1. At first, while Abraham was called only Abram, 1 God appeared unto him in the vision as One; and when he had sealed the Covenant with the circumcision, he called him Abraham, viz. a company or multitude of nations. A forth-breathed manifest people of God, in whom God had forth-breathed or manifested himself; and he appeared to him also afterwards in the manifestation of the holy Trinity, viz. in three men, which were only one, wherein the manifestation of the holy Trinity in the Deity was set forth and represented in man's image, how the whole Trinity of the Deity would now manifest itself in this Covenant in the humanity, that the Trinity of the Deity should be seen in the flesh.n7423 ¶1
1 Gen. xviii.n7423 ¶2
2. And hereby is declared the great humility in the Deity, viz. in Christ, how Christ would visit mankind, and take care of man, and [also] condescend to be entertained by man; as he came, in these three men, to Abraham, and suffered his feet to be washed, and did eat and drink. Which betokens, that men must cherish or lovingly entertain the poor Christ, who is poor in this world, in his members and children, who also would be poor, contemned and despised people. And what men do unto them, that they have done unto these three men, viz. to Christ, the holy Deity in the humanity.n7423 ¶3
3. The words of this figure run thus, And the Lord appeared unto him in the plain of Mamre: as he sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day; and he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lot three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself towards the ground, and said, My Lord, if I have found grace in your Sight, pass not away, I pray you, from your servant. Let a little water be fetched, I pray to wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts; after that you shall go on:n7423 ¶4
for therefore are you come to your servant. They said, Do as you have said.n7423 ¶5
And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.n7423 ¶6
And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it to a young man; and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.n7423 ¶7
4. And they said unto him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto you again, as I live; 1 and, lot Sarah your wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it as she stood behind at the tent door. Now Abraham and Sarah were both old, and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.n7423 ¶8
And therefore she laughed within herself, and said, Now I am old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also ? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, and say, Is it of a certain, that I shall bear a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come unto you again, as I live, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied it, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, No, but you did laugh (vv. 1-15).n7423 ¶9
1 Or, in that manner. As our translation, According to the time of life.n7423 ¶10
5. O you great and wonderful God! how plainly and simply do you represent and portray the kingdom of your Son in the humanity; how lively and fully are the greatest Mysteries delineated herein; and indeed they are so plainly represented in such entire singleness and simplicity, as Christ, who, notwithstanding [he] was the King of Israel, did ride into Jerusalem upon an ass. Here the proud world may have a very true looking-glass, and see if they be the children of this simplicity.n7423 ¶11
6. The great love and humility of God in Christ's person is fully represented in this figure, how God came in the deepest humility and simplicity into the humanity, when the humanity was inflamed with highest heat of the wrathful indignation of God's anger, as the figure here denotes.n7423 ¶12
7. The three men came before Abraham's tent in the very heat of all the day. This signifies, that God did first incorporate [or betroth] himself with his Love-Covenant, and also with the fullness of time touching the Covenant, when the human day, understand the six properties of the days, were most of all inflamed and set on fire in the wrath of nature in man; that is, in the fall. And afterward, in the fullness of time, when the humanity of these six days was in the very exceeding burning heat of vanity and the bestial property, he did manifest himself with his tender humanity out of the ens of the holy Covenant, and came in three persons of the Deity before the earthly man's essence, or earthly cottage, viz. the soul's tent, and appeared to Abraham, that is, to Adam in his children, viz. to the human essence.n7423 ¶13
8. And here is fully set forth the type and image of Christ: When Abraham espies these men he goes to meet them; and bows himself towards the earth; and runs away from the door of his tent unto them; and prays them to rest under the tree, until he should do that for which they came.n7423 ¶14
9. We must look upon this figure thus: When the divine voice had represented itself to Abraham, in the ens wherein it would become man in three persons, then Abraham's apprehended ens of faith set itself forth also to this image, viz. to the triune humanity in the figure, for the ens in the Covenant in Abraham's faith was surrounded with the great heat of God's anger, when the human day was grown hottest in the human essence.n7423 ¶15
10. But when he looked up, and saw the type of the triune Deity standing before him, this faith's ens, in deepest humility in Christ's person (being that which was to become Christ), did bow itself before the Trinity of the Deity, which was come unto him; which would in the fullness of time give forth and manifest itself with the voice (which now spoke in these three men with him) in this ens of faith (being the humanity of Christ before his Father), and said, Lord, if I have found grace in your sight, pass not away from this ens of faith, viz. your servant.n7423 ¶16
11. For Abraham was now in the spirit, and spoke from his faith's ens in Christ's humanity, and before him stood the type and image of Christ's Deity; and said, in the great humility of the humanity of Christ, Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet. This is the great humility of Christ, who washed his disciples', viz. his children's, feet (as these three men here were washed), signifying and pointing out that Christ should wash with his blood the feet of God's children, who should be born of these three men, viz. of the Trinity of the Deity; whereby they might come to God.n7423 ¶17
12. And he bade the three men rest under the tree. This now signifies the Tree of Life, under which God's children should sit down; and then he would bring them a morsel of bread to refresh and comfort their hearts; and afterwards they should go, that is, when Christ has washed his children's feet with his blood, whereby they are able to go to God, viz. the holy Trinity, then he gives them a morsel of bread, that so they may recreate and strengthen their hearts; that is, he gives them the bread of life, viz. his heavenly flesh for food, so that they wax strong, and are able, in the divine power, to go from Abraham's earthly tent through this world in God's anger, to meet the Lord, and bow themselves before him, as this figure signifies.n7423 ¶18
13. And he says further: for you are therefore come to your servant. Understand it thus: The Holy Trinity was here at this time represented in an image of our humanity, and Abraham stood in the type of the humanity of Christ, even as Christ and his children are in reference to each other; the holy Trinity leads the children of Christ in the divine drawing to the humanity of Christ; and now these three men stood there in our stead before Christ, viz. before the figure; for the Father draws them to Christ, and through Christ to [or in] the Father; they are washed and atoned in Christ, therefore now said Christ to the three men, which God represented to him in his person: Even therefore are you come to your servant.n7423 ¶19
14. For Christ must be our, viz. these three men's, servant; and God brings his three men, viz. us, who approach unto him, in himself; viz. into the will of the holy Trinity, unto his servant the Man Christ; that so he may wash and feed them; and then they are able with boldness and confidence to come unto the holy triune Deity.n7423 ¶20
15. And the men said to Abraham, Do as you have said. That is, Christ offers himself to his Father, viz. to the three-one God, for a Servant. Understand, the Word, which the three-one God did inspire into Adam concerning the Bruiser of the Serpent's head, offers itself for a servant unto the three-one God, viz. unto the children who should possess the kingdom of heaven. Now, the triune God says, Do with these, your and my children, as you have said. That is, with these children which are now set before you, for they shall be angels, and you shall thereunto help them, for I am therefore come in them unto you: now do as you have said.n7423 ¶21
16. Here God fully gave the Man Christ to accomplish the consummation with them, as he had said. And the whole, entire, excellent and holy figure of the new birth is therein emphatically and lively set forth. And it shows how the holy Trinity does delight itself with figures concerning the Word incorporated and inspoken into Adam, and now opened in Abraham's ens of faith; and sets it forth with types, and plays in figures with this Christ, who was to come; wheren7423 ¶22
God represents in Abraham the person of Christ, and the children of the new birth, whom Christ should beget anew, in the person of the three men, viz. in the three-one Deity, which brings them through Christ into itself and places them in the angelical choir; as these three men did appear in the form of three angels, and also in the person of the holy Trinity; signifying that the holy Trinity would dwell in these angelical men, and that they should be the image, viz. the manifestation of God.n7423 ¶23
17. Abraham commanded to take three measures of fine meal, and to knead it, and bake cakes, that the men might eat; what does this mean? These three men had no need of any such eating. It is the figure of man's regeneration: The three measures betoken the three Principles, viz. the three worlds in man: the fine meal points out the heavenly humanity, viz. the divine heavenly substantiality, that this heavenly and divine substantiality's property should also be kneaded, and mixed with ours, [which had] disappeared in Adam; and a divine cake, viz. sweet bread for food of God's children should be baked thereof, understand, in the fiery heat.n7423 ¶24
18. When Christ stood in the fire of his Father's anger, viz. in hell, then these sweet cakes were baked for God's children, which they should eat; and the three measures are now the three worlds (viz. the whole man, without the Serpent's, and beast's property) which shall be mixed with the divine ens into a lump [or batch], and cakes baked thereof. This is now Christ's flesh, which he has joined or mixed with our humanity; and gives us now the sweet cakes thereof; to eat, viz. the heavenly flesh: Here the Holy Spirit did play therewith in the figure.n7423 ¶25
19. And Abraham ran to the herd, and made ready also a calf; tender and good; that is, he gave it to his young man to dress it. O thou wonderful God! how much does simplicity please thee? how plainly and simply dost thou represent the great mysteries unto us? I thank thee, that thou showest me, unworthy man, such things, wherein the whole world is blind. O God, open thou their eyes, I pray, that they may see, and turn unto thee, and enter into humility.n7423 ¶26
20. The tender calf which was made ready for this meal, is the limus of the earth, viz. the outward man, which, before God, is as a beast. Understand, it is a wonderbeast, 1 like as the whole outward world, before the divine understanding, is only as a beast, wherein God forms himself with the holy spiritual ens into an external body, to the manifestation of his deeds of wonder, both of love and anger. Which figure of the outward world, viz. the divine beast, shall not be wholly turned into nothing, but the vanity alone shall be separated from the good into the kingdom of darkness.n7423 ¶27
1 Marvellous or wonderful.n7423 ¶28
21. In like manner, God will not wholly cast away the divine beast on man, which indeed dies here, but only the introduced Serpent's ens, and the vanity of the dark world's essence. The divine wonder-beast, which is the servant of the divine spiritual image, and shall be so in eternity, the same shall arise at the last day, and be proved through the fire of God; where it shall be made very pure, as a crystal, in which the angel, viz. God's right image, shall dwell;n7423 ¶29
in which angelical image God is primely manifest, and thence shines through the beast, as the sun through a crystal. This now is the signification of this tender and good calf, which was dressed for this meal, and shows that the outward man, according to his right image created in Adam out of the limus of the earth, shall be brought upon God's table.n7423 ¶30
22. But that Abraham says he gave it to the young man to dress, that is, [to] the servant, does betoken that this heavenly beast-man is the instrument of the angelical man, who is prepared to be a servant of this angel's image.n7423 ¶31
23. And Abraham took butter, and milk also, and set it all before these three men, and came before them under the tree, and they did eat. When Christ has fed his people with his body and blood (and even while he feeds them) he comes in his power in his children, before the holy Trinity, and waits in his children upon these three men, and gives them from this prepared food, wherewith he feeds his children, praise and spiritual food.n7423 ¶32
24. These three men, viz. the holy Trinity, do eat these holy spiritual meats, out of the power of Christ's body; for man's will gives itself wholly, peculiarly and fully, to these three men, for a food of praise, with a holy voice and prayer of thanksgiving; and this voice of praise eats the power of God into itself in manner as a man willingly eats the tune, harmony or pleasant air of a delightful music into his hearing, and is therein merry and pleasant. Even so God does awaken or manifest himself in his power in his word of hearing, or divine sense, with man's pure humble voice or melody of praise.n7423 ¶33
25. For thereunto God has created angels and men, viz. to his own joy. And know, that we speak from the true ground, and not from conjecture or similitudes [or parables], but from the open seal of God, as we really see: do but understand it aright.n7423 ¶34
26. And now, when God had delighted and fed himself with Abraham in the heavenly ens, which he would, by the opening of the living Word in the seed of the woman (being also the heavenly ens), manifest and introduce into the ens of the Covenant; and had sported in the ens of Abraham's faith, viz. in the power of the praise of Abraham, viz. in his humility; then God asked after Sarah, whom he well knew, but Sarah knew him not; that even the Lord should be in such a form; then he said to Abraham, Where is your wife Sarah? That is, she was not yet in this play, until she had received Abraham's ens of faith, and then this play would awaken itself in her; therefore she laughed at this; for she knew not the Mysteries; they did at present only manifest themselves in Abraham's spirit, where the ens of faith lay; and he said, She is in the tent; that is :n7423 ¶35
27. She is in the human tent covered with the earthly tent, that she does not see who now is with me. And the Lord said, I will come again to you, as I live, and lo! Sarah your wife shall have a son. That is, I will come again to you with the motion of your seed: and when Sarah shall conceive, then I will open and unloose her in her shut-up seed, and come into your seed, that is, move; for, to come, signifies to move: when God comes, then he moves man, and comes or goes in and with man.n7423 ¶36
28. But that he says, As I live, this is spoken after an essential manner; for God told him how he would come; not before him, as at this time he did; but as, that is, as the lightful influence and power of the sun gives itself into a fruit, which when it comes does not step near to the fruit, but as; that is, it penetrates essentially with the as into it; for as is, as much as, thus / will see into it [or open my love-aspect in the ens of its life]. As I live. Hereby we are not to understand, as if he had said, If I yet live, but he would live in the as; he would come in the as, viz. essentially, and not figuratively and typically [as at this time he did] .n7423 ¶37
29. For when God comes, then he comes no otherwise, than as, that is, like the sunshine into the fruit. This is understood in the Language of Nature, essentially, with emphatical excellency; for if God speaks of his own coming, then he speaks only essentially, in nature and manner of the uncompacted tongue of sense.n7423 ¶38
30. And Sarah laughed at this. She thought that she should bring forth a son from Abraham's lust only, from the human cohabitation in the concupiscence of the flesh; therefore she said. Shall I, now I and my Lord are both old, take pleasure? The bestial world-spirit laughed at its youth, in that it was now weak; and should now again become youthful; and thought with itself, This were a sport, if you could.n7423 ¶39
As if one should tell an old man, you shall become young again, and receive such a desire and lust as when you wert young. At this, nature would laugh, and think, yes indeed, would that were true; as if doubt and hope were coupled together. Thus it was also with Sarah: for the world-spirit understands not the Mysteries of God. It is before God only as a beast; and seeing the world- spirit did now hear that it should so come to pass, then it thought, you shall be the work-master; oh that you could, you would very fain; and laughed at itself, that it should become young again.n7423 ¶40
31. The natural man understands even as much of God, as a beast; when it sees the hay, then it thinks, now there is somewhat for me to eat; but if it sees nothing, then it hopes for it out of custom. But Sarah had now hoped until she was ninety years old; and thought it to be very wonderful, that God would do somewhat unto her above the ordinary and usual course of nature; and imagined it unto herself after the manner of human pleasure.n7423 ¶41
32. But the Lord said, Wherefore did Sarah laugh at it? And she was afraid, and said, I laughed not. But the Lord said, It is not so, thou didst laugh; should any thing be too impossible for the Lord to do? Here is the type of Eve; when she had turned her vain curiosity into self lust, to eat of the forbidden tree, and God afterwards asked her wherefore she had done so, she denied also her own lust, and laid it upon the Serpent.n7423 ¶42
33. And seeing that now God had here alluded with Abraham concerning the new birth, he also does the like with Sarah concerning the lust of Eve, which this woman's seed should slay as a lie. For Sarah must here therefore tell a lie, that she did not laugh, in that Eve also lied. God did here represent before him the lie of Eve, and that he would confound it with the eternal truth, and reclaim her;n7423 ¶43
as he did to Sarah, and convinced her so of her lie, that she must be ashamed of it.n7423 ¶44
34. And here we are to understand that God has represented or delineated the whole process, how he would regenerate anew the true man which he created; and how the same should come to pass, and how he would burn the Serpent's ens in the eternal fire, and how he would put the lie of the poor soul to open shame and death on the cross; for we see this here very excellently in the type.n7423 ¶45
35. After that God had set forth the process of the new birth, the~e three men went towards Sodom; and would burn Ham, viz. the evil Ham-like fleshly property, with fire from the Lord, as it also came to pass; so that we see it very emphatically, how the judgement of God begins at the house of Israel; how Christ is set to be a Judge of the devil's ens and will, who shall burn the devil's essence with fire; as this following figure signifies.n7423 ¶46
The Forty-Third Chaptern7423 ¶47
Of the Ruin and Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, how the same was foretold of God unto Abrahamn7423 ¶48
1. And the Lord spoke to Abraham, 1 when he had blessed Abraham, and had said that he would command his children to walk in the ways of the Lord, and that he would also bless them, as is before mentioned: Behold! there is a cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is Great, and their sin is exceeding grievous; therefore I will come down, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry which is come unto me; and if not so, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went towards Sodom. God said, How can I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that he shall become a great and mighty nation. And there- upon showed him what he would do.n7423 ¶49
2. The un-illuminated reason looks upon this figure very wonderfully, that God said: He would come down and see if the cry were true, that he might know whether it were so or no. Reason supposes with itself: Is he then circumscriptive, 2 or dwells he aloft alone and above, does he not know all things before? Does not the Scripture also say of him, Am not I he who fills all things? Also, the heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. Would he then first come down like unto a circumscriptive 3 being, which was separate from time and place?n7423 ¶50
3. Much more is reason incapable to search out the cry which came up before him. And hereupon the creatural reason thinks, that God dwells only on high above the stars, in a heaven, alone, and looks down here beneath, as the lustre of the sun looks and shines from its body upon the earth. So far reason reaches, and further it knows not what God is, or where he dwells: it knows not that he is every essence, 4 and dwells through every essence or being, and possesses no locality, also needs no place or space for his habitation; and yet that he (so far as he is called God) is no essence, 5 but is as a nothing in reference to the essence; and yet he is even through all things, and gives in himself in an energetical working manner, to [every] essence, as the powerful influence of the sun [gives itself] to the fruit; but [he] works with the creature and its life, not from without into it, but from within out of it, to his own manifestation; and that the nature and creature is his manifestation. If reason did but understand this aright, it would here make no further question [but be undoubtedly satisfied in itself what God is].n7423 ¶51
2 Comprehensible or measurable.n7423 ¶52
3 Concluded in a place severed and apart, by himself.n7423 ¶53
4 The whole Being, Substance, or Essence.n7423 ¶54
5 Substance, thing, or being.n7423 ¶55
4. Now, understand the sum of all briefly thus: God dwells in himself both according to the love, and according to the anger; each property sees only into itself and is not manifest in the other with its own property; as you have a similitude of this in the day and night, viz. in the light and darkness. The light dwells in the darkness, and sees it not; also the darkness sees not the light; and as the light dwells in its great meekness in the fire, and yet receives not the source and pain of the fire to itself but remains only good, without any feeling life of the fire, and yet it arises through the consuming of the fire, viz. through the dying of the essence: 1 in like manner also understand the being of God.n7423 ¶56
