heaven by the literal sense, because within it there is a spiritual and a celestial sense; and in these senses the angels are,—the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom in the spiritual sense of the Word, and those of his celestial kingdom in its celestial sense. Both these senses are evolved from the natural sense while the man who regards the Word as holy, is reading it. The evolution is instantaneous; consequently the consociation is also."
"That the spiritual angels are in the spiritual sense of the Word, and the celestial angels in its celestial sense, has been manifested to me by much experience. The perception has been given me that when I read the Word in its literal sense communication with the heavens was effected, sometimes with one heavenly society and sometimes with another: what I understood according to the natural sense, spiritual angels understood according to the spiritual sense, and celestial angels according to the celestial sense, and this instantly. As I have perceived this communication some thousands of times, there remains with me not the least doubt about it. . . I have thus been taught by living experience, that the Word in its literal sense is the Divine medium of conjunc-
