10125. And thou shalt anoint it. That this signifies inauguration to represent the Divine good of love from the Lord in heaven and in the church, is evident from the signification of “anointing,” as being inauguration to represent the Lord as to the Divine good of the Divine love from His Divine Human (see n. 9474, 9954, 10019); here from the Lord in heaven and in the church, for the subject here treated of is His influx and reception there. Whatever represents the Lord represents Him also in the men of the church and in the angels of heaven, thus it represents heaven and the church, because the men in whom the church is constitute the church in general, and the angels in whom heaven is constitute heaven in general. Nevertheless, regarded in themselves, the men themselves do not constitute the church, but the Lord in them; and so neither do the angels regarded in themselves constitute heaven, but the Lord in them. For the Lord does not dwell in anything of the man’s or angel’s own; but in His own with them; hence it is that when the church and heaven are spoken of, the Divine of the Lord is meant with those who are there, from which it is plain how it ought to be apprehended that the Lord is the all in all of heaven and the church, and that the Lord Himself is heaven and the church. This is also evident from the doctrine known and received in the Christian world, that all the good of faith and of love is from God, and nothing from man; and that whatever is from man as from himself is not good. Hence also it is that no one has merit or righteousness from anything of his own.

[2] These things have been said in order that it may be known what the Lord is in heaven and in the church, thus what heaven and the church are; and consequently what representative of Him is meant by the altar and its anointing, as here treated of. All things were anointed that were to represent the Lord and the Divine things which are from the Lord, as the altar, the Tent of meeting, the tables which were therein, the lampstand, the ark, Aaron himself, his sons, and their garments; and when these were anointed, they were called holy. Not that the oil induced any holiness, but because they thus represented Divine things from the Lord, which alone are holy. Oil was employed for this use because “oil” signified the good of love, and the Divine good of the Divine love is the Divine Itself, for it is the Being itself of all things; and so in order to represent it, inauguration was effected by means of oil. The Divine Itself which is the Being of all things was in the Lord alone, for He was conceived of Jehovah; and every man has from his father the being of his life, which is called his soul. From this it is evident that the Divine good of the Divine love was in the Human of the Lord as the soul of a father is in a son. And as with man nothing lives but his soul, for the body without the soul does not live, and because everything of the body is produced from the soul, thus after its image, in order that the soul may be in a state that is adapted and accommodated to its functions in the ultimates of order, which are in the world; it hence follows that the Being itself in the Human of the Lord was Jehovah, which is the Divine good of the Divine love. And that which is the Being of life makes everything that comes forth from It after Its own likeness; and so the Lord, from the Divine Itself which was in Him, thus which was His, made also His Human the Divine good of the Divine love.

[3] Moreover, it is said in the Athanasian Creed, which contains the faith received throughout the Christian world, “As the body and the soul is one man, so the Divine and the Human in the Lord is one Christ.” He therefore who is acquainted with the union of the soul in the body, and the image of the former in the latter, may in some measure know the union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord, and the image of the one in the other; and from this he might know that the Divine which is called the Father, and the Human which is called the Son, were one, and the one in the other, that is, the Father in Him and He in the Father; according to the Lord’s words in John 10:30; 14:10-11. But as at this day it is not known what the soul is, and scarcely that it is from the father, and that the body is its image, and that the two are one as are the prior and the posterior, or as being and that which comes forth from it, therefore man has separated the Divine from the Human in the Lord, and has distinguished them into two natures, and from this has conceived no other idea of the Human of the Lord than as of the human of a man; when yet the soul of a man is finite from his father, and has evil in it by inheritance; whereas the soul of the Lord, being from Jehovah, was infinite, and was nothing else than the Divine good of the Divine love, and consequently after glorification His Human was not like the human of a man.

[4] For this reason the Lord took up into heaven all His Human glorified, that is, made Divine from Himself, and left nothing of it in the sepulchre, otherwise than is the case with man. That the Lord glorified His very body even to its ultimates which are the bones and the flesh, the Lord also manifested to His disciples, saying, “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Feel Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have” (Luke 24:39); and yet He entered through doors that were shut, and after He had manifested Himself became invisible (John 20:19; Luke 24:31). These things have been said in order that it may be known that the Lord alone as to His Human was the Anointed of Jehovah; not indeed anointed with oil, but with the Divine good itself of the Divine love, which is signified by “oil,” and which was represented by anointing (n. 9954).