this. This makes it plain what the Word is like in its depths, that is, it has three senses. The last is the natural one for men on earth; this deals mainly with worldly matters and where it deals with Divine matters, they are still described by the kind of things which the world contains. The middle sense is the spiritual one, which describes the kind of things which belong to the church. The inmost sense is the celestial one, which contains the kind of things which belong to the Lord. For the whole of nature is a theatre representing the Lord's kingdom; and the Lord's kingdom, heaven and the church, is a theatre representing the Lord Himself. For just as the Lord glorified His Human, so too He regenerates a person; and as He regenerates a person, so too did He create him.

[7] These facts may establish what the Word is like in its depths. The natural Word as possessed by the Christian part of the world contains within itself a spiritual and a celestial Word. For the spiritual sense of our Word is the Word in the heavens which make up the Lord's spiritual kingdom; and the celestial sense of our Word, its inmost sense, is the Word in the heavens which make up the Lord's celestial kingdom. Our Word therefore contains both the spiritual and the celestial Words; but the spiritual Word and the celestial Word do not contain the natural Word. The Word of our world is therefore the one most full of Divine wisdom, and consequently more holy than the Word of the heavens.
* Reading veri spiritualis for veri spirituali. -Tr.
** i.e. the Garden of Eden. -Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 15

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 15

15. XV

The lost ancient Word.

It was reported to me by angels of the third heaven that the ancients had a Word written entirely by means of correspondences like our Word, but that it has been lost. I was told that this Word is still preserved among them, and is used by the ancients in that heaven who had that Word when they were in the world. The ancients among whom that Word is still in use in the heavens were in part from the land of Canaan and the neighbouring region, and also from some kingdoms of Asia, for instance, from Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldaea and Assyria, from Egypt, Sidon and Tyre. The inhabitants of all these kingdoms had a representative form of worship, and so knew about correspondences. This knowledge was the basis of the wisdom of that time, since it enabled them to communicate with the heavens, to have inner perception, and in many cases to speak with spirits. But because this Word was full of correspondences of a kind which only remotely meant heavenly things, so that as time passed it began to be falsified by many people, the Lord's Divine Providence ensured its gradual disappearance, and another Word was given, which was written by means of less distant correspondences. This was delivered to the Children of Israel by the Prophets. This Word, however, kept the names of places in the land of Canaan and the surrounding parts of Asia with similar meanings. It was for this reason that the descendants of Abraham from Jacob were brought into the land of Canaan, and the Word which names these places was written there.

[2] A further proof of the existence among the ancients of such a Word is found in the writings of Moses, who mentions it by name; and a passage was taken from it found in Numbers 21: 14 and 27. The historical parts of that Word were called `The Wars of Jehovah' and the prophetic part `The Utterances'. Moses took the following quotation from the historical parts of that Word:

Therefore it is said in the book of the Wars of Jehovah, Vaheb in Suphah and the streams of Arnon, and the water-channel of streams which dropped down to where Ar lived and stopped at the boundary of Moab. Num. 21:14-15.

By the Wars of Jehovah are to be understood and described the Lord's battles with the hells and His victories over them, when He should come into the world. The same battles are also to be understood and described in the historical parts of our Word, as in Joshua's wars with the peoples of the land of Canaan, in the wars of the Book of Judges, and in those of David and the other kings.
[3] The following passage was taken by Moses from the prophetical parts of that Word:

Therefore the Prophetic Utterances say, Enter into Heshbon, the city of Sihon will be built and strengthened. For fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon, which devoured Ar of Moab, the possessors of the heights of Arnon. Woe betide you, Moab; you are ruined, people of Chemosh. He made his sons fugitives and his daughters captives of the Sihon king of the Amorites. We killed them with arrows, Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon; and we laid them waste as far as Nophah, even as far as Medeba. Num. 21:27-30.

These prophetic passages are called Utterances, and not Proverbs or the Composers of Proverbs, as the translators have it. This may be established from the meaning of the Hebrew word meshalim. A further proof that they are not just proverbs, but also prophetic utterances may be drawn from Num. 23:7, 18; 24:3, 15, where it is said that Balaam gave forth his utterance, which was a prophecy, also concerning the Lord. His utterance is there called mashal in the singular. (The things in them described by Moses too are prophecies, not proverbs.)*
[4] This Word was Divine or divinely inspired in the same way, as is evident in Jeremiah, where almost the same words are repeated, namely:

A fire went out from Heshbon, a flame from among Sihon, which devoured the corner of Moab, and the top of the sons of tumult. Woe betide you, Moab; the people of Chemosh has been ruined, for your sons are snatched away into captivity, and your daughters into captivity. Jer. 48:45-6.

