Page:Illustrations of the Holy Word.pdf/29

Rh there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. (See 1 Kings xix. 5, 6.) The same effects have place under the juniper-tree (the state of spiritual trial) at this day, and every pious sufferer is made sensible of them in his own mind, though he may not with his bodily eyes either see the angel who touches him or the cake and the cruse prepared for him.

65. It is written, (in Psalm cxliv. 5,) Bow thy heavens, O Jehovah, and come down; whence it should appear, that the Lord’s descent to man, and His presence, operation, and abode with him, are always in connection with the heavenly or angelic host, as the Lord intimates in another place, where He says, When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him. (Matt. xxv. 31.)

66. It is written in the same Psalm, (verse 1,) Blessed be the Lord, my strength, who teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight, to instruct us, that it is a great blessing to be initiated into spiritual combat, which is a combat against our corruptions, and especially against the evils of self-love and the love of the world. An important distinction is also pointed at between the hands and the fingers, likewise between warring and fighting, to lead us to reflect further on the distinct principles from which we are to combat, viz. the principles of heavenly love and charity in the will, which are here called my hands, and the principles of heavenly truth and knowledge in the understanding, which are called my fingers; for, as the fingers of the hand are but continuations and derivations of the hand,