of the host, priests, one over the officers, the principal officer, the king’s friend, the governor of the household, and a chief over the tribute, together with twelve officers over all Israel, which provide victuals for the king’s household. To comprehend these distinctions is angelic wisdom, and is consequently the most edifying of all contemplations, since it leads to a more minute and distinct apprehension of the several in numerable principles constituent of the Grand Man, or heaven, and constituent also of each individual mind, which, by regeneration, is restored to the image and order of heaven and its Lord.
78. Every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, [bitter in soul,] gathered themselves unto David, (1 Sam. xxii. 2,) to instruct us by the most lively figure, that the followers of the true David, Jesus Christ, are always of this description, and that none are really gathered to the incarnate God, until they feel something of spiritual distress, spiritual debt, and spiritual bitterness of soul.
79. The arrow of the Lord’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria, (2 Kings xiii. 17,) is always shot, whensoever the spiritual bow and arrows are taken, and the King of Israel makes his hand to rise upon the bow, and puts his hand upon it, and the prophet puts his hand on the King’s hand, and the window is opened eastward; (verses 15, 16, 17;) in other words, whensoever there is a conjunction of truth and good from the Lord, in the truth and good of doctrine derived from his Holy Word, and the