In addition to these a prophetic book of that ancient Word called the Book of Jashar or the Book of the Upright Man is quoted by David (2 Sam. 1:18) and by Joshua (10:13). This plainly shows that the story of the sun and the moon there was a prophecy from that book. Moreover I was told that the first seven chapters of Genesis are so clearly to be seen in that same Word, that there is not so much as a little word missing.

[5] The religious beliefs of many peoples were drawn and transcribed from that Word, passing for instance from the land of Canaan and various parts of Asia to Greece, and thence to Italy; and by way of Ethiopia and Egypt to some African kingdoms. But in Greece they made up myths by means of correspondences, and turned the attributes of God into as many deities; they called the greatest of them Jove after Jehovah.**
* These words are added in the margin.-Tr.
** This is not strictly true; neither Latin Jupiter (genitive Jovis) nor the corresponding Greek name Zeus have anything to do with the Hebrew Yahweh or Jehovah. -Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 16

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 16

16. XVI

The races and peoples outside the church who have no Word and thus know nothing about the Lord and redemption.

The numbers of those who have the Word are small compared with those who do not have it. The Word exists only in Europe among what are called the Reformed Christians; among the Roman Catholics the Word certainly exists, but it is not read, and there are kingdoms devoted to this religion such as France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, more than half of Germany and also of Hungary, as well as Poland. The Word is also little read in Russia, but it is still believed to be holy. Only* in England, Holland, certain duchies in Germany, and in Sweden and Denmark is the Word taught and preached. But the peoples of Asia, Africa and the Indies are ignorant of the Word, numerous as they are compared with the Reformed Christians.
However, the Lord saw to it that to prevent the Word being lost, the Jewish race, which possesses the Word of the Old Testament in its original language, should survive, and live scattered throughout much of the world. Although they deny the Lord to be the Messiah or Christ who was foretold by the Prophets, and although they are wicked at heart, still their reading of the Word creates communication with certain heavens. For correspondences open up communication, whatever sort of person the reader may be, so long as he acknowledges it as Divine. This continues today as in the past. For when they reverence as if minor deities Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David, Elijah and many others who are named in the Word, then the heavens perceive instead the Lord, being unaware of the person in the world who is the origin of that holy element in their worship. That is how heaven is linked with people by means of the Word.
* At this point the manuscript adds in the margin `That communication is by means of the Word', but it is not clear where this should be inserted or if it is correctly so read. -Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 17

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 17

17. XVII

But the truth is that there can be no linking with heaven, unless somewhere on earth there is a church which possesses the Word, and the Lord is known through its means, because the Lord is the God of heaven and earth, and without Him there can be no salvation. It is enough for a church possessing the Word to exist somewhere on earth, even though it has relatively few members. The Lord is still by this means present throughout the whole globe, and by this means heaven is linked with the human race. But without the Word somewhere on earth, no one could be so linked.
The reason for the Lord's presence and the linking of heaven with the inhabitants of every part of the earth is that in the Lord's sight the whole of heaven is like one man, and so is the church; and it really is a man, because the Lord is heaven and also the church. The church, where the Word is read and the Lord is known by it, is like the heart and lungs in that man; and it is these two founts of life in the human body which allow all the other limbs and organs to remain in existence and live. So too do all the inhabitants of the globe, whose religion is the worship of one God, and who make up the limbs and organs of that Grand Man, which is heaven and the church, remain in existence and live. For it is by means of the Word in the church, even though among comparatively few, that the rest have life from the Lord through heaven, just as the limbs and organs throughout the body do from the heart and lungs. The communication between them is similar.
This too is the reason why the Christians, among whom the Word is read, make up the chest of that man; for they are in the very middle. Around them are the Roman Catholics, around them the Mohammedans, who acknowledge the Lord as a very great Prophet and a Son of God; and beyond them come the Africans. The outermost ring is made up of the races and peoples from Asia and the Indies. All those who are in that man face towards the centre. Moreover, that centre, occupied as I have said by the Christians who have the Word, enjoys the strongest light, because light in the heavens is Divine truth proceeding from the Lord as the sun. Thus light radiates as from its centre to all the circumference, and gives enlightenment. This is how the races and peoples too outside the church are enlightened by means of the Word. For all the light of heaven a person experiences comes from the Lord through heaven.

