Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 198of use for life is that such are in the Lord and the Lord in them. Forthe Lord is his own Divine truth, and when this is loved because itis Divine truth (and it is loved when it is made of use), the Lord isin it with the man. This the Lord teaches in John:In that day ye shall know that ye are in me and I in you. He that hath mycommandments, and doeth them, he loveth me, and I will love him, and willmanifest myself to him; and I will come unto him, and make my abode withhim (John 14:20–21, 23).And in Matthew:Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8).These are they who are in enlightenment when they are reading theWord, and to whom the Word shines and is translucent.58. The reason why the Word shines and is translucent withsuch, is that there is a spiritual and celestial sense in every particularof the Word, and these senses are in the light of heaven, so thatthrough these senses and by their light the Lord flows into thenatural sense, and into the light of it with a man. This causes theman to acknowledge the truth from an interior perception, andafterwards to see it in his own thought, and this as often as he is inthe affection of truth for the sake of truth. For perception comesfrom affection, and thought from perception, and thus is producedthe acknowledgment which is called faith. But of these things morewill be said in the following chapter concerning the conjunction ofthe Lord with man by means of the Word.59. With such men the first thing is to get for themselvesdoctrine from the sense of the letter of the Word, and thus light alamp for their further advance. Then after doctrine has beenprocured, and a lamp thus lighted, they see the Word by its means.Those however who do not procure doctrine for themselves, firstmake investigation as to whether the doctrine delivered by othersand received by the general body accords with the Word, and theyassent to what accords, and from what does not accord they dissent.