(92) The Deity in Christ in the holy Ternary said, Eat of the Word of the Lord, and go forth from the outward Man, rest in the Kingdom of Heaven, and live in the new Man, and then the old Man is dead, for the new Man's Sake; on the contrary, the Devil said to the Soul, Thy earthly Body does hunger (because there is no Bread for it) therefore make Bread of Stones, that thou mayest live; and the strong Soul in Christ as a Champion stood and said; Man lives not by Bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the Mouth of God: And he rejected the earthly Bread and Life, and put his Imagination into the Word of God, and did eat of the Word of the Lord, and then the Soul in the Kingdom of Heaven was predominant, and the earthly Body was as it were dead for the Kingdom of Heaven's Sake; whereas yet it was not dead, but it became the Servant of the heavenly Body, and lost its potent Dominion.

(12) For he stood forty Days in the Temptation in the Wilderness, where there was no Bread nor Drink, then came the Tempter, and would have brought him from Obedience, and said, He should out of the Stones make Bread; which was nothing else, but that he should leave the heavenly Bread, (which Man receives in Faith and in strong Confidence in God,) and put his Imagination into the Spirit of this World, and live therein.

(7) For your life is more than meat, and your body than raiment." And again, "For your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." "But seek first the kingdom of heaven, and its righteousness," for these are the great things, and the things which are small and appertain to this life "shall be added to you."

(89) And there now was no earthly Meat or Drink; and the Soul of Christ understood now very well what Inn [or House] it was in, that it was in God, and that it could of Stones make Bread, seeing there was none there; but it must eat no earthly Bread, but heavenly [Bread] out of the holy Ternary, in its heavenly Body; and the earthly Body must be hungry, that the Soul might be rightly tempted. For the earthly Body was hungry, as the Text in the Gospel says very right.

(102) Thou needest not first to cast thine eyes up into heaven, for it is written: [1 Deut. xxx.,14. Rom.x.8.] The Word is near thee, viz. on thy lips, and in thy heart.

(30) But "the earth is God's, and the fulness thereof," says the Scripture, teaching that good things come from God to men; it being through divine power and might that the distribution of them comes to the help of man.

(1) Wherefore the Saviour, taking the bread, first spake and blessed. Then breaking the bread, He presented it, that we might eat it, according to reason, and that knowing the Scriptures s we might walk obediently. And as those whose speech is evil are no better than those whose practice is evil (for calumny is the servant of the sword, and evil-speaking inflicts pain; and from these proceed disasters in life, such being the effects of evil speech); so also those who are given to good speech are near neighbours to those who accomplish good deeds. Accordingly discourse refreshes the soul and entices it to nobleness; and happy is he who has the use of both his hands. Neither, therefore, is he who can act well to be vilified by him who is able to speak well; nor is he who is able to speak well to be disparaged by him who is capable of acting well. But let each do that for which he is naturally fitted.

(89) He thereby confirmed his Disciples' weak Faith, and so showed, that he is Lord also over the Kingdom of this World, and that all whatsoever we sow, build, plant, eat and drink, is fully in his almighty Power, and that he can bless and increase it, and therefore he is not separated or parted from us; but as a Flower grows out of the Earth, so his Word, Spirit, and Power [or Virtue,] grows in every Thing; and if our Mind be sincerely inclined to him, then we are blessed of him, in Body and Soul; but if not, then the Curse and the Anger of God is in all Things, and we eat Death in all Fruits [or Food.] And therefore it is that we pray, that God will bless our Meat and Drink, also our Bodies and Souls in Christ, and that is right.

Before Christ came there was no bread in the world, just as paradise, where Adam lived, had many trees for animal food but no wheat for human food, and people ate like animals. But when Christ, the perfect human, came, he brought bread from heaven, that humans might be fed with human food.

(13) But when the Child of the Virgin laid the heavenly Bread before him, and said, Man liveth not only from this World, from the earthly Eating and Drinking, then came the second Way [or Kind] of Temptation forth, viz. the Might, [Power, Dominion, and Authority] of this World; the Prince of the Wrath [or strong Fierceness] would give him all the Power of the Stars and Elements, if he would put his Imagination into him, and pray to [or worship] him. That was the right Scourge [or Whip] wherewith Adam was scourged, [viz.] with the Might, Riches, and Beauty of this World, after which at last Adam lusted, and was taken; but the Child of the Virgin laid before him, that the Kingdom was not his, [viz.] belonging to the Prince of the [fierce, strong] Wrath, but [it belonged] to the Word and Heart of God; he must worship God, and serve him only.

(30) Wilt thou be an Apostle of Christ, and wilt be but a Minister for the Belly, and teach only according to thy Art? From whom dost thou teach? From thy Belly, that thou mayest fatten thyself thereby. It is true, thou shouldst be fed, and thou should have Subsistence from Men, if thou art Christ's Disciple; but thy Spirit should not stick in Covetousness, but in Christ; thou shouldst not rely only upon thy Art, but shouldst give up thyself to God, that God may speak from thee, and then thou art in the Temple of God, and not in the Temple of the Institution of Man's Inventions.

(10) For the nourishment of the living animal, it is meant, may not become sauce for that which has been deprived of life; and that, which is the cause of life, may not co-operate in the consumption of the body. And the same law commands "not to muzzle the ox which treadeth out the corn: for the labourer must be reckoned worthy of his food."

