Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 202it will be necessary to recall what has been said above aboutsuccessive order and simultaneous order, namely, that in successiveorder what is celestial, what is spiritual, and what is natural followone after another, from highest things in heaven down to ultimatethings in the world, and that the same things are in the ultimate(which is natural) in simultaneous order, one next another from theinmost things to the outermost ones, and that in like manner thereare successive senses of the Word, celestial and spiritual,simultaneously in the natural sense. When these things arecomprehended, the way in which the two senses, celestial andspiritual, are evolved from the natural sense while a man is readingthe Word may in some measure be unfolded before theunderstanding; for a spiritual angel then calls forth what is spiritual,and a celestial angel what is celestial, nor can they do otherwise,because such things are homogeneous and in accordance with theirnature and essence.66. But this may be illustrated in the first place by comparisonsdrawn from the three kingdoms of nature: animal, vegetable, andmineral. From the animal kingdom: When the food becomes chyle,the blood vessels extract and call forth from it their blood, thenervous fibers their fluid, and the substances that are the origins ofthe fibers their animal spirit. From the vegetable kingdom: Thetree, with its trunk, branches, leaves, and fruit, stands upon its root,and by means of its root it extracts and calls forth from the grounda grosser sap for the trunk, branches, and leaves, a purer for thepulp of the fruit, and the purest for the seeds within the fruit. Fromthe mineral kingdom: In some places in the bowels of the earththere are minerals impregnated with gold, silver, and iron, and eachof these metals draws its own element from the exhalations storedup in the earth.67. We may now illustrate by an example how from the naturalsense in which is the Word with men, the spiritual angels drawforth their own sense, and the celestial angels theirs. Take as anexample five commandments of the Decalogue: