work Heaven and Hell,§§ 87 – 115. No one has known until now, however,
what correspondenceis. In the earliest times, correspondence was very well
known. To the people who lived at that time the study of correspondences
was the supreme field of study. It was so universal that the writing in all
their books and codices displayed the use of correspondences. The Book of
Job, a book of the early church, is full of correspondences. The Egyptian
hieroglyphics and the earliest myths were no different. All the early
churches were churches that represented spiritual things in symbolic ways.
Their worship was established with rituals and rules that consisted entirely
of correspondences.
The same was true for all aspects of the church among the children of
Israel: their burnt offerings, sacrifices, food offerings, and drink offerings
were correspondences down to the last detail. So was the tabernacle and
everything in it. So were their feast days—the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Feast of First Fruits. So was the priestly
role performed by Aaron and the Levites, as well as the clothing of their
sacred office. (The specific spiritual things to which all the above corre-
spond are shown in Secrets of Heaven,published in London.) In addition,
all the statutes and judgments that shaped their worship and their lives
were correspondences.
Divine attributes present themselves in the world in the form of cor-
respondences; therefore the Word was written entirely in correspon-
dences. For the same reason, the Lord spoke in correspondences, since he
spoke from what is divine.
Divinity is present in nature in the form of things that correspond to
divine attributes and that have divine attributes known as heavenly and
spiritual qualities hidden deep within them.202 I have been taught that the people in the earliest church, which
existed before the flood, had a nature so heavenly that they spoke with
angels of heaven. The use of correspondences by these people enabled
them to communicate with angels. As a result, the quality of their wis-
dom grew to the point where anything they saw on earth they thought
about not only in an earthly way but also in a spiritual way; they and
angels in heaven thought about it together.
I have also been taught that Enoch (who is mentioned in Genesis
5 : 21 – 24 ), along with friends of his, collected correspondences from the
oral tradition of the earliest people and spread the study of correspon-
dences to his descendants. As a result, the study of correspondences was
not only known in many countries in the Middle East but was also further