This heading constitutes the last chapter in the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture. Specifically the chapter is directed to showing the impossibility of natural theology, that is, of a theology not drawn from Revelation. It declares that there can be no knowledge of God, or of the Lord, or of the Spiritual World, except by means of the revealed Word; and the declaration clearly identifies as the Word all revelations which impart these knowledges to man. In the Old Testament, God reveals himself as the doctrine of faith and charity; in the New Testament, he reveals himself as a Man, teaching more interior truths, and leading to closer conjunction with himself. In neither of these revelations, however, do we learn anything concerning heaven and hell, except that they are the final abodes of men according to their life on earth. They do not teach any of those interior arcana which are so fully disclosed in the Writings, arcana which " if there were not a Word " would remain unknown. They can now be known for the first time by means of the Word delivered to the New Church.

Let me here quote a striking passage from the Spiritual Diary n. 1464, which is peculiarly significant in this connection: