The Word in Three Senses — Supreme Sense, Internal Sense, Lower Sense

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

As the Word is from the Lord, and descends from Him through heaven to man, it is therefore such that it is Divine as to every particular; and as it has descended from the Lord, so it ascends, that is, is uplifted to Him, and this through the heavens.

It is known that there are three heavens, and that the inmost heaven is called the third heaven, the middle heaven the second heaven, and the lowest the first heaven; and therefore when the Word ascends as it descends, in the Lord it is Divine; in the third heaven it is celestial (for this heaven is the celestial heaven); in the second heaven it is spiritual (for this heaven is the spiritual heaven); and in the first heaven it is celestial and spiritual natural, and the same heaven is also so termed. But in the church with man, the Word as regards the sense of its letter is natural, that is, worldly and earthly.

From this it is manifest what the nature of the Word is, and how the case is with the Word when it is being read by a man who is in what is holy, that is, in good and truth. For it then appears to him as worldly, or as historical, within which there is nevertheless what is holy.

• In the first heaven it appears as celestial and spiritual natural, within which there is nevertheless what is Divine;
• In the second heaven it is spiritual
• In the third heaven it is celestial
and
• In the Lord it is Divine.

The sense of the Word is circumstanced in accordance with the heavens
• The supreme sense of the Word, in which the subject treated of is the Lord, is for the inmost or third heaven;
• Its internal sense, in which the subject treated of is the Lord's kingdom, is for the middle or second heaven;
• The lower sense of the Word, in which the internal sense is determined to the nation that is named, is for the lowest or first heaven;
and
• The lowest or literal sense is for man while still living in the world, and who is nevertheless of such a nature that the interior sense, and even the internal and the supreme senses, can be communicated to him. For man has communication with the three heavens, because he is created after the image of the three heavens, even so that when he lives in love to the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor, he is a heaven in the least form. Hence it is that within man is the Lord's kingdom, as the Lord Himself teaches in Luke:

Behold, the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).

(from Arcana Coelestia 4279)

Celestial and Spiritual Things

Selection from Arcana Coelestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

In the Lord's kingdom there are celestial things and spiritual things.

Celestial things are of good, and spiritual things are of the derivative truth.

There is nothing in the universe that does not refer to good and truth.

Whatever is of use, and of life, refers to good; but whatever is of doctrine and memory-knowledge, especially concerning use and life, refers to truth; or what is the same, whatever is of the will, is called good or evil; but whatever is of the understanding is called truth or falsity; and therefore good, which is solely of love and charity, and which flows in from the Lord, is celestial; whereas truth, which is therefrom, is spiritual.

(from Arcana Coelestia 3166)

The Universal Principle of Faith

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The faith of the New Heaven and of the New Church in its universal form is as follows:

The Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human; and without this no mortal could have been saved; and those are saved who believe in Him.

This is called the faith in its universal form because this is the universal principle of faith; and the universal principle of faith must be in each thing and in all things of it.

• It is a universal principle of faith that God is one in essence and in person, in whom is a Divine trinity, and that He is the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ.

• It is a universal principle of faith that no mortal could have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world.

• It is a universal principle of faith that He came into the world to remove hell from man, and that He did remove it by means of contests with it and victories over it, and thereby He subdued it and reduced it to order and made it obedient to Himself.

• It is a universal principle of faith that He came into the world to glorify His Human which He took on in the world, that is, to unite it with the Divine from which [are all things], and thereby He eternally holds hell in order and under obedience to Himself. As this could be accomplished only by means of temptations admitted into His Human, even to the last of them, which was the passion of the cross, He endured even that.

These are the universal principles of faith relating to the Lord.

The universal principle of faith on man's part is that he should believe in the Lord; for by believing in Him there is conjunction with Him and thereby salvation. To believe in the Lord is to have confidence that He saves; and as only those who live rightly can have this confidence, this, too, is meant by believing in Him. And this the Lord teaches in John:

This is the Father's will, that everyone that believeth in the Son may have eternal life (John 6:40)

and again:

He that believeth in the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him (John 3:36).

(True Christian Religion 2)