Page:A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion.djvu/46

42 good and divine truth, proceeding in conjunction from Jehovah the Lord himself, and accommodated to all possible states of reception both in heaven and in the church. Hence, in it's descent to men on earth, it assumes a sense either divinely-celestial, or divinely-spiritual, or divinely-natural, according to the three degrees of life, or reception of life, in angels and men; exciting celestial ideas and perceptions among the angels of the third or highest heaven, spiritual ideas among the angels of the second or middle heaven, and celestial-natural, or spiritual-natural ideas among the angels of the first or lowest heaven: in addition to which it also presents itself among men on earth in a literal, historical, and prophetic form, which, though capable of being separated in idea from the superior or interior senses, is yet in perfect union with them, by virtue of the correspondence subsisting between those senses, and at the same time of the divine presence within them, which is their very life and soul. By the divinely-celestial sense, spoken of above, is understood whatsoever has more immediate relation to the Lord, and his divine love, or divine good, proceeding from him, and warming the heart of the recipient subject: by the divinely-spiritual sense, whatsoever relates to the divine wisdom, or divine truth, proceeding from him, and illuminating the understanding: and by the divinely-natural sense is meant the complex of both the former in their ultimate forms and terminations; love manifesting itself as simple obedience, and wisdom as an obscure perception of truth, usually called faith. Thus the Word of the Lord is respectively accommodated to the angels of the three heavens, and also to men on earth: so that according to the quality and degree of it's reception in the understanding and in the life, such will always