ces (n. 1404,
1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 8615, 10687). Because
the Word is such in the sense of the letter it is the
containant of the spiritual and heavenly sense (n. 9407). And
it is adapted both to men and to angels (n. 1769-1772, 1887,
2143, 2157, 2275, 2333, 2395, 2540, 2541, 2547, 2553, 7381,
8862, 10322). And it is what makes heaven and earth one (n.
2310, 2495, 9212, 9216, 9357, 9396, 10375). The conjunction of
the Lord with man is through the Word, by means of the internal
sense (n. 10375). There is conjunction by means of all things
and each particular thing of the Word, and in consequence the
Word is wonderful above all other writing (n. 10632-10634).
Since the Word was written the Lord speaks with men by means of
it (n. 10290). The church, where the Word is and the Lord is
known by means of it, in relation to those who are out of the
church where there is no Word and the Lord is unknown is like
the heart and lungs in man in comparison with the other parts
of the body, which live from them as from the fountains of
their life (n. 637, 931, 2054, 2853). Before the Lord the
universal church on the earth is as a single man (n. 7396,
9276). Consequently unless there were on this earth a church
where the Word is, and where the Lord is known by means of it,
the human race here would perish (n. 468, 637, 931, 4545,
10452).

306. I have been told from heaven that the most ancient people,
because their interiors were turned heavenwards, had direct
revelation, and by this means there was at that time a conjunction of
the Lord with the human race. After their times, however, there was
no such direct revelation, but there was a mediate revelation by
means of correspondences, inasmuch as all their Divine worship then
consisted of correspondences, and for this reason the churches of
that time were called representative churches. For it was then known
what correspondence is and what representation is, and that all
things on the earth correspond to spiritual things in heaven and in
the church, or what is the same, represent them; and therefore the
natural things that constituted the externals of their worship served
them as mediums for thinking spiritually, that is, thinking with the
angels. When the knowledge of correspondences and representations had
been blotted out of remembrance a Word was written, in which all the
words and their meanings are corresponden