1 Material substance.n7423 ¶57
5. God's love-eye does not see essentially into the wicked rebellious apostate soul; neither also into the devil, but his anger-eye sees thereinto; that is, God, according to the property of the anger or fire of wrath, sees in the devil, and in the false soul.n7423 ¶58
6. Therefore God said, There was a cry come up before him. There he understood, before his manifested Word, viz. before the voice in the divine revealed ens of these three men. It was come before the ens, and before the hearing which had now in the promised ens represented itself; in three persons, unto man, concerning the humanity of Christ.n7423 ¶59
7. For the judgement over all the devils and wicked men was given unto this Word or hearing; for it was the moveable 2 Hearing whereby God the Father heard in the humanity, and whereby he would separate the evil from the good.n7423 ¶60
2 Affective, or effective.n7423 ¶61
8. Now this Hearing, viz. the Hearing which would manifest itself in Christ's person in the humanity, heard the voice of the Sodomites in itself; viz. of the children of Ham; that is, according to the property of the anger; and brought the hearing before the infinite Hearing into the first Principle, viz. into the original of nature and creature. For the Sodomites, viz. the children of the flesh, do all live in the hearing of this world, viz. in the expressed formed Word, in the figure of the Deity, where evil and good are manifest together in onen7423 ¶62
9. Now understand us here very punctually and acutely. The angelical world is called 1 above, and the formed outward is called 1 below, in manner as we may say when a fire is enkindled, then the light is above, and the substance [or matter] below. When we speak of God's [being] above, then we mean and understand within, for the [being] within, without the substance, 2 is the [being] above; for without the substance [or matter] there is all above, no below; that which is under the substance is also above.n7423 ¶63
1 Or, is said to be. 2 Extra substantiam.n7423 ¶64
10. Now the cry of the Sodomites was come before the above, 3 viz. before and into the first Principle, where the above 3 does conceive or comprehend itself out of the Nothing in the first eternal beginning; viz. to a nature and formation of the powers or Word; and God's formed Word or voice, out of the Father's and Son's property, out of love and anger (which had betrothed itself by promise to be a Christ to man, and formed itself into a divine ens) heard the cry in the property of the anger, wherewith he is a judge of the wicked ens, or ungodliness.n7423 ¶65
3 Or, highness.n7423 ¶66
11. Therefore said the Father, / will come down that I may see whether it be so or no. That is, he came down, that is, out of the above, 4 with that formed Hearing of these three men in the ens, which God had formed to be judge of the world, which was to become the Christ.n7423 ¶67
4 Or, from on high.n7423 ¶68
12. For this ens was to be creatural in the person, therefore it was formative, in an angelical manner, in the conceived Word of the promise; and therewith it came from above, that is, out of the above, viz. out of God; out of the unchangeable God; and with his love heard first in Abraham into the ens of the Covenant, into the aim or limit of his Covenant. And with the anger, viz. with the hearing of the fire, he heard into the iniquity and vanity of man; and saw with the anger what they did; that is, his wrath saw essentially into the iniquity and vanity of man, in manner as an incentive fire should arise in any piece of wood [or fuel], and would devour the wood. So likewise God looked with his anger-eye in the formed ens (through the same judicial Word in Christ's ens, wherein he will judge the world) into the wicked infection and will of the children of Ham at Sodom and Gomorrah.n7423 ¶69
13. For when God had set before him, in Abraham, the new birth of his holy children out of his love ens; he also set before him the judgement in his anger ens, how he would, through this Christ, prove the wicked in the fire.n7423 ¶70
14. And the judgement upon Sodom is a figure of the Last Judgment; as the three men which came before Abraham were a figure of our new angelical humanity, where God dwells in man; so was also his anger in the wicked. And we see here, that God will judge the devils, and all wicked men, by the children of the saints; as he now did represent the figure of the judicial office in a humanity of three, and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah from the world.n7423 ¶71
15. Also God said to Abraham, How can I hide from Abraham the thing which I dol It was hidden unto the earthly Abraham, but unto the heavenly, out of God's ens, God would not hide it. And here he set forth the figure of his love, and his anger, viz. the humanity of Christ in the great humility and love, and his truth and righteousness in the two angels.n7423 ¶72
16. For thus says the text in Moses: And Abraham stood yet before the Lord (viz. before these three men, which he here calls only one), and came near to him, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Per-adventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy them; and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein ?n7423 ¶73
That be far from you to do so, to slay the righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from you: that thou, who art the Judge of the whole earth, shouldst so judgen7423 ¶74
17. This is now the very excellent and pregnant figure; how Abraham (in. the ens of faith in Christ's person and spirit) comes before God, viz. before the triune God, before the severe righteousness of God; and will reconcile and atone the Father; and prays for his children, which dwell among the company of the wicked; that his Father would be pleased to spare that place (where yet righteous people dwell) from rebuke, and draws his mercy into his righteousness, and says, Thou wilt not so judge, thou who art the Judge of the whole world.n7423 ¶75
18. This figure is nothing else but God in his righteousness, andn7423 ¶76
God in Christ with his mercy. Here the two types stand both together; what else should it mean, that a man would withhold God from doing what he please?n7423 ¶77
19. The man Christ does withhold God's righteousness and severe judgement from falling on the crew of wicked men, else they had been devoured at the first disobedience in Paradise. This is he which comes before God, and into God, viz. into God's anger, for he is of God, and therefore he can come before God [draw near to, or intercede with, God] .n7423 ¶78
20. That is, the formed Word, viz. the creature, stands before the judgement, and sits in judgement, and suffers not the anger to judge, so long as there are righteous people; as is here to be seen; if there had been but ten righteous persons, God had spared them. Indeed there were but three persons only which were righteous before God, viz. Lot, with his two daughters. His wife was also not fit [or capable of this mercy], therefore although she went out of Sodom, yet she remained still, and was turned to a pillar of salt, as shall afterward be cleared and expounded.n7423 ¶79
21. Abraham, that is, the spirit of Christ, entreats so far with God that God would spare all these places for ten persons' sake. But they were all revolted and gone astray, save his brother's son, who was a stranger among this people, whom God first brought out, before he enkindled the wrath.n7423 ¶80
22. The spirit here speaks very covertly and hiddenly in Moses and Esdras, 1 who wrote again these Acts in the Spirit of God, after that they were lost among the children of Israel. And we here see very fully and pregnantly, how exactly and punctually the spirit here aims at the figure in Abraham, and points out what thereby is to be understood.n7423 ¶81
1 Note. -Esdras wrote the Book of these Acts, viz. Genesis, etc.n7423 ¶82
23. For at the appearance unto Abraham he speaks of three men; and here he speaks of two angels, which went towards Sodom, and destroyed the cities; to signify that the person of Christ is the third, which went not along; for here only two went, viz. God's truth, and God's righteousness, viz. the judgement, and the truth: the judgement remained in [or upon] Sodom, and the truth brought Lot out.n7423 ¶83
24. And when both these [angels] at even (when their time was out, and their day passed) came to Sodom, Lot sat at the Gate, and when he saw them, he arose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face towards the ground; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. But they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.n7423 ¶84
And he earnestly entreated them; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and baked them unleavened cakes, and they did eat (Gen. xix. 1-3).n7423 ¶85
25. If we should declare and explain this in its right understanding, then we would express it after this manner: The cry of the Sodomites was the curse which Noah laid upon Ham, when he cursed him (by reason of his unchaste, wanton, bestial eyes and desire); this same cursed, bestial spirit had propagated and bred up itself in the malicious, profane, wholly earthly and serpentine property, in the flesh and soul of this generation of Ham, so that it had established itself in a kingly dominion, under which they lived more like to beasts, than true men.n7423 ¶86
26. This cry of the cursed Serpent's ens, grown up to its full height in the anger, was made manifest, and sounded aloud in its mother, viz. in the anger of God in the dark world's property, and had awakened the judgement upon and in itself: And now God sent his judgement upon the Serpent's ens. This was now the time of Enos, his hidden, and at present opened seal (as it is before mentioned concerning the seven lines 1 [or general junctures of time]) where his mystery was at the end; and was now revealed as a sound of his preaching in the Word of power, both in love and anger.n7423 ¶87
1 Ch. 30 of this book, v. 36.n7423 ¶88
27. As in Abraham in love: for here the formed word, which began to be taught in the days of Enos, did now manifest itself in the formed pregnant and grown ens or being in Abraham, with the promised and holy seed of faith. And in the children of iniquity, who were of the generation of cursed Ham, the property of the anger did here manifest itself out of Enos, his preaching, wherein he threatened God's judgement and rebuke: this same was now grown up in the children of iniquity, and brought to substance.n7423 ¶89
28. And now, seeing the seal of this Enos did open itself seeing his mystery was at the end, and was forthwith to be manifest according to love and anger, thereupon each property set forth its substance to the divine contemplation; viz. whatsoever the word in the love ens had wrought under the sound or voice or Enos, and also what the sound of the denunciation of the anger of God had wrought: Here now the essences of both properties did open themselves, and set themselves into the judgement, to the final sentence of the righteousness of God. Now in this final arbitration or determination of the divine justice, viz. in Abraham, there stood Christ in the judgement of Enos, his preaching of repentance; and in Enos, his threatenings of plagues and punishment, the earnest and severe judgement of God, viz. prince Lucifer, did there stand (in the judgement in the children of the curse in Ham), to execute the same in the wrath of God, as a servant of the house of darkness.n7423 ¶90
29. For God said to the people of Israel on Mount Sinai, / will visit and punish the iniquities of the parents upon the children, even unto the third and fourth generation (Exod. xx. 5), which is here to be seen in Ham, Noah's son. Here came first the curse of Noah into judgement.n7423 ¶91
30. And here two angels were sent (that is, in the power and might of the judgement) in Christ's stead, seeing Christ was not yet in the flesh, and in office; for Christ's office continued in Abraham before the Lord, and prayed for the rebellious men of Sodom and Gomorrah.n7423 ¶92
31. But when they were tried in the judgement (viz. in the office of the love of Christ before the Lord), whether there were any men of Sodom who were capable of the office of Christ, in the love, and yet none were found, then the office of Christ in Abraham remained behind, and went not unto Sodom. But the office of divine righteousness and truth went in the form of two angels to Sodom, and looked very intimately into their essence and being, and proved the same in itself as it is to be seen, that as soon as these two angels came into the city, the property of the people did open and manifest itself; and they would have these men brought forth among them.n7423 ¶93
32. For these two angels had stirred up or moved their properties, and set them in open view before the Lord, to see what was in them; and they found that they were only bestial, unchaste, lewd murderers; which brought them into judgement; and now they must be judged according to their essence.n7423 ¶94
33. But that the spirit in Moses signifies, that Lot sat at the gate, and knew these angels, and entreated them earnestly to turn in unto him, that so he might wash their feet, and bake them cakes, and that they did eat; and yet at first did deny to turn in unto him. The same is a very hidden mystery, for it is the spirit of truth and righteousness, which Lot knew very well, for it was moved in the essence, and entered first with the trial into Lot; and when as he humbled and bowed himself before the Lord, he was proved and found upright inn7423 ¶95
34. But the truth did first refuse to go into his house with the righteousness, viz. with the judgement, and would remain in the street, for it was because of Lot's wife, who, when she was proved, and the judgement passed through her, was cast as to her temporal life. For she continued in the judgement, as a first matter, 1 viz. as a Sulphur, Mercurius, that is, an impressed 2 matter of the judgement, as a transmutation into the first essence out of which the body was created.n7423 ¶96
1 Prima Materia.n7423 ¶97
2 The hard astringent.n7423 ¶98
35. Yet not so soon before the execution of the judgement. But when Lot went with her out of Sodom, and the judgement began, she drew the judgement back again on her, as is to be seen in the judgement, which then laid hold on her, for it had taken herin the probation.n7423 ¶99
36. Yet the command was given her not to look back, and so she might have overcome, if she had forthwith entered into repentance, and broken the evil earthly will, and fallen down with Lot, at the Lord's feet: and this was the cause that the two angels refused to turn in unto Lot.n7423 ¶100
37. And by Lot's wife the earthly matrix is signified, which shall not go along through the judgement, although it must help to work and bring forth fruit, as an instrument. Yet it is not in its outward form chosen unto the kingdom of heaven; for it was adjoined to Eve in the sleep in Adam's fall, and shall remain in the judgement, and be changed again into its first matter out of which it was created. It is not condemned into the abyss, but it shall pass into the mystery, viz. into Sulphur, and Mercurius, which in the Grand Mystery is a Salt-spirit, viz. a cause of all corporality; as it shall be mentioned hereafter concerning Lot's daughters, who for this very cause were to be gotten with child of their father.n7423 ¶101
3 In Mysterio Magno.n7423 ¶102
38. Thus understand the figure further, internally: Lot baked cakes of unleavened dough, and made them a feast, and they did eat. Now the angels do not use any such food; but they were only formed angels in an angelical shape, for Abraham and Lot also called them, Lord: it was God's judgement, and truth.n7423 ¶103
39. This feast was eaten in manner as the offerings of Abraham, and Moses, as is before mentioned; for the will's desire forms 4 itself therein into a substance: God eats only the word of the will, but the food is consumed in the outward spirit in which it is wrought.n7423 ¶104
4 Amasses, conceives.n7423 ¶105
40. For Lot's faith's desire was the divine food of these men; but with the feast, which Lot gave them out of his good love- will, Lot's will was formed into a substance that so he might be preserved in this judgement outwardly as to the earthly life, and inwardly as to the willn7423 ¶106
41. For these angels did eat of Lot's food as if they had eaten of his body and spirit, which was therein apprehended, in manner as it is to be understood in the offerings; 1 as is before sufficiently explained concerning the offerings 1 of Cain and Abel. For the unleavened cakes were (or did signify) the informing [or impression], as may be seen everywhere in Moses, and they denote the Body of Christ, whereinto the imagination of God entered, as into a type, and yet was only conceived or apprehended in the faith.n7423 ¶107
1 Or, sacrifices.n7423 ¶108
42. Furthermore, the spirit in Moses says: And before the men lay down, the men of the city, Sodom, came and encompassed the house round about, young and old, even all the people from every quarter; and called for Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men that came in unto you the last night? bring them out that we may know them (Gen.n7423 ¶109
43. This is now the figure, as it is before mentioned: The judgment (after that it had bound itself with Lot in the feast) did now penetrate and press in the probation of their essence and being, into all; that they came pell-mell on heaps, running as mad enraged people, driven, forced and compelled to the judgement.n7423 ¶110
44. For the zeal of the Lord, which longed after them, drew them to itself: It hungered earnestly to devour their vanity; therefore they ran altogether, young and old, and would know the mouth which hungered after them, for they in their blindness knew not what they did; thus the anger drew them to itself.n7423 ¶111
45. And Lot went out unto them at the door, and shut the door after him. And said, ah! 1 pray, dear brethren, do not so wickedly. I have two daughters which have never known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do with them what seems good in your eyes: but unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. But they said, Come hither, thou art the only stranger among us, and thou wilt rule; well, we will deal worse with thee than with them.n7423 ¶112
46. Here the ground of their sin is finely deciphered and laid out in its colours, wherein their cry was come before God; as, namely, uncleanness, lasciviousness, tyranny, self-willed perverseness; and the greatest of all was the contempt of God; for Lot had told them of the punishment which God would bring upon them. And then they said, Thou art the only stranger among us, and wilt go about to rule and judge us, we will yet plague thee worse than those; to signify, that God had before sent them warning by the messengers of his mouth, and that they had only plagued and contemned them. Therefore they said also to Lot, Wilt thou govern us with thy threatenings, and contemn and nullify our works, we will serve thee worse than them.n7423 ¶113
47. For when they understood that men [of God] were come in unto Lot, who threatened them with ruin and destruction, they made an uproar against them, and would kill them. As the mad blind world has always done, when God has sent them messengers, who have rebuked and reproved them; then the Babylonical whore has cried out, Run, run, there is a new heresy, which would teach us other doctrine, and reprove our way which we go in.n7423 ¶114
48. Thus it was here: the self-full rebellious devil's will, in his Serpent's ens, would be uncontrollable, unreprovable; and seeing these men were come, they cried out, Mordio [murder] and said there were false prophets and teachers come, to rebuke and contemn them, as the Babylonical whore has always done; for she will not hear what the Lord speaks through his children; but that alone must be accounted sacred, which she speaks from the Serpent's ens.n7423 ¶115
49. This whore has covered herself with the literal word, and gives forth herself for holy, and boasts much in a strange attire;n7423 ¶116
but her heart is only Sodom and Gomorrah. When she sees these two angels come from Abraham, that is, from Christ, to her in her Sodom and Gomorrah, and lay open her shame, then she makes the whole city of an uproar, with a cry of murder; so that all people, young and old, come running together, and think that there is some strange wonderful beast arrived.n7423 ¶117
50. And when they can perceive no new strange thing in God's messengers, and hear that they do only teach and reprove, then they think, O! our minister and pastor calls him a new upstart, a heretic and false prophet, there is a fool [and a frantic fellow, sure enough he is worse than out of his wits]; and they begin to wonder at him [like birds] at an owl, and assault him, and his house, his wife, and his children, with scorn, reproach, and contempt, as the Sodomites did Lot; every one thinks, that he does well if he can but jeer and revile these messengers.n7423 ¶118
51. And although he knows no other ground or reason [in the world], but only that the high priest 1 (who has put on the whore of Babylon) doth set him at nought; yet he is very raging mad, and suffers a false wind (viz. the spirit of the Babylonish whore) to drive him, and raves in misunderstanding, as here the Sodomites did, two men which were come in unto him; that they might know them, that they might plague them, scorn, revile and reproach them. For thus the anger of God does drive itself into a fire, for its own enkindling. And thus nlade also must the people be, when the punishment shall come, that they must all make up the measure of their iniquities.n7423 ¶119
1 Or, some noted minister.n7423 ¶120
52. And we will not hide from you, you unclean, lascivious, rebellious, self-willed, lewd, idolatrous, murderous Babylon, full of all vices, sins, and abominations; that now also these two angels, viz. God's truth and judgement, are come into you; and declare unto you, now, at the end of Enoch's seal, which was hidden (but at present is opened in its sound and voice), your destruction and overthrow. For the time of your judgement is at hand. And behold yourself aright; and observe it very narrowly: you have at present cast scorn, reproach and contempt upon Lot, and the two angels, as the Sodomites did; and therefore your punishment hangs over you. And observe it: when the two angels shall carry forth Lot under the opened seal from you, then the day of your destruction is at hand, which now you will by no means believe, but must be forced to find it so by sad and woeful experience, says the spirit of wonders.n7423 ¶121
53. We may see very fully what was the Sodomites' vice and great sin, the cry whereof was come up before God; for Lot would bring out his two daughters, which were yet virgins, unto them, that so they might but cease from the raging uproar against these angelical messengers, for he knew well enough that they were wholly drowned in uncleanness; ifso be they might satisfy their desire.n7423 ¶122
