712. It is also well known that the church has three essentials: God, charity and faith; and that all things in the church have reference to these three, as it were to their universals. These are the same as those mentioned above, for God in the Holy Supper is the Lord, charity is the Divine good and faith is the Divine truth. What is charity but the good a person does under the Lord's guidance? And what is faith but the truth a person believes under the Lord's guidance? It is because of this that there are three things in man as regards his internal: the soul or mind, the will and the understanding. These three are designed to receive the three universals. The actual soul or mind is to receive the Lord, for this is the source of its life; the will is to receive love or good; and the understanding is to receive wisdom or truth. Every detail therefore in the soul or mind not only refers to those three universals of heaven and the church, but it also proceeds from them. Name anything that proceeds from man in which there is not mind, will and understanding; if one of these were taken away, would we still be talking of a man rather than something inanimate?
[2] Likewise there are three things in man as regards his external, to which every single detail refers and on which they are dependent: namely, the body, the heart and the lungs. These three bodily items correspond to the three mental items, [the body to the soul or mind,] the heart to the will, the lungs or breathing to the understanding. The existence of such a correspondence has already been fully demonstrated in this book. Every single detail now in man is so formed both at the universal and at the particular level as to be capable of receiving those three universals of heaven and the church. The reason is that man was created an image and likeness of God, in order therefore that he might be in the Lord, and the Lord might be in him.
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