Heaven and Hell (Harley) n. 260

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260. Once there was sent to me from heaven a little paper on which were written only a few words in Hebrew letters, and it was said that every letter involved arcana of wisdom, which were contained in the inflections and curvatures of the letters, and thus also in the sounds. This made clear to me what is signified by these words of the Lord:

Verily I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle (corniculum) shall not pass away from the law. Matt. v. 18.

That the Word in every tittle of it is Divine is acknowledged in the Church; but where the Divine lies hid in every tittle has not yet been known, and therefore will be told. In the inmost heaven the writing consists of various inflected and circumflected forms, and the inflections and circumflections are in accordance with the form of heaven. By means of these, angels express the arcana of their wisdom, and also many things which they are unable to express in spoken words; and, what is wonderful, the angels know this writing without training or teacher, it being implanted in them like their speech (see n. 236); therefore this writing is heavenly writing. It is implanted because all extension of thoughts and affections and consequent communication of intelligence and wisdom of the angels proceeds in accordance with the form of heaven (n. 201); and for the same reason their writing flows into that form. I have been told that the most ancient people on this earth, before letters were invented, also had such writing; and that it was copied into the letters of the Hebrew language, which letters in ancient times were all inflected, and none of them, as at present, were defined as straight lines. Thus it is that in the Word, Divine things and arcana of heaven are contained even in its jots (iota), points (apex) and little horns (corniculum).


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