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It has been said that there is a Word in each heaven and that these
Words are in our Word in their order, and that they thus make one by
influx and consequent correspondences. Here, therefore, it shall be told
what correspondence is and what influx is; otherwise what the Word is
inwardly in its bosom, thus in respect to its life from the Lord, which
is its soul, cannot be understood.

But what correspondence is and what influx is shall be illustrated by
examples.  The changes of the face that are called expressions
correspond to the affections of the mind; consequently the face changes
in respect to its expressions just as the affections of the mind change
in respect to their states.  These changes in the face are
correspondences, as consequently the face itself is; and the action of
the mind into it, that the correspondences may be exhibited, is called
influx.  The sight of man’s thought, which is called the understanding,
corresponds to the sight of his eyes; and consequently the quality of
the thought from the understanding is made evident by the light and
flame of the eyes.  The sight of the eye is a correspondence, as
consequently the eye itself is; the action of the understanding into the
eye, by which the correspondence is exhibited, is influx.  Active
thought, which belongs to the understanding, corresponding to speech,
which belongs to the mouth.  The speech is a correspondence, likewise
the mouth and everything belonging to it, and the action of thought into
speech and into the organs of speech is influx.  The perception of the
mind corresponds to the smell of the nostrils.  The smell and the
nostrils are correspondences, and the action is influx.  For this reason
a man who has interior perception is said to have a keen nose, and
perceiving a thing is called scenting it out. Hearkening, which means
obedience, corresponds to the hearing of the ears; consequently both the
hearing and the ears are correspondences, and the action of obedience
into the hearing, that a man may raise his ears and attend, is influx;
therefore hearkening and hearing are both significative, hearkening and
giving ear to anyone meaning to obey, and hearkening and hearing anyone
meaning to hear with the ears.  The action of the body corresponds to
the will, the action of the heart corresponds to the life of the love,
the action of the lungs, which is called respiration, corresponds to the
life of the faith, and the whole body in respect to all its members,
viscera, and organs, corresponds to the soul in respect to all the
functions and powers of its life.

From these few examples it can be seen what correspondence is and what
influx is; and that when the spiritual, which belongs to the life of
man’s understanding and will, flows into the acts which belong to his
body, it exhibits itself in a natural effigy, and there is
correspondence; also that thus the spiritual and the natural act as one
by correspondences, like interior and exterior, or like prior and
posterior, or like the effecting cause and the effect, or like the
principal cause which belongs to man’s thought and will, and the
instrumental cause which belongs to his speech and action.  There is
such a correspondence of natural things and spiritual not only in each
and every thing of man, but also in each every thing of the world; and
the correspondences are produced by an influx of the spiritual world and
all things of it into the natural world and all things of it.  From all
this it can be seen in some measure how our Word, as to the sense of the
letter, which is natural, makes one by influx and correspondences with
the Words in the heavens, the senses of which are spiritual. (A.E., n.
1080.)

What the Word is in respect to influx and correspondences can now be
shown.  It is said in John:

“He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should
see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and should turn
themselves and I should heal them” (xii. 40).

The “eyes” that are blinded signify the understanding of truth and
belief in it; the “heart” that is hardened signifies the will and love
of good; and “to be healed” signifies to be reformed.  They were not
permitted “to turn themselves and be healed” lest they should commit
profanation; for a wicked man who is healed and who returns to his evil
and falsity commits profanation; and so it would have been with the
Jewish nation.  In Matthew:

“Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear”
(xiii. 16).

Here, too, the “eyes” signify the understanding of truth and belief in
it; so “to see” signifies to understand and believe, and the “ears”
signify obedience, thus a life according to the truths of faith, and “to
hear” signifies to obey and live.  For one is blessed not because he
sees and hears, but because he understands, believes, obeys, and lives.
In the same,

“The lamp of the body is the eye; if the eye be sound the whole body is
light, if the eye be evil the whole body is darkened.  If, therefore,
the light . . . be darkness, how great is the darkness” (vi. 22, 23).

Here, again, the “eye” signifies the understanding of truth and belief
in it, which is called a lamp from the light of truth that man has from
understanding and belief.  And because a man becomes wise from
understanding and believing in truth, it is said “if the eye be sound
the whole body is light.”  The “body” means the man, and “to be light”
means to be wise.  But it is the reverse with the “evil eye,” that is,
understanding and believing in falsity.  “Darkness” means falsities, “if
the light be darkness” signifies if the truth be false or falsified, and
because truth falsified is worse than any other falsity, it is said, “If
the light be darkness, how great is the darkness.”

These few examples make clear what correspondence is and what influx is,
namely, that the eye is a correspondence of the understanding and faith,
the heart a correspondence of the will and love, the ears a
correspondence of obedience, the lamp and light correspondences of
truth, and darkness a correspondence of falsity, and so on; and as the
one is spiritual and the other is natural, and the spiritual acts into
the natural and forms it to a likeness of itself that it may appear
before the eyes or before the world, so that action is influx.  Such is
the Word in each and every particular.  (A.E., n. 1081.)

The spiritual by influx presents what is correspondent to itself in the
natural, in order that the end may become a cause, and the cause become
an effect, and thus the end through the cause may present itself in the
effect as visible and sensible.  This trine, namely, end, cause, and
effect, exists from creation in every heaven.  The end is good of love,
the cause is truth from that good, and the effect is use.  The producing
force is love, and the product therefrom is of love from good by means
of truth.  The final products, which are in our world, are various, as
numerous as the objects are in its three kingdoms of nature, animal,
vegetable, and mineral.  All products are correspondences. As this
trine, namely, end, cause, and effect, exists in each heaven, there must
be in each heaven products that are correspondences, and that are like
in form and aspect the objects in the three kingdoms of our earth; from
which it is clear that each heaven is like our earth in outward
appearance, differing only in excellence and beauty according to
degrees.  Now in order that the Word may be full, that is, may consist
of effects in which are a cause and an end, or may consist of uses in
which truth is the cause and good is the end and love is the producing
force, it must needs consist of correspondences; and from this it
follows that the Word in each heaven is like the Word in our world,
differing only in excellence and beauty according to degrees.  What this
difference is shall be told elsewhere. (A.E., n. 1082.)

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That the Word is holy and Divine from inmosts to outermosts is not
evident to the man who leads himself, but is evident to the man whom the
Lord leads.  For the man who leads himself sees only the external of the
Word, and forms his opinion of it from its style; but the man whom the
Lord leads forms his opinion of the external of the Word from the
holiness that is in it.

The Word is like a garden, that may be called a heavenly paradise, in
which are delicacies and charms of every kind, delicacies from the
fruits, and charms from the flowers; and in the middle of it trees of
life, and near them fountains of living water, and round about trees of
the forest, and near them rivers.  The man who leads himself forms his
opinion of that paradise, which is the Word, from its circumference,
where the trees of the forest are; but the man whom the Lord leads forms
his opinion of it from the middle of it, where the trees of life are.
The man whom the Lord leads is actually in the middle of it, and looks
to the Lord; but the man who leads himself actually sits down at the
circumference, and looks away from it to the world.

Again, the Word is like fruit within which there is a nutritious pulp,
and in the middle of it seed vessels, in which inmostly is a living germ
that germinates in good soil.  Again, the Word is also like a most
beautiful infant, about which, except the face, there are wrappings upon
wrappings; the infant itself is in the inmost heaven, the wrappings are
in the lower heavens, and the general covering of the wrappings is on
the earth.  As the Word is such it is holy and Divine from inmosts to
outermosts. (A.E., n. 1072.)

The Word is such because in its origin it is the Divine itself that goes
forth from the Lord, and is called Divine truth; and when this descended
to men in the world it passed through the heavens in their order
according to their degrees, which are three; and in each heaven it was
recorded in accommodation to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels
there.  Finally it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to
men, and there it was recorded and made known in adaptation to man’s
understanding and apprehension.  This, therefore, is the sense of its
letter, and in this lies Divine truth such as it is in the three
heavens, stored up in distinct order.

