True Christian Religion (Ager) n. 231

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231. (3) Genuine Truth, of which doctrine must consist, can be seen in the sense of the letter of the Word only by those who are in enlightenment from the Lord. Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, and exists in those who love truths because they are truths, and who make truths uses of life. To no others is enlightenment in the Word possible. Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, because the Word is from Him, and consequently He is in it. Enlightenment is given to those who love truths because they are truths, and who make them uses of life, because such are in the Lord, and the Lord is in them; for the Lord is Truth itself (as shown in the chapter that treats of the Lord); and men love the Lord when they live in accordance with His Divine truths, that is, when from those truths they perform uses, as is taught in these words in John:

In that day ye shall know that ye are in Me and I in you. He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him and I will come unto him, and make My abode with him (John 14:20, 21, 23). Such as these are in enlightenment when they read the Word; and with such the Word is both luminous and translucent. With such the Word is both luminous and translucent because a spiritual sense and a celestial sense are contained in every particular of the Word, and these senses are in the light of heaven; and thus by means of these and the light of these the Lord inflows into the natural sense of the Word and into the light of that sense in man; and in consequence man acknowledges truth from an interior perception, and then sees it in his thought, and this as often as he is in an affection for truth for the sake of truth. For perception comes from affection, and thought from perception; and thus the acknowledgment, which is called faith, is produced.


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