[2] What is true of heaven as a whole is also true of each community in heaven, for each of the communities there is a small-scale heaven; and it also appears in the Lord's sight like one man. (On this see my Heaven and Hell [41-87].) There too those in the middle answer in the same way to the heart and lungs, and they enjoy the strongest light. The light itself, and the perception of truth it confers, radiates from the middle in all directions towards the circumference, and is the cause of their spiritual life. It was demonstrated that so long as* those are removed who were in the middle, making up the province of the heart and lungs and enjoying the strongest light, those in the surroundings were in shade, and at that time had such a poor perception of truth that there was hardly any. But as soon as they returned, the light became as it was before, and so did their perception of truth.

[3] These facts may establish that the Word possessed by the Reformed church enlightens all races and peoples by a spiritual communication of this kind. Also, that the Lord sees to it that on this earth there is always a church where the Word is read. When therefore the Word was more or less rejected by the Roman Catholics, by the Lord's Divine Providence the Reformation took place; and there the Word was again accepted, and it was also regarded as holy by a noble nation among the Papists.

[4] Since without the Word there is no recognition of the Lord, and so no salvation, when the Word among the Jewish race was utterly adulterated and falsified, so making it as naught, the Lord was pleased to come into the world; and not only to fulfil the Word, but also to renew and restore it, thus giving light again to the inhabitants of this earth. As the Lord says in John:

In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines out in the darkness. This was the true light, which enlightens everyone who comes into the world. John 1:4, 5, 9.

In the same book:

Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12.

And in Matthew:

A people sitting in darkness has seen a great light. For those who sit in the neighbourhood and shadow of death, for them the light has risen. Matt. 4:16.

[5] It was predicted that at the end of this church too darkness would arise as a result of the failure to recognise and acknowledge the Lord as being the God of heaven and earth, and as a result of separating faith from charity, so causing the true understanding of the Word to be lost. The Lord therefore has been pleased at this time to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, and to make it known that the Word in that sense deals with the Lord and the church, in fact with nothing but them; and to reveal many other things which may restore the light which had almost been extinguished. It is the extinction of the light of truth at the end of this church which is meant by the Lord's words in Matthew:

Immediately after the affliction of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; and then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the sky with glory and power. Matt. 24:29, 30.

The sun there is to be understood as the Lord as regards Divine Love, the moon as the Lord as regards faith, the stars as the Lord as regards knowledge of good and truth, clouds as the literal sense of the Word and glory as its spiritual sense, the Son of Man as the Lord as regards the Word.
* The correct reading is probably quamdiu. -Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 18

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 18

18. XVIII

The linking of heaven with a member of the church by means of the literal sense of the Word.

Much experience has allowed me to know that the Word opens heaven to a person. This means that when a person reads the Word or speaks from it, communication is established with heaven. I have read through the prophetic Word from Isaiah to Malachi, and I was allowed to perceive that every chapter, in fact every verse, was perceived in some heavenly community. Because what was communicated was not the literal but the spiritual sense, the angels of that community were unaware that this was coming from a man. It seems to them that they were thinking as if of themselves about the things inwardly contained in the Word.

[2] Some African spirits from Abyssinia were with me, when on one occasion their ears were opened so that they could hear the singing of a Psalm of David in a church in the world. This gave them such joy that they sang along with them. But after a while their ears were closed again, so that none of them could hear the singing from there. Then they felt an even greater joy, because this was spiritual; and at the same time they were filled with intelligence, because in the spiritual sense the Psalm dealt with the Lord and the redemption He effects. The joyful lifting of their hearts was to some small extent communicated to a heavenly community from the Christian world, and this brought this community similar joy. It was plain from this that the whole of heaven is able to communicate by means of the Word.

[3] I pass over many* other experiences which proved to me that the literal sense of our Word has this effect, in fact, that the spiritual sense unaccompanied by the natural sense does not produce communication with heaven. The reason is that the Lord's influence comes from what is first to what is last, so it proceeds from Himself into the natural sense of the Word, and calls forth or unfolds its spiritual and celestial senses; and thus its enlightenment teaches and guides the angels. The Lord is therefore called in the Word the First and the Last.

[4] This makes it plain that the church's teaching is not valid, unless it is gathered and proved from the literal sense of the Word, because it does not establish communication. But teaching drawn from the literal sense is valid, and acts together with the spiritual sense.
* The correct reading is probably multas. -Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 19

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 19

19. XIX

The truths which are called the truths of faith, and the kinds of good which are called those of love, are increased to an indescribable extent in the internal senses, and so in the heavens.
What the natural sense is like without the spiritual and celestial senses, and these without the natural sense.

The reason is that natural things are the effects coming from spiritual things, and spiritual things are the effects coming from celestial things. An effect is composed of so many elements invisible to the eye; these are causes so numerous that they could go on being counted for ever. An effect is gross, and the cause enters into every part of the effect, and is so to speak the common factor composing it, the particular details of which are completely outside* the range of the eye's vision.

[2] A cause may be compared to a tree, which to the eye appears to have luxuriant branches, leaves and fruits; all of these are effects. But if you could observe a branch inside, down to its filaments, or a leaf down to its fibres, or a fruit down to its every detail, which are too small to see, and a seed with all its details too small to see, from which the tree and all its parts come, you would see what countless and indescribable secrets lie hidden beyond the range of the eyes. Once before an audience of angels a flower was opened up to its inner or spiritual components; and on seeing these they said it was as if a whole park were contained in it, made up of indescribable parts.

[3] Another comparison might be with the human body with all its limbs and organs visible, as compared with its inner structure. Here there are so many organic forms, connected and making a single whole entirely by the secrets of all the sciences,** so that you might say that the secrets of all the sciences have contributed to it, such as physics, chemistry, mechanics, geometry, acoustics, optics. These scientific secrets can never be fully investigated, because they cannot be grasped. This is what the interior is compared to the exterior, or the spiritual as compared to the natural, and the celestial as compared to the spiritual. The natural regarded in itself is nothing but the external form, what is called the effect, of spiritual things; and the spiritual is the external form, what is called the effect, of celestial things. Everything spiritual comes from the celestial, and everything natural from the spiritual.
This makes it clear how we must understand the statement that truth is the form of the good, and that good has its quality in truths; because good in them possesses a form, and in the absence of a form quality ceases to exist. Also that truth arises from good, as from its living cause; and if you take good away from truths, this is like taking the kernel out of an almond, and truth is like its shell. Or it is as if you took away the flesh from a fruit, leaving only the skin. Truth therefore without good is turned into something imaginary, outwardly looking the same, but empty inside. So too is the natural without the spiritual, and also the spiritual without the celestial.

[4] Since the spiritual contains indescribable things not visible in the natural, and the celestial contains countless things [not visible in the spiritual],*** the natural, spiritual and celestial senses cannot be described by comparing one with another. Thus one comes after another, like knowledge, intelligence and wisdom. People on earth therefore, being in natural light, are called by angels knowledgeable, but the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom are called intelligent, and the angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom are called wise.

[5] The Word in its literal sense can be compared to a tree, surrounded by an undamaged and flourishing rind or bark; and the spiritual sense can be compared to its being fed by various juices and essences, some rising from the ground, others absorbed from the air or ether by means of the sun's heat and light. If the literal sense stood alone, and was not accompanied by the spiritual and celestial senses, it would be like a tree with no sap, or rather, the bark alone with no wood inside. But together with those senses it is like a tree in all its perfection. In it too all the sap passes from the root by way of the rind or cortex. If therefore it is taken away, the tree withers. Such would be the spiritual sense of the Word, if deprived of its natural sense.
* Reading prorsus [non] intra as proposed by B. Rogers.-Tr.
** Reading very difficult; the translation follows the text proposed by B. Rogers.-Tr.
*** This addition seems to be needed to balance this clause with the preceding one. -Tr.

