Continuation concerning the Word:-

[2] As it is from creation that the end, cause, and effect should together make one; so also it is from creation that the heavens should make one with the church on the earth, but through the Word, while it is read by man from the love of truth and good. For this is the end for which the Word was given by the Lord, in order that there might be a perpetual conjunction of the angels of heaven with the men of the earth; and also perpetual communication according to conjunction. Without this medium there would not be any conjunction and communication with heaven on this earth. The conjunction and communication is instantaneous. The reason of this is, that all things of the Word in its literal sense are like effects, in which the cause and the end are together; and the effects, which are in the Word, are called uses, the causes thereof truths, and the ends goods. And the Divine Love, which is the Lord, unites together these three in the man who is in the affection of uses from the Word.

[3] How a man, from the Word in the letter, draws and calls forth the natural sense, a spiritual angel the spiritual, and a celestial angel the celestial, and this in an instant - whence comes communication and conjunction - shall be illustrated by comparisons; first by something in the animal kingdom, afterwards by something in the vegetable kingdom, and lastly by something in the mineral kingdom.

From the Animal Kingdom. From the food, which, when it is converted into chyle, the vessels draw out and call forth their blood, the fibres of the nerves their juice, and the substances which are the origins of the fibres their spirit, which is called the animal spirit; and this by the vital heat, which in its essence is love. The vessels, the fibres, and the substances which are their origins, are distinct from one another, and yet act as one, in the whole body; and they act together and in the same instant.

[4] From the Vegetable Kingdom. The tree with its trunk and branches, leaves and fruits, stands upon its root; and from the ground, where its root is, extracts and calls forth juice, a grosser for the trunk and branches, a purer for the leaves, and the purest, which also is finer, for the fruits and for the seeds in them; and this is effected by the heat from the sun. In this case the branches, the leaves, and the fruit, although they are distinct from one another, still act together, and in an instant extract from the same ground aliments of such different purity and nobleness.

[5] From the Mineral Kingdom. In the bosom of the earth, in certain places, are minerals impregnated with gold, silver, copper, and iron. From the vapours stored up in the earth the gold attracts its element, the silver, copper and iron do the same, and this by some kind of unknown heat, distinctly, together, and in an instant.

[6] As by comparisons from natural things it is allowable to illustrate spiritual things, therefore the following are for illustration, how from the Word in its ultimates, which is the literal sense, interior things, which are things spiritual and celestial, can be drawn, called forth, extracted, and sublimated; by which a man of the church has communication and conjunction with the heavens. Comparisons can be made by means of them, because all the things in the three kingdoms of nature - the animal, vegetable, and mineral - correspond to the spiritual things in the three heavens; as the food of the body, with which a comparison is made, corresponds to the food of the soul, which is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. A tree, by which also a comparison is made, corresponds to a man; the tree to the man himself, the wood to his good, the leaves to his truths, and the fruits to his uses. Similarly gold, silver, copper, and iron correspond to goods and truths; gold to celestial good, silver to spiritual truth, copper to natural good, and iron to natural truth. Moreover, similar things are also signified by them in the Word. And, what is wonderful, the purer are within the grosser, and are thence extracted, as the animal spirit and nervous juice are in the blood, from which the original substances and nervous fibres draw and extract their allotted portions. Similarly, fruits and leaves extract theirs from the gross fluid which is brought up from the ground by the wood and its bark, and so on; thus, comparatively, as from the literal sense of the Word are drawn and called forth the purer senses, according to what has been said above.