190. But he who so thinks does not consider that Jehovah the Lord, who is the God of heaven and earth, spoke the Word through Moses and the prophets, and therefore it cannot be other than Divine truth, for what Jehovah the Lord Himself speaks must be such. Neither does he consider that the Lord the Savior, who is the same with Jehovah, spoke the Word in the Gospels, much of it by His own mouth, and the rest of it by the breath of His mouth, which is the Holy Spirit, through His twelve disciples; whence it is, as He says, that in His words there is spirit and there is life, and that He is the Light that enlightens, and that He is the Truth; as is evident from the following passages:
Jesus said, The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life (John 6:63). Jesus said to the woman at Jacob's well, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him and He would give thee living water. Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:6, 10, 11, 14);
"Jacob's well" signifying the Word. (As also in Deut. 33:28). Therefore the Lord, because He is the Word, sat there and talked with the woman. "Living water" signifies the truth of the Word:
Jesus said, If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water (John 7:37, 38). Peter said to Jesus, Thou hast the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Jesus said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away (Mark 13:31). The Lord's words are Truth and Life because He is the Truth and the Life, as He teaches in John:
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (14:6);
and in the same:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (1:1, 4). "The Word" means the Lord in respect to Divine truth, in whom alone there is life and there is light. For this reason the Word, which is from the Lord and which is the Lord, is called:
The fountain of living waters (Jer. 2:13; 17:13; 31:9) The fountain of salvation (Isa. 12:3) A fountain (Zech. 13:1) And the river of the water of life (Apoc. 22:1);
and it is said that:
The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall guide them unto living fountains of waters (Apoc. 7:17) with other things also in passages where the Word is also called "a sanctuary" and "a tabernacle," wherein the Lord dwells with man.
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