Note (return) — THE REASONS WHY THE LORD WILLED TO BE BORN ON OUR EARTH, AND NOT ON ANY OTHER

122. To the reasons that have been adduced above, may be added, that the inhabitants and spirits of our Earth, in the Grand Man, have relation to natural and external sense; and natural and external sense is the ultimate in which the interiors of life close, and on which they rest, as on their common [basis]. The case is the same with the Divine Truth in the letter, which is called the Word, and which for this reason also was given on this Earth, and not on any otherqq. And as the Lord is the Word, and the First and Last of it, therefore, in order that all things might exist according to order. He also willed to be born on this Earth, and to become the Word, according to these words in John, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through It, and without It was not anything made that was made.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw Its glory the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father.... No one hath seen God at any time; the Only-begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, Himself hath manifested Him" (i. 1-3, 14, 18). The Word denotes the Lord as to the Divine Truth, consequently the Divine Truth from the Lordrr. But this is an arcanum which enters into the understanding of only a few.