2. II. THE WORD INWARDLY IS LIVING. When the Word is read by a man who esteems it holy, its natural sense then becomes spiritual in the second heaven, and celestial in the third heaven, thus it is successively stripped of its natural (sense); the reason is, because the natural, spiritual, and celestial (senses) correspond to each other, and the Word is written by mere correspondences. The natural sense of the Word is such as it is in the sense of the letter, every particular of which becomes spiritual, and afterwards celestial in the heavens; and when it becomes spiritual it then lives in heaven from the light of truth therein, and when it becomes celestial, it lives from the flame of good therein; for spiritual ideas, with the angels of the second heaven, derive their origin from the light existing there, which in its essence is Divine Truth; but the celestial ideas, with the angels of the third heaven, derive their origin from the flame of good, which in its essence is Divine Good. For in the second heaven there is a white light, from which the angels who are in that heaven think, and in the third heaven there is a flaming light, from which the angels who are in that heaven think. The thoughts of angels differ entirely from the thoughts of men; they think by lights either bright white or flamy, which are such that they can never be described in natural language. From this it appears that the Word is inwardly living, consequently that it is not dead, but alive with that man who, while reading the Word, thinks holily concerning it. Moreover, everything of the Word is vivified by the Lord; because with the Lord it becomes life, as the Lord also says in John:
The words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life (John 6:63). The life, which by means of the Word flows in from the Lord, is the light of truth in the understanding, and the love of good in the will; this love and that light constitute together the life of heaven, which life with man is called eternal life. The Lord also teaches:
God was the Word, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4.)