第十一节 仁义的休憩场合，是午餐、晚餐与交谊
433# 仁义的休憩场合，是午餐、晚餐与交谊。
众所周知，午餐和晚餐在各处皆为习俗，并且是为各种目的而设立的；在许多人那里，是为了友谊、亲属关系、欢庆、获利和酬谢；也有的是用作败坏人心、拉拢党派的手段；在权贵那里，也为荣耀而设；在王宫之中，则为显赫排场而设。然而，仁义的午餐和晚餐，只存在于那些因相同信仰而处于相互之爱中的人那里。
在基督徒的初期教会中，午餐和晚餐不是为了别的目的，而被称为“爱筵”；设立它们，是为使人们一同由衷欢喜，并彼此结合。他们的晚餐，象征教会建立初期状态中的联合与结合；因为举行晚餐的晚上，象征这一状态。而午餐则象征第二种状态，即教会已经建立之时；因为早晨和白昼象征这一状态。
在餐桌上，人们谈论各种事情，既有家内事务，也有民事事务；但尤其谈论属于教会的事。因为这些是仁义的筵席，所以无论谈论什么事，话语中都含有仁义及其快乐与欢欣。支配这些筵席的属灵氛围，乃是对主之爱和对邻舍之爱的氛围；这氛围使每个人的心意欢畅，使每个人说话的声音柔和，并从内心把喜庆带入一切感官。
因为从每个人那里都有一种属灵氛围发出；这氛围属于其爱的情感，并由此属于其思想，并且从内在影响同席相伴的人，尤其在筵席之中更是如此。这氛围既通过面容发出，也通过呼吸发出。
由于午餐和晚餐，或说筵席，象征心意之间这样的联合，所以它们在圣言中屡次被提及；在那里，按属灵意义所理解的，并非别的。按最高意义来说，以色列子孙的逾越节晚餐，以及其他节期中的筵席，还有在会幕旁由祭物而来的聚餐，所表示的也是这种联合。当时，这种结合本身由擘饼并分给众人，以及由同一个杯中饮用并递给他人来代表。
433# 众所周知，午餐和晚餐在各个地方都是惯例，并出于各种目的而被提供。对许多人来说，它们是为了建立友谊和关系，或促进家庭团聚，为了欢乐、享受、获利和报酬。它们也被用来腐蚀人们，说服他们加入某个政党、派别。在大人物或当权者当中，它们被用来建立他们自己的声誉，或说被作为荣誉的标志，在王宫中被用来展示王室的辉煌。但仁爱的午餐和晚餐只由那些处于基于相似信仰的相爱之人提供。对初期教会的基督徒来说，午餐和晚餐没有其它目的；它们被称为筵席，举行筵席是为了他们可以尽情享受，同时聚在一起，或说是为了把基督徒的心和灵连在一起。在教会建立的第一个状态下，晚餐表示联系和结合，因为晚上，即举行晚宴的时候，表示这个状态。但在第二个状态下，即教会确立的时候，就有了午餐，或说午餐表示在教会的第二个状态下的联系和结合，因为早晨和白天表示这个状态。
他们在席上谈论各种话题，包括家庭和民事话题，尤其与教会有关的话题。由于它们是仁爱的筵席，所以无论他们谈论什么话题，他们的谈话都充满仁爱及其欢喜快乐。在这些筵席上盛行的属灵气场是对主之爱和对邻之爱的气场，这种气场使每个人的心智都欢欣鼓舞，或说提升他们个人的心智，使他们说话的声调、语气柔和下来，并在他们中间传播一种普遍的亲切感，或说一种欢庆的感觉从内心深处传给所有感官。因为一种属灵的气场从那里的每个人身上散发出来，这气场是他的爱之情感和由此而来的思维的气场，从内在影响他身边的人，尤其在筵席上。这个气场既通过脸，也通过呼吸散发出来。这是因为午餐和晚餐，或筵席，表示心智的联系，圣言因此经常提到它们，它们在灵义上不是指别的东西。在至高意义上，以色列人中间的逾越节的晚餐，以及他们在其它节日上的筵席，他们在会幕旁边一起吃祭物也是这个意思。那时，掰饼和分饼，以及用同一个杯子喝，并把它递给别人，代表结合本身。
433. The Recreations Related to Goodwill Are Lunches, Dinners, and Parties
As we all know, social lunches and dinners are customary everywhere. They are planned for various reasons. For many people they serve to build friendship or promote family togetherness; they serve for enjoyment, for fundraising, and for showing gratitude. They are also a corrupting influence used for persuading people to join some faction. Those in power use them to build their own reputations. Courts of monarchs use them to put on a magnificent display.
