Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/170

and to whom the Word appears in its brightness and transparence.

The reason why the Word appears to such in its brightness and transparence, is, that there is both a spiritual and celestial sense in every part of the Word, and these senses are in the light of heaven. Therefore the Lord, by these senses and their light, enters by influx into the natural sense of the Word, and into the light thereof abiding in man. Hence man acknowledges the truth from an interior perception, and afterwards sees it in his own thought, and this as often as he is in the affection of truth for truth's sake; for perception comes from affection, and thought from perception, and thence arises acknowledgment which is called faith. (D. S. S. 57, 58.)

Every one is enlightened according to the quality of his affection for truth; and the quality of this is such as the good of his life is. Hence it is that they who are in no affection of truth for the sake of truth, but for the sake of gain, are not at all enlightened when they read the Word, but are only confirmed in doctrinals of whatever sort they are, whether false, as heretical doctrinals are, or altogether contrary to truths, as the Jewish are. For they do not seek the Lord's kingdom but the world; not faith but fame; thus not the heavenly riches, but only the earthly. And if perchance they are seized with a desire of knowing truths from the Word, falsities present themselves instead of truths, and at length the denial of all truth. (A. C. 7012.)