6. VI. THE WORD, AND NATURAL THEOLOGY: THIS THEOLOGY IS NOTHING WITHOUT THE WORD, AND UNLESS DERIVED FROM IT. THE EXCELLENCE OF THE STYLE IN THE WORD. I once heard a grave dispute among spirits who in the world had been learned, some of them from the Word and some from natural light alone; the latter insisted that natural theology is sufficient, and that this can teach, yea, enlighten man, without the Word, and enable him to discern that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell, and that the soul has immortality and thus eternal life; but the former ones said that the Word alone teaches and gives light on these subjects. The spirits who were for natural theology alone, greatly infested those who were for the Word, and this for several days: thinking at heart, and at last saying, that the Word is not anything, that it is written in a style so simple and at the same time so obscure, in very many places, that no one can be taught, and still less be enlightened by it, and that the writings of the learned by far surpass it, as for instance the writings of Cicero, Seneca, and of some of the learned at this day. But reply was made to them, that the style of the Word is more excellent than the style of all the learned in the whole world, since in the former there is not a sentence, nor even a word or a letter, which does not contain within itself something of the Lord and thence something of heaven and the church. For the Word is from God, and thence in its bosom it is spiritual, and this Divine lies hidden there interiorly, as the soul is hidden in the body; and when man reads it devoutly, this Divine is unfolded in order before the angels, who are affected by the spiritual sanctity unfolded therein, and this is communicated to man. Hence it is clear that the very style of the Word, however simple it may appear, is infinitely superior to any style of the most learned in the world; for the latter, although the sense may be both elegant and sublime, still it does not effect communication with heaven, and thus, compared with the style of the Word, it is of no value at all. [2] The spirits who were in favor of natural theology heard these things indeed, but still rejected them, because in the world they had utterly despised the Word, and those who despise the Word in the world, and confirm their contempt by passages from it, continue to despise it after death; for every principle adopted and confirmed in the world concerning God and the Word, remains enrooted after death, neither can it be torn out. Since therefore these spirits did not communicate with heaven, but with hell, they began to conjoin themselves with certain satans there, till at length they and the satans spoke in concert, and gnashing with their teeth breathed the destruction of the soul of those who were in favor of the Word. Yet they could avail nothing at all, for the Lord was on the side of those who were for the Word, and satans on the side of those who were against it; wherefore the former were received into heaven, but the latter were cast down into hell.