But he is greatly mistaken who separates appearances of truth from genuine truths and calls these appearances holy by themselves and of themselves, and not the sense of the letter holy by these and from these, and together with these.  He separates these who sees only the sense of the letter and does not explore its meaning, as those do who do not read the Word from doctrine.  The “cherubim” mean in the Word guard and protection that the holy things of heaven be not violated, and that the Lord be approached only through love; consequently these signify the sense of the letter of the Word, because that is what guards and protects.  It guards and protects in this manner that man can think and speak according to appearances of truth so long as he is well-disposed, simple, and as it were a child; but he must take heed not to so confirm appearances as to destroy the genuine truths in the heavens. (A.E., n. 1088.)

It is an invariable truth that no one can understand the Word without doctrine; for he may be led away into any errors to which he may be inclined from some love, or to which he may be drawn from some principle, whereby his mind becomes unsettled and uncertain, and at length as it were destitute of truth.  But he who reads the Word from doctrine sees all things that confirm it, and many things that are hidden from the eyes of others, and does not permit himself to be drawn away into strange things; and thus his mind becomes so settled as to see with certainty.

Again, unless the Word is read from doctrine it may be drawn away to confirm heresies, for the reason that the sense of its letter consists of mere correspondences, and these are in great part appearances of truth, and in part genuine truths, and unless there be doctrine for a lamp these cannot be seen and cannot be distinguished from each other.

And yet only from the Word can doctrine be acquired, and it can be acquired only by those who are in enlightenment from the Lord.  Those are in enlightenment who love truths because they are truths and make them to be of their life.  Moreover, all things of doctrine must be confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word, because Divine truth is in its fullness and in its power in that sense, and through it man is in conjunction with the Lord and in consociation with the angels.  In brief, he who loves truth because it is truth can inquire of the Lord, as it were, in doubtful matters of faith, and can receive answers from Him, but nowhere except in the Word for the reason that the Lord is the Word. (A.E., n. 1089.)

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