[APPENDIX

Although the manuscript of the main text ends with section 19, a number of other sections are found at various places in the text of the Day-book or Diarium Spirituale. The author appears to have numbered them himself as 20-26, but there is no section numbered 25. They are here translated with the original numbers as before in Roman numerals. The Latin text may be found in J.F.I. Tafel's edition, Part VII:2 pp. 74-5; Appendix pp. 104-5, 105-6, 109, 111-12, 115-16. They seem in some cases to be early drafts of what appears in the main text, but there are interesting points not made there. The reading of the manuscript is particularly difficult, and in a few places the meaning is not certain.- Tr.]

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 20

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 20

20. XX

The Word

All the holiness of the Word is in its literal sense, and there is no holiness in the spiritual sense without the literal sense. This would be like a house without a foundation, so like a house in the air. It would be like a human body with no skin, which would entirely disintegrate. All the inner parts of the body* are connected with the peritoneum, pleura, and skin; so is the spiritual sense with the literal sense. The spiritual sense without the literal sense would be like contents with no container, so like wine with no vessel to hold it. The spiritual with no natural is much the same, or the heaven of angels and their wisdom without the human race and the church among them, and the intelligence it derives from the literal sense. The literal sense of the Word brings about that connexion and that linking with a person. This too was the reason why the Lord came into the world. For everything in the literal sense was falsified by the Jews, to such an extent that there was no longer an ultimate stage in mankind. The Lord therefore came into the world and put on the Human, so that He might also become the Word in the literal sense, or Divine truth at its ultimate level. This is why the Word is said to have become flesh (John 1: 14).

[2] It is the same with the power of Divine truth. All power in the spiritual world belongs to Divine truth proceeding from the Lord. Many expressions can be quoted to illustrate the nature of the power of Divine truth there (a number of these experiences are to be inserted). All the power of Divine truth lies in the literal sense of the Word; the spiritual sense without the literal sense has no power, but the literal sense containing the spiritual sense has. When therefore spirits bring forward anything from the literal sense, it is evident that there is communication with heaven; but not if they bring forward anything from the spiritual sense without the literal sense.
[3] Thus all responses from heaven have been and are made by means of things in the literal sense. This is why the literal sense was represented by the Urim and Thummim on Aaron's ephod; that was his outermost garment. This is why in the Book of Revelation the foundations of the New Jerusalem are listed as composed of twelve precious stones, as well as of pearls; these too meant the literal sense. Likewise the Cherubim upon the Mercy-seat; this is why Moses and Aaron received responses by that means.

[4] The arrangement adopted by the inner levels of Divine truth, the source of the wisdom of the angels; this is a simultaneous arrangement, so the literal sense is their container.

[5] All the details of the church's teaching are therefore to be supported from the literal sense of the Word, and no point of teaching which cannot be so supported has any force. A point of teaching which is supported by the literal sense as regards real truth has force. Even the appearance of Divine truth has force, though less so, as if it could agree with real truth. But if the literal sense of the Word is falsified, it has no force; it shuts off instead of opening up heaven.
* The manuscript has `of the Word', but this must be a slip for `of the body'. -Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 21

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 21

21. XXI

The spiritual sense.

No one can see the spiritual sense unless he has been taught real truth. This enables him to see the spiritual sense, when he has some knowledge of correspondences. Someone who has been taught what is false cannot see anything of the spiritual sense; he warps and applies the correspondences he knows to suit his false teaching. He may therefore falsify the Word still more. This is because the truly spiritual sense of the Word comes from the Lord alone. This is the reason that no one in the natural world or in the spiritual world is allowed to seek out the spiritual sense of the Word from the literal sense, unless he is completely under the guidance of the teaching of Divine truth and enlightened by the Lord. The spiritual sense therefore can be seen by the teaching of Divine truth supported by the literal sense of the Word. But the teaching can never first be seen from the spiritual sense. It is false to think to oneself, `I know many correspondences; so I can know the true teaching of the Divine Word, the spiritual sense will teach it to me.' This cannot happen; but as I have said, let someone say to himself, `I know the teaching of Divine truth, now I can see the spiritual sense, provided I know the correspondences.' But this must still be by enlightenment from the Lord, because the spiritual sense is Divine truth itself bathed in its own light; and this is meant by glory, the literal sense being the cloud, in the passages of the Word about these subjects.
[2] The existence of a spiritual sense in the Word is to be supported by ten passages in the prophetic books, also in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation. These passages are to be quoted and a demonstration given that they would be meaningless without a spiritual sense.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 22

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 22

22. XXII

The Word.

