Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/183

 of their causes and origin and the consequent delights originating in the wisdom of spiritual things; or, what is the same, it is formed by the affections for and the knowledge of spiritual truths and their uses. If we forgive others God will forgive us, becomes to us a spiritual truth when we see that it is true because God is pure love, and that the only thing that exists between us and God is the grudge in our own hearts, which shuts out God's love, and that when that grudge is removed then love from God flows into us, and fills us with tender compassion where there was hatred toward our enemies. In a sentence, the spiritual sense of the Word, which is spiritual truth, forms the spiritual plane of the mind when we learn it, love it, and obey it.

The highest plane of the mind is the Celestial, D. It is distinguished from the Spiritual in being formed not by the knowledge and delights of spiritual truths, but by celestial truth in which celestial love is dominant. The Celestial plane is opened by living according to spiritual truths until the entire mind is brought into order by the dispersion of the false and evil, and so rectified that one can receive love from the Creator, act from it without conscious thought, and sensate its unperverted activity. In a summary, the celestial sense of the Word, which treats of love to the