Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 3.djvu/69
not received by any one from his native soil, nor by inheritance, but out of heaven from God; and as these show the way to heaven, and enter into the life together with the good of charity, and so lead to eternal life, we became anxious and prayed to God upon our knees.
Then answered the angels: Read the Word, and believe in the Lord, and you will see the truths which should constitute your faith and life. For all in the Christian world draw their doctrinals from the Word as the only fountain.
But two of the company said, We have read, but did not understand. And the angels replied: You did not approach the Lord, and besides you have confirmed yourselves in falsities; and added, What is faith without light, and what signifies thinking without understanding? There is nothing human in it. Even magpies and ravens can learn to speak without understanding. We can declare to you that every man whose soul desires it, is capable of seeing the truths of the Word in the light. There does not exist an animal which does not know the food proper to its life when it sees it. And man is a rational and spiritual animal who sees the food of his life, not that of his body but of his soul, which is the truth of faith, provided indeed he hungers after it, and seeks it of the Lord.
Moreover whatever is not received in the understanding, is not fixed in the memory in reality, but only verbally. Therefore when we have looked down out of heaven into the world, we have not seen anything, but