80. There Is a Marriage of the Lord and the Church in the Details of the Word and a Consequent Marriage of Goodness and Truth

UNTIL the present time, no one has seen that there is a marriage of the Lord and the church in the details of the Word and a consequent marriage of goodness and truth, and no one could see it because the spiritual meaning of the Word had not been uncovered, and without this, the marriage cannot be seen.

There are two levels of meaning in the Word that are hidden within the literal meaning, namely, a spiritual level and a heavenly level. Spiritually understood, the contents of the Word refer for the most part to the church, while understood on a heavenly level they refer for the most part to the Lord. On a spiritual level they also refer to divine truth and on a heavenly level they refer to divine goodness. As a result, this marriage is found in the literal meaning of the Word.

However, this is not apparent to anyone who does not know the meanings of words and names on the basis of the spiritual and heavenly meanings of the Word, since some words and names focus attention on what is good and some on what is true, and some include both, so unless this is realized the marriage in the details of the Word cannot be seen. That is why this mystery has not been disclosed before.

4976. 'And ministered to him' means that factual knowledge was assigned to its own good. This is clear from the meaning of 'ministering' as serving by supplying what another has need of, in this case as being assigned to since the subject is natural good to which factual knowledge is to be assigned. 'Ministering' is also used to describe known facts, for in the Word a minister and a servant mean factual knowledge or natural truth because this is subservient to good as its lord. Factual knowledge stands in relation to delight present in the natural man - or what amounts to the same, natural truth stands in relation to its good - in exactly the same way as water does to bread, or drink to food. Water or drink enables bread or food to be dissolved, and once dissolved to be conveyed into the blood, from which it passes into all parts around the body and nourishes them. Without the water or drink the bread or food is not broken down into extremely small particles and carried around the body to fulfill its purpose.

[2] The same applies to factual knowledge in relation to delight, or truth in relation to good. That being so, good longs for and desires truth, and does so because of the purpose such truth can fulfill by ministering to it and serving it. Food and drink also correspond to these. No one in the next life is nourished by any natural food or natural drink, only by spiritual food and spiritual drink, spiritual food being good, and spiritual drink truth. This is why, when bread or food is mentioned in the Word, angels understand spiritual bread or food, which is the good of love and charity; and when water or drink is mentioned they understand spiritual water or drink, which is the truth of faith. From this one may see what the truth of faith without the good of charity is, and also what kind of nourishment the former without the latter is able to supply to the internal man; that is to say, it is like the nourishment supplied by water or drink alone without bread or food. It is well known that a person fed on water or drink alone wastes away and dies.