[2] The reason why the sense of the letter of the Word communicates with heaven is, because the whole and every part of it contains in itself a spiritual sense; and the spiritual sense is perceived in the heavens, when the natural sense, which is the sense of the letter, is understood by man. That this is the case has been proved to me by much experience from the spiritual world. I have heard some repeat words taken from the sense of the letter of the Word, and have perceived that communication was immediately given them with some society of heaven; for the spiritual sense, which was in the words then recited from the sense of the letter, penetrated to that society. Evil spirits sometimes abuse this communication to procure themselves favour and protection from the heavens. It is evident therefore what is the quality of the Word in the sense of the letter. And because it is a means of communicating with heaven, therefore the Spiritual in agreement with the Natural, and which is moreover holy, flows in therefrom into the natural love of the person speaking or preaching from the Word; and this love excites the thought nearest to their speech. It is said the thought nearest to speech, because man has interior and exterior thought. He is in a state of interior thought when he is alone and thinks in himself, but in exterior thought when he is with others and speaks with them. It is known to every one, that a man can think in himself in a manner different from that which he makes use of in speaking before men. This exterior thought is that which is meant by the thought nearest to speech. This thought is excited and enkindled by natural love, which is the love of glory, honour, or gain with those who are in falsities, and who confirm them from the sense of the letter of the Word. Now this is what is meant by a spirit given to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should speak; by which is signified, that in the doctrine of faith separate from life, there was also, by conjunction with the Word, something of spiritual life; and that therefore something in agreement flowed in out of heaven into the thought nearest to speech, which is excited and enkindled by natural love.

[3] Because in a former article we treated of the spiritual love, in which those are who dwell in the second heaven, and which constitutes their life; and since it is not known how love becomes spiritual, it shall here be briefly explained.

All love becomes spiritual by means of truths from the Word, in proportion as a man acknowledges and sees them in his understanding, and afterwards loves them, that is, does them from the will. The reason why the love becomes spiritual by means of truths from the Word in proportion as a man acknowledges and sees them in the understanding is, that a man has two memories, and consequently two kinds of thought, this being the case both with the evil and the good - interior and exterior. Every man thinks in himself from the interior memory, when, left to himself, he is led of his own love. This thought is that of his spirit. But a man thinks from the exterior memory when he speaks before the world. Every one may see by a little reflection that these two kinds of thought exist. The things which man thinks in himself from the interior memory when left to himself, are those pertaining to his life, and become associated with his life; for it is his spirit which then thinks, or, what is the same, it is the affection proper to his life which excites such thought. But the things which a man thinks from the exterior memory, if they do not make one with the thought of the interior memory, do not pertain to his life, nor do they become associated with his life, for they are corporeal and belong to the world; these after death are cast aside, when a man becomes a spirit.

It is therefore evident what is the nature of the state of those who are evil, and who fear neither God nor man, namely, that inwardly they think evils and falsities, although outwardly they may think and speak truths and also do goods; and that such goods and truths are dissipated when man puts off the body and becomes a spirit, the evils and the falsities remaining with them.

But the case is different with the good. These, because they have feared God and loved their neighbour, when they think from the interior memory, think from the truths that are from good, and similarly in regard to the exterior memory, so that with them these two thoughts make one. And because they are in truths from good, the internal spiritual man is opened; and this is conjoined with angels in the heavens, and is essentially an angel of heaven. Such a man, being in the light of heaven, in which spiritual truths appear as clearly as objects in the world appear before the eye, receives truths when he sees them, and forms his understanding from them. He has spiritual faith, therefore, which is essentially the acknowledgment of truth because it is seen in the understanding. Natural faith, which is to believe that a thing is so because another has declared it, is to them no faith. They call this faith historical, and, in the case of some, persuasive faith, which remains only so far as it agrees with love of their life. Who cannot see that nothing can enter a man's life, and constitute it, except that which has been previously seen to be so in the thought, and afterwards willed to be so? From these things it is evident, that in order that a man's love may become spiritual, he ought to see his truths, that is, to grasp them by the understanding.

[4] If, however, it is said that spiritual truths cannot be seen, and that the understanding cannot be so far opened, while a man is in the world, let it be known that he who loves truth from truth, that is, because it is truth, can see truth; and the truths that he does not see in the world he sees afterwards in heaven. For the very love of truth is receptive of the light of heaven; for this enlightens the understanding. Moreover, every one can receive in thought and understand more truths than he himself knows, unless his own love induces obscurity and causes darkness. This has been frequently testified to me in the spiritual world. For evil spirits have understood spiritual truths equally as well as good spirits, indeed, almost like angels, when they have been uttered; but as soon as they turned away their ears, and returned back into the state of their own love, they understood nothing whatever. It is evident, therefore, that every man has the faculty of understanding truths, and seeing them; but that the love of truth for the sake of truth alone causes man to understand them in the world rationally, but after death spiritually.

[5] But love with man, and his life therefrom, do not become spiritual by merely knowing and understanding truths, unless he also wills and does them. For, as just now said, an evil man, whose love is infernal, can know and understand truths equally well as a good man whose love is heavenly. Consequently the evil believe that, on account of their knowledges and the understanding of truths, they will not only come into heaven, but also be there amongst the intelligent, of whom it is said that "They shall shine as the stars"; when, nevertheless, if they do not also love or will to do the truths which they know and understand, they come after death amongst those who are in hell, from whom all truths are taken away. For every one after death becomes his own love; and in the world every one becomes his own love by willing and doing according to his understanding and knowledge. For a man's love dwells in these, and the truths of the understanding dwell in the love. It is evident, therefore, whence man has life, for it is love that constitutes his life.

[6] There are three degrees of life in a man. The third degree is that in which are the angels of the third heaven. The second is that in which are the angels of the second heaven; and the first is that in which are the angels of the first or ultimate heaven. There is also a lowest degree, which is corporeal and material; a man is in this while he lives in the world. These degrees are opened in him according to the reception of Divine truth in his life; and Divine truth is received in the life when truth is willed and done according as it is known and understood. And because the love and life of man make one, it follows that there are as many degrees of love as there are degrees of life. The love in which are the angels of the third heaven is called celestial love; that in which are the angels of the second heaven is called spiritual love; and that in which are the angels of the first heaven is called spiritual-natural love, also celestial- natural. As is their love such is their wisdom and intelligence. Those who are in the third degree of love and thence of wisdom, live in an atmosphere purely ethereal, as it were. Those who are in the second degree of love, and thence of intelligence, live as if in an atmosphere purely aerial, as it were. And those who are in the first degree of love, and thence of knowledge, live in an atmosphere purely watery, as it were. And because the purity of their life is in a degree similar to that of their love, it is evident that those who are in the third heaven, and in the love and life of that heaven, cannot be approached by those who are in the second and first heavens. For to ascend from the second heaven into the third would be like a bird flying above its own atmosphere into the ether; and to ascend from the first heaven into the second would be like a fish raised out of the water into the air, where it would suffer the greatest pain and be suffocated.

These things are stated in order that it may be known that spiritual love is the love of truth in act; and that the love of truth in act is according to the sight of truth in the understanding; and that the faith of that love is nothing else but the acknowledgment of truth from that sight and understanding. This, therefore, is spiritual faith.