54. The inward figure in the spirit, giving us to understand what Moses does hereby typify, is this: The judgement begins at the house of God, as here in Lot; the children of God must be first brought into judgement, and proved; to see whether there be children of God in any place which may withhold the anger, so that the punishment may be kept back; then the spirit takes the children of God, and proves them in the same vice and sin of that city or country, [to see] if they be capable of the same lewdness.n7423 ¶123
55. Lot must set his two daughters with entreaties into judgement; he would give them to the unclean lascivious people to be tried; for that which he said was so directed by the spirit, which had the two daughters of Lot in the judgement, and had brought the proba or trial into their essence, and hereby signified and laid open the sin and shame of the city, viz. that they were only unclean harlot's beasts.n7423 ¶124
56. But when these two virgins were not capable of this vice, the spirit, viz. the two angels, defended them; understand, God's truth protected them from the judgement of this people, and also from the sin of uncleanness. For Lot did not speak so of set purpose, as if he would suffer his daughters to be deflowered and defiled; but the spirit did set forth its figure.n7423 ¶125
57. And know for certain that this first book of Moses was written wholly from the prophecy of the spirit, intimating what each act or sentence of the history holds forth in the figure. And whosoever will read, and rightly understand these acts [of the patriarchs], he must modelise or represent in his mind the old and the new man; and set Christ and Adam one against the other; and then he may understand all; and without this, he understands nothing hereof but a child-like history; which yet is so rich and full of Mysteries, that no man, from the cradle unto the longest age, is able to express them; although he had obtained the knowledge and understanding thereunto in his childhood. And we in our gifts do also give but some glances and hints thereof; albeit we have obtained the apprehension and meaning of them from the gift of God; yet we cannot express all, and the world were not able to receive it. 1n7423 ¶126
1 Understand or apprehend it aright.n7423 ¶127
58. And Moses says, The men of the city pressed sore upon the man, Lot, and when they drew near together to break the door, the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And the men which were before the door of the house were smitten with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves, and could not find the door (Gen. xix. 9-11).n7423 ¶128
59. This figure was achieved 2 thus externally, so that they were thus blind with visible eyes, and could not see the door, and did not hurt, neither to Lot and the two men with him, nor his house either. But in the spirit, the figure stands thus:n7423 ¶129
2 Acted or done.n7423 ¶130
60. When God sends these two angels, viz. his truth and judgment, into a man's spirit, viz. into the house of his heart, as here it came to pass in Lot (in whom also the spirit, viz. God's truth and judgement was manifest, and therefore he rebuked Sodom, for which cause they did encompass him about, to slay and murder him), then the judgement passes first upon this man, who is represented unto the Sodomites, as if he were a fool, whom they must vex, plague and perplex, and they also do without intermission revile and rail at him, and condemn him for false.n7423 ¶131
61. But he must reprove, rebuke, and teach them, and he has no external protection of man, they all cast the dirt of their mouths upon him; and they that should hinder it do but laugh at it. Let him look where he will, he has no deliverer. Then, supposes the common people, God rebukes and punishes him on this wise.n7423 ¶132
62. But these two angels are with him in his heart, and stand in his person, as in their vessel and instrument, even amidst the enemies. But the common people do eagerly labour and bestir themselves to destroy him and his house.n7423 ¶133
63. And when it comes to the trial, in earnest, then these two angels do put forth their hand upon the wicked malicious men's hearts, and strike them with blindness, that they are confounded, and know not how they should get by 1 this Lot and the two angels; one casts forth this, another that; one says he is honest, another reviles him and says all evil of him; so long till they cannot find the door, wherein they would break in unto him, and do him mischief. For these two angels do shut him up in themselves, that they cannot see the door of revenge. As may be seen here in Lot, how God does deliver the messengers of his mouth, and hides them from the enemies; and this pen 2 has so found it by good experience.n7423 ¶134
64. And these men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and sons and daughters; and whosoever belongs unto thee in the city, bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry thereof is waxen great before the Lord, who has sent us to destroy it. And Lot went, and spoke to his sons in law which were to marry 3 his daughters, and said, Arise, get ye out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed unto them as one that mockedn7423 ¶135
65. This is now an excellent mirror, how God also gave warning unto these men, and would have spared them for Lot's sake, if they would but have followed him. But the wrath had captivated them, and wholly hardened them; that they did but laugh and jeer at him; and as it were said unto him, What is happened to the fool? he thinks the sky will fall.n7423 ¶136
66. The inward figure stands thus: God's truth in the love drew these men, Lot's sons in law, and would deliver them; but the wrath was stronger in them, and had captivated them in the probation of their hearts. They continued in the judgement, as Lot's wife, whom notwithstanding Lot brought forth with him before the city, yet the wrath drew her back again into judgement; so that she (seeing she was for Lot's sake freed from the fire-sword) must go into a transmutation, until the Last judgement, which is a terrible example.n7423 ¶137
1 Or, at. 2 The Author. 3 English translation, which married.n7423 ¶138
67. In this figure this present world may behold itself and take warning; for as certain, and as true, that the preaching of Lot was true, and the punishment followed thereupon; so certainly also shall the punishment 1 of the sixth seal's time (which seal is even now at hand, and has already opened itself) suddenly follow.n7423 ¶139
68. But that the warning hereof came so long ago, declares that the time of the sixth seal, in its manifestation, is the most wonderful of all the six seals; till the seventh number, 2 which is yet more wonderful; for it is the end of this world, and the Last judgement.n7423 ¶140
69. Let this be declared unto you, Babel, I' lIII , 3 under the voice of the open seal of this sixth time, although you contemn and deride it, it hits you, and has already struck you with the obdurate obstinacy of wrath, which has thoroughly sifted you in the appearance of the message of these two angels, and shall now be hinted only to some few, which shall go out, and be delivered with Lot's daughters.n7423 ¶141
70. The hardened, surprised and apprehended crew is already judged; for the doleful sifting sword has taken hold of them; they run now in a raving raging manner, as mad people, in pride, covetousness and envy, and contemn what the angel's trumpet sounds.n7423 ¶142
71. The cry which the angel's trumpet sounds is this; Go out from Babel; Go out from Babel; Go out from Babel. She stands apprehended and captivated in the flaming sword. Amen.n7423 ¶143
1 Or, judgement. 2 Or, seal.n7423 ¶144
3 A mystical mark whereby the Author shows to Babel the pouring forth of the sixth seal in wrath on the mystery of iniquity, and also the time.n7423 ¶145
The Forty-Fourth Chaptern7423 ¶146
How Lot departed out of Sodom, and of the Terrible Overthrow of this whole Region in Ham's Generation; of the circumstances thereof, and how it was effectedn7423 ¶147
1. When, as the wrath of the judgement was now set on fire, and the day appeared, that the sun shone bright, and every man thought, all is in peace and quiet, there is no danger, The Angels commanded Lot to make haste, and said, Arise, take your wife, and your two daughters, which are here; lest you also perish in the iniquity of this city.n7423 ¶148
And while Lot lingered, the men took him, and his wife, and his two daughters, by the hand (the Lord being merciful to him), and they brought him forth, and set him without the city (Gen. xix.n7423 ¶149
2. The internal figure stands thus: The spirit in Moses sets the figure so clearly, that a man may easily take it; for he says, When the morning came, and the sun was risen, they took him by the hand, and brought him, and his wife, and his two daughters, forth out of the city. And now as the figure was externally, in the arisen light of the day and the sun, so it was also internally, in God's truth and judgement.n7423 ¶150
3. Namely, in the truth the figure was internally thus: In Lot, and his two daughters, the light of the understanding concerning the Messiah was arisen in God's truth; which Lot's daughters knew very well; that it [viz. the light of the sun of righteousness] in God's truth had moved itself in their father Lot; from which cause afterwards, when they were gone out from Sodom, and the night approached, they made their father drink sweet wine to the full, and lay with him, that they might receive seed, viz. the holy seed from him. For the spirit, both in Lot and his daughters, did also signify thus much, in their risen light, and showed it to them.n7423 ¶151
4. And now as the sun was externally risen, and it seemed to be a very lovely pleasant day, so also internally, in God's truth, the sun of the Covenant, viz. the holy Sun-Day, was risen according to the probation in their essence, for they were now passed through the judgement. And likewise on the contrary, the sun of the dark world's property, viz. the working of God's anger, was risen now in the children of Sodom, and forced mightily into God's righteousness. Therefore the angels bade Lot make haste; for the sun of anger was already risen, and had apprehended the children of iniquity.n7423 ¶152
5. Like as the holy sun in God's truth (which had apprehended Lot and his daughters in the essence of faith) took Lot and his daughters by the hand, and brought them forth from them; so likewise the wrath had already taken the children of Sodom by the hand of their essence, and brought them into the judgement of execution. And we will signify and apply (O Babel) this figure unto the time of your seal: mark and observe it, ye daughters, children of Lot: it concerns you.n7423 ¶153
6. When God will punish a land, he first sends them messengers, and exhorts them to repentance, and declares unto them his grace. Soon after he sends them the angel of righteousness, who tries and sifts them whether they be capable of the grace that is tendered unto them; and sets judgement before them, with threats of their ruin; denouncing great war and plagues upon them to blot and root them out if they will not return and repent; and shows them also by his messengers the light and way of righteousness; and suffers them to run on in the light that is tendered to them, till they be weary and glutted with it, and hold it only for a common customary thing, and a history, and again become a Sodom.n7423 ¶154
7. And then he sends them both angels together, to wit, the angel of righteousness, and the angel of truth; and first threatens them severely, and exhorts them, and sets the judgement before them; but when they grow [are] wholly a Sodom, he leaves off from the outward figure, and lets them fill up their measure; and then it seems as if the sun were risen upon their Sodom, and now it should be good and prosperous. But even then says the angel of truth in his children, Hasten and go out, the punishment and ruin is at hand.n7423 ¶155
8. Thus we declare unto you, Babel, that God has already long since sent you messengers, and with the declaration of the Gospel has tendered you his grace; and therewith also has mightily threatened to punish you with ruin. But you have made only a contentious disputing Babel of the light of the Gospel, and aet now the well-fatted Sodom.n7423 ¶156
9. And know for certain, that the Lord for a farewell has now sent you two angels, one has the truth in him, and bids Lot with his daughters to go out from Sodom; and the other has the severe judgement, and has now at last sifted you, and turned your inward signature outwards, and set it before the Lord; and your murderous 1 cry is come up before the presence of the Most High; and it is exceeding great; he has sent his angel to destroy you, and to overturn the cities.n7423 ¶157
1 Your Cain-like crying ruin upon others.n7423 ¶158
10. Your signature wherewith you are now outwardly marked is the great covetousness and envy, together with your ammunitionmoney; and the great wrathful severity of your oppression of the poor and miserable, in that your covetousness has served itself so high, that it desires to devour all into itself whence your great enhancement of man's necessaries 2 is risen.n7423 ¶159
2 The scarcity and dearness of commodities, and all oppression arises from the covetousness and pride of man, who seeks to maintain it by the sword.n7423 ¶160
11. But you say, Now it is a good and a prosperous time; the sun is risen upon me, and shines on my purse, so that I can fill it as I please; it is a good and a fine time for me; it shall now be a good and a golden time, sure enough; I shall certainly enjoy it, and arise in high power and authority, and be respected.n7423 ¶161
12. But hear now, what at present the sound of the trumpet declares. It says, Go out from Sodom; the sun is risen in love and anger, this we will not hide from you. The angel of truth has now already taken Lot's daughters, with the father, and his wife, by the hand; and bids them go; it is time; this you shall soon see by woeful experience.n7423 ¶162
13. For the angel of anger has also taken you into judgement, and therefore you are so wrathful, covetous, murderous, and wicked. Do but behold yourself whether we speak truth. You get yourself much to spend in your signature; and you have indeed a storehouse full of provision in the abyss: He that can see, let him see; in whom there is but the least inkling of the trumpet's sound, let him go out of Sodom: there is no longer any tarrying.n7423 ¶163
14. And Moses speaks further: And when he had brought Lot forth, he said, Escape for your life; look not behind you, and stay not also in this whole plain; escape unto the mountain, lest you be consumed. But Lot said unto him, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, seeing your servant has found grace in Your sight, be pleased to magnify your mercy which you have shown unto me, in that You have saved my life; I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: Behold, there is a city very near, unto which I may flee, it is a little one: oh, let me escape thither ( is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted you concerning this thing, that I should not overturn the city for which you have spoken. Haste yourself, escape thither; for I can do nothing till you be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. And the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot came into Zoar (Gen. xix. 17-23).n7423 ¶164
The inward figure stands thus:n7423 ¶165
15. The spirit of truth had moved the spirit in the Covenant in Lot, and taken him by his spiritual hand, and brought him forth out of the judgement; understand, the soul of Lot, in which the Word of Promise in the Covenant had opened itselfaccording to the spiritual property, into which also the now sent voice of truth and judgement did force, and defended Lot from and in the judgement.n7423 ¶166
16. For with the judgement the first Principle, viz. the soul's centre, was sifted and proved through all the properties of the eternal nature. Into this the Lord's hand, viz. the angel of the Lord, did put itself, with the grace of Christ's Covenant in Abraham, and drew Lot out of the judgement, and from the children of Sodom. Therefore the angel said, Deliver yourself and look not behind you into judgement, viz. into the enkindled wrath, lest the same take you. As happened to Lot's wife, who turned her desire back again to see and behold what the wrath of the Lord should be.n7423 ¶167
17. As Adam and Lucifer also did the like, who would essentially behold and prove God's, viz. the eternal nature's, wrath, which yet is a consuming fire, and forthwith proves spirit, and body; and if it reaches anything of which it is capable, it devours it into itself.n7423 ¶168
18. Now the soul of Lot trembled and stood in fear before the angel of the judgement, viz. before God's righteousness; and entreated his truth, that he would be pleased to magnify his mercy in the Covenant towards him, lest the turba should take hold of him; and it is a very excellent example, how God takes his children, in the time of punishment and judgement, into his love, defends them, and brings them forth from great destruction; as he did here unto Lot, and also unto the upright children in the final destruction of Jerusalem.n7423 ¶169
19. Also the angel of vengeance said: I can do nothing, until you be come thither. Oh! you wonderful God, who can hinder you? But this is even thus to be understood: the spirit of his love in the Covenant had set or established itself with the truth, in Lot, and kept off the anger that it could not burn until Lot came out.n7423 ¶170
20. And we see that oftentimes the children of God are able to withhold great plagues and punishment of God [from coming down on a people]; there is even such a might in them, that God's anger is able to do nothing, and is as it were impotent where they are present. Also they are a might and power against hell and the devil; for such a thing is true real faith, that it can withhold and overpower God in his anger.n7423 ¶171
21. Therefore the Lord said to Lot, I cannot do anything, until you be gone out. And he spared also the little city called Pella, or Zoar (viz. a diversion or turning away of the anger) for Lot's sake; for when he came thither the turba must be extinguished, as the name, in the uncompacted tongue of sense, does express it.n7423 ¶172
22. And then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and overthrew the cities, and all the plain; and all the inhabitants of the cities, and all whatsoever grew upon the ground. And his wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt (Gen. xix. 24-26).n7423 ¶173
23. This is now the figure of the kingdom of Christ, who had opened himself to Abraham in the love, how he would sit in judgement over the world; and how the might and dominions is given unto him of God, that he should destroy the devil's kingdom upon the earth, and give all wicked men unto the anger of God to be devoured. For when he had manifested himself to Abraham, and confirmed the Covenant of righteousness, he then sent these two angels, viz. God's truth and judgement, to Sodom, to blot out and destroy the children of Ham, viz. the malicious, vile, rebellious, half-devil's-men; that so the devil's kingdom might be lessened, and not grow so great upon the earth, and hinder his kingdom.n7423 ¶174
24. It rained brimstone and fire from the Lord from heaven, says Moses: This was not the inward hellish fire, which at the end of days shall purge the floor; otherwise the four elements would have been changed: it was only a figure of the future. The original of the brimstone and fire was generated in turba magna in the third Principle:n7423 ¶175
it was only a sword of vengeance. The inward fire consumes earth and stones, and all elements: but this was only [such] a fire as is generated in the tempest in turba magna in the egest, [ excrement] which the constellation casts forth from itself which is a materia thereunto.n7423 ¶176
Although it be no palpable matter of substance, yet it is a spiritual substance, in which Mercurius does enkindle itself in the Salniter, viz. in the fire-crack, where then also the flagrat or fire-crack does fix itself into a substance or essence, which is brimstone.n7423 ¶177
25. For the three [first properties], viz. Sulphur, Mercurius, and the Salt-sharpness, are in the original (as they are yet a spirit) only one thing. But when Mercurius, viz. the sound of the formed Word, does move itself in the Principle, viz. in its first original by an opposition or contrary aspect, then he is terrified in himself: that is, the motion stirs the original of the heat and cold, viz. the original of the first Principle according to the cold and hot fire; which is the beginning of the contrariety and horror; from whence the fire-flash or salnitral flagrat does arise; where also the three first, viz. the heat, the cold, and the sound, do each impress and introduce itself into a peculiar substance in the flagrat, viz. the heat into brimstone, and the cold into a saltish property, and Mercurius into a watery property. And yet they were not wholly separated, and each of them of another or sundry substance by itself; but fixed together according to one property.n7423 ¶178
26. The like also we are here to understand concerning the brimstone-fire: the wrath of the first Principle, viz. God's anger according to the eternal nature, did behold the outward nature in the third Principle with an aspect, [ darting flash] which is called turba magna, being a turba in the soul of the outward world in the spirit of nature, whence the outward nature does inflame and enkindle itself; and the three first [properties or prime Ternary of nature] do fix themselves into a substance, viz. into Brimstone, Salt, and into a Mercurial poisonful water, in which the flagrat or flash of the fire did enkindle and impress itself; and so being enkindled did rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and upon the plain of the country, and destroyed all. This is it which is said, The Lord rained brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.n7423 ¶179
27. Not that this matter of the brimstone and fire came from the inward heaven; but the wrath came forth from the inward into the outward [Principle], so that the outward, in the might of the inward, did impress and enkindle itself out of the properties of the inward. And this is a real type of the inward dark world: if the same nature does move itself, then it is even so in spiritual property, which God calls his wrath and anger, and a consuming fire; for if this inward spiritual dark world did move itself the outward world, with the four elements, would forthwith be swallowed up in this same spirit-fire; which shall come to pass at the end of days.n7423 ¶180
28. And here we have a figure of this in Lot's wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt: that the three first [properties] had moved themselves; for she, after that she had looked back into the turba, was apprehended or taken in the salt's spirit in its impression; which denotes, that she was most of that very property, [ that property was most predominant in her] viz. covetous in the desire, in which she also was taken and apprehended in the sifting [probation] of the angel.n7423 ¶181
