ine, not only in every meaning but also in
every expression, its internal sense, which is spiritual, and which is
in its external sense, which is natural, as a soul in its body, has now
been revealed. This sense can bear witness to the Divinity and
consequent holiness of the Word; and can convince even the natural man
that the Word is Divine if he is willing to be convinced. (A.E., n.
1065.)

In brief, the Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels
and enlightens men. As Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and as
what goes forth is Himself out of Himself, the same as light and heat go
forth from the sun and are the sun, that is, are of the sun out of it,
and as the Word is Divine truth, it is therefore the Lord, as it is
called in John (i. 1-3, 14). In as much as Divine truth, which is the
Word, in its descent into the world from the Lord, has passed through
the three heavens, it has become accommodated to each heaven, and lastly
to men also in the world. This is why there are in the Word four
senses, one outside of the other from the highest heaven down to the
world, or one within the other from the world up to the highest heaven.
These four senses are called the celestial, the spiritual, the natural
from the celestial and spiritual, and the merely natural. This last is
for the world, the next for the lowest heaven, the spiritual for the
second heaven, and the celestial for the third. These four senses
differ so greatly from one another that when one is exhibited beside the
other no connection can be recognized; and yet they make one when one
follows the other; for one follows from the other as an effect from a
cause, or as what is posterior from what is prior; consequently as an
effect represents its cause and corresponds to its cause, so the
posterior sense corresponds to the prior; and thus it is that all four
senses make one through correspondences.

From all this these truths follow. The outmost sense of the Word, which
is the sense of the letter, and the fourth in order, contains in itself
the three interior senses, which are for the three heavens. These three
senses are unfolded and exhibited in the heavens when a man on the earth
is reverently reading the Word. Therefore the sense of the letter of
the Word is that from which and through which there is communication
with the heavens, also from which and through which man has conjunction
with the heavens. The sense of the letter of t