From this it is clear that the entire wisdom of the angels in the three
heavens has been imparted by the Lord to our Word, and in its inmost
there is the wisdom of the angels of the third heaven, which is
incomprehensible and ineffable to man, because full of mysteries and
treasures of Divine verities.  These lie stored up in each particular
and in all the particulars of our Word.  And as Divine truth is the Lord
in the heavens, so the Lord Himself is present, and may be said to dwell
in all the particulars and each particular of His Word, as He does in
His heavens; and in the same way as He has said of the ark of the
covenant, in which were deposited only the Ten Commandments written on
the two tables, the first-fruits of the Word, for He said that He would
speak there with Moses and Aaron, that He would be present there, that
He would dwell there, and that it was His holy of holies, and His
dwelling place as in heaven. (A.E., n., 1073.)

As the Divine truth, in passing from the Lord Himself through the three
heavens down to men in the world, is recorded and becomes the Word in
each heaven, so the Word is a bond of union of the heavens with each
other, and a bond of union of the heavens with the church in the world.
For the Word is the same everywhere, differing only in perfection of
glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are;
consequently the holy Divine from the Lord flows in through the heavens
into the man in the world who acknowledges the Lord’s Divine and the
holiness of the Word whenever he reads the Word; and so far as such a
man loves wisdom he can be instructed and can imbibe wisdom from the
Word as from the Lord Himself, or from heaven itself, and can thus be
nourished with the food with which the angels themselves are nourished,
and in which there is life; according to these words of the Lord:

“The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life” (John vi. 63).
“The water that I will give you shall become . . . a fountain of water
springing up unto eternal life” (John iv. 14). “Man doth not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”
(Matt. iv. 4). “Work . . . for the meat that abideth unto eternal life,
which the Son of man shall give unto you” (John vi. 27).

Such is the Word.  (A.E., n. 1074.)

It has been said that the Divine truth goes forth from the Lord, and
that the Word is from that, and that through the Word angels and men
have wisdom.  But so long as it is unknown how Divine truth goes forth
from the Lord, this may be said but it cannot be understood.  Divine
truth, which is the same as Divine wisdom, goes forth from the Lord as
light and heat do from the sun.  The Lord is Divine love itself, and
love appears in the heavens from correspondence as fire, and the Lord’s
Divine love as a sun, glowing and resplendent like the sun of the world.
From that sun, which is high above the heavens where the angels are, and
which is Divine love, heat and light go forth; the heat therefrom is
Divine good, and the light therefrom is Divine truth.  The heat is
Divine good, because all heat of life going forth from love is felt as
good, for it is spiritual heat; and the light is Divine truth because
all light going forth from love is felt as truth, for it is spiritual
light; consequently it is from that light that the understanding sees
truths, and it is from that heat that the will is sensible of goods; and
this is why in the Word love is meant by heavenly fire and wisdom by
heavenly light.

It is the same with a man and with an angel.  Every angel and man is his
own love, and a sphere flowing out from his love encompasses every man
and angel.  That sphere consists of the good of his love and of the
truth of his love, for love gives forth both, as fire gives forth both
heat and light; from the will of a man or angel it gives forth good, and
from his understanding it gives forth truth.  This sphere, when the man
or angel is good, has an extension into the heavens in every direction
according to the character and amount of the love, and into the hells in
every direction when the man or angel is evil.  But the sphere of the
love of a man or an angel has a finite extension into a few societies
only of heaven or hell, while the sphere of the Lord’s love, being
Divine, has an infinite extension, and creates the heavens themselves.
(A.E., n. 1076.)