29. And though the angel had defended her from the fire-wrath, yet she was taken in the wrath of nature of her own peculiar property; viz. the turba magna laid hold of the body, viz. the substance of the third Principle, and changed it into its own peculiar property, viz. into the might of the first, which was chiefly predominant in her body, according to which property also she was apprehended in the turba.n7423 ¶182
30. And we ought not to account this a strange thing; for we have very much hereof in the Scripture. Let us look upon Uzza, who was apprehended and smitten by the Ark of the Covenant, when he did only touch the same, when the wrath of God was moved [awakened and stirred up, and not atoned] but in the sound.n7423 ¶183
Let us see also, how it seized on the Philistines, when they had the Ark of the Covenant with them. Also how it devoured Chorah, Dathan, and Abiram, by Moses in the wilderness. All these have but one original; but each is peculiarly manifest in its own [matter and manner] according as the turba is enkindled among the three first [properties] .n7423 ¶184
31. But if Lot's wife had apprehended and laid hold of the word of truth and mercy in the message of the angel, it had well protected her. But she did not believe what the angel said, and very like she loved her temporal goods, all which she must forsake, and looked back again, and earnestly longed after the temporal, and the turba of time did also apprehend her; so that she, according to the substance of the body, must remain in the first matter (out of which God had extracted the limus of the earth, and formed it into a spiritual living image) until the Lord shall again transmute the same substance into a spiritual essence.n7423 ¶185
32. And it was done to the end that man should yet see what he is according to the outward body, if God withdraws his spirit therefrom; and that he requires the ground of the heart, and not only a mouth-hypocrisy [and flatteries of a seeming holy devout lip-labour], that a man should only comfort himself with the grace tendered [feeding himself with an outward apprehension or application thereof], and receive the same only as a free gift of grace from without, and yet remain an evil beast in the spirit and will.n7423 ¶186
33. As the present Babylonical Christendom does, which also with Lot's wife receives the grace only externally [or by a strange imaginary imputation], and comforts itself with the grace, but remains in the heart in selfhood, and the lust of the flesh, unconverted; and has turned its eyes only towards Sodom, but with the mouth it is gone out of Sodom, and the body is yet at Sodom, and looks with Lot's wife only upon covetousness, and temporal pleasure, and will not go with the heart out of Sodom.n7423 ¶187
34. Therefore the angel of the wonders says, you are sifted, and apprehended [ taken or captivated] in the turba, you art [guilty, and]n7423 ¶188
capable of the brimstone-fire: your verbal hypocrisy, in that you say that you are gone out of Babel, and Sodom, does not at all avail you; you are wholly captivated with Lot's wife in the three first; seeing you hunger only after the three first; and use the spirit of Christ [only] for an external covering, and will not hear in you what now the Lord speaks; but hear only what the Antichrist speaks in his pride, covetousness, envy, and anger, how you may please your earthly mortal idol, Mausim [and Mammon], viz. self-love, selfwill, self-sense.n7423 ¶189
35. You seek and honour only the external idol-god, viz.n7423 ¶190
silver, and gold, copper, and the fullness of the belly to your luxurious, sumptuous, and stately Sodomitical pleasure. And this idol is also sifted for your sake, and is made nigh and far off unto you, and you understand not what it means. You say, There is no danger, and it may well be helped and amended; we may contrive it well enough to a good use. But you know not what is thereby signed and signified.n7423 ¶191
The most inward figure of Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of Salt, is this:n7423 ¶192
36. When these two angels came from Abraham, viz. from the spirit of Christ, unto Sodom to Lot, and he bowed himself before the Lord unto the earth, and entreated these angels to turn in unto him; they entered according to the divine property essentially in unto him, in manner as they came in unto Abraham with the ens of faith. Even so it was here: for it was but one Covenant. But in Abraham, the seed to Christ's person was named, and not in Lot; as Moses declares very sufficiently.n7423 ¶193
37. Lot's faith took the ens from the angel, who brought the same to him from Abraham's faith's-ens; for of one (viz. of him who did move and manifest himself in Abraham) they must all be sanctified. Now Lot, by the administration of the angel (understand formed angels, sent out of the divine property, out of Christ's ens and word), was sanctified as a proxime line, [ line of affinity] or branch on the ens of Abraham.n7423 ¶194
38. And seeing Lot's daughters were capable of this sanctification, and not the mother, the mother must go again into the first matter; and Lot must copulate with his two daughters in the blessed seed; for they were capable of it, and none else in the world. For two potent generations were to arise from thence, viz. the Moabites, and the Ammonites, a great people, as the spirit in Moses does also speak very covertly and hiddenly concerning Lot's daughters; that the one said unto the other, Lo ! there is not a man on the earth to come in unto us after the manner of men; come let us give our father sweet wine to drink; and then we will lie with him; that so he may not know it, and we may preserve seed of our father: for the mother was not capable of this holy seed, seeing she was captivated and taken in the probation [sifting trial] in the turba.n7423 ¶195
39. Now reason would object, and say, Wherefore did not the daughters of Lot marry with Abraham's generation; why would they lie with their father, contrary to the right and law of nature, and of all nations? Answer: This might not be, for the seed of Christ was called in Abraham; but now there lay two other lines in the seed of Christ, as near affinities, which should be born of Abraham's faith, viz. of Christ: As Abraham's faith was born out of JEHOVA, out of the name Jesus, so these two lines of affinity were in the tree of wonders, which should spring forth from God's truth and righteousness, and be brought into the love of Jesus. This manifestation the angels brought unto and into Lot, which opening and manifestation did spring forth in Lot's seed.n7423 ¶196
40. But seeing his two daughters did also stand in this judgement, and were apprehended in the same spirit which opened itself in Lot, and received also the same properties as their father, it must be so. And it was so permitted of God, that these two sons, Amnion and Moab, must be born of two sisters of one seed; for they were to be two nations, proceeding from two lines of nature, yet from one root.n7423 ¶197
41. But in that the spirit in Moses does so cover it and says, The two daughters caused their father to drink sweet wine, that he did not know what he did, and so were gotten with child of their father in the father's drunkenness (which yet seems to be wonderfully strange without God's work), the same is thus to be understood: Not that it did not so come to pass: it did so come to pass, as the text in Moses declares; but this was a work of the Spirit of God, and hereby also he covers the external shame.n7423 ¶198
42. For the outward work is only a shame in God's sight, and also in the sight of all people, but the inward work, in its figure, must be so. And it is the true figure, that the Man, Christ, viz. God's Son, should be born through a shame, which also was a shame before God. But so he took our shame and reproach upon himself and hung it as a curse upon the tree of the cross, and offered it up unto the righteousness of God; so likewise both these lines must be covered with a shame, that they both might be sanctified only and alone under Christ's shame on the cross; and they should not dare to say, that they were pure before God and nature. For the Scripture says, He has shut them up all under sin, that he might have mercy upon alln7423 ¶199
43. And that this was truly and certainly a work of God, appears in this: that on the same day the mother was turned into a pillar of salt, and Sodom was destroyed, doubtless with all their household stuff and goods. That yet that same night they set about this work, whereas they continued all night in a cave of the mountain by Zoar [so that we may well think], no natural fleshly instigation did provoke them thereunto.n7423 ¶200
44. But it must be, that the father should be drunk, that the human understanding might not do it; but that it might be God's work. Also, that the soul of Lot might not be turbated in the tincture of the seed, with the shame of the daughters. It must be done, therefore, as it were in man's drunkenness, and misunderstanding, lest the nations should make a right or custom thereof: for the daughters of Lot were also as 'twere drunk in the spirit, so that the spirit might do what he would, and they were only an instrument.n7423 ¶201
45. And that they did understand that the father was sanctified, and they willingly would conceive of the holy seed, appears, in that they said, There was not a man upon the earth who could come in unto them after the manner of mankind; and therefore they would lie with their father, that they might preserve seed. There were indeed many upon the earth, but none was capable of this seed, but these his daughters. This, the spirit in them gave them to understand.n7423 ¶202
46. Therefore we ought narrowly to observe what it means, when the spirit in Moses draws a veil before his face, that it does not appear wholly pure before God: and yet for the unavoidableness' sake it must be so.n7423 ¶203
47. And in the deeds of God we ought not to judge according to reason; for reason looks only upon the outward, and understands nothing of the inward. It knows nothing of the root of this tree; and of its boughs and branches, from whence each branch or people must take its unavoidable rise and original.n7423 ¶204
The Forty-Fifth Chaptern7423 ¶205
How God led Abraham very wonderfully, and how he always stood by him in Temptation, and defended him: What we are to understand herebyn7423 ¶206
1. ABRAHAM must be only as a pilgrim upon the earth, and travel from one place unto another, and dwell in tents ;[ Gen. xx] and was everywhere tried, and tempted. His wife Sarah was twice taken from him; but wonderfully protected and preserved of God; as once by Pharaoh, in Egypt, and then by Abimelech, King of Gerar; but both times protected by God.n7423 ¶207
2. And now that Abraham, viz. the stock and beginning of the conceived ens of faith, in which Christ was understood, must thus wander from one place to another, and could have no abiding place upon the earth, and moreover must stand in fear and temptation: the same is the true type of Christendom upon the earth; how the same should not be bound unto any certain place; not unto any people that God did choose thereto in a peculiar manner; but that Christ was given, with his Gospel of the kingdom of God, to all nations.n7423 ¶208
3. And how he would wander with his knowledge from one people to another; and have no where any constant abiding place with a people, but be among the nations with his children upon the earth, only as a sojourner or stranger; and how they would continually try to destroy Christendom [The true Christians] among the nations, and cast reproach upon it, as they would sinfully reproach Sarah, Abraham's wife.n7423 ¶209
4. And how the Christians should be continually tempted and exercised of the nations, and plagued with contention and war. Also, how Christ would go with his Gospel from one people to another, when they should be weary and glutted with the same, and hold it only for a custom and a common ordinary thing; and so they would grow wholly blind in it, and make only a fine devout lip-labour thereof and suppose to find out Christ by their acute disputationsn7423 ¶210
[A work of prating and fair spoken discourse] and arguments.n7423 ¶211
5. And then he would depart with the understanding and spirit from them, and come unto another people, which also would be only fleshly, and account and look upon Christ externally, as a mere man; as Pharaoh and this king Abimelech looked upon Abraham, and his wife; and desired to have carnal knowledge of Sarah, by reason of her beauty; which did signify and denote, that they would put on Christ in the flesh in an outward bestial manner, but not in power and spirit.n7423 ¶212
6. As it is here to be seen in Abimelech, and also in Pharaoh, that when they desired to know Sarah carnally, that the Lord came in among them with punishments, and plagues, and showed them his angry-countenance, shut them up, and dismayed them, as if he bound them with the chains of his might; and made their women barren, and terrified them with visions and presages; as he did to this Abimelech, and threatened him with death in the dream; and made known unto him that Abraham was a man of God; and how he was blessed of God.n7423 ¶213
7. Through which means God brought the nations to the faith; [for] when he came unto a fleshly unbelieving people, then he showed himself in power and wonders; which the carnal nations seeing, did convert themselves, and turn unto God.n7423 ¶214
8. Thus Abraham must be a type of Christ's kingdom upon the earth; and go up and down from one people to another, whereupon the people which he left, did yet boast themselves of Abraham, and called themselves after his name, but were only historical children, brought forth of strange women without Abraham's faith and spirit.n7423 ¶215
9. Thus also it has fallen out in Christendom, when they have been weary of [Negligent of] the spirit of Christ;n7423 ¶216
and made only a prating business thereof, the spirit of Christ has then departed, and hidden itself from them; and then these people have indeed stood yet in the history, and boasted themselves to be Christians, but have been indeed only the children of the bond-woman, viz. of Hagar; and the sons of mockery, who, with disputing and wrangling about Christ's name and will, have mocked, scorned, reviled, contemned, reproached, and branded each other for heretics; and mere Ishmaelites have risen of them.n7423 ¶217
10. As it is as plain as the day, that now men go from the scorning and reproaching each other, to the sword of murder; and will wholly slay and root out Christ [in his members], and set the Babylonical tower in Christ's stead, whereby a man shall be able in self-will and power to climb into heaven; so that a man need not enter in through the mortifying of the old evil man, but may be able to come in, after a fine hypocritical way with the selfhood of the evil man; or indeed as outwardly adopted children covered with Christ's purple mantle; where yet the will of self is unmortified, and cannot truly come ton7423 ¶218
11. Now as these people were afterwards judged, when Abraham departed from them, they being only mockers of the children of Abraham, as may be seen in Pharaoh, and the heathen also, especially in the land of Canaan: so likewise it has happened to the Christians, that these nations which continued only under the name of Christ, and yet were only heathenish in the heart, were always judged and banished by such heathenish people. As may be seen by Asia, Egypt, and Greece, and many other nations besides, how God has pulled off the mantle of Christ from them, as verbal hypocrites and mockers of Christ, and given them a darkened heart and understanding of the kingdom of Christ, and cast away their candlestick, that they could no longer say, We are Christians, and belong unto Christ, but Turks, and barbarous people, begotten of the wild tree of nature.n7423 ¶219
12. Thus Christ must here in this world wander only as a light from one people to another, For a testimony unto all people (Matt. xxiv.n7423 ¶220
14). And unto you, O Germany, [ And to you also, O England]n7423 ¶221
it is now shown (and also to those nations of whom you are born with the name of Christ), in that you have for a long time walked under the mantle of Christ with a heathenish heart, and boasted of the adoption, but lived only in the iniquity of the flesh: That your judgement is nigh at hand.n7423 ¶222
13. For the angel of the judgement calls aloud to the residue of Abraham's children in Christ, Go out of Sodom: Abraham in Christ is gone away from you; you have no more of Christ than an empty breath; and a disputing verbal lip-labour; a mockery, whereby one brother does contemn, scorn, and mock another for Christ's knowledge' sake, and only kills Christ in his members. The city, Jerusalem and Babylon, wherein you have gloried [and proudly perked up yourself in your devout hypocrisy] shall go to ruin. Amen.n7423 ¶223
14. Lo, a star shines from the East and North, which shall blindfold you, and break down your walled towers and strongholds in Jerusalem and Babylon. For you are called no longer, Jerusalem, but Babel; and the children which sit in the shadow of the night, and which lie imprisoned in Babel, shall be delivered; and come forth, and enter into the city of God, which he has set open to all nations and tongues of the earth, that his glory may be known: A light for all nations [or people].n7423 ¶224
15. The figure of Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech (Gen. xx) is an emphatical type of Christendom, how they should be weak in their own power, and be delivered by God alone; as Abraham was of a faint and timorous spirit, when he was to go among these nations, and prayed his Sarah, that she would say of him, that he was her brother; that so they might not slay him, for her sake. To signify, that a Christian in his own strength is not able to do anything, or to take unto himself therein the spirit of Christ; who gives courage; but he must go only naked among his enemies; and not at all rely on himself and his knowledge, but merely and only upon God's grace.n7423 ¶225
16. For he himself cannot stand, Christ alone in him must be his sole courage, and steadfast perseverance. As Abraham here, in his own abilities, was full of doubt before Pharaoh and Abimelech, and continually fearful of his life, and must see only when and how God would shield him and his Sarah. And this history is excellently, elegantly and exactly written of Esdras, in the vision of the spirit of Christ concerning Christ's kingdom, as if the spirit had on purpose figured this history concerning Christ's kingdom, for it aims directly thereat.n7423 ¶226
17. But the outward man understands nothing of the kingdom of Christ. As we may see in Sarah, when she conceived and brought forth Isaac: she said, the Lord has made me to laugh, the people will laugh at this, that the very aged Sarah should give a child suck. She did not yet understand the type [Image] of Christ; but the spirit of Christ in her understood it; and not the natural man in selfhood, but the will which was resigned and given up to God, the same alone did apprehend the Covenant, and the spirit of Christ.n7423 ¶227
18. But reason, viz. the self-full will, did not perceive anything thereof, it was only matter of mirth and laughter to it; for it looked only upon itself, what it was. As Abraham's will of self-ownhood looked only on itself; and was afraid and dismayed; and yet in him there was the great might over all powers and principalities; but it did not belong to the human ownhood.n7423 ¶228
19. For Christ in his children does not belong to the human ownhood, viz. to the self-will; neither does he appropriate or give in himself to it; but unto the humble, resigned will; to that he does incline and appropriate himself; and sometimes he does also defend the own will thereby.n7423 ¶229
20. For the own self-will is of the nature of this world, born of flesh and blood. But the resigned will dies to the world, and is brought forth to life in God. Thus also we are to understand in Abraham and in all Christians a twofold will, viz. one of this world, which always stands in fear; and then, according to the second Principle, viz. the kingdom of heaven, the poor captive soul's will, which dives and immerses itself into God's mercy, in hope.n7423 ¶230
The forty-sixth Chaptern7423 ¶231
Of Isaac's Birth, and the Casting Out of Ishmael, with his Mother, Hagar. What thereby is signifiedn7423 ¶232
1. The Spirit in Moses [Gen. xxi] sets the figure of man's regeneration in its process so exactly and orderly together in the history of Abraham, that a man may even lay hold of it, much more see it; how he does set the natural man in self; and in Christ, so punctually by each other, and points even with the finger at the figure. For when God had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and that plain over against which Abraham dwelt, and brought forth Lot, then Abraham journeyed from thence towards the south; showing that when the kingdom of Christ should be despoiled [corrupt] in any place, that then Christ would depart thence.n7423 ¶233
2. And he lived under the king Abimelech, and sojourned as a stranger at Gerar. In these two names, viz. Abimelech, and Gerar, the figure stands plain in the generation or formation of the Word, without any interpretation or exposition; wherefore the spirit in Moses wrote down this history; and from whence he looks as through an exact perspective. For Abimelech denotes the man of ingenious and discreet reason, viz. the true man, but without Christ, only in the creature, as he is created. Gerar betokenes the strong austere life of nature, wherein the understanding must dwell, which nature is corrupted, and from that corruption casts or darts temptations and oppositions continually into the life's understanding, or reason-light;n7423 ¶234
so that the life stands in a constant contrariety, and is incessantly sifted, winnowed and proved, which is the cross of the children of God; that they see, that while they live in themselves in self-reason, they can do nothing else but go astray, slip and err. As may be seen here in Abraham, when God led him away from the borders of the Sodomites he went towards the south, unto king Abimelech.n7423 ¶235
The inward figure of this stands thus:n7423 ¶236
3. When God had manifested himself to Abraham, and set forth the figure of Christ and his kingdom, and also the power of judgement upon the whole earth, then God hid himself again from Abraham; and then Abraham went towards the south country; that is, into his reason, viz. into man's own understanding; and dwelt at Gerar, that is, in the corrupt nature; which manifests itself plainly, in his carriage towards Abimelech, where he, in the fear of nature, in the temptation, did deny his wife, and said that she was not his wife; that so he might but preserve himself by the subtlety of reason. And we see here also, how that that very thing, by which he thought in reason to keep himself from mischief; must reprove and teach him; as we see how Abimelech reproved him in that he had denied his wife, with whom he had almost sinned, if the Lord had not warned him; and the exposition is this:n7423 ¶237
