This is the bread that cometh down from heaven; he that eateth of this bread shall live to eternity (vi. 58).
Wherefore also bread and wine are the symbols employed in the Holy Supper. This celestial is also represented by the manna. That what is celestial and spiritual constitutes the food of angels, is manifest from the Lord's words:—
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matt. iv. 4),
that is, from the life of the Lord, from which comes everything celestial and spiritual. [2] The last posterity of the Most Ancient Church, which existed immediately before the flood, and is here treated of, had become so thoroughly lost and immersed in sensuous and bodily things, that they were no longer willing to hear what was the truth of faith, what the Lord was, or that He would come and save them; and when such subjects were mentioned they turned away. This aversion is described by "eating bread in the sweat of the face." So also the Jews, in consequence of their being of such a character that they did not acknowledge the existence of heavenly things, and desired only a worldly Messiah, could not help feeling an aversion for the manna, because it was a representation of the Lord, calling it "vile bread," on which account fiery serpents were sent among them (Num. xxi. 5, 6). Moreover the heavenly things imparted to them in states of adversity and misery, when they were in tears, were called by them the "bread of adversity," the "bread of misery," and the "bread of tears." In the passage before us, that which was received with aversion is called the "bread of the sweat of the face."
277. This is the internal sense. He who keeps close to the letter, understands no other than that man must procure bread for himself out of the ground by labor, or by the sweat of his face. "Man" however does not here mean any one man, but the Most Ancient Church; nor does "ground" mean ground, nor "bread" bread, nor "garden" garden, but celestial and spiritual things, as has been sufficiently shown.
278. That by "returning to the ground whence he was taken" is signified that the church would return to the external man such as it was before regeneration, is evident from the
