The spiritual sense.

No one can see the spiritual sense unless he has been taught real truth. This enables him to see the spiritual sense, when he has some knowledge of correspondences. Someone who has been taught what is false cannot see anything of the spiritual sense; he warps and applies the correspondences he knows to suit his false teaching. He may therefore falsify the Word still more. This is because the truly spiritual sense of the Word comes from the Lord alone. This is the reason that no one in the natural world or in the spiritual world is allowed to seek out the spiritual sense of the Word from the literal sense, unless he is completely under the guidance of the teaching of Divine truth and enlightened by the Lord. The spiritual sense therefore can be seen by the teaching of Divine truth supported by the literal sense of the Word. But the teaching can never first be seen from the spiritual sense. It is false to think to oneself, `I know many correspondences; so I can know the true teaching of the Divine Word, the spiritual sense will teach it to me.' This cannot happen; but as I have said, let someone say to himself, `I know the teaching of Divine truth, now I can see the spiritual sense, provided I know the correspondences.' But this must still be by enlightenment from the Lord, because the spiritual sense is Divine truth itself bathed in its own light; and this is meant by glory, the literal sense being the cloud, in the passages of the Word about these subjects. [2] The existence of a spiritual sense in the Word is to be supported by ten passages in the prophetic books, also in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation. These passages are to be quoted and a demonstration given that they would be meaningless without a spiritual sense.