4. If we see a man whom the Spirit of God drives, and by whom he oftentimes speaks, we must not so take it up, and think that he is something more than other men: as Abraham was no more than others in his own reason. The self-reason in them is as wavering, dubious and imperfect as in other men, and that what they know and teach of God, is not their own propriety. As we see here in Abraham, how he out of fear did not spare his Sarah [but denied her out of a timorous conjecture]; though Abimelech had taken her away from him to be his concubine, that so he [Abraham] might but live, and it might be well with him for her sake.n7423 ¶238
5. Thus God proves his children, that they might see that they, in their own ability, are no more than all other sinful men; and that men should not so set by them and hold them for a god. Thus oftentimes God permits them to go astray and err, and yet then he rebukes them also by those whom they ought to teach, as we see here in Abimelech; how he must reprove Abraham, and make him ashamed, that he would not spare his wife for a small fear's sake, but would deny her.n7423 ¶239
6. And although it does fall out, that sometimes we see such a man whom God drives to err, yet we ought not therefore presently wholly to reject him and set him at nought, and think that he is wholly without God, as the world does; but think that God does thus set his children under the cross to prove them; that they should learn to know themselves. And then the sun arises again upon them, as here it did upon Abraham, when God had suffered him to go unto Gerar; that is, into his natural rational life, wherein he committed a great offence before Abimelech. A twofold sun did afterwards arise and shine on him, viz. one was, that Abimelech did acknowledge him, and learned to fear the Lord; and gave the land for a possession unto Abraham. He gave him also gifts for rebuke; as the reproof of the saints is, that men should fear at God's reproof: Thus the sun of king Abimelech's favour arose upon him. And then the other sun which shone on him was, that Sarah conceived; and a branch sprang forth unto him out of the line of the Covenant, from the divine sun's power, and Isaac was born unto him.n7423 ¶240
7. And that we may understand the very truth: we see how always the cross stands by the children of God; and Adam and Christ are continually set by each other; as here Abimelech and Abraham; and Ishmael and Isaac; and also the man of right reason, and the corrupt nature against reason; which incessantly sifts and tries reason. As we may see it here in Hagar and Sarah, which also were set one against another, that one did exercise the other; as Hagar in the property of corrupt nature, viz. in Adam's life; and Sarah, in Christ's person; so that Hagar did exercise and prove the natural Sarah; that she pressed forth out of the reason [or (natural) carnal wisdom of the flesh] inton7423 ¶241
8. And we have here (in Sarah and her maid Hagar, with her son Ishmael, and with Isaac, Sarah's son; how Sarah cast out the bondwoman, with her son; which seemed grievous to Abraham, and yet was right in the sight of God), such an excellent mirror, as we find not the like again in the Bible; showing how Christ and the natural man dwell by one another; and how the natural man, with Ishmael and his mother, must be wholly cast out from the right of inheritance, and self-will; [from this we see] that the natural ownwill is no heir of God.n7423 ¶242
9. And when the resigned will has wholly cast him out,* then the poor nature of man sits in its rejected will in fear and trembling, and utterly despairs of life. As here, Hagar with her son Ishmael; when she was cast out from Abraham, she wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, that is, in the brokenness of her heart; and looked upon herself as one wholly forsaken [and as one quite spent and faint] and despaired of her own and her son's life. For she had lost the inheritance, and the favour of her mistress also, and all her goods; and there was neither water nor bread for to preserve life, and they were as given up to death. For she went and sat a stone's cast from the child, because she would not see him die; and when she had even wholly given upn7423 ¶243
* Understand, the self-assuming will of nature, which seeks to be master in man.n7423 ¶244
herself to die, then the angel came again unto her, and called her, and comforted her, and showed her also a fountain; and told her that she should not be so afraid of death, her son must yet become a great nation.n7423 ¶245
The inward figure of this is thus:n7423 ¶246
10. When Isaac, that is, Christ, is born in the convert, then the spiritual new-born will rejects its own evil nature; it contemns it, and condemns it to death; casts it out also from itself; with its son, the mocker, viz. the false interpreter [and perverter of the truth]; as if it would even burst the same in the mind; so very a hateful enemy the new-born spiritual will becomes to the natural will in its evil qualities, viz. to Ishmael, the son of the natural will, who is only a mocker, scoffer, pharisaical censurer, liar, backbiter and unrighteous.n7423 ¶247
11. And when the new-born will has thus cast out the evil nature with its wicked children from itself, then the poor forsaken nature stands in great distress, trembling and desertion. For the internal holy soul does forsake it; and then it even gives up itself wholly to death; and wanders in itself in the wilderness; and looks upon itself as a foolish and simple one, who is everyone's byword and laughing stock.n7423 ¶248
12. And then when the nature does willingly give itself thereunto, that it also will now die wholly to its selfness, and despairs wholly on itself; as a poor forsaken woman, that is deprived of all the worldly glory, riches, beauty, and the pleasure of the outward life also; being wholly cast out from its former desire; and almost quite forlorn, so that the own desire begins to faint and quail within itself. Then comes the angel of God to the nature, and comforts it, and bids it not to despair; and gives it also water to drink, that is, some faithful upright man [or some inward ray and beam of light from the new birth of Christ in the heart] which comforts it in its forsaken condition; and helps to nourish and cherish it, and tells it that it shall not die, but become a great nation; but not in its innate and inbred heritage, viz. in the evil self-will, but in Beer-sheba; that is, in the true contrition in the wilderness, viz. in the valley of tears in the desertion; that is, the poor nature must work in this forsakenness, and in its present banishment and exile [from the sensible and full enjoyment of Paradise] bring forth much fruit, which fruit the angel brings again into Abraham's tent, to be a sojourner of Christ.n7423 ¶249
13. That is (we must understand) when Christ is born in man, he rejects the vanity of nature, with the will which works and desires vanity, and makes the natural will to be servant, whereas before it was lord and master. But nature stands in the wilderness, in the vanity of death, encompassed with sin; and now it must work and bring forth fruit, and yet it looks upon itself as wholly impotent; and as one wholly cast out from the inward spiritual will of Christ; and in itself it seems as one foolish, and contemned of the world; and every way beaten off from its own will. And then it begins even to sink and quail in itself; and to leave off from its own will; and all things are of small esteem with it: That which before did rejoice it, that now is against it; and it stands always as if it should die; it hopes, and doubts; that is, it hopes amendment, that it might yet once be delivered from the scornful contempt, and be set again into the honour of its selfhood; but it dries up also its well of water; and God's anger appears in its sight; that is, all its friends depart from it, with whom before, in its temporal goods and prosperity, it had pleasure, respect and honour; so that it looks upon itself as continually a-dying.n7423 ¶250
14. And when this comes to pass, then it is right in the way to Beer-sheba; and wanders in the wilderness; for it knows not what it shall do; it is everyone's scorn; whatsoever it looks upon, rebukes it for a fool, in that its power is taken from it; that it must now forego the beauty, riches and honour of the world, and all whatsoever might advance and prefer it in temporals; and yet it would fain have them; but yet it is drawn from them by the inward man in Christ's spirit, and reproved [blamed or upbraided] in these temporals for unrighteous and abominable.n7423 ¶251
15. And then indeed it enters right into Beer-sheba, viz. into the contrition of the heart, and sets reason by the empty water-pot of Hagar; and goes a stone's cast from its son Ishmael, viz. From the own desire of nature; and stands and compels also the thoughts of nature; and will not give any thing any longer to its own children, viz. to the senses and cogitations of the mind; but casts them away (as children that now must die) a stone's cast, that is, a while from itself; that it might not see the death of its children. So wholly does Hagar, viz. the nature with its son, give up itself to the mind for the mortification of the selfhood of the own will; sits also and mourns in itself in Beer-sheba, viz. in the broken and contrite heart; and wholly despairs of its reason; would fain die, that it might be but freed from the miserable forlorn condition.n7423 ¶252
16. And then, when it is thus prepared that it quite despairs of itself, and gives up itself wholly into the death of selfhood; then comes the angel of God to Hagar, that is, to the poor forsaken and dying nature, and says, What ails you, Hagar? fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad, where he lies. Arise, take up the lad, and hold him in your hand, for I will make him a great nation. And then God opens the eyes of Hagar, viz. of nature, and she sees a well of water, and then fills her bottle with water, and gives the lad drink, who grows in the desert, and is a good archer, and dwells even in the wilderness of Paran, and must take an Egyptian wife.n7423 ¶253
The inward exceeding precious and worthy figure of this stands thus:n7423 ¶254
17. When man has put on Christ in faith, and is entered into right true repentance, and has in his mind forsaken the whole world, even all its honour, goods, and things temporal; then the poor nature of man does thus stand in the mortification of self, as is above-mentioned concerning Hagar and her son. For it desires also to die, even to the senses and cogitations of the mind, and to enter wholly into resigna-n7423 ¶255
18. And when it stands thus in the thoughts of death, having given up its will and cogitations into mortification, then the inward voice of God's Word manifests itself in the mind and senses. [Thoughts, meditations]. And even there the divine Word hears the voice of the child's crying, viz. the troubled disconsolate mind in its thoughts;[ Cogitations, meditations] for it sounds therein in the divine voice; and says in the divine voice to nature, viz. to Hagar, What ails you, you troubled and perplexed nature? fear not, God has heard the voice of the lad, viz. of your thoughts, which you have offered up in the desire to God: Arise, that is, lift up yourself to God in this resignation; and stand up in the voice which has graciously heard you, and looked upon you, and take your cogitations, viz. your son, by the hand of faith; and guide and govern the [powers of the] mind; they shall not die, but live, and go; for I will make them a great nation; that is, to a great divine understanding and capacity in divine Mysteries; and God opens unto nature the fountain of living water; so that it receives, into the bottle of its essence in itself of God's well-spring, and therewith it gives the lad, viz. the senses [or powers of the mind] drink.n7423 ¶256
19. And then God is with this lad of the thoughts, and he grows great in the wilderness, that is, in the corrupt nature; the right, discreet and intellectual child grows great in the spirit of the Lord, and becomes an archer; that is, an archer of the Lord, and his brethren; who shoots the birds of prey, and the wild beasts; understand, he shoots down out of his spirit, with the holy spirit, the evil beasts and birds in his brethren; he teaches them, and reproves them with divine arrows.n7423 ¶257
20. But he must dwell in the wilderness of Paran, viz. in the corrupt flesh; and in the wilderness amongst ungodly people, and there he must be an archer of God; and his mother, viz. nature, gives him an Egyptian woman, that is, nature lays a fleshly woman by the noble mind born in Christ's spirit, with which the noble new-born mind must sit in wedlock, and be plagued with this idolatrous fleshly woman. Understand it thus:n7423 ¶258
21. This Egyptian woman is his flesh and blood, with reason, wherein the idol Mausim, viz. the Babylonical whore sits, where the devil has his pulpit, which, to the precious mind, is the cross of Christ, where the woman's seed, viz. the spirit of Christ, must incessantly bruise the Serpent's head, viz. the devil's introduced desire in this whore of Babylon.n7423 ¶259
22. This whore is now the exercise and probation of the spiritual cogitations or senses in the Christian mind; but this whore does not hurt the children of Christ; indeed it has a false lust, and is a very wedded harlot, which shall not see the kingdom of God; but it must yet serve for good to the children of God; for by it the cross of Christ is laid upon the precious mind, so that the mind must continue in humility, and not say, I am righteous, I am holy. No! no! the holiness is not this child's own; but it is God's mercy, who has heard the crying of the lad, viz. of the poor forsaken mind. Thus the noble holy mind, viz. the new man, born in Christ's spirit, must be wedded with this Egyptian, evil, malicious, idolatrous, whorish, ungodly woman, which is neither able to do, will, nor think any good, and bear with it the foul shame and reproach, so long till the unclean idolatrous whore dies. And then this lad is led of the angel into Isaac's tent, viz. into Christ's flesh and blood.n7423 ¶260
23. And this is the very real figure of the spirit in Moses, wherefore he has so punctually and emphatically deciphered this figure; for the spirit in Moses aims so directly and fully at the mortifying of man's selfhood; and plainly speaks, that the self-will must be cast out from God; and where Christ is born, there the same is brought to pass; as here, when Isaac, the type of Christ, was born of the free woman, then the son of the bond- woman must be cast out. For in Isaac the seed which should inherit the kingdom of God was to be called; it should not proceed out of the self-full nature, of the flesh and will of man, but out of God's will; out of the mortified will of our nature, which dies to its selfhood, and despairs of itself, a Christian must be born. That is, Ishmael, viz. the poor sinner (when he becomes an enemy to sin, repents of it, and wills it no more) shall be born in God's mercy; indeed nature must and shall be there, even with its evil earthly flesh, but Christ is brought forth from thence, as a fair blossom out of the wild earth, as a [pleasant] fruit out of the kernel.n7423 ¶261
24. A very excellent figure the spirit in Moses does present unto us, in Abraham and Sarah, when Sarah would cast out the son of the bond- woman from the inheritance; so that the son of the bond-woman should not be heir with the free. The same seemed unjust to Abraham, seeing the lad was of his seed, and his own son. But God said to him, Let it not be grievous in your sight because of the lad, and because of the bond-woman; in all that Sarah has said unto you, hearken to her voice; for in Isaac shall your seed be called.n7423 ¶262
The inward precious figure of this is thus:n7423 ¶263
25. When a man is born again in Christ's spirit, as it was here with Abraham, then he thinks sometimes that he is wholly new, and knows not himself yet aright; and that he has the whorish Egyptian bondwoman, with her scoffing son of vanity, in his arms. And now, when it happens that of ten times the mocker, viz. Ishmael, the son of the bond-woman, does break forth out of him, yea, even wholly without his will and purpose, that Sarah (that is, honest minds, to whom God does make it known) do reprove him; nay, and is of ten times reproved of the evil, so that it is plainly declared to him that this mocker should be cast out, this, Abraham, viz. the man, will by no means brook. He will be uncontrolled; and yet he does not know, that he in this time of his earthly life stands in the judgement of God; that his words and works must be daily proved and judged. He will often go in a way of justification, and maintain his own cause, and will be praised; and in the mean time forgets the Egyptian bond- woman in his arms, and her scoffing son, who sometimes peeps forth in his words with evil interpretations, wrong meanings, and evil surmises, and covers itself finely under a glozing mantle of glistering hypocrisy. This now the free woman casts out, that is, the spirit of Christ casts it out by other people's mouths; and yet this seems to be unrighteous to the man; seeing the word is born of his body, and arisen out of his very mind.n7423 ¶264
26. But the Lord speaks in the spirit of the humility of Christ: Let it not seem grievous in your sight, that people do find fault with your words, and reject your labour. Hearken to Sarah, viz. to the divine voice; and do you yourself cast out from you whatsoever you have at any time spoken or meant evilly, wrongfully or partially. For in Isaac, that is, in your deepest humility, your seed shall be called; where, in your words and works, the spirit of God works in love; and not in your natural selfness and peculiar ownhood of reason, wherein the son of the bond- woman speaks and works.n7423 ¶265
27. And the children of God ought well to consider this figure, and think, that whatsoever is spoken and done from favour, affection, and partial siding, be it either towards honest or dishonest men, the same proceeds from the son of the bond- woman, which must go into judgment to be tried; and must be judged of men, viz. of the evil and of the good. It must be cast forth among a company of evil and good tongues; where everyone passes his sentence and judgement thereupon: God judges upon the earth externally by men, both by the evil and by the good.n7423 ¶266
28. This now must seem so very grievous and heinous to Abraham, viz. to man, when his words and works are judged and proved, and [he must] think, that his divine seed must be brought forth only in the love and humility, and that whatsoever he speaks, judges, or does from partiality or favour, does belong again unto judgement, where it must be proved and purged: as Hagar with her son Ishmael was. And then, when it is judged, that is, cast out by the people, then comes the angel of God, and speaks to the natural man, that he should not despair in this judgement, but take it in good part, and be content that his words and works are judged.n7423 ¶267
29. Therefore we say, as the Lord has given us to know it, that whosoever will read and understand aright the history of the Old Testament, he must set before him two types, viz. externally Adam, viz. the earthly man, and internally Christ, and change both these into One; and so he may understand all whatsoever Moses and the prophets have spoken in the spirit.n7423 ¶268
30. He must not be so blind as to look upon it as the Jews and Babel do, who make only of this history, conclusions of reason in respect of the Election of God; as if God had thus chosen to himself only one sundry and peculiar nation or sort of people to be his children. The Election of God passes upon the figure only, showing what [kind of ] people should bear the figure of the inward kingdom of Christ in the outward, in which people God would set forth and manifest the kingdom of Christ externally. The Jews have had only a mirror and type hereof externally, and so likewise the Christians, who looked upon Christ in the flesh as a mere pure man.n7423 ¶269
31. These figures have remained very speechless to the world, even to this last time; and that, from the purpose of God, seeing man is such a piece of mere vanity and flesh; and so soon weary of the pearls, and afterwards comes to trample them under foot. Therefore God has dealt with man in types and parables; as Christ also did when he came upon the earth: He spoke all these mysteries in parables, for man's unworthiness' sake.n7423 ¶270
32. But now at present there is great cause (as all the prophets have prophesied thereof) that the same should be made manifest. And the cause is this: that in this last trumpet's sound the mystery of the kingdom of God shall be finished (Rev. x. 7); and the bride of Christ, viz. the wise virgins, shall be prepared, who shall meet the Lord in his appearance. And it betokens the day of Christ's coming, when he will appear with the holy city, the New Jerusalem, and bring home his bride. Therefore the mystery of the kingdom of God must first be unfolded and explained out of its types, and become wholly manifest.n7423 ¶271
33. And this will be the fall of the fleshly sinful man, in that the man of sin must be made manifest; as St. Paul plainly prophesies thereof (2 Thess. ii. 3-8), that the child of perdition shall be revealed to all nations, speeches, tongues; and the beast with the whore shall go into the bottomless pit. That is, when the kingdom of Christ becomes wholly manifest, then the beast, and the whore of flesh, viz. the false bond- woman, with her scoffing son, stands in great shame, and is judged of everyone, as a whore in the cage, that everyone scorns and scoffs at.n7423 ¶272
34. As indeed hitherto men have reviled Christ in the outward image of simplicity in his children and members, in which, reason has seen and known no more, than Hagar and Ishmael in their miserable banishment; under which, notwithstanding, the voice of the angel has been; which they have scorned and mocked in the foolish plain simplicity under the veil, and have set up the mocker, Ishmael, in Christ's stead; which has been only an Antichrist. Now, this mocker and Antichrist shall be revealed under this trumpet's sound; and be cast out of [or by] the children of God into the abyss, whichn7423 ¶273
Babel shall see in a short time: declares the spirit of the wonders ofn7423 ¶274
35. We see all an excellent figure of this in Abimelech, that, when God will manifest himself to a people, how he terrifies them in the midst of their sins, and appears to them in anger; as to Abimelech in the vision; and to Moses in the bush of fire; and also to Israel upon the Mount Sinai, also in the fire; and also to Elias in the fire and wind. Where always the rebuke of God's wrath is fore- signified, how God does bruise the hearts of men that they may fear and tremble before him; as here, Abimelech, when the Lord appeared to him by night in a vision, and threatened him by reason of Sarah, he was astonished, and told the same in the ears of his people, and the people were sore afraid, and Abimelech called Abraham, and made a covenant with him.n7423 ¶275
