62. For faith, in the desire of its hunger, is the mouth which sucks and receives it in. In which impression, catching and receiving, faith eats and drinks Christ's flesh and blood; which eating and drinking is apprehended and kept in the inward Paradisical image, which faded in Adam and became living again in Christ; wherein the human Paradisical substance, and Christ's flesh and blood, are entirely one substance, and continue so eternally. Which inward man is now no more called Adam, but Christ, viz. [being] a member of the body and substance of Christ, wherein is the temple of the Holy Ghost; and God's holy Word is therein, substantially.
And it is a form or image of the imageless Deity,l viz. the imaged
Word of God, an express reflex image 2 of God.
1 Resemblance of the inconceivable or non-imagible Deity.
2 Answering exactly as a man's face does in a glass.
63. And this now is the signification of the figure, that they served Joseph apart, and his brethren also apart: that still there is a difference between Christ, and his eating, and man, and his eating. The difference is not as to the creaturely humanity of Christ from us, but between the un-formed eternal Word in him, wherein the total God is operatively and generatively, not shut up and separated, but expressive in full omnipotence; not creaturely, but divine:
64. But in us men (so far as man in his participation has anything of God and Christ in his own substance) the Word is formed and substantial, and this formed substantial Word eats again of the formed Word of God, viz. of Christ's flesh and blood, wherein yet also the un-formed Word, together with the whole fullness of the Deity, dwells (Col. ii. 9).
65. But the human creature has it not in his own participation or possession of self as it is in Christ Jesus, but [the creature has it] as a vessel and habitation of God. After that manner by way of similitude as fire possesses iron, and illustrates it that it come to be all of a fire,3 and yet it has not the fire in its own power or authority; for if the fire go out, the iron then remains to be dark iron. Or as the sun presses and penetrates through a herb, and puts forth itself together in the herb and becomes substantial; and yet the sun's spirit remains to be only a power and virtue in the herb, and the corpus or body of the herb does not come to be sun: thus also is it to be understood between God and man.
3 makes it all of a light fire.
66. But that Moses says, And they served the Egyptians also apart, for the Egyptians dare not eat bread with the Hebrews, has also its figure; though it might well be so outwardly in itself that they have not dared to eat with them: which we leave unquestionably in its own worth, as also all other things. We leave it standing in a history, but we would only clear and explain the meaning and understanding, wherefore the spirit of God has caused it to be deciphered so narrowly, curiously, exactly and punctually.
67. Now when we will search out this, we must take into consideration a natural Adamical man, of what kind, progeny or name soever he is, whether heathen, Turk, verbal or titulary Christian, 1 or Jew; here they are all alike, and no otherwise: all these dare not eat with a right true Christian, as, viz. with Joseph's brethren. But why? Because they have not a mouth to eat such food withal. Their mouth is yet shut up to them, and they cannot eat the food of Christ's body; they are an abomination to it, and have a loathing against it: as we see that it is an abomination to the Jews, Turks and heathen, that a Christian says, he eats Christ's flesh, and drinks his blood (John vi. 53).
68. So also it is an abomination to the titulary Christendom, one part of which believes not the substantial participation and feeding
62. For faith, in the desire of its hunger, is the mouth which sucks and receives it in. In which impression, catching and receiving, faith eats and drinks Christ's flesh and blood; which eating and drinking is apprehended and kept in the inward Paradisical image, which faded in Adam and became living again in Christ; wherein the human Paradisical substance, and Christ's flesh and blood, are entirely one substance, and continue so eternally. Which inward man is now no more called Adam, but Christ, viz. [being] a member of the body and substance of Christ, wherein is the temple of the Holy Ghost; and God's holy Word is therein, substantially.
And it is a form or image of the imageless Deity,l viz. the imaged
Word of God, an express reflex image 2 of God.
1 Resemblance of the inconceivable or non-imagible Deity.
2 Answering exactly as a man's face does in a glass.
63. And this now is the signification of the figure, that they served Joseph apart, and his brethren also apart: that still there is a difference between Christ, and his eating, and man, and his eating. The difference is not as to the creaturely humanity of Christ from us, but between the un-formed eternal Word in him, wherein the total God is operatively and generatively, not shut up and separated, but expressive in full omnipotence; not creaturely, but divine:
64. But in us men (so far as man in his participation has anything of God and Christ in his own substance) the Word is formed and substantial, and this formed substantial Word eats again of the formed Word of God, viz. of Christ's flesh and blood, wherein yet also the un-formed Word, together with the whole fullness of the Deity, dwells (Col. ii. 9).
65. But the human creature has it not in his own participation or possession of self as it is in Christ Jesus, but [the creature has it] as a vessel and habitation of God. After that manner by way of similitude as fire possesses iron, and illustrates it that it come to be all of a fire,3 and yet it has not the fire in its own power or authority; for if the fire go out, the iron then remains to be dark iron. Or as the sun presses and penetrates through a herb, and puts forth itself together in the herb and becomes substantial; and yet the sun's spirit remains to be only a power and virtue in the herb, and the corpus or body of the herb does not come to be sun: thus also is it to be understood between God and man.
3 makes it all of a light fire.
66. But that Moses says, And they served the Egyptians also apart, for the Egyptians dare not eat bread with the Hebrews, has also its figure; though it might well be so outwardly in itself that they have not dared to eat with them: which we leave unquestionably in its own worth, as also all other things. We leave it standing in a history, but we would only clear and explain the meaning and understanding, wherefore the spirit of God has caused it to be deciphered so narrowly, curiously, exactly and punctually.
67. Now when we will search out this, we must take into consideration a natural Adamical man, of what kind, progeny or name soever he is, whether heathen, Turk, verbal or titulary Christian, 1 or Jew; here they are all alike, and no otherwise: all these dare not eat with a right true Christian, as, viz. with Joseph's brethren. But why? Because they have not a mouth to eat such food withal. Their mouth is yet shut up to them, and they cannot eat the food of Christ's body; they are an abomination to it, and have a loathing against it: as we see that it is an abomination to the Jews, Turks and heathen, that a Christian says, he eats Christ's flesh, and drinks his blood (John vi. 53).
68. So also it is an abomination to the titulary Christendom, one part of which believes not the substantial participation and feeding
No commentary for this page.
There is commentary on page 1.