22. When, however, in the course of time the representative things of the Church, which were correspondences, were turned into idolatry and also into magic, by the Divine Providence of the Lord the science of correspondences was gradually obliterated, and amongst the Israelitish and Jewish nation was completely lost and became extinct. The worship of that nation consisted indeed of pure correspondences, and consequently was representative of heavenly things; but the people themselves did not understand the representation of a single thing. For they were altogether natural men, and therefore they did not wish, nor indeed were they able, to know anything of spiritual things, nor, therefore, anything of correspondences.