36. This is an excellent figure [and pregnantly intimates] how God terrifies the enemies, and comforts poor dejected nature when it quails for fear; and turns its fear into joy. And how the miserable and afflicted, if he be honest, is at last drawn out of misery and affliction; and how at last his enemies (who before he thought to be his enemies) must serve him and advance him. So wonderfully does God lead his children, if they do but endure temptation and continue under the cross of Christ in humility, and not look upon self-revenge, but put on patience in hope, and persevere steadfast in the faith. At last all a man's adversaries must see and acknowledge that God is with the man, and that the world has dealt wrongfully and unrighteously with him.n7423 ¶276
37. Also this is an excellent emphatical figure how Abraham (when God would punish Abimelech) did pray unto God for Abimelech, and made reconciliation, that God did bless Abimelech. And this whole history stands in the figure of Christ, and holds forth how Adam and Christ are together; how Christ is come into the self-assumed kingly ownhood or selfness of man, and terrifies sin and death; and how the poor corrupt nature does turn itself in the horror and acknowledgment of sin, to God, as here Abimelech turned unto Abraham; and how it then gives the kingdom of nature for a possession unto Christ. And the inward figure in the spirit of Moses (who was the type and figure of Christ, who yet points, out of the father's property, upon the Son, in the flesh, viz. in the humanity) can be understood no otherwise, than even thus: It is the true ground.n7423 ¶277
The Forty-Seventh Chaptern7423 ¶278
Of the Covenant of Abimelech and Abraham, showing what the same is, in the spiritual figure; and what the Spirit in Moses, under his veil, does here point atn7423 ¶279
A VERY PRECIOUS AND EXCELLENT GATE TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD IN BEER-SHEBAn7423 ¶280
1. COURTEOUS and friendly Reader, know, that if a man should write many hundred books of the history of Abraham, yet he could not sufficiently express the abundant richness which lies hid under this figure. But we will afford a little service to the children of God in their weakness, and somewhat unveil this figure, seeing otherwise it is not to be understood by the natural man; and yet the Lord does thus lead us in grace [to the understanding thereof]. Therefore I shall here lend and give him the hand thereto. Observe it well: there is couched under it a peerless matchless pearl, which shall here stand open, and yet also continue hidden, which cannot be purchased with the goods of the whole world. It is hidden unto reason.n7423 ¶281
The outward figure in the Text of Moses stands thus:n7423 ¶282
2. And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech, and Phichol the chief captain of his host spoke unto Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do: Now therefore swear unto me here by God that you will not deal unfaithfully [falsely] with me, nor with my children, nor grand- children: but according to the kindness which I have done unto you, you shall also do unto me, and to the land wherein you art a stranger. And Abraham said, I will swear. And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away. And Abimelech answered, I know not who has done this thing: neither did you tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to-day. And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant together. And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which you have set apart by themselves? And he answered, Seven lambs you shall take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Whereupon he called that place Beer-sheba; because they there sware both of them. And thus they made a covenant at Beer-sheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host; and they returned into the land of the Philistines. And Abraham planted trees in Beer-sheba, and preached there of the name of the Lord, the eternal God; and was for a long time a stranger in the land of the Philistines (Gen. xxi. 22 et seq.). This figure seems outwardly, as if Abimelech was afraid of Abraham; seeing God had given him to understand in a vision, that Abraham was a prince of God; thereupon he desired a covenant and oath from Abraham, lest he should root out him and his posterity.n7423 ¶283
3. But the spirit of Christ under the veil of Moses has ciphered out before him far another figure, wherewith he alludes and prophesies; for under all the acts of Abraham which the spirit of Moses has written down, we are to understand a twofold figure, viz. externally a history relating something done; and under that same history, the spirit of Christ in the Covenant does so aptly and exactly set its figure, as if he played therewith.n7423 ¶284
4. For the place here mentioned is even the same whither Hagar fled with Ishmael; it is even the same Beer-sheba, and the same fountain of water signified, which the angel showed Hagar; which Abraham, that is, Christ, digged; where afterwards Christendom preached of [Or, called on] the name of the Lord, the eternal God, in Christ, by this well of water in Beer-sheba.n7423 ¶285
5. And the covenant between Abimelech and Abraham, is the Covenant of Christ with the humanity, where Abraham, that is, Christ, sware that he would not destroy the humanity; as he also said when he came into the flesh; that he was not come into this world to condemn the world, but to save the world (John iii. 17), that is, to bless and keep Covenant.n7423 ¶286
The inward holy figure stands thus:n7423 ¶287
6. Abimelech and Phichol, who spoke with Abraham concerning the covenant, the spirit does here represent in the type of God the Father, and then also of nature. King Abimelech points at the Father in the soul's property, and Phichol, his field-captain, points at nature, viz. God's officer. Both these approach to the type of Christ, viz. to Abraham. For mankind was given to this Christ: he should be a Prince of God in and over the humanity.n7423 ¶288
7. Now nature had brought itself out of the Father's property into false lust, (understand in the human nature), for it desired to manifest Sarah, viz. the free woman, (understand the heavenly virgin-like matrix), in the earthly bestial property, which came to pass in Adam when he brought his female property into a bestial lust. Now the spirit here in Moses does hint at this figure, and represents, under King Abimelech, Adam in the Father's property and nature.n7423 ¶289
8. As Adam lusted to manifest himself with his female property, viz. with the mother of the holy birth in the earthly bestial mother, or to prove, try and taste in the tincture of Venus the root or the ground of the third Principle; so here, King Abimelech in the same nature (understand the masculine out of the Father's property) did lust after the mother of the Covenant which was now moved in Sarah, to know the same. Which the holy God would not have, and therefore came unto Abimelech, and terrified this nature of lust, and threatened punishment and destruction to it.n7423 ¶290
9. Now understand in King Abimelech the soul out of the Father's property; and by Phichol understand the outward nature, viz. the third Principle, which is the field-captain or servant of the king, viz. of the soul; and by Abraham understand Christ in the humanity, or in the ens of the faith of the Covenant, as the spirit signifies and sets forth pregnantly by way of allusion in this figure.n7423 ¶291
10. God the Father brings the poor soul, viz. the king of the human property, unto Christ, after that it had given itself to lust with its servant, viz. the body of nature; and now the soul speaks to Abraham in the figure of Christ, Wherefore did you not tell me that God was in Sarah, viz. in this image? wherefore did you not say unto me that she was your wife? understand, Christ's wife, which is called the woman's seed in this mother, for I had almost heinously offended towards her.n7423 ¶292
11. Understand, the soul of Adam knew not Christ in its heavenly matrix in the tincture of Venus. It thought that it was the fair pleasant child; therefore it went with this holy tincture into self-full lust. But now when God showed the soul this holy tincture in the Covenant, then the soul said, I did not know it; viz. that this female property, as it was in me, was God's wife, who brings forth by it; and spoke by the field-captain, viz. by the outward nature to Abraham in Christ: Take now your wife, viz. the heavenly matrix in me; for, look! God is with you in all that you do. That is, I will restore again unto you whatsoever I have taken into my selfpossession, viz. the matrix of the divine world's property, which is closed up in me, and now awakened in you; take it, it is your wife. And when Abraham, understand Christ, took the same (Gen. xx. 17) then all the women and maids of Abimelech, and his servants, understand the daughters of Eve, were healed in the heavenly matrix through Christ's wife, viz. through Sarah in the Covenant, that they again might bring forth God's children.n7423 ¶293
12. Now the soul in the Father's property spoke to Abraham in Christ, seeing (Matt, xxviii. 18) all power over the humanity was given unto him, Swear unto me by God, that you will not show any unkindness [unfaithfulness] to me, nor my children, nor my nephews; but according to the kindness that I have done unto you, do you also unto me, and to the land wherein you are a stranger. That is, as if God the Father in the soul should speak with Christ his Son, to whom he had given the whole humanity [all mankind] for a peculiar possession, and say thus:n7423 ¶294
Seeing I have given you the power in the human property which is mine, to be your own, swear now unto me by God; that is, deeply bind yourself therewith into an essential oath, or one eternal covenant; that you will not show any unkindness to my nature in the human property, nor to the children, viz. to the branches which spring forth anew out of their property; nor to their nephews, or grand-children; that is, to those children who spring out from the wild property, where oftentimes a wicked husband or a wicked wife are joined together, the one being ungodly, and the other honest; but according to the kindness which I have done unto you, even unto your image, (in that I have restored unto you again this heavenly matrix, which in Adam was captivated in my wrath, and disappeared from your image, in my anger), you shall do likewise to me; and unto the land, that is, unto the outward man, wherein God's children bear the heavenly image; that is, unto the land wherein you sojourn.n7423 ¶295
13. For Christ is a stranger in our earthly humanity, and our earthly humanity does oftentimes make our children or grandchildren strangers to God: There the Father of nature in the soul's property said unto Christ, he was a stranger in our land; as Christ also said, that his kingdom was not of this world, that is, of the earthly man. But Christ should show kindness in this strange land, (understand the strange humanity), and not reject the children which should be born therein, as the Father had done to his image of the heavenly humanity, which disappeared in Adam. This, Christ should swear unto God; as he also swears in the prophet Ezekiel, As true as I live, I will not (or have no delight in) the death of the wicked or sinner, but rather that he should turn and live (Ezek. xxxiii. 11): for Abraham in Christ, viz. in the figure, said, I will swear, that is, I will do it.n7423 ¶296
14. And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had taken away by force. That is, Christ reproved the soul, that the soul's servants, viz. the essence of nature, had taken away the well-spring of the essence from the heavenly corporality, viz. Christ's body in Adam, whereupon the heavenly image died or disappeared. For Christ's holy fountain of water sprang up in the soul's fiery essence, but the soul's essence had taken this fountain of divine sweetness into its own self-full power, and changed the same in itselfto another property.n7423 ¶297
15. And Abimelech, that is, the soul, answered, I was not who has done this. That is, I did not know that the devil had deceived me, that the false lust was arisen in the very essence of my nature; and who has done this hurt. Also, you did not tell it unto me; that is, you did not declare unto me that your image was in me; that this holy divine fountain was yours, which my servants, viz. my essences, have taken it to selfhood. [Turned it to a selfish ownhood]. Moreover, I heard not of it, but to-day;n7423 ¶298
that is, you have not revealed to me that this fountain is your seat, save to-day only; that is, to-day, where you do again manifest yourself in me in Adam with a Covenant of Grace, where now I heard your voice in me.n7423 ¶299
16. And Abraham took sheep, and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech, and they both made a covenant with each other. That is, then Christ took his sheep, that is, children; and his oxen are the Gentiles: the sheep are the children in whom the Covenant was manifested, viz. the Jews, and gave them to the Father; and made between Christ's spirit and humanity, and between the Jews and the Gentiles, an eternal Covenant, that it should be one humanity and not two.n7423 ¶300
17. And Abraham set seven lambs apart by themselves. These seven lambs are the seven properties of the natural humanity of Christ, which he did manifest in our humanity. And in that the spirit says, by themselves, signifies that Christ, in his humanity of the seven properties, is a distinct person; so that we men (viz. Jews and Gentiles, who come to his grace) ought not to say, we are Christ, but we are his house in which he dwells: the power of the holy fountain of water is his; we are only branches on his tree: he is with the seven lambs of the divine property apart in us [Or, by himself]; they belong not to man's selfhood.n7423 ¶301
18. Only in the right resignation Christ and man is wholly one; when man's will wills nothing any more without Christ, but gives up itself wholly in Christ: then it is dead to self and Christ alone lives in it; also it does signify that his creatural person, with the seven properties of the humanity, shall dwell among us as a distinct person, as eternal high priest.n7423 ¶302
19. And Abimelech said, What mean these seven lambs which you have set by themselves? That is, God the Father made an allusion, through the essence of the soul in this figure, with Christ's figure in Abraham, and said, What mean your seven properties of our divine nature by themselves? Wherefore, seeing you should regenerate mankind, and dwell in them, will you also set forth your seven properties of our divine nature in a distinct human person? And Christ answered in the figure of Abraham, you shall take seven lambs from my hand, that they may he an eternal testimony unto me, that I have digged this well. That is to say, Christ speaks to his Father in man's person, you shall take the figure or the image of my seven properties of the human creature for an everlasting testimony, that I, in my suffering and death, have again digged the well-spring of eternal life in the human property; that man's new-digged fountain of life is mine.n7423 ¶303
20. And the spirit in Moses speaks wholly under a veil; therefore, or from hence, the place was called Beer-sheba: this is, the very precious place where God the Father and his Son in the humanity sware both of them together. The place was called Beer-sheba, viz. a bruising of death by the will of him that lives and sees in the disappeared humanity, where, in Christ's humanity (which he assumed from us men), death was bruised, and broken in pieces; and the wellspring of love did flow forth again out of the living God in our bruised humanity of the heavenly part into the soul's creatural fountain. Now the spirit of Moses speaks here very pregnantly, that the place was called Beer-sheba, where the testimony of this oath (viz. a fountain of grace) was established.n7423 ¶304
21. And the place of God at Beer-sheba is shown to us poor men, where God the Father has made an everlasting Covenant with us in Christ Jesus, viz. in the penitent contrite soul. When the poor soul in this precious Covenant and oath does wholly give up itself to repentance, with a broken and contrite heart; then the oath of God in the Covenant of Jesus Christ stands open to it in Beer-sheba, viz. in the soul's contrition; where God in Christ Jesus has sworn that he will not destroy the poor soul, and its children and grand-children; nor do any hurt to this land of the soul, viz. to the body of the humanity.n7423 ¶305
22. Thus now we ought steadfastly to trust our dear Immanuel, Jesus Christ, who has sworn a precious oath to his Father, in our soul's property, that he will not turn away his mercy and love from us. We should but come to him in Beer-sheba, and receive the oath as our own; that is, with contrite penitent hearts.n7423 ¶306
23. And Moses says further: When this was done, then Abimelech arose, and Phichol his field-captain, and they returned into the land of the Philistines. That is to say, when God the Father had given over the humanity to his Son, Jesus Christ, with this Covenant and oath, then he went with his regiment [or host], viz. with Phichol, that is, with the outward nature, again into the land of the Philistines; that is, into the dominion or regiment of the outward and inward nature, which is Philistrean [ Philistineal], that is, inclined to good and evil. This denotes that the poor soul, although it has taken on it the Covenant and oath of God, and sworn with Christ to God, yet it must in this lifetime dwell in the earthly body, viz. under the heathenish Philistrean [ Philistine] essence of the flesh; which is a constant adversary to this King Abimelech, viz. to the poor soul, and only forsakes the Covenant and oath; and brings itself in its Philistrean [Philistine], selfish, lustful concupiscence and desires, into selfhood, as into its own land.n7423 ¶307
24. And hereby it is signified to the poor Christians, that they must lodge and lie with the new birth in this Philistrean [ Philistine] land or house of flesh, as mere strangers, and cannot be wholly freed in this lifetime. For Phichol, the field-captain of the soul, viz. nature, must have its rule and work in this time, in evil and good, and be a hard cross, and continual temptation to the precious image of Christ, viz. to the new birth; by which cross the noble and dear tree of pearl is moved, stirred, and caused to spring and grow. As a tree which comes out of the earth must grow in heat and cold, in wind, rain and snow, so also must the precious little tree of Jesus Christ, which is a stranger with Abraham in Beer-sheba, viz. in the earthly cottage.n7423 ¶308
25. And the spirit in Moses speaks further, saying, Abraham planted trees at Beer-sheba, and there preached of the name of the Lord, the ever-living God. And was a stranger in the land of the Philistines a long time.n7423 ¶309
This is as much as if he should have said: The spirit of Christ in Abraham (when the soul has received the Covenant and oath, that it is contrite in true repentance) does plant trees in Beer-sheba; that is, it brings forth heavenly branches in this penitent heart in the strange land, the earthly man; and preaches, from these new branches, of the name of the eternal God, and dwells a long time, viz. the time of the whole earthly life, in this Philistrean [ Philistine] cottage.n7423 ¶310
26. And this is a real figure of the poor penitent sinner, which in Christ's spirit becomes a new creature according to the inward man; showing how he must enter into repentance, and plant, out of Christ's spirit, the little tree of Christ in his contrite and truly broken mind; and dwell also with this little pearl-tree of Christ among a company of wicked men in a strange land, viz. in the evil corrupt flesh and blood; and there teach of the name of God, and instruct the heathenish and Philistrean [ Philistine] children, that they, in his preaching, may come to him in Beer-sheba, that is, into true and unfeigned repentance.n7423 ¶311
27. Thus very exactly does the spirit in Moses play here with the type of Christ under an external history in a simple child-like form; and shows us how we must continually stand in temptation, trials, danger and opposition; and how God does thus wonderfully deliver his children, that even those of whom they are afraid, and do also wish them no good, must at last make a covenant of peace with them in their conscience. And also how the poor soul, by reason of great fears and horror, has no rest in itself unless that it come through earnest repentance in Christ to God, and make a covenant with Christ in God, so that the poor dejected conscience and nature be comforted. Without this there is mere distress, anguish, horror, unsettlement; as happened to Abimelech when he was enkindled in false lust towards Sarah: then God terrified his conscience, that he went to Abraham and humbled himselfbefore him; and with great recompense and gifts made a covenant with him. Thus also it goes with the children of Christ, when they endure temptation and continue steadfast in the faith; then at last their enemies must be ashamed, and return back, as it is to be seen here in this figure.n7423 ¶312
The Forty-Eighth Chaptern7423 ¶313
How God Tried Abraham, and set forth the Figure of Christ's Offering in his Suffering and Death (Gen. xxii.)n7423 ¶314
1. AFTER that the spirit in Moses had deciphered the figure of the Covenant of God, established in Christ Jesus with his children, showing how we poor children of Eve should and must depart out of this earthly will of selfness, and be born in Christ with a new will and life; he here now sets forth the figure, how the same should and must be brought to pass: How Christ must again offer up our soul and humanity to his Father, even as he also was to be cast as an offering into the fire of God's anger, and wholly die in the wrath of God to the human soul's selfness and own will, and yet spring forth powerfully with the divine only will of God, through death and the anger of God, and break in pieces and make a scorn of death which held the humanity captive. And so bring the human soul again to God his Father into the only eternal divine will, and deliver up again the kingdom unto him (1 Cor. xv. 24), which he had given him in the humanity, so that afterwards, and to all eternity, God might he all in all (1 Cor. xv. 28), and the creature might not live any more to its own will, but sound only as an instrument of a divine tune, in a divine harmony, and the whole human tree might be only one in all its boughs and branches.n7423 ¶315
2. The spirit in Moses does set forth this figure very clearly, even to the end of all his writings, and plays under the outward figure with the inward, which shall remain for ever. I will therefore set down this figure of Abraham's temptation in respect of his son Isaac, likewise in the spiritual figure, and show what is thereby to be understood. For although the learned have expounded it, that God tempted Abraham, to see if he would continue steadfast in the faith upon him, yet it has far another meaning and interpretation; for God knows well aforehand what man will do; also man cannot, without his grace, stand in the temptation, as may be seen here in Abraham, when he denied his wife before King Abimelech, as he came into Gerar.n7423 ¶316