The only lunches and dinners that relate to goodwill, however, are those that involve people who love each other because they share a common faith. In early times, Christians used to have social lunches and dinners for exactly this purpose. Called feasts, they were instituted to lift and unite Christians' hearts and spirits. The dinners they held stood for the associations and connections people formed when the church was first being established, because the evening when the dinners would occur has that meaning. The lunches they held, however, stood for people coming together in the second phase of the church's establishment, because that is what morning and daytime mean.
While they were at the table, they would have conversations on various subjects - both domestic and civic issues. In particular, they would discuss topics related to the church. Because the events were feasts of goodwill, the conversations would entail goodwill and its forms of joy and happiness. The spiritual atmosphere that prevailed during these feasts was an atmosphere of love for the Lord and for their neighbor. This atmosphere would lift their individual minds, soften their tones of voice, and allow a celebratory feeling from deep in their hearts to fill their senses.
We all have a spiritual atmosphere that emanates from the feelings derived from our love, and from the thinking prompted by those feelings. This atmosphere deeply affects other people, especially during feasts. It emanates from people's faces and their breathing.
The fact that lunches and dinners, or feasts, stood for such meetings of the mind is the reason they are named so many times in the Word. In the spiritual meaning this is exactly what these meals stood for. In the supreme sense this is what the Passover dinner among the children of Israel stood for; the same is true of the banquets during other Jewish festivals, as well as the meals from the sacrifices next to the tabernacle. In those instances, the bond between people was represented by breaking bread and sharing it, and by drinking from the same cup, which people passed around among them.
433. XI. Charitable recreations are lunches, dinners and parties.
It is well known that lunches and dinners are customary everywhere, and that they are given for various purposes; in many cases for the sake of friendship, on account of relationship or celebrations, to gain an advantage or to reward services. They are also a means of gaining favour corruptly, in the case of important people, to do them honour, in kings' courts for show. But charitable lunches and dinners are to be found only with those who in mutual love share a like belief. In the earliest Christian church there were lunches and dinners, called feasts, for precisely this reason, set up to give hearty pleasure and at the same time bring people together. Dinners in their times meant social gatherings and getting together at the first stage in the establishment of the church, that being the meaning of the evening, when they took place. Lunches had the same meaning at the second stage when the church was established, since that is the meaning of morning and day.
[2] At table various matters were discussed, both domestic and political, but the chief subject was matters of concern to the church. Because they were charitable feasts, the talk on any subject was full of charity, together with its joys and pleasures. The spiritual sphere dominant at those feasts was that of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, which made everyone's mind cheerful, softened his tone of voice and spread a joyful feeling from the heart to all the senses. Every person has a spiritual sphere radiating from him, which is the product of the affection of his love and so of his thought, and this inwardly affects his companions, especially at feasts. It is radiated both by the face and by the breathing. It is because such associations of minds were meant by lunches, dinners or feasts that they are so often mentioned in the Word; and such too is the meaning of these terms in its spiritual sense. The same is true in the highest sense of the Passover dinner among the Children of Israel, and by banquets at other festivals, as well as by feeding on the products of sacrifice beside the Tabernacle. The act of linking was then represented by breaking and distributing bread, and by drinking out of the same cup and passing it on to the next person.
433. XI. THE DIVERSIONS OF CHARITY ARE DINNERS, SUPPERS, AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS.
It is known that dinners and suppers are everywhere customary, and are given for various purposes, and that with most they are given for the sake of friendship, relationship, enjoyment, gain, and remuneration; also that they are employed for corrupting men and drawing them over to certain parties; and that among the great they are given for the sake of honor, and in kings' palaces for splendor. But dinners and suppers of charity are given only among those who are in mutual love from similarity of faith. With the Christians of the primitive church dinners and suppers had no other object; they were called Feasts, and were given both in order that they might heartily enjoy themselves, and at the same time be drawn together. In the first state of the establishment of the church suppers signified consociation and conjunction, because evening, when they took place, signified that state. But in the second state, when the church had been established, there were dinners, for morning and day signified that state. At table they conversed on various subjects, both domestic and civil, but especially on such as pertained to the church. And because they were feasts of charity, whatever subject they talked about, charity with its delights and joys was in their speech. The spiritual sphere that prevailed at those feasts was a sphere of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor, which cheered the mind of everyone, softened the tone of every voice, and from the heart communicated festivity to all the senses. For there emanates from every man a spiritual sphere, which is a sphere of his love's affection and its thought therefrom, and this interiorly affects his associates, especially at feasts. This sphere emanates both through the face and through the respiration. It is because dinners and suppers, or feasts, signified such association of minds that they are so frequently mentioned in the Word, and nothing else is there meant by them in the spiritual sense; and the same is meant in the highest sense by the paschal supper among the children of Israel, also by their banquet at other festivities, and by their eating together of the sacrifices near the tabernacle. Conjunction itself was then represented by the breaking and distribution of bread, and by drinking from the same cup and handing it to another.
