Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 1887

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1887. Inspiration implies that every detail of the Word - within its historical narratives as well as in all other parts - has within it the celestial things of love or good, and the spiritual things of faith or truth, and so has Divine things within it. For that which is inspired by the Lord comes down from Him, coming down in fact by way of the angelic heaven, then in the same manner by way of the world of spirits, down to mankind, with whom it presents itself as it exists in the letter. But in its first origins it is something entirely different. In heaven nothing belonging to the history of the world ever has a place there, but everything is a representative of something Divine. Nor is anything else ever perceived there, as may also be recognized to be so from the fact that the things existing there are indescribable. Unless therefore the historical descriptions are representative of Divine things, and so heavenly things, they cannot possibly be divinely inspired. The nature of the Word in the heavens is recognizable solely from the internal sense, for the Internal Sense is the Word of the Lord in the heavens.


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