3. Abraham is here represented in Adam's stead, and 'his son Isaac is represented in Christ's humanity, and the voice which came to Abraham is God the Father's. These three stand here in the figure of the process of the work of man's redemption; showing how Abraham, that is, Adam, should offer up his person 1 in Isaac, that is, in Christ, to the voice of God in the fire of God, that so the humanity might be proved in the fire of God.n7423 ¶317
4. Now the voice of God spoke to Abraham, and said, Ahrabam! And he answered, Here am I. That is, God called to Adam in Abraham, viz. to all men, and said : Take your own son Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon a mountain which I will tell you of (Gen. xxii. 1,2). Here the spirit looks with Isaac upon Christ, for in Isaac lay the Covenant, and the ens of Abraham's faith, out of which Christ should come.n7423 ¶318
Now said the voice of God to Adam in Abraham, Take your son, whom you love, and offer him for a burnt offering upon the mountain which I shall tell you of. That is, the Jews, viz. Adam's children, should offer Christ for a burnt offering; that is, the divine ens should give in itself into Adam's ens, which the children of Adam should offer up one with another in the fire of God; and it betokens, that every man, when he has received the ens of faith, must offer up himself wholly unto God, and die to his own will in the fire of God; and in the divine ens of faith be born anew through the offering in the fire of God.n7423 ¶319
5. For said the spirit in Moses: your son whom you love, viz. your own will, which has brought itself into self-love. This self-will must be offered up to God, that it may leave the own selfish will in the fire of God, and wholly give over its ownhood, and no more will and live to itself but to God. And it rightly points out, how Christ in our human will, (which [human will] had broken off or turned itself in Adam from God), should again wholly offer and give up himself in Adam's person to God his Father; and how the wrath of God should devour the will, viz. the will wherein Adam had introduced himself into selfhood.n7423 ¶320
6. In which devoration of the fire of anger the love-ens, in the word of faith, of divine power, viz. the true man created in Adam, must be formed, and also preserved in this devouring fire; as gold or silver in the crucible, where the copper, and all that is impure, purges 2 from it, and only the gold or silver subsists in the fire. So likewise the human assumed ownhood, together with the assumed ens of the serpent and beast; and all whatsoever subsists not in the divine fire, must be consumed in the offering. And that we might have again, in Christ's person, a wholly pure entrance and open fountain of grace,n7423 ¶321
1 Text, image. 2 Evaporates.n7423 ¶322
Christ must offer up our human will of self to his Father, and resign it up to him wholly, and that, upon the mount Moriah; that is, in his death, where he, for (2 Cor. v. 15) all, and in all, should die to the human selfhood. Even as when the stock of a tree dies, then also all its branches in it do die;l and as the tree does renew its youthful growth, it also introduces its new power and strength into its branches; which indeed is not possible to the outward nature, but in God it is very possible, as may be seen in the dry rod of Aaron, which was dead to its sap and life, and yet in one night sprang forth afresh, and bare fair almonds.n7423 ¶323
7. Now said God: Upon the mountain which I shall show you. That is, it must not be done according to Adam's will; also it must not be done in us according to our will, as if we should prescribe to ourselves where and how we would offer up ourselves in Christ to the Father, as Babel does. No, but upon the mountain; that is, on the place, in the property, and in the death, as the Lord appoints, orders, and sends it to us. We must be only obedient with Abraham, and give up ourselves willingly thereunto, when he will have us offer unto himself; not whip, beat, and plague ourselves, but only sink with our will into him, and wait till the Lord shows us the place, where and how he will have us offer unto him. We must give up unto him our whole heart and will, with body and soul, and commit it to him what he will further do with us; where he, in the type 2 of Jesus Christ, will offer us according to the body. And when the Lord calls us to the offering with his cross, or will offer us up to the temporal death, then we should say with Abraham: Lo! here am I, Lord. Do what you pleasest.n7423 ¶324
8. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled 3 his ass, and took with him two young men, and Isaac his son, and clave wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him (Gen. xxii. 3).n7423 ¶325
This figure stands thus:n7423 ¶326
When the voice of God calls us, then we should with Abraham go presently: for early in the morning signifies here, when the voice breaks forth as the dawning of the day; when God in us calls us. When man has a thought come into him, saying, you should return, amend, and truly repent; then it is time. He must forthwith girt his ass, viz. the bestial man with power. Although he [the bestialn7423 ¶327
1 Note. -How Christ's death was effectual to all men.n7423 ¶328
2 Image, or likeness. 3 Text, girt.n7423 ¶329
man] cries, Stay yet a while, it is time enough tomorrow; yet it should be done presently, in the first look of the will to God. For this is the hind which is hunted early in the morning, as the prophetical spirit prophesies: for Christ must girt this ass early, with the voice of God, and go to the offering.n7423 ¶330
9. And the two young men which Abraham took along with him do betoken, the soul from the first Principle, and the soul of this world, viz. the outward spirit of the outward life. These must go with Isaac, that is with Christ in the old Abraham, that is, Adam, to the offering of God; and Abraham, that is, the man Adam in his children, must himself cleave the wood upon which the offering must be burnt; that is, when he confesses Christ then he cleaves the hearts of the wicked, who run with him to the death and the offering of God. For Adam in his humanity clave God's love and anger; and now also Abraham must cleave the wood for the offering; for Christ should also cleave death and life asunder, and offer up himself upon the cloven wood of death and life, unto God's anger.n7423 ¶331
10. And on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off (Gen. xxii. 4). Here the spirit points at the sleep of Adam, wherein he slept to the angelical world; and on the third day after his falling asleep, when as now the woman was made out of him, and the fall effected, he saw Christ, viz. the place of God in the Covenant afar oft Also herein is included the resurrection of Christ on the third day, where he saw his place (where he would and should offer and give up man to God his Father), viz. the Last judgement, and the final offering, afar off: Also it signifies, that Abraham in the spirit saw the offering of Christ afar off, viz. above two thousand years then to come. And that the spirit says, Abraham lifted up his eyes on the third day, and saw the place, is nothing else but that Christ did again lift up on the third day our human eyes out of the grave, from the dead, unto God; and also that it was yet afar off in, the days of Abraham: Thus the spirit does allude with the outward figure at that which was and is to come.n7423 ¶332
11. And Abraham said unto the two young men which he took with him, Abide you here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you (Gen. xxii. 5).n7423 ¶333
The figure of it internally stands thus:n7423 ¶334
The two young men must tarry there with the ass, and not go at this time unto the offering, only Abraham and Isaac must perform that; that is, we poor children of Eve must abide with the first and third Principles of our life, this our time with the ass, viz. with the outward body here in this world. But Christ in Isaac, and Abraham in Adam, must go forth to the offering; that is, Christ stood in Abraham's, viz. Adam's, person, and also in his heavenly humanity; who should alone go, and offer up the offering of his body to the angerfire of his Father, and worship for us, unto God his Father. Therefore he said he would go yonder, that is, when he should offer up his life he would go yonder, that is, to God, and worship for us, unto God.n7423 ¶335
12. This points at his ascension according to the humanity, when he had finished the sacrifice he went thither,l and worshipped in our assumed humanity, unto God his Father; that is, our assumed soul, in divine power and property, does pray and intercede for our weaknesses and ignorances, unto and before God. Therefore says Abraham, We will go yonder and worship; that is, we, God, and man, and when we have worshipped we will come again to you; that is, we poor children of Eve must in the mean while tarry with the ass, until the time of its offering and prayer be out; and then he comes again unto us; when we have finished the course of the outward assinine life.n7423 ¶336
13. Also it intimates very pregnantly, that he (when the time of the offering in prayer is out) will certainly come again unto us, from the place whither he is gone, and dwell visibly with the creatural humanity among us; as the two angels said unto the men of Israel, You shall see this Jesus come again in like manner as he is ascended;2 which time is now near; and his voice to prepare the bride has already sounded; and therefore hold not this for an uncertain fiction. The Morning Star and Messenger of the Annunciation is appeared.n7423 ¶337
14. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and the knife; and they went both of them together (Gen. xxii. 6).n7423 ¶338
Adam had divided and rent asunder God's love, and anger, in himself and brought himself with the creatural life into the anger, which had amassed the earthly vanity to itself: Now the spirit of Moses does here point at this figure, how Christ should take our introduced sin upon himself, and carry it to the burnt offering.n7423 ¶339
1 Yonder, or to that place. 2 Note.-jesus's coming again.n7423 ¶340
Acts i. 11.n7423 ¶341
15. And Abraham took the knife, and the fire: Abraham denotes Adam, who took the fire of God's anger into himself; and the knife signifies death, that Christ should be killed, and offered up in Abraham's, that is, in Adam's, anger-fire, to the Father; and it clearly denotes that Abraham, that is, Adam, should do it to Christ; for Christ should be offered up of man: seeing the man Adam had taken on himself the fuel (viz. the sin) for the offering; therefore also man, viz. the Jews, must offer it up to the anger of God, that so man might be atoned by man, understand by the humanity of Christ.n7423 ¶342
16. And Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and Abraham answered, Here am I, my son. And he said, Lo! here is the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering: and so they went both of them together (Gen. xxii. 7, 8).n7423 ¶343
The precious figure is thus:n7423 ¶344
The spirit here plays in Christ's person, who was come in great humility into Adam's humanity, and presents himself to his father in Adam's essence, with his heavenly humanity, and says: Behold, my father! here I have taken on me the sin and death in the humanity; here is now the fire of your anger, viz. the divided life's forms of man's property, selfhood and own will; in this now I have the fuel, wherein your fire of anger burns: Here now I have the wood, viz. the sins of all men; and also your fire to the offering; where is now the lamb,l viz.n7423 ¶345
the patient lamb which shall be offered up in this fire? And Abraham answered from his strong faith's ens: My son, God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering; and they went both of them together.n7423 ¶346
17. Here Christ does in Isaac's figure present himself in our assumed humanity to his Father; and says, Where is now the lambn7423 ¶347
Jor the true peace offering? But the faith of Abraham had apprehended the patient lamb, which lay in Isaac, viz. the heavenly humanity, which God would open in the ens of faith in our disappeared and also heavenly humanity, and said: God would provide himself a lamb for the right burnt offering. And hereby he secretly points at the heavenly humanity, which God would introduce into Christ's humanity, viz. into our humanity, which should be the patient lamb that God would provide for himself; which Abraham had already apprehended in faith, and hints at.n7423 ¶348
1 Text, sheep.n7423 ¶349
18. And that the spirit of Moses says, They went both of them together (understand, unto the offering), betokens our Adamical humanity, and Christ's heavenly supernatural humanity of divine essentiality, that both these should go together to the offering of God; as Christ offered on the cross his heavenly humanity in our humanity to the Father; and with the heavenly reconciled ours, captivated in the anger of God, and preserved it in the fire of God's anger, as the gold is preserved of the tincture, in the fire.n7423 ¶350
19. And when they came to the place of which God had told him; Abraham built there an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it; and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son (Gen. xxii. 9, 10). This is now the right earnestness, viz. the figure how God would bind his Son by Adam's children, viz. by Abraham's children, the Jews; that is, he would bind our sin, and lay it upon the wood; that is, hang it on the cross; viz. on the figure of the holy Trinity, which was become in man a wooden earthly cross: whereas before, the life's cross, viz. the figure of the Deity, was spiritual and holy in Adam; but in the earthly lust it had made itself earthly, and as 'twere wooden. Thus also the death, viz. the dying of the holy cross in man must be again offered up to God upon a wooden earthly cross; and be again changed out of the earthly death into the holy spiritual figure.n7423 ¶351
20. Christ should not be slain, but hung up on the cross, pierced through in his hands and feet. For the anger of God was awakened in the conversation and works of our hands and feet; and therefore also Isaac, in the figure of Christ, must not be slain; and also not burnt; for he was not the right one, but only the figure in our humanity; for he could not accomplish this offering in its powers. And it denotes that we are indeed bound with Christ, and laid upon the wood, and also must die for Christ's sake. But with our death we cannot attain this offering, as Isaac also could not effect that; but the ens of faith in Abraham and Isaac, out of which Christ arose, the same did effect it; and can yet now in these days effect it in the Christians in Christ in his humanity in us.n7423 ¶352
21. And as Isaac was represented in Christ's figure, as if he were to be the sacrifice, even so every true Christian must with Isaac enter into Christ's figure. He must willingly resign himself into Christ's death; and bind his sin with the will in the spirit of Christ, and offer it upon the altar of Christ; and with a full and free will die wholly to sin. Then comes the voice of God, as it came to Abraham, and to Hagar in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, and says, Do not anything to nature, viz. your son: now I know you believe God.n7423 ¶353
22. But it must come so far with the penitent sinner, as here it did with Abraham and Isaac, where Isaac was laid, ready bound upon the wood, and Abraham took the knife to slay him. There must be a very real sincere earnestness in this matter. The sinful man must bind the sin with all his thoughts and mind, and give himself wholly into the process; that he will now die unto sin, and offer it up in faith and confidence to God, in Christ's death. He must take the knife with Abraham into the hand; that is, he must wholly take and fasten into his mind to do the work of earnest repentance in dying to sin. It must come to the real and effectual practice, and not only come before the altar and say, I am a sinner, God has offered Christ for me, and yet keep the sinful will; but he must bind sin in Christ's death, and lay himself wholly with all power and strength on the burnt-offering's altar upon the wood.n7423 ¶354
23. The evil earthly will must be bound, and resigned up with earnestness, and cast upon God's altar in Christ's death; and be also offered up in Christ's dying; and not only comfort the sinful man, and flatter it with Christ's death, saying, God takes away sin from us in Christ's satisfaction and merit; we need only comfort ourselves therewith, and apply it from without to ourselves. No, no; but we also ourselves must die to sin in Christ's death, and put on Christ's offering in his death; and as an obedient Isaac we must cast ourselves on God's mercy, in the spirit and will of Christ, and arise in Christ, in and with him, that God may justify us from the altar of sin-offering, with Isaac, in Christ, which is the true offering in the figure of Isaac.n7423 ¶355
24. Not as Babel teaches. There must be an entire and sincere earnestness, and not only a comforting [and applying promises of consolation], but we must with Abraham obey God, and then we put on Christ's suffering and death; and Christ's death avails only in us, and here 'tis truly said, You are saved by grace, in Christ's merit. The will of self attains it not, but that which enters into Christ's death, and dies; it must come to the death and mortification of the own selfwill: the soul's will must be an utter destroying enemy to sin in the flesh, viz. to the lust of the flesh; there must be an opposite enmity between them, else Christ's death is not at all profitable to any.n7423 ¶356
25. And Moses says, The angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham (Gen. xxii. 11): that is, when man resigns up his will wholly, and willingly desires to obey the voice of the Lord, having given himself into Christ's suffering, death, and reproach, that he now will in the cross and suffering hold still, and steadfast to God, under Christ's red banner,l then God calls man with a double2 voice; as here he did Abraham, where God said unto him, Abraham, Abraham. That is, he calls to him in his own voice in his word, and also in the voice of the human essence; that is, he opens to him the divine hearing in himself so that he hears God from without in his word of his servants, and also from within in his own life's word, viz. in the sensual voice, which was divided in Babel by the children of Nimrod, and formed into the spirits of letters, where the mental tongue was then compacted. Here it arises again in the uncompacted sensual tongue, so that man hears what the Lord speaks in him. Of which Babel knows nothing, nor can know, nor will know; but climbs up continually in the compacted tongue on the tower of Babel into a heaven of human selfhood; and has put Christ's garment outwardly upon itself; but it has not the twofold voice; therefore also it does not hear when God calls Abraham.n7423 ¶357
26. And Abraham answered, Here am I. And he [the angel] said, Lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do you any thing unto him: for now I know that you fear God, and have not spared your only son for my sake (Gen. xxii. 12). That is thus:n7423 ¶358
when man has wholly resigned up his self, viz. his own will or son, and put it wholly to the mortification in Christ's death, then the nature of man falls into sadness; for it has lost its right [its own law and will]. Then says the spirit of God by the soul, Do nothing to your nature; now I know that it is given up and resigned to me, and that the soul has now an assurance 3 of confidence in God; and is fully bold even to leave the outward life, for God's sake, and give over its will to me in obedience. As here Abraham had fully resigned up his will unto God; he would now do whatsoever God commanded him.n7423 ¶359
27. And as Abraham did not spare his son, and would have given him up unto death; so also God did not spare his Son, and gave him to death for us. Even so should we also not spare even our own will, but rather be willing to leave all whatsoever the own will has taken possession of, and delights in, and willingly die to all temporals for God's sake; let it be principality, dominion or kingdom, temporal honour, or goods, or whatsoever it may be that is our dearly beloved son. All this a Christian must give over, and resign up in the mind;n7423 ¶360
1 Ensign. 2 Twofold. 3 Plerophory.n7423 ¶361
and account and esteem himself only a servant therein; yea, esteem his outward life not for his own; but in his mind depart from and forsake every creature. And then he lies bound upon the wood of the burnt-offering's altar, and waits for the voice of God from heaven, which calls to him; and becomes the voice and mouth of his life. And this is truly with Abraham, to believe God, where God believes in man; and then God says, Now I know that you fear God, and puttest your trust in him alone, for the human will sinks into the most pure being of God.n7423 ¶362
28. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and lo! a ram was hung in a thicket by his horns: alzd he went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.n7423 ¶363
And Abraham called the name of the place, The Lord 1 sees; as it is said to this day, Upon the mount where the Lord sees (Gen. xxii. 13, 14). This is the golden figure which shows that the killing, death and dying, does not reach the true man, but only the ram with his horns, which sticks in the flesh and blood in the thorns of sin. And it chiefly denotes that the true human soul 2 in Christ and his children shall not die in this burnt offering of God; but after that it has resigned up the will of self; then God opens its eyes, that it sees the ram behind it, viz. it spies the will of the wild evil flesh, and learns to know it, which will sticks with its pushing beast's horns in the thorny thicket of the devil, in flesh and blood, viz. in the desire of the vanity of the world in self-full lust. This the resigned soul sees, and offers it up for a burnt offering in the stead of the true nature; for in this burnt offering the right nature is delivered from the ram of the flesh. The horns are the injections, oppositions and assaults of the devil, and the thicket of thorns is the Serpent's ens, which the lust of Adam has introduced.n7423 ¶364
29. Thus we must understand in this figure, that the whole man in Christ's person should not be given to the anger of God, as if the Adamical man should be wholly consumed and devoured by it. No; but the wild ram only; the enmity, the opposite will, the property of apostacy and rebellion; but the life's essence should remain for ever. The same Adam, which God created unto Paradise, the same shall remain eternally; but the division or dissonant disunion of the life's forms, in that they are rent asunder and brought into the property of selfhood, whence strife and enmity is arisen in man; [I say] this evil ram; viz. this introduced infection, vain desire, and adverse will, must be offered up in Christ in the fire of God's anger; this was the beastn7423 ¶365
