700. Such ideas respecting this most holy sacrament are at this day cherished throughout all Christendom, solely because they are in accord with the sense of the letter of the Word; while the spiritual sense in which alone the use and benefit of the holy supper are seen in their truth, has been hitherto hidden, not having been disclosed until the present time. The reason why this sense is now for the first time disclosed, is that heretofore Christianity has existed only in name, excepting some shadow of it in a few individuals; for heretofore men have not directly approached and worshiped the Savior Himself as the one only God in whom is the Divine Trinity, but only mediately, and this is not approaching and worshiping but merely venerating Him as the cause of man's salvation, not regarding Him, however, as the essential cause, but as the mediate cause which is beneath and exterior to the essential cause. But now, because real Christianity is beginning to dawn, and a New Church meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, is now being established by the Lord, wherein God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are acknowledged as one, because in one Person, it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, to enable this church to enter into the real use and benefit of these sacraments, baptism and the holy supper; and this is done when men, with the eyes of the spirit, that is, with the understanding see the holiness that is concealed within them, and apply it to themselves by the means which the Lord has taught in His Word.