433. XI. THE RECREATIONS OF CHARITY ARE DINNERS, SUPPERS, AND SOCIAL INTERCOURSE.
It is widely known that dinners and suppers are given everywhere for various purposes. They are given by many for their friends and relations, for the promotion of joviality, with a view to bestowing bribes or receiving remuneration, or as inducements to join certain parties. Among the great they are given as marks of honor, and in the palaces of kings for the display of regal splendor. But dinners and suppers of charity are given only by those who are in mutual love grounded in a similar faith. This is why dinners and suppers were institutions among the Christians of the primitive Church. They were called by them feasts, and were held that they might meet together in cordial joy and friendly union. Their suppers were symbolic of association and union in the first state of the Church's establishment, for evening, when these were held, had this signification. Dinners on the other hand symbolized the same in the second state of the Church, for this state was signified by morning and day. At table they conversed on various subjects, domestic and civil, but especially on such as concerned the Church; and as these were feasts of charity their conversation, no matter on what subject, was infused with the joy and gladness of charity.
The spiritual sphere which prevailed on these occasions was one of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor. This cheered their mind, softened the tone of their speech, and spread among them a general feeling of cordiality. For from everyone there emanates a spiritual sphere arising from the affection of his love and its related thought, which inwardly affects those in his company, especially at feasts; this sphere emanates both from the face and the respiration. It is because dinners and suppers, or feasts, signified such association of minds that they are so often mentioned in the Word, as that is their meaning in the spiritual sense. This also in the supreme sense was meant by the paschal supper among the Children of Israel, and also by the feasts at their other festivals, and their eating together of the sacrifices at the tabernacle. Conjunction itself at that time was represented by breaking bread and distributing it, and by drinking from the same cup and handing it one to another.
433. Quod Diversoria Charitatis sint Prandia, Coenae, et Consortia.
Notum est, quod Prandia et Coenae ubivis in usu sint, et quod propter varios fines instituantur, et quod apud plures sint propter amicitias, propter affinitates, propter laetitias, propter lucrationes et remunerationes, et quod sint corruptelae ad trahendum in partes; et quod apud Magnates etiam propter honorem, et in Aulis Regum propter splendorem. Sed Prandia et Coenae Charitatis 1 sunt modo apud illos, qui in mutuo amore ex simili fide sunt. In Primitiva Ecclesia apud Christianos fuerunt Prandia et Coenae non propter alium finem, et vocata sunt CONVIVIA, instituta ut simul ex corde laetificarentur, et quoque conjungerentur: COENAE apud illos significabant Consociationes et conjunctiones in primo statu instaurationis Ecclesiae, nam Vespera, in qua fiebant, illum significabat; PRANDIA autem in secundo statu, quando Ecclesia instaurata est, nam Mane et Dies illum significabant.
[2] Super Mensis sermones habebantur de rebus variis, tam domesticis quam civilibus, imprimis autem de talibus quae Ecclesiae erant; et quia erant Convivia Charitatis, sermonibus de quacunque re inerat Charitas cum ejus gaudiis et laetitiis; sphaera spiritualis regnans in Conviviis illis fuit sphaera amoris in Dominum et amoris erga proximum, quae exhilarabat cujusvis animum, emolliebat cujusvis loquelae sonum, et festivum e corde induxit in omnes sensus; nam ex quovis homine emanat sphaera spiritualis, quae est affectionis amoris et inde cogitationis ejus, ac interius afficit consocios, imprimis in conviviis; emanat illa tam per faciem, quam per respirationem. Quoniam per Prandia et Coenas, seu per Convivia tales animorum consociationes significabantur, ideo toties in Verbo nominantur, et per illa ibi non aliud in sensu spirituali intelligitur, et in supremo sensu per Coenam Paschalem apud filios Israelis, et quoque per Epulas in Festis reliquis, ut et per Commessationes ex Sacrificiis juxta Tabernaculum; ipsa conjunctio tunc repraesentabatur per frangere panem et distribuere, et per bibere ex eodem poculo et tradere alteri.
Footnotes:
1. Prima editio: Charltatis.