It is important for a person to understand the Word literally in very many passages. For example, what the Lord says about cities, successive states of the church; in many passages of the Prophets, as about Tyre; in the Book of Revelation about paradise. The reason is that the angels with the person follow the spiritual sense.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 23

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 23

23. XXIII

The Word.

1) Various remarks on the marriage of good and truth in the Word. It is to be demonstrated from passages in it that:
2) There are chapters and special expressions which relate to good and to truth.
3) Also to celestial good and truth, as where the Jews* are mentioned; and to spiritual good and truth, as where Israel is mentioned.
4) Each chapter has reference to one community, and many to all.
5) In some passages their meaning can be gathered from the letters alone.
6) Numbers and personal and place names mean things; examples.
* Reading doubtful; possibly read 'Judah' for 'the Jews'.-Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 24

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 24

24. XXIV

The Word.

In the spiritual kingdom they have the Word in its higher region, written in such a way that it can be understood ever more intelligently by an intelligent person, but simply by a simple person. In short, in this there is manifest an inner and an outer intelligence; and there is an inner script.* This is achieved by various sorts of pointing over the letters; the pointing means affections, and series of points express ever more inward types of intelligence for the more intelligent people. This Word was seen by me, at least some of it.
I also saw something in the Word** of the celestial kingdom. This has still more secrets noted, but by means of various curves and squiggles above and inside the letters, which are peculiar to the celestial kingdom. These secrets are especially transcendental, and cannot be grasped by an angel of the spiritual kingdom. In fact, he cannot think about them. They were accordingly told that they cannot come anywhere near the wisdom of the angels of the celestial kingdom, just as neither can those in the natural sphere come near the intelligence of the angels of the spiritual kingdom. It is utterly transcendental. I have frequently experienced this. Experience has established for me that the intelligence of the angels of the spiritual kingdom is indescribable and incomprehensible to those in the natural kingdom, and the wisdom of the angels of the celestial kingdom is incomprehensible and indescribable to those in the spiritual kingdom.
As regards the Lord's Divine wisdom, this is so far above all other wisdom that it has no standard of comparison. For all the intelligence and wisdom of the angels is finite, but the Lord's Divine intelligence and wisdom is infinite. The finite and the infinite have no standard of comparison. The reason why the intelligence and wisdom of the angels is finite is that angels are recipients, and all recipients are created, and also finite.
* The text reads `and the inner is written', but scripta is probably an error for scriptura. -Tr.
** The text should perhaps read in Verbo for in eo Verbo, or if in is deleted ex Verbo. -Tr.

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 26

De Verbo (Chadwick) n. 26

26. XXVI*

The Word.

Investigation was made into the manner in which the spiritual angels pronounce the words of their speech. I learned that they enunciate or pronounce them in accordance with ideas and these are the ideas conveyed by the things they mean. So when they enunciate or pronounce a horse and carriage, they express them by a word which has a [spiritual] meaning; for instance, a horse by a word based on an idea of the intellect, and a carriage by a word based on the idea of teaching from the Word, and likewise in other cases. Thus they use correspondence to speak of things which they see, as people on earth do. In short, they give things names based upon their correspondence.
[2] So now it has been disclosed to them that they have correspondences in the words of their speech. They did not know this previously, but it was disclosed by the fact that they investigated in my mind at the natural level their ideas about those in the spiritual state. In short, all the words of language they speak are formed from correspondences.
[3] I enquired how they write 'horses harnessed to a carriage'. They said they write only l, and this letter expresses that. Then I enquired how they write 'the understanding of teaching'. They said it was in the same way by l; but then they were thinking at a higher level. But few of them paid any attention to this, just as few in this world think of spiritual light, when mention is made of the light of the intellect, or of illumination and enlightenment; or of spiritual fire or heat when mention is made of heavenly fire, as for instance that which kindles hearts. They do not know that fire and the heat it gives corresponds to love, which is an emotion of the heart, that is, of the will,** and light corresponds to truth, which is an action of the intellect.
* There is no section headed XXV.
** Reading voluntatis for voluntati. -Tr.