24. This figure is a true type and image of Christendom, which Christ has bought with his love in his blood, having proffered to give Christendom his grace and righteousness for their earthly imaginations,! that it should give them only up to him; and when that is done, then says Christ, Behold, I have this day, that is, from this time forth to eternity, bought all your earthly images, 1 as also body and soul; I have bought you for my eternal bondslaves, servants and ministers, with my grace, from the hunger of God's anger. Behold, there you have seed, that is, there you have my word, wherewith you may sow the ground of your conscience, in body and soul, that this seed may bring forth fruit, and of this fruit you shall return the fifth to Pharaoh, that is, to God: for four parts shall be your food; that is, this seed shall quicken and cherish the four elements of the body, as also the four properties of the soul's fire-life; and you shall keep this seed of the divine word fourfold, for the cherishing of your life; but the fifth you shall give to God.
25. The fifth signifies here very secretly and mystically the fifth form of the natural life, viz. the love-fire in the light, which is born out of the four properties, and manifest, wherein the uncreaturely and supernatural God is manifested. This form generates now the divine joy, and the praise of God, wherein the soul is an angel, and thanks and praises God, because he has delivered it out of the fire-source of torment, and has given himself with this love and grace into its firesource, and changed it into a love-fire and divine light.
26. This source of love, viz. the fifth property of life, wherein the soul is an angel, it gives now to God again with great praise and thanksgiving, for it gives this fifth form to Christ again, for a habitation; for that is the habitation of his word, wherein is 2 the kingdom of God in us (Luke xvii. 21), and wherein we are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who dwells in us. And this fifth form, in the praise of God, Christ requires again from his Christendom, that it should give this to him, that he may gather in the praise of God, that is, the fruit of love, for his Father, into the house of the divine power.
1 Images, or fancies. 2 Or, consists.
27. But the priests' fields, that is, the inward ground of the heavenly world's substance, he buys not with his blood, for that never received the turba of destruction, but in the fall of Adam it went out and faded, and went into the abyss, so that the soul had it no more in its own possession, for it was in the soul as it were dead, although in God nothing dies; but the soul was blind concerning it, in that manner as God, viz. the eternal One, is in and through all things, and yet nothing apprehends it but that which introduces itself into its substance, wherein he will manifest himself.
28. This faded image or substance is the priestly ground, whereinto God again inspoke or did sow his word and seed again in Paradise. That is not bought with Christ's blood, as the averted soul is, but it is filled with the heavenly ens, with Christ's flesh and blood, so that it is or becomes Christ's flesh and blood, wherein the High Priest, Christ, dwells. It is his eternal seat and possession, wherein God is manifested in man, for it is the branch on Christ's vine, which is God's proper own, and not man's.
24. This figure is a true type and image of Christendom, which Christ has bought with his love in his blood, having proffered to give Christendom his grace and righteousness for their earthly imaginations,! that it should give them only up to him; and when that is done, then says Christ, Behold, I have this day, that is, from this time forth to eternity, bought all your earthly images, 1 as also body and soul; I have bought you for my eternal bondslaves, servants and ministers, with my grace, from the hunger of God's anger. Behold, there you have seed, that is, there you have my word, wherewith you may sow the ground of your conscience, in body and soul, that this seed may bring forth fruit, and of this fruit you shall return the fifth to Pharaoh, that is, to God: for four parts shall be your food; that is, this seed shall quicken and cherish the four elements of the body, as also the four properties of the soul's fire-life; and you shall keep this seed of the divine word fourfold, for the cherishing of your life; but the fifth you shall give to God.
25. The fifth signifies here very secretly and mystically the fifth form of the natural life, viz. the love-fire in the light, which is born out of the four properties, and manifest, wherein the uncreaturely and supernatural God is manifested. This form generates now the divine joy, and the praise of God, wherein the soul is an angel, and thanks and praises God, because he has delivered it out of the fire-source of torment, and has given himself with this love and grace into its firesource, and changed it into a love-fire and divine light.
26. This source of love, viz. the fifth property of life, wherein the soul is an angel, it gives now to God again with great praise and thanksgiving, for it gives this fifth form to Christ again, for a habitation; for that is the habitation of his word, wherein is 2 the kingdom of God in us (Luke xvii. 21), and wherein we are the temples of the Holy Ghost, who dwells in us. And this fifth form, in the praise of God, Christ requires again from his Christendom, that it should give this to him, that he may gather in the praise of God, that is, the fruit of love, for his Father, into the house of the divine power.
1 Images, or fancies. 2 Or, consists.
27. But the priests' fields, that is, the inward ground of the heavenly world's substance, he buys not with his blood, for that never received the turba of destruction, but in the fall of Adam it went out and faded, and went into the abyss, so that the soul had it no more in its own possession, for it was in the soul as it were dead, although in God nothing dies; but the soul was blind concerning it, in that manner as God, viz. the eternal One, is in and through all things, and yet nothing apprehends it but that which introduces itself into its substance, wherein he will manifest himself.
28. This faded image or substance is the priestly ground, whereinto God again inspoke or did sow his word and seed again in Paradise. That is not bought with Christ's blood, as the averted soul is, but it is filled with the heavenly ens, with Christ's flesh and blood, so that it is or becomes Christ's flesh and blood, wherein the High Priest, Christ, dwells. It is his eternal seat and possession, wherein God is manifested in man, for it is the branch on Christ's vine, which is God's proper own, and not man's.
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