The Word of the Lord is wonderful in this respect, that in every
particular of it there is a reciprocal union of good and truth, which
testifies that the Word is the Divine that goes forth from the Lord,
which is Divine good and Divine truth reciprocally united; and also
testifies that in the Word there is a marriage of the Lord with heaven
and the church, which also is reciprocal.  There is a marriage of good
and truth, also of truth and good, in every particular of the Word, in
order that it may be a source of wisdom to angels and of intelligence to
men, for from good alone no wisdom or intelligence is born, neither from
truth alone, but from their marriage when the love is reciprocal.  This
reciprocal love the Lord sets forth in John:

“He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in
him” (vi. 56).

In the same,

“In that day ye shall know, that . . . ye are in Me and I in you.  He
that hath My commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me; . . .
and I will love him” (xiv. 20, 21).

The reciprocality is that such are in the Lord and the Lord is in them,
also that whoever loves the Lord, the Lord also will love him.  “To have
His commandments” is to be in truths, and “to do them” is to be in good.

Reciprocality is also described by the Lord in His union with the
Father, in these words,

“Philip, . . . How sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not
that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?  . . . Believe Me, that I
am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John xiv. 9-11).

From this reciprocal union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord the
reciprocal union of Divine good and Divine truth goes forth; and this
goes forth from the Lord’s Divine love; and the same is true of the
Lord’s reciprocal union with heaven and the church, and in general the
reciprocal union of good and truth in an angel of heaven and in a man of
the church.  And as good is of charity and truth is of faith, and as
charity and faith make the church, it follows that the church is in a
man when there is a reciprocal union of charity and faith in him.
Again, as good is of the will and truth is of the understanding, and as
the will and understanding make man, it follows that a man is a man
according to the union of the will and all things belonging to it with
the understanding and all things belonging to it, and this reciprocally.
This union is what is called marriage, which from creation is in every
particular of heaven and in every particular of the world; and from this
is the production and the generation of all things.  That in every
particular of the Word there is such a marriage that good loves truth
and truth loves good, thus mutually and in turn, is disclosed in the
spiritual sense of the Word; and it is from this marriage that good and
truth are one and not two, and are one when good is of truth and truth
is of good.  (A.E., n. 1077).

The Word in the sense of the letter appears very simple, and yet there
is stored up in it the wisdom of the three heavens, for each least
particular of it contains interior and more interior senses; an interior
sense such as exists in the first heaven, a still more interior sense
such as exists in the second heaven, and an inmost sense such as exists
in the third heaven.  These senses are in the sense of the letter, one
within the other, and are evolved therefrom one after the other, each
from its own heaven, when the Word is read by a man who is led by the
Lord. These interior senses differ in a degree of light and wisdom
according to the heavens, and yet they make one by influx, and thus by
correspondences.  How they thus make one shall be told in what follows.
All this makes clear how the Word was inspired by the Divine, and that
it was written from an inspiration to which nothing else in the world
can in anywise be compared.  The mysteries of wisdom of the three
heavens contained in it are the mystical things of which many have
spoken.  (A.E., n. 1079.)

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Since the Word is Divine truth, and this goes forth from the Lord’s
Divine Esse (being), as light from the sun, it follows that the Lord is
the Word because He is Divine truth.  The Lord is the Word, because He
is Divine truth, and this goes forth His Divine Esse (being), which is
Divine love, because the Divine love was in Him when in the world as a
soul is in its body; and as Divine truth goes forth from Divine love as
light goes forth from the sun, as has been said, so the Lord’s Human in
the world was Divine truth going forth from the Divine love that was in
Him.  That the Divine itself, which is called “Jehovah” and the
“Father,” and which is the Divine love, was in the Lord from conception,
is evident in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. In Matthew from these
words:

When Mary the mother of Jesus had been betrothed to Joseph, “before they
came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.”  And the
angle said to Joseph in a dream, “Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” . . .
This came to pass that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the
Lord by the prophet: . . . “Behold a virgin shall be with child, and
shall bring forth a son.”  And Joseph “knew her not until she had
brought forth her firstborn son; and he called His name Jesus” (i.
18-25).

