t is, hell, would have plucked
it from men's hearts and furthermore would have profaned it. The
predominance of hell was completely broken by the last judgment which has
been accomplished now; since that judgment, thus today, every man who
wishes enlightenment and wisdom is able to have it."

264. _A doubt may be raised against divine providence in that it has been
unknown hitherto that in each particular of the Word there is a spiritual
meaning from which it has its holiness._ One may raise this doubt about
divine providence, asking, "why has this been revealed for the first time
now, and why has it been revealed through any one at all and not through
a church leader?" But it is at the Lord's good pleasure whether it should
be a leader or a leader's servant; He knows the one and the other.
However, that sense of the Word has not been disclosed before because
1. If it had been, the church would have profaned it and thereby profaned
the holiness itself of the Word. 2. Neither were the genuine truths, in
which the spiritual sense of the Word resides, revealed by the Lord until
the last judgment was accomplished, and a new church, meant by the Holy
Jerusalem, was about to be established by the Lord. These reasons will be
examined separately.

[2] 1. _The spiritual sense of the Word was not disclosed earlier because
if it had been, the church would have profaned it and thereby would have
profaned the holiness itself of the Word._ Not long after it was
established, the church was turned into Babylon, and later into
Philistia. Babylon acknowledges the Word, to be sure, and yet esteems it
lightly, asserting that the Holy Spirit inspires its own highest judgment
just as much as it did the prophets. They acknowledge the Word for the
vicarship founded on the Lord's words to Peter, but esteem it lightly
because it does not accord with their teaching. It is therefore taken
from the people also and hidden in monasteries where few read it. If,
therefore, the spiritual sense of the Word had been revealed, in which
the Lord is present together with all angelic wisdom, the Word would have
been profaned not only, as it is now, in its lowermost expression in the
sense of the letter, but in its inmosts, too.

[3] Philistia, by which faith separated from charity is meant, would have
profaned the spiritual sense of the Word also, because, as we have shown
before, it puts salvation in certain formulas which are to be thought and
spoken, and