Since it is from creation that end, cause, and effect shall together
make one, so it is from creation that the heavens shall make one with
the church on the earth, but by means of the Word, when it is read by
man from a love of truth and good. For the Word was given by the Lord
to this end, that there might be a perpetual conjunction of the angels
of heaven with men on the earth, and a perpetual communication according
to conjunction. Without this medium there would be no conjunction or
communication with heaven on this earth. The conjunction and
communication are instantaneous, and for the reason that all things of
the Word in the sense of the letter are as effects, in which the cause
and the end exist together, and the effects, which are in the Word, are
called uses, their cause truths, and their ends goods; and the Divine
love, which is the Lord, unites these three together in the man who is
in an affection for uses from the Word.
How a man draws and calls forth from the Word in the letter the natural
sense, a spiritual angel the spiritual sense, and a celestial angel the
celestial sense, and this instantly, from which there is a communication
and a conjunction, shall be illustrated by comparisons; first by
something in the animal kingdom, afterward by something in the vegetable
kingdom, and finally by something in the mineral kingdom.
From the Animal Kingdom:--From the food, when it has been changed into
chyle, the vessels draw and call forth their blood, the fibers of the
nerves their fluid, and the substances that are the origins of fibers
their spirit, which is called the animal spirit; and this is done
through the vital heat, which in its essence is love. The vessels, the
fibers, and the substances which are their origins, are distinct from
each other, and yet they act as one throughout the body, and they act
together and on the instant.
From the Vegetable Kingdom:--The tree, with its trunk and branches,
leaves and fruits, stands upon its root, and from the soil where its
root is draws and calls forth its sap, a coarser sap for the trunk and
branches, a purer for the leaves, and a still purer and also nobler for
the fruits and for the seeds in them; and this is done by means of heat
from the sun. Here the branches, leaves, and fruit are distinct, and
yet they extract together and instantly and from the same soil foods of
such different purity and nobleness.
From the Mineral Kingdom:--In the bosom of the earth in certain places
there are minerals impregnated with gold, silver, copper, and iron.
From vapors stored up in the earth the gold attracts its element, silver
its element, copper and iron theirs, distinctly, together, and on the
instant, and this by means of some power of unknown heat.
As it is allowable to illustrate spiritual things by means of
comparisons drawn from natural things, these will serve to illustrate
how interior things, which are spiritual and celestial, and by which a
man of the church has communication and conjunction with the heavens,
can be drawn and called forth and extracted and eliminated from the Word
in its outmosts, that is, the sense of the letter. Comparisons can be
made with these, because all things in the three kingdoms of nature,
animal, vegetable, and mineral, correspond to the spiritual things that
are in the three heavens, as the food of the body with which a
comparison has been made, corresponds to the food of the soul, which is
knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom; a tree, with which also a
comparison has been made, corresponds to man, the tree to man himself,
the wood to his good, the leaves to his truths, and the fruits to his
uses; so, too, gold, silver, copper, and iron, correspond to goods and
truths, gold to celestial good, silver to spiritual truth, copper to
natural good, and iron to natural truth. Moreover, these things have
these significations in the Word. And what is wonderful, the purer are
contained in the grosser and are drawn from them, as the animal spirit
and the nerve fluid are contained in blood from which the original
substances and nerve fibers draw and extract their distinct portions.
So, again, fruits and leaves draw theirs from the gross fluid that is
brought up from the soil by the wood and its bark, and so on. Thus
comparatively, as has been said, the purer senses of the Word are drawn
and called forth from the sense of the letter. (A.E., n. 1084.)