And in Luke from these words:

The angel said to Mary, “Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and
bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus; He shall be great, and
shall be called the Son of the Most High.” . . . Then Mary said unto the
angel, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”  The angel answered
her, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most
High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also the Holy Thing that shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (i. 30-35).

It was because He was conceived of Jehovah that He is so frequently
called in the Word “the Son of God,” and Jehovah is called His “Father.”
Jehovah in respect to His Esse (being) is Divine love, and in respect to
His Existere (outgo) He is Divine good united to Divine truth.

From this it can be seen what is meant by:

The Word that was with God and that was God, and also was the light that
enlighteneth every man (John i. 1-10), namely, that it was Divine truth
going forth from the Lord, thus the Lord in respect to His Existere
(outgo).  That the Lord in respect to His Existere was Divine truth, and
that this was His Divine Human, because this came forth from His Divine
Esse as a body from its soul, these words in John clearly certify:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory
as of the only begotten of the Father (i. 14).

“The Word” is the Divine truth, which also is “glory”; “flesh” means the
Divine Human; “the only begotten of the Father” means the springing
forth or going forth from the Divine Esse in Him.  (A.E., n. 1069.)

But as the world does not know how the words in John (i. 1, 2, 14) that
the Lord is the Word, are to be understood, this shall be further
explained.  It is known in the church that God is good itself and truth
itself, and thus that all the good that an angel has and that a man has
is from God, and likewise all truth.  Now since the Lord is God He is
also Divine good and Divine truth; and this is what is meant by “the
Word, that was with God, and was God,” and also was “the light that
enlighteneth every man,” and that also “became flesh,” that is, Man in
the world.

That when the Lord was in the world He was the Divine truth, which is
the Word, He Himself teaches in many passages where He calls Himself
“the Light,” also where He calls Himself “the Way, the Truth, and the
Life”; and where He says that “the Spirit of truth” goes forth from Him.
“The Spirit of truth” is the Divine truth.  When the Lord was
transfigured He represented the Word, “His face that shone as the sun”
represented its Divine good; and His garments, which were “bright as the
light” and “white as snow,” represented its Divine truth.  “Moses and
Elijah,” who then talked with the Lord, also signified the Word, “Moses”
the historical Word and “Elijah” the prophetic Word. Moreover, all
things of the Lord’s passion represented the kind of violence that the
Jewish nation offered to the Word. Again, the Lord from Divine truth,
which He is, is called “God,” “King,” and “Angel,” and is meant by “the
rock in Horeb,” and “the rock” where Peter is spoken of.  All this makes
clear that the Lord is the Word, because He is Divine truth.  The Word
in the letter, which is with us, is the Divine truths in outmosts.
(A.E., n. 1070.)

As it cannot but transcend the comprehension that the Lord in relation
to His Human in the world was the Word, that is, Divine truth; according
to these words in John,

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (i. 14), it shall be
explained, as far as possible, to the comprehension.  It can be said of
every regenerate man that he is his own truth and his own good, since
the thought which belongs to his understanding is from truths, and the
affection which belongs to his will is from goods. Whether you say,
therefore, that a man is his own understanding and his own will, or that
a man is his own truth and his own good, it amounts to the same thing.
The body is mere obedience; for it speaks that which man thinks from the
understanding, and does that which he wills from affection. Thus these
things and the body mutually correspond and make one, like an effect and
its effecting cause; and these taken together constitute the human.

As it can be said of the regenerate man that he is his own truth and his
own good, so it can be said of the Lord as Man, that He is truth itself
or Divine truth, and good itself or Divine good.  All this makes evident
the truth that the Lord in relation to His Human in the world was Divine
truth, that is the Word; and that everything that He then said was
Divine truth, which is the Word; and that since the time when he went to
the Father, that is, became one with the Father, the Divine truth going
forth from Him is the Spirit of truth, which goes out and goes forth
from Him, and at the same time from the Father in Him. (A.E., n. 1071.)

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