whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks
to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the
circumference, and looks away from it to the world.

Again, the Word is like fruit within which there is a nutritious pulp,
and in the middle of it seed vessels, in which inmostly is a living germ
that germinates in good soil. Again, the Word is also like a most
beautiful infant, about which, except the face, there are wrappings upon
wrappings; the infant itself is in the inmost heaven, the wrappings are
in the lower heavens, and the general covering of the wrappings is on
the earth. As the Word is such it is holy and Divine from inmosts to
outermosts. (A.E., n. 1072.)

The Word is such because in its origin it is the Divine itself that goes
forth from the Lord, and is called Divine truth; and when this descended
to men in the world it passed through the heavens in their order
according to their degrees, which are three; and in each heaven it was
recorded in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels
there. Finally it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to
men, and there it was recorded and made known in adaptation to man's
understanding and apprehension. This, therefore, is the sense of its
letter, and in this lies Divine truth such as it is in the three
heavens, stored up in distinct order.

From this it is clear that the entire wisdom of the angels in the three
heavens has been imparted by the Lord to our Word, and in its inmost
there is the wisdom of the angels of the third heaven, which is
incomprehensible and ineffable to man, because full of mysteries and
treasures of Divine verities. These lie stored up in each particular
and in all the particulars of our Word. And as Divine truth is the Lord
in the heavens, so the Lord Himself is present, and may be said to dwell
in all the particulars and each particular of His Word, as He does in
His heavens; and in the same way as He has said of the ark of the
covenant, in which were deposited only the Ten Commandments written on
the two tables, the first-fruits of the Word, for He said that He would
speak there with Moses and Aaron, that He would be present there, that
He would dwell there, and that it was His holy of holies, and His
dwelling place as in heaven. (A.E., n., 1073.)

As the Divine truth, in passing from the Lord Himself through the three
heavens down to men in the world, is recorded and bec