Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/224

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THE SWEDENBORG LIBRARY.

THE WORD FOR ANGELS AND MEN.

The Word was written not for man only, but also for angels. And while man reads the Holy Scripture, collecting thence only the literal sense, the angels at the same time perceive not the literal but the internal sense. The material, worldly and corporal ideas which man has while perusing the Word, become spiritual and celestial ideas with the angels. (A. C. 1025.)

What man understands naturally, the angels understand spiritually. And what these latter understand is the true signification — the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. (N. J. D. 1.)

When a man reads these Words [Rev. xxi. 1, 2, 16-19, 21, and every other portion of Holy Scripture] and understands them merely according to the sense of the letter — the angels attendant on him understand them in a manner altogether different, because they understand spiritually what man understands naturally. (H. H. 307.)

When a man under holy influence thinks concerning bread, as concerning the bread in the Holy Supper, or concerning the daily bread spoken of in the Lord's prayer, such thought serves the attendant angels as an object of thinking concerning the good of love which is from the Lord; for the angels do not at all comprehend man's thought about bread, but instead thereof they think concerning good to which bread corresponds.

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