128. (9) The Word is the means of conjunction, because it is from the Lord and thus is the Lord. The Word is the means by which the Lord is conjoined with people and people with the Lord, because it is in its essence Divine truth united to Divine good and Divine good united to Divine truth. (On the presence of this union in each and every part of the Word in its celestial and spiritual meanings, see The Apocalypse Revealed, nos. 373, 483, 689, 881.) It follows from this that the Word is a perfect marriage of good and truth. And because it is from the Lord, and because that which is from Him also is Him, it follows as a consequence that when a person reads the Word and draws truths from it, the Lord attaches good. For the person does not see the states of good affecting him, because he uses his intellect to read the Word, and the intellect takes in from the Word only what is proper to it, namely, truths. The intellect does have a sense that the Lord joins good to these truths, from the delight that flows in when it is in a state of enlightenment, but this takes place inwardly only in the case of people who read the Word for the purpose of gaining wisdom, and those have this purpose who are trying to learn genuine truths from it and thereby form the church in themselves. In contrast, people who read the Word only for the glory in being learned, and people who suppose that simply the reading or hearing of the Word inspires faith and leads to salvation - such people do not receive any good from the Lord. That is because the goal of the second sort of people is to save themselves by just the mere sayings in the Word, apart from the presence of any truth in them; and the goal of the first sort of people is to become renowned for their learning, a goal which does not have any spiritual good attached to it but only natural delight arising from the glory of the world. Since the Word is the means of conjunction, it is therefore called a covenant - the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. A covenant symbolizes conjunction.