30. Unto Him that loveth us, and washeth us from our sins in His blood, signifies His love, and regeneration by truths that are from Him. This is evident from the signification of "washing from sins," as meaning to regenerate (See The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 202-209); and from the signification of "in His blood," as meaning by truths that are from Him (See in the same Doctrine, n. 210-213; and in the extracts from the Arcana Coelestia there, n. 217, 219, 222). That the Lord's "blood" signifies truths from good, thus truths from the Lord, can with difficulty be seen and believed by a man who knows nothing of the internal sense of the Word; moreover, it seems far-fetched to understand truths from the Lord in place of His blood; and yet in heaven nothing else is understood by the Lord's blood. This is because the Lord there is Divine truth united to Divine good, consequently no one there thinks of His flesh and blood. Thought concerning these they call material thought, of which there is none with them. They say, moreover, that they are not aware that flesh and blood are mentioned in the Word; for with them the things belonging to the literal sense of the Word, are changed into spiritual ideas, since they themselves are spiritual and not natural; thus "flesh" when ascribed to the Lord, is changed into Divine good, and "blood" into Divine truth, each proceeding from the Lord.

[2] "Flesh" and "blood" are mentioned in the literal sense of the Word, in order that corresponding spiritual things may be perceived in heaven; for all spiritual things terminate in natural things; in them they have their outmost plane, therefore the Divine passing through the heavens terminates in that plane, and thereon subsists, comparatively like a house on its foundation, and is then in its fullness. This is why the Word is such as it is in the letter, and why "flesh" and "blood" are there mentioned; the angels, however, are astonished that the man of the church, who might also be made spiritual from the Word, does not allow himself to be elevated above the sense of the letter, and thinks not spiritually but materially of the Lord, and of His flesh and blood. But because they so wondered, and it was told them that many, especially the simple, do think spiritually about these things, they explored whether it was so; and they discovered that many, and almost all the simple, when they come to the holy supper do not think at all about flesh and blood, but only of that which is holy which they then have from the Lord. The angels perceived that this is continually provided by the Lord, in order that the man of the church may then be in a spiritual and not in a material idea.

[3] The reason why material eating is understood and adopted in doctrines, is because men have thought of the Human of the Lord as of the human of another man, and have not then thought at the same time of the Divine in His Human, rejecting the expression, "Divine Human;" and they that so thought of the Lord's Human could not think otherwise than materially of His flesh and blood. It would have been different if they had thought of the Lord according to the universal doctrine of the church, which is, that His Divine and Human is one person, the two being united as soul and body (See above, n. 10, 26). Moreover, "blood" is mentioned in many places in the Word, as also elsewhere in Revelation (as in Revelation 6:12; 7:14; 8:7-8; 11:6; 12:11; 14:20; 16:3-4, 6; 18:24; 19:2, 13). I purpose, therefore, in the following pages, to confirm fully that by "blood" is signified truth from the Lord, and in an opposite sense falsity that offers violence to that truth.

26. Verse 5. And from Jesus Christ, signifies from the Lord as to the Divine Human. This is evident from the fact that such was the Lord's name in the world; thus the name of His Human; but in respect to the Divine, His name was "Jehovah" and "God." It is called the Divine Human because the Lord made His Human Divine when He was in the world; for He united it to His Divine which was in Him from conception, and which was to Him a soul from the Father, thus which was to Him His life; for the soul of everyone is his life, and the body, which is the human, lives therefrom; when, therefore, the Divine was united to the Human in the Lord, as soul to body, it is called the Divine Human. (That it is according to the doctrine of the church that as soul and body make one man, so the Divine and the Human make one Christ, as also that His Divine and His Human make one person, see above, n. 10.) They, therefore, who think of the Lord's Human and not at the same time of His Divine, will on no account admit the expression Divine Human, for they think of the Human separately and of the Divine separately, thus, as it were, of a man separately from his soul or his life; this, however, is not to think of the man at all, still less of the Lord.

[2] Because such a separate idea is in their thought, they pray to the Father to have compassion for the sake of the Son; when, nevertheless, the Lord Himself ought to be prayed to that He may have compassion, in whom, according to the universal doctrine of the church, the Divine is such as the Father has; for that doctrine teaches, that as the Father, so also the Son, is uncreate, infinite, eternal, almighty, God, and Lord; and neither is before or after the other, nor greater or less than the other (from the Athanasian Creed). This also is in accordance with the doctrine given by the Lord Himself, which is: That He and the Father are one; ¹ and that he who seeth Him seeth the Father, ² because He is in the Father and the Father in Him; ³ that He is the way, the truth, and the life; ⁴ and that no one cometh to the Father but by Him. ⁵ From this it is clear how much they turn aside from the way and the truth who pass by the Lord and approach the Father. But as I have conversed much on this subject with angels, and also with spirits, who, when they lived as men in the world, were of the Reformed Church and of the Papal religion, I shall be pleased to relate these conversations in the following pages; from which it will appear in what light the church would be respecting the Divine, which is the first and primary principle of the church, if it would acknowledge and believe in the Divine Human of the Lord.

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