because a
man is a man from these, he is also his own good and his own truth or his
own love and his own wisdom; without these he is not a human being. But
the Lord is good itself and truth itself or, what is the same, love
itself and wisdom itself; and these are the Word which in the beginning
was with God and was God and which was made flesh.

[5] Third: _To be taught from the Word, then, is to be taught by the Lord
Himself._ For it means that one is taught from good itself and truth
itself or from love itself and wisdom itself, and, as we have said, these
are the Word. But everyone is taught according to an understanding
agreeing with his love; what goes beyond this does not remain. All who
are taught by the Lord in the Word are instructed in a few truths while
in the world but in many when they become angels. For the interiors of
the Word, which are divine spiritual and divine celestial, are implanted
at the time, but are not consciously possessed until a man on his death
is in heaven where he is in angelic wisdom which, compared with human
wisdom, thus his earlier wisdom, is ineffable. That divine spiritual and
divine celestial things which constitute angelic wisdom are present in
each and all things of the Word see _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about
the Sacred Scripture,_ nn. 5-26.

[6] Fourth: _That this teaching is done mediately through preaching does
not take away the immediacy._ Inevitably the Word is taught mediately by
parents, teachers, preachers, books and particularly by reading. Still it
is not taught by them but by the Lord through them. Preachers, aware of
this, say that they speak not from themselves but from the spirit of God
and that all truth like all good is from God. They can speak it and bring
it to the understanding of many, but not to anyone's heart; and what is
not in the heart passes away from the understanding; by "heart" a man's
love is meant. From this it is plain that man is led and taught by the
Lord alone and immediately by Him when he is taught from the Word. This
is a supreme arcanum of angelic wisdom.

173. We have shown in _Doctrine of the New Jerusalem about the Sacred
Scripture_ (nn. 104-113) that those outside the church who do not have
the Word still have light by means of it. Man has light by means of the
Word and from the light has understanding, and both the wicked and the
good have understanding. It follows that from light in its origin there
is light in its derivative