What the Writings Testify
What the Writings Testify
CHAPTER 6
The explanations in the Writings of the spiritual sense are not written in
a sense merely natural, but are a natural sense from the spiritual - which is called the
Internal Sense
"'This is the mind that hath wisdom' [Rev. 17:9-11], signifies the understanding of these things in a natural sense from the spiritual... In a sense abstracted from person, 'having wisdom' means the explanation of the thing represented, in a natural sense from the spiritual, thus the explanation of what 'the seven mountains' and 'the seven kings' are, which are signified by 'the seven heads'. For the explanation made by the angel ... is not an explanation in a natural sense from the spiritual, but is an explanation in a sense merely natural, in which a spiritual sense is concealed, and this sense must be unfolded; and it is unfolded when it is explained what is signified...
"... The angel did not explain the vision in a natural sense from the spiritual,
because the explanation also makes the Word in the letter; and the Word in the letter must
be natural, in the details of which a spiritual sense must be hidden. Otherwise the Word
would not serve the heavens as a basis nor [would it serve] the church for its conjunction
with heaven. Hence it is that also elsewhere in the Word, as in David and the rest of the
prophets where angels explain visions, they explain them in a sense merely natural, and
not at all in a natural sense from the spiritual. The natural sense from the spiritual is
here (hic) when it is explained what "the seven mountains", then what "the
seven kings", and what the other things signify; namely, that 'mountains' signify the
goods of the Word, and 'seven mountains' those profaned; and that 'kings' signify the
truths of the Word, and 'seven kings' those profaned. This is the natural sense from the
spiritual, which is called the internal sense, as also the spiritual-natural sense."
- Apocalypse Explained 1061
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