Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 181ultimate. It is in this way: The highest things of successive orderbecome the inmost ones of simultaneous order, and the lowestthings of successive order become the outermost ones ofsimultaneous order. Comparatively speaking it is as if the columnof successive parts were to sink down and become a connectedbody in a plane.[2] Thus is the simultaneous formed from the successive, and thisin all things both in general and in particular of the natural world,and also of the spiritual world; for everywhere there is a first, amiddle, and an ultimate, and the first aims at and goes through themiddle to its ultimate. Apply this to the Word. The celestial, thespiritual, and the natural proceed from the Lord in successive order,and in the ultimate are in simultaneous order; and it is in this waythat the celestial and spiritual senses of the Word are simultaneousin its natural sense. When this is comprehended, it may be seenhow the natural sense of the Word, which is the sense of the letter,is the basis, container, and support of its spiritual and celestialsenses; and how in the sense of the letter of the Word Divine goodand Divine truth are in their fullness, in their holiness, and in theirpower.39. From all this it is evident that in the sense of the letter theWord is the very Word itself, for within this sense there are spiritand life, the spiritual sense being its spirit, and the celestial sense itslife. This is what the Lord says:The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life (John 6:63).The Lord spoke his words before the world, and in the naturalsense. The spiritual sense and the celestial sense without the naturalsense which is the sense of the letter, are not the Word; for withoutit they are like spirit and life without a body; and are (as beforesaid, n. 33) like a palace without a foundation.40. The truths of the sense of the letter of the Word are in partnot naked truths, but appearances of truth, and are as it werelikenesses and comparisons taken from things such as exist in