20. 4. THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE WORD HAS HITHERTO BEEN UNKNOWN. That all things in nature, both general and particular, and also all things in the human body, correspond to spiritual things is shown in the work HEAVEN AND HELL, Nos. 87-105. What correspondence is, however, has hitherto been unknown; yet in most ancient times it was very well known, for to those who lived then the science of correspondences was the science of sciences, and was so universal that all their treatises and books were written by correspondences. The Book of Job, which is an ancient book, is full of correspondences.
[2] The hieroglyphics of the Egyptians and the myths of antiquity were of a like nature. All the ancient Churches were representative of heavenly things; and their ceremonies and also the statutes on which their worship was founded, consisted of pure correspondences. Of a like nature were all the things of the Church established among the Children of Jacob; their burnt offerings and sacrifices with all the things connected with them were correspondences. So also was the tabernacle with every thing in it; and likewise their feasts, as the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of tabernacles, and the feast of the first fruits; and also the priesthood of Aaron and the Levites, and the holy garments of Aaron and his sons; and, moreover, all the statutes and judgments relating to their worship and life.
[3] Now because Divine things manifest themselves in the world in correspondences, therefore, the Word was written by pure correspondences. Therefore, also the Lord, since He spoke from His Divine, spoke by correspondences. For whatever proceeds from the Divine manifests itself in nature in such things as correspond to what is Divine; and these things then have stored up within them Divine things called celestial and spiritual.
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