Arcana Cœlestia

In 1740 he published Oeconomia Regni Animalis (Dynamics of the Soul's Domain), where he looked at connections between the spiritual and physical worlds.

While not denying the historicity of the stories of the Patriarchs and the Exodus from Egypt, it explains them as describing symbolically the process of spiritual growth and struggles in each individual person.

[6] From the mere letter of the Word of the Old Testament no one would ever discern the fact that this part of the Word contains deep secrets of heaven, and that everything within it both in general and in particular bears reference to the Lord, to His heaven, to the church, to religious belief, and to all things connected therewith; for from the letter or sense of the letter all that anyone can see is that - to speak generally - everything therein has reference merely to the external rites and ordinances of the Jewish Church.

Yet the truth is that everywhere in that Word there are internal things which never appear at all in the external things except a very few which the Lord revealed and explained to the Apostles; such as that the sacrifices signify the Lord; that the land of Canaan and Jerusalem signify heaven - on which account they are called the Heavenly Canaan and Jerusalem - and that Paradise has a similar signification.

[7] Swedenborg's theological work the Arcana Coelestia, published from 1749 to 1756 were originally written in Neo-Latin.