signified by the words (the spiritual sense). Through the divine authorship of Scripture, the meaning of the realities signified by the words is fused and joined in a mysterious way to the meaning of the words, while retaining a distinct meaning. The spiritual sense is thus truly a sense of Scripture. In the literal sense, the human author and God signify with words; in the spiritual sense, God signifies with the very realities signified by the words. Thus, the spiritual sense is based on the literal