(7) Now if the Soul eats of the clear Deity, what [Food] has the Body then? For thou knowest that the Soul and the Body are not one and the same Thing; it is indeed a [very] Body, but the Soul is a Spirit, and must have spiritual Food, and the Body must have bodily Food. Or wilt thou give the new Man earthly Food? If thou meanest so, thou art yet far from the Kingdom of God. The heavenly Body of Christ did not eat earthly Food, but the outward Body only did eat that. Is not Christ's Body now in the tholy Ternary, and eats paradisical Food? Why then shall not our new Man do so? Did he not eat heavenly Food forty Days in the Wilderness, and always afterwards? And did he not tell his Disciples at Jacob's Well, / have Meat to eat that ye know not of; and further, It is my Meat to do the Will of my Father which is in Heaven? Is the Will of God his Food, why then is it not ours, if we live in him? Has not the Deity of Christ put on the Kingdom of Heaven for a Body? Is not the pure Element (wherein the Deity dwells) his Body?

(15) There the Soul eats of all the Words of God; for the same are the Food of its Life; and it sings the paradisical i Songs of Praise concerning the pleasant Fruit in Paradise, which grows in the divine Virtue [or Power] of the divine Limbus, which is the Food of the kBody; for the Body eats of the Limbus, out of which it is, and the Soul eats of God and of his Word, out of which it is.

(49) And every man who hath come upon its day shall eat it in the sanctuary of your God before the Lord from twenty years old and upward ; for thus is it written and ordained that they should eat it in the sanctuary of the Lord.

(2) For [the Matter] was about the earthly Eating and Drinking, wherewith the paradisical Man was captivated by the Spirit of this World, which now must qualify [or mix] with all Men. This the Holy Scripture witnesses, and also Reason, that Man is not at Home, in the elementary Kingdom of this World. For Christ said; My Kingdom is not of this World: And to his Apostles he said; / have called you out from this World: Also, Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.

(8) But the husbandry is twofold, - the one unwritten, and the other written. And in whatever way the Lord's labourer sow the good wheat, and grow and reap the ears, he shall appear a truly divine husbandman. "Labour," says the Lord, "not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life." And nutriment is received both by bread and by words. And truly "blessed are the peace-makers," who instructing those who are at war in their life and errors here, lead them back to the peace which is in the Word, and nourish for the life which is according to God, by the distribution of the bread, those "that hunger after righteousness." For each soul has its own proper nutriment; some growing by knowledge and science, and others feeding on the Hellenic philosophy, the whole of which, like nuts, is not eatable. "And he that planteth and he that watereth," "being ministers" of Him "that gives the increase, are one" in the ministry. "But every one shall receive his own reward, according to his own work. For we are God's husbandmen, God's husbandry. Ye are God's building," according to the apostle. Wherefore the hearers are not permitted to apply the test of comparison. Nor is the word, given for investigation, to be committed to those who have been reared in the arts of all kinds of words, and in the power of inflated attempts at proof; whose minds are already pre-occupied, and have not been previously emptied. But whoever chooses to banquet on faith, is stedfast for the reception of the divine words, having acquired already faith as a power of judging, according to reason. Hence ensues to him persuasion in abundance. And this was the meaning of that saying of prophecy, "If ye believe not, neither shall ye understand." "As, then, we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to the household of faith." And let each of these, according to the blessed David, sing, giving thanks. "Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed. Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. Thou shalt make me to hear gladness and joy, and the bones which have been humbled shall rejoice. Turn Thy face from my sins.

(26) Man possesses this World, and has built him a glorious Kingdom for his own Glory, as is plain before our Eyes; yet he is not to be condemned therein, (though indeed that is Cause of Sins,) because God (of his Grace) has sent his beloved Heart into the Flesh, that Man might (thereby) go out from the Flesh again, and enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. But now his earthly Body must have Sustenance, that it may live and propagate; and all the Governments and Arts of this World stand in this Necessity, for the earthly Body cannot want them; and they are borne withal (by divine Patience) that the great Wonders may thereby be manifested.

(6) Wherefore "let the false lips become speechless, and let the Lord destroy the boastful tongue: those who say, We shall magnify our tongue, and our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? For the affliction of the poor and the groaning of the needy now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety; I will speak out in his case." For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, who do not exalt themselves against His flock. "Lay not up for yourselves, therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break through and steal," says the Lord, in reproach perchance of the covetous, and perchance also of those who are simply anxious and full of cares, and those too who indulge their bodies. For amours, and diseases, and evil thoughts "break through" the mind and the whole man. But our true "treasure" is where what is allied to our mind is, since it bestows the communicative power of righteousness, showing that we must assign to the habit of our old conversation what we have acquired by it, and have recourse to God, beseeching mercy. He is, in truth, "the bag that waxeth not old," the provisions of eternal life, "the treasure that faileth not in heaven." "For I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," saith the Lord. And they say those things to those who wish to be poor for righteousness' sake. For they have heard in the commandment that "the broad and wide way leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in by it." It is not of anything else that the assertion is made, but of profligacy, and love of women, and love of glory, and ambition, and similar passions. For so He says, "Fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared?" And the commandment is expressed in these very words, "Take heed, therefore, of covetousness. For a man's life does not consist in the abundance of those things which he possesses. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" "Wherefore I say, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for your body, what ye shall put on.