Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/120

114 spiritual signification. So that, within or above the apparent sense of Scripture, called also the natural or literal sense, he recognizes a higher meaning which he calls the internal or spiritual. This higher or spiritual sense, is to that of the letter, as the soul is to the body: and it dwells in every part of the written Word as the soul dwells in every part of the body. As the body without the soul is dead, so the literal sense of the Word apart from the spiritual, is dead also. As the body derives all its life and strength from the in-dwelling soul, so the literal sense of the Word receives its vitality and power from the spiritual sense. And as the body is the normal outbirth of the soul, and corresponds to it as an effect corresponds to its producing cause, so the literal sense of the Word is the normal outbirth of the spiritual, and corresponds to it in like manner. And as body and soul are united by correspondence, the one being filled, pervaded, and animated by the