29. It is indeed in man, but not in the possession of the fiery soul's essence; it has another Principle than the soul, and yet is in the soul, and through the soul, and from the soul, after the manner as the light is from the fire, which is through the fire, and in the fire, and has its manifestation from the fire, out of which fire and light air proceeds, and out of which air dewy water proceeds; and that same dewy water denotes the substance of this inward ground, which gives to the fire again nourishment, food, lustre and life.
30. So also it is to be considered and understood concerning the soul. When it extinguished as to the divine light, then this substance was generated no more from it, nor in it, but remained faded, extinguished, or quenched; and then the soul had no divine food more for its source of fire, for it had turned its desire forth into the third Principle, and was overcome by the earthly Lucifer, and by Satan, viz. by the property of the wrath, of the dark world's property in the place of this world.
31. This grace came to help this averted soul, which was bought through Christ's blood; for the buyer entered with his money of grace into this faded image, and took it to himself and set the soul therein for a high priest and teacher.
32. And this image now was the priests' fields, which he bought not, for it was God's, beforehand. God only set his High Priest, Christ, therein, that he should therein feed and teach the poor soul, that it should not eat of the vanity, and fully darken and again bring to nothing this image.
33. And this is also the same in the figure of Joseph, in that he bought not the priests' fields; and so is the figure concerning Moses and the Levites, that they kept their fields and ground, and yet possessed them as tenants. All which denotes the inward man of the heavenly world's substance, which is God's ground, wherein God sows his word of grace, viz. Christ's spirit. Which ground or substance belongs only to the High Priest, Christ, for a possession, and not to the creaturely life; but the creaturely life receives power and virtue from it: it has it indeed in itself; but it is not one and the same thing with nature: as the light and the painful source of the fire are not one and the same thing.
34. This figure of Joseph, in that he bought the Egyptians to be Pharaoh's proper own, and made them his own servants, signifies nothing else but that Christ should buy us from the anger of God in the famine of our destruction, through his grace, to be his obliged servants, through his blood and death, and would give us his word for seed, that we might sow his purchased goods, 1 viz. our natural life, therewith.
35. And for this cause now should we give him again the fifth part of this fruit, viz. the birth of love, the fifth property of life. For in the fifth property stands faith; and that, his children should give to him again. And this he gathers into his Father's barns, for an eternal praise, and to the divine manifestation of his wonders.
36. But that earthly men have made such bondage,2 and keep one another for bondslaves, and vex, torment and misuse one another therein, and squeeze out their sweat for their pomp and pride, this is an image of the anger of God, which represents itself 3 also according to the heavenly figure.
37. For everything must fashion itself according to the ordinance or appointment of the Word of God: whether a thing fashion itself in evil, viz. in God's anger, according to the property of hell, or in good, in heaven, in the kingdom of Christ; for with the holy, the Word is holy, and with the perverse and froward it is manifest in God's wrath (Ps. xviii. 25, 26): as the people is, such also is their God, says the Scripture.
38. Earthly men represent the image in the anger of God, in that they vex, torment, squeeze and plague them with bondage, and hold it for just and right: and it is right, in the wrath of nature in God's anger, and it is a figure of hell : and it is also a figure of the kingdom of
29. It is indeed in man, but not in the possession of the fiery soul's essence; it has another Principle than the soul, and yet is in the soul, and through the soul, and from the soul, after the manner as the light is from the fire, which is through the fire, and in the fire, and has its manifestation from the fire, out of which fire and light air proceeds, and out of which air dewy water proceeds; and that same dewy water denotes the substance of this inward ground, which gives to the fire again nourishment, food, lustre and life.
30. So also it is to be considered and understood concerning the soul. When it extinguished as to the divine light, then this substance was generated no more from it, nor in it, but remained faded, extinguished, or quenched; and then the soul had no divine food more for its source of fire, for it had turned its desire forth into the third Principle, and was overcome by the earthly Lucifer, and by Satan, viz. by the property of the wrath, of the dark world's property in the place of this world.
31. This grace came to help this averted soul, which was bought through Christ's blood; for the buyer entered with his money of grace into this faded image, and took it to himself and set the soul therein for a high priest and teacher.
32. And this image now was the priests' fields, which he bought not, for it was God's, beforehand. God only set his High Priest, Christ, therein, that he should therein feed and teach the poor soul, that it should not eat of the vanity, and fully darken and again bring to nothing this image.
33. And this is also the same in the figure of Joseph, in that he bought not the priests' fields; and so is the figure concerning Moses and the Levites, that they kept their fields and ground, and yet possessed them as tenants. All which denotes the inward man of the heavenly world's substance, which is God's ground, wherein God sows his word of grace, viz. Christ's spirit. Which ground or substance belongs only to the High Priest, Christ, for a possession, and not to the creaturely life; but the creaturely life receives power and virtue from it: it has it indeed in itself; but it is not one and the same thing with nature: as the light and the painful source of the fire are not one and the same thing.
34. This figure of Joseph, in that he bought the Egyptians to be Pharaoh's proper own, and made them his own servants, signifies nothing else but that Christ should buy us from the anger of God in the famine of our destruction, through his grace, to be his obliged servants, through his blood and death, and would give us his word for seed, that we might sow his purchased goods, 1 viz. our natural life, therewith.
35. And for this cause now should we give him again the fifth part of this fruit, viz. the birth of love, the fifth property of life. For in the fifth property stands faith; and that, his children should give to him again. And this he gathers into his Father's barns, for an eternal praise, and to the divine manifestation of his wonders.
36. But that earthly men have made such bondage,2 and keep one another for bondslaves, and vex, torment and misuse one another therein, and squeeze out their sweat for their pomp and pride, this is an image of the anger of God, which represents itself 3 also according to the heavenly figure.
37. For everything must fashion itself according to the ordinance or appointment of the Word of God: whether a thing fashion itself in evil, viz. in God's anger, according to the property of hell, or in good, in heaven, in the kingdom of Christ; for with the holy, the Word is holy, and with the perverse and froward it is manifest in God's wrath (Ps. xviii. 25, 26): as the people is, such also is their God, says the Scripture.
38. Earthly men represent the image in the anger of God, in that they vex, torment, squeeze and plague them with bondage, and hold it for just and right: and it is right, in the wrath of nature in God's anger, and it is a figure of hell : and it is also a figure of the kingdom of
No commentary for this page.
There is commentary on page 1.