7. THE WORD IS NOT UNDERSTOOD EXCEPT BY THOSE WHO ARE ENLIGHTENED. The human rational, if it be not enlightened by the Lord, cannot grasp Divine things, nor even spiritual things, (n. 2196, 2203, 2209, 2654). So it is that only they who are enlightened comprehend the Word, (n. 10323). The Lord enables those who are enlightened to understand truths and, moreover, to discern truths in those things which appear to contradict each other, (n. 9382, 10659). The Word in the sense of the letter is not consistent with itself and sometimes appears to contradict itself, (n. 9025), and on that account it can be explained and interpreted, by those who are not enlightened, to confirm any opinion or heresy, and to defend any worldly and corporeal love, (n. 4783, 10330, 10400). They are enlightened from the Word, who read it from a love of truth and good, but not those who do so from a love of reputation, gain or honour, and so from a love of self, (n. 9382, 10548-10551). They are enlightened who are in the good of life and thence in the affection of truth, (n. 8694). They are enlightened whose internal is open, thus who as to their internal man can be raised up into the light of heaven, (n. 10400, 10402 10691, 10694). Enlightenment is an actual opening of the interiors of the mind, and also an elevation into the light of heaven, (n. 10330). Holiness from the internal, that is, through the internal from the Lord, flows in with those who hold the Word sacred, they themselves being ignorant of it, (n. 6789). They are enlightened and see truths in the Word, who are led by the Lord, but not they who are led by themselves, (n. 10638). They are led by the Lord, who love truth because it is truth, who indeed are they who love to live in accordance with Divine truths, (n. 10578, 10645, 10829). The Word is made living with man according to the life of his love and faith, (n. 1776). Those things which are derived from his own intelligence have no life in themselves, because from man's proprium* there is nothing good, (n. 8941, 8944). They cannot be enlightened, who have confirmed themselves strongly in false doctrine, (n. 10640). It is the understanding that is enlightened, (n. 6608, 9300). The understanding is receptive of truth, (n. 6222, 6608, 10659). Concerning every doctrinal thing of the Church there are ideas of the understanding and of thought thence, according to which the doctrinal is perceived, (n. 3310, 3825). Man's ideas are natural as long as he is living in the world, because he then thinks in the Natural; but, nevertheless, with those who are in the affection of truth for its own sake, spiritual ideas are concealed within them, and man comes into these ideas after death, (n. 3310, 5510, 6201, 10236, 10240, 10551), [10237]. There can be no perception concerning any subject whatsoever, without ideas of the understanding and thence of thought, (n. 3825). Ideas concerning matters of faith are laid open in the other life, and their quality is there seen by angels, and man is then conjoined with others according to them, in so far as they proceed from an affection which is of love, (n. 1869, 3320, 5510, 6201, 8885), [3310, 6200]. Therefore the Word is not understood except by a rational man, for to believe something without an idea of the thing itself and without the insight of reason, is only to retain an expression in the memory devoid of all life of perception and affection, which is not believing, (n. 2533). It is the literal sense of the Word which is enlightened, (n. 3619, 9824, 9905, 10548). * The Latin word Proprium means "what is one's own." Swedenborg uses it in a special sense involving "what is of the self".