1 Jehovah-jireh. 2 Text, souls-man.n7423 ¶366
for the burnt offering. The Lamb of God in Adam shall not be consumed in the fire; but it must only shed its blood; it must immerse and sink itself wholly, with the human nature, into the One, viz. into the Eternal Nothing, without all nature; and then this place is called, Here the Lord sees; that is, when the ram is offered, then this place is afterwards the temple of God, where the Lord sees.n7423 ¶367
30. And the spirit of Moses speaks very hiddenly hereof, and says, Hence it is said still to this day: Upon the mount where the Lord sees.n7423 ¶368
The mount is the life's nature, where the Lord has seen, not only in Abraham and Isaac, but he sees in Christ's spirit, yet, at this day upon this mount in the children of God. When the ram is offered up, then the Spirit of God sees through nature, as the sun throughshines a glass, or as a fire through-heats an iron.n7423 ¶369
31. Therefore a man ought not to be so foolish as to torment his whole life in his repentance and conversion, and to offer it up in the fire of death, without God's command; but he must sacrifice only the sin, and self-love of vanity; he must offer up only the ram, and not do any violence or mischief to nature; not, strike, whip and beat it; or creep into a corner, and suffer the body to starve for hunger. No, he must not, out of his own purpose, give the image of God to death; but the ram he must. He merits not anything by plaguing, martyring and torturing himself; for God has bestowed his heart to that end, to redeem us from pain and torment.n7423 ¶370
32. When the soul with the right nature has tamed itself from the ram of the flesh, then it must sacrifice the ram to the death of Christ; but it must remain steadfast in great humility and resignation in God; and not any further afflict and rack itself, either with doubts, or with any other external inflicted tortures; and also give nature its necessary nourishment, and not enfeeble and distemper itself; for it is the temple and the image of God. But it must daily and continually mortify the ram in the flesh, viz. the selfish lust of the evil flesh, and the will to the selfhood [or ownhood] of this world; and although the flesh be disquieted, seeing it must forsake what it fain would have, yet the true nature and the soul must not give heed to it. Also it must not take care for the sake of the flesh, where that should have its maintenance, but commit it to God, and go on in his calling as a daylabourer in the service of his Lord and Master, and let God take care for the ram, and give it what he please.n7423 ¶371
33. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not spared your only son, that I will bless and multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand that is upon the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and through your seed shall all the nations of the earth he blessed; because you have obeyed my voice. And so Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheha, and dwelt there (Gen. xxii. 15-19). This is now the seal of faith: when man has wholly given himself up to God, then God swears unto the humanity by himself that he will bless man; that his life's essence shall thenceforward spread forth itself in his power, and grow unto a great tree of divine essence in the wisdom, whose fruit and knowledge shall be infinite and innumerable. As he sware unto Abraham, that out of his body or life's essence many nations should arise; also how his life's essence should possess the gates of the enemies, viz. of the devil, and death, as here he gives a full and pregnant hint concerning Christ and his Christendom; how they should destroy the devil's kingdom, and break down his gate in man: This the faith in God's children is able to do.n7423 ¶372
34. For so soon as the judgement of the earthly man has been held in the penitent man, so that the soul rejects the will of the evil flesh, viz. the will of the animal soul, and brings it into judgement to the condemnation of death, and resigns itself up wholly unto God; then God swears in Christ Jesus this oath unto the soul, and sets it to be a prince over the enemies, viz. over the proud and haughty devils, even to judge them, and obtains full power over them, and drives them out.n7423 ¶373
35. After these things Moses mentions how the blessing of Abraham did spread forth itself and he makes a relation of his brother Nahor, how Milcah bare unto him eight sons; from whom great nations did arise, viz. the Assyrians; who indeed did not spring forth out of the ens of faith, viz. in the line of Christ, as Abraham, but out of the natural Adam, upon whom also the blessing of Abraham did light. 1 For the history is so exactly deciphered that a man may see, that God has not only chosen the natural line of Christ, proceeding from Abraham and Isaac, but also the lines of nature in the Adamical tree, which he would also bring together, and manifest himself to them, and they who would believe in God should be engrafted into the line of Christ; that is, those who should be capable of the divine ens in the voice of the Lord, whose will should direct itself to God.n7423 ¶374
1 Passed or went.n7423 ¶375
36. As we may see again in this figure, how God has not rejected the kingdom of nature in man, but that he in Christ will deliver it out of the anguish and enmity; and that a man should and must continue in the kingdom of nature; as Abraham when he had finished this offering, he went with his son and two young men to Beer-sheba, and dwelt there. By which the spirit of Moses signifies, that when Abraham had performed this calling in the figure of Christ before the Lord, he returned again unto his natural affairs, viz. unto the doing of this world's business. He went to Beer-sheba, that is, into the toil and labour whereinto Adam has brought us, where a child of God in the cloven and broken nature, viz. in Beer-sheba, must work in God, with teaching, and praying, and also in nature, with the labour of the hand to maintain the outward mao, and follow the wonders of the outward world in the formed word, and help to form, manifest and bring them forth in figure, to the contemplation of the wisdom of God.n7423 ¶376
37. Also hereby is hinted very clearly, that a child of God in this world's being does not stand daily and hourly in the operation of the spiritual figure, that his spirit can see and know that [only]; but also in the natural, where the Spirit of God goes also along working in the work of nature, and manifests itself in another property in him. As it may be seen here in Abraham, and all the saints, that God did sometimes manifest himself to them in the figure of Christ, and sometimes again in the cross, and labour, in the temptation and contrariety of the nature of the corrupt Adam; so that they have lived in weakness and infirmities, as all Adam's children [have done and do].n7423 ¶377
38. And we ought not to look upon and consider this figure concerning Abraham, in all that the spirit of Moses and Esdras [Esra] has written down, but as a type of Christ and Adam, viz. of the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of nature; that hereby God has represented the figure of Christ and his Christendom, how he would again redeem and deliver them from the great toil and labour.n7423 ¶378
39. Wherewith also the kingdom of darkness in the pain and torment is continually represented, and how the same does pant and reach after man, and how man does stand here [in this life], as in a field, and grows; on whom sometimes the sun of divine love does glimpse and shine, and sometimes again God's wrath and anger; and how man must be purged, tried and purified. And the chiefest and most especial point herein is this: that a man must give up and resign himself to God, in faith and full assurance, and hold still unto him, and let him work in him as he please; and how also he must learn to bend and bow his own nature, and lead it towards God; that it, in all things may desire to be God's instrument and servant, and desire and will to work nothing but what belongs to the divine manifestation in the wonders of nature, for the contemplation of God's wisdom; and on the contrary reject the own-will of the devil, and all desire to selfhood.n7423 ¶379
40. And we should not look upon the written history of Moses concerning the patriarchs, so blindly as the Jews and Babel do; as if they were only a mere history. No; the same is not only full of the types of Christ and Adam, viz. of the old, and the new man, but there are also secret and mysterious intimations and prophecies concerning the hidden spiritual world, showing what shall be after this time.n7423 ¶380
41. Reason must know, that the Spirit of God has not laboured in the work only to set forth the histories of the ancients, which for the most part seem but simple and childlike. No; they are set forth for a type and information.n7423 ¶381
42. The Spirit of God has represented the greatest wonders therein, which he would accomplish in man; and that, in a plain, simple and childlike manner, that so the pride of the devil, and the subtlety or wisdom of reason might be confounded and made foolish thereby.n7423 ¶382
43. For we must know, that the greatest power and virtue, together with the wonders, does lie in the humility and lowliness; and how God is so near unto all things, and yet nothing apprehends him, unless it stand still unto him, and give up the own-will; and then he works through all, as the sun [works] through the wholen7423 ¶383
The Forty-Ninth Chaptern7423 ¶384
Of the Death of Sarah, and the hereditary Sepulchre of Abraham: What is understood and signified thereby 1n7423 ¶385
1. THE spirit in Moses has set before him the whole figure of man, by Abraham, showing what his condition should be in this world; and what hereafter should become of him. For after he had first spoken of the beginning, viz. of the stock of the human tree, showing whence it did spring, he afterwards declares its boughs and branches, together with its power and virtue, and mentions how this tree is corrupted in its power and essence; and that God has bestowed the highest tincture upon it to tincture it again, and renew it; and how the poison in the essence of the tree is to be resisted. 2n7423 ¶386
2. Here he does now very wonderfully signify how this tree has stood in the corrupt property in a strange field, and rooted itself with the root into a strange or alienate ownhood, wherein the root was not native; and how the root of the human tree must forsake the strange field, together with the strange introduced essence; and wholly give itself freely out of its life's will and desire.n7423 ¶387
3. Also hereby is signified, how the place whence the human root did spring, is between the holy spiritual world, and this earthly corrupt world; and that man's propriety, from whence he is sprung, does stand in a double cave,3 viz. in two Principles; and how he must be buried in this twofold pit, as a kernel which is sown into the ground; and how also [this cave of Machpelah] this twofold pit, is man's propriety, of which essence or substance he himself is, essentially.n7423 ¶388
4. The figure of this we see here in Abraham, that when he conversed in this outward world; he possessed upon the earth no land of his own, but went from one place unto another, and was everywhere a stranger. But when his Sarah died, then he would have a burying place for a certain possession for his wife, himself also, and his children;n7423 ¶389
and moreover, he would not have it for nothing, but buy it; all whichn7423 ¶390
1 Gen. xxiii.n7423 ¶391
2 Or, has been withstood.n7423 ¶392
3 Our Text has it, The Cave of Machpelah, which here, in the German version is rendered a double cave, or a twofold pit.n7423 ¶393
is a very wonderful typification, and not only a bare history, as the Jews have held it to be, before whose eyes the veil of Moses is hung. But we will here also set forth the inward figure with the outward, and see what the spirit in Moses does here signify.n7423 ¶394
5. Moses says, Sarah died at Hebron, in the head city 1 in the land of Canaan (Gen. xxiii. 2). This may very well thus be: but the spirit has his figure under it; for he looks upon the centre, where the death of the saints is; and where the true man must die, as namely, in the head city, Hebron, that is, in the formed word; where he has introduced the ownhood and selfish lust into the formed word of his life's property; and set himself up into a self-full dominion and regiment, as into a head city, where the self-will has framed and contrived to itself a city, or propriety in the formed word, and built it up for its own peculiar land of possession; where he indeed supposes he is a god, or something of his own, that he may do with and how he please. Now this self-will must die in the head city, viz. in the formed ens of the word in its centre, viz. in the city of its ownhood.n7423 ¶395
6. And this city, Hebron, lies right over against Mamre, viz. between the eternal and the temporal nature; where [the cave of Machpelah] the twofold pit is, viz. the kingdom of God, and [the kingdom] of nature; for in this twofold pit, Abraham would bury his Sarah, and have the pit for his own.n7423 ¶396
7. That is to say, when the children of the saints in Hebron, viz. in the city of human ownhood, do die unto the self-full outward natural life or selfhood, then the true resigned life will no longer stand in a strange field or strange essence, but in its own, from whence it is originally arisen. But seeing it has lost this same life's field in Adam, and rooted itself into a strange field, viz. into the Serpent's field of falsehood, the life cannot take unto itself again, of due right, the first true field, but it must buy it. This is even the figure, that Christ has bought it for his blood of the heavenly essentiality (for the holy tincture), understand [he has thus purchased it] of the eternal nature, wherein God's anger, viz. the wrath of God in the centre of nature, was manifest, and had devoured this field in the human property into itself as its own. For out of the centre of nature the Word of the human property was brought into a formation: this, the children of self had taken into possession; therefore says the spirit, the children of lies had this field for their own possession.n7423 ¶397
1 Our Text, Kirjath-arba.n7423 ¶398
8. This signifies, that God's children must wholly forsake the nature-right in this field of the formed life or word; for they have lost the natural right in it; but in Christ they must buy it again of the Father of nature: They must take Christ for their ransom; and give the Father four hundred shekels of silver for the same. And these are the four centres in the spiritual body's property, which are born in the holy tincture, viz. in Christ's property.n7423 ¶399
9. The first shekel is the true magical fire; the second is the light or love-desire; the third is the holy sound of the mental tongue; the fourth is the formed or conceived ens out of the other properties, where the holy life is formed, and stands in an essence. This is the pure silver without any spot or foulness; under which the spirit of Moses points, that Abraham, in Christ, has given to the children of lies, viz. to Ephron; understand to the Father, or the Father's property, [for his cave of Machpelah] for his twofold pit, viz. for the centre of the Father's nature according to eternity, and for the centre of the temporal nature; in both which the divine lubet 1 has brought itself out of the property of both centres, into an ens, and into the creature of the humanity; which human creature has broken itselfofffrom the universal being, and put itself into a selfishness; therefore it must be again rooted into the universal. For which end it must be tinctured with the most holy ens, and engrafted in; which the spirit does here compare to pure silver, and so secretly intimates in the figure.n7423 ¶400
10. When Abraham conversed upon the earth he desired to buy no field for his own possession. But now, when he was to bury his Sarah, he would have the sepulchre hereditary and peculiar; and howed himself before the children of the land (Gen. xxiii. 7); and entreated them for it;n7423 ¶401
whereas they would freely have given him the field, and bowed themselves before him. But the spirit of Moses has its figure here; for he has represented man to him in a very perfect model; for which cause also he plays in the process in the figure; showing that the children which belong unto Christ must bow themselves before God the Father, from whom all beings do originally come; that he would sell unto them the twofold pit, 2 viz. the kingdom of nature, and the kingdom of grace, in Christ's blood, for the same, with the four centres of humility and the love-birth, the Father takes for payment.n7423 ¶402
1 Or, good will and pleasure.n7423 ¶403
2 The Cave of Machpelah, the double valley.n7423 ¶404
11. And that the children of lies and Ephron would freely give it to Abraham, and yet at last, upon the desire of Abraham, took money for the same, intimates unto us, that God the Father has indeed freely given us the kingdom of grace; for he gave it freely to Christ his Son, in our humanity; but Christ would have it for a natural due right; therefore he offers his humility to his Father, that he would be pleased to take his payment for it, viz. his human property, of him; as here Abraham did in Christ's figure. Although he could have taken the field, yet he would not; for the cave 1 of Machpelah should not be taken, but dearly purchased with the most precious substance. God took the earnest or ransom of Christ for his cave 1 of Machpelah, for payment. Therefore Abraham must stand in Christ's figure; for the body must be buried in the cave 1 of Machpelah, viz. in the eternal and temporal nature, viz. in the formed compacted Word, if so be it shall arise again in the motion in the voice of this same Word, and subsist in its image which it first had.n7423 ¶405
12. For Moses says, Hebron is situate in the land of Canaan (Gen. xxiii. 2), which God promised to give unto Abraham. And understand by Canaan the holy crystalline world or earth, viz. the city of God; which shall hereafter be manifest; wherein Hebron lies, viz. the head city of the land; whereby externally the outward world with its figure is set forth; and internally the holy eternal land of Canaan.n7423 ¶406
13. And we see very clearly what the spirit of Moses means in its figure; for first it represents by Isaac Christ's figure with his offering and death; and presently thereupon it sets forth also man's own death, and where man must die, namely, in his city, Hebron, the city of human self; and whereinto he must be buried and put, namely, into the twofold pit, viz. into the kingdom of God, and [into the kingdom of ] this world. And it is therefore called a twofold cave, because there are two mansions, viz. a twofold continent of life in two Principles, whence man did originally arise. But if he be buried in the will of his selfhood in the Serpent's desire, then he does not reach this twofold cave; and though he should be therein, yet he lives only in the apostate essence in the ownhood of the devil, viz. in the introduced Serpent's ens in the dark world's property, which is manifest and predominant in the Serpent's ens.n7423 ¶407
1 Twofold pit.n7423 ¶408
14. The chiefest piece in this figure is, that the spirit of Moses does point at the twofold life; how this world has a twofold life and essence, which he intimates by the twofold cave wherein Abraham would have his burying place. To signify that his twofold humanity, viz. one out of the divine ens, out of the eternity and [the] heavenly spiritual essentiality; and the other which is out of the time, even out of this world's being and substance, should be buried and put into an eternal sepulchre, where the substance of the twofold body shall lie in its original mother; and leave the own-will in this eternal grave in death, that so the Spirit of God might alone live, rule and will in the spirit of the creature, viz; in the soul: and the life of man might be only his instrument, wherewith he might work and will how and what he please.n7423 ¶409
15. For so it must be, that the human will might be brought again into the only will of the Deity, and [the] eternity; for, in the beginning, when God breathed the soul into the flesh, it was in the eternal living Word (John i), and God's Spirit did form it into a likeness of the Deity, viz. into a creatural soul. Which soul had turned itself away from the only eternal Word of God into a selfhood, that so it might be manifest in evil and good, and rule in the unlikeness or distemperature.n7423 ¶410
16. This unlikeness or distemperature should be buried or put again into the likeness or temperature, viz. into the essence out of which the soul and body did arise. That is, each essence's property should return again into its mother: and the mother is a twofold cave, viz. the inward spiritual and divine kingdom, and the outward visible, sensible, palpable kingdom of the external world, wherein Abraham would have his burying place.n7423 ¶411
17. For the outward kingdom remains for ever, for it is produced out of the eternal, as a model, platform or visible image of the inward spiritual kingdom. But the dominion in the stars and four elements does not remain for ever in such ownhood or propriety; but only one element [remains], wherein the four are understood, but in equal accord and harmony, in just and equal weight, number and measure, in one only love-will; where the ascending, domineering, stirring might of the divided figure, four elements, does no longer rule, but the soft, meek and still humility, in a pleasant, lovely, delightful air 1 [or still, harmonious sound] .n7423 ¶412
1 Musical air.n7423 ¶413
18. The compacted property of the Word, in the soul of the outward world, viz. in the ownhood or selfness of the third Principle, does cease; the outward spirit of the world is changed into the inward, that the inward might rule and govern wholly through the outward (which at present the great motion of the enkindled might of the dark world does withhold), and carry in its dominion; in which [dark world's property, which is now so predominant] the devil is an aspiring, assaulting prince. And all things work and tend to the Great Severation; that so the properties of the three Principles might each become creatural in themselves, to which end the eternity has brought itself into a Fiat, or desire, to the formation of the essence, viz. of the Grand Mystery;l that thus one might be manifest in the other; the evil in the good, and the good in the evil; and each thing might have its own seat and habitation.n7423 ¶414
1 Mysterii Magni.n7423 ¶415
The Fiftieth Chaptern7423 ¶416
Of Abraham's sending forth his Servant to take a wife for his Son Isaac: what we are to understand under this figuren7423 ¶417
1. ABRAHAM strongly engages his servant, who was the chief ruler in his family government, and laid an oath upon him, that he should not take a wife unto his son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom he dwelt, but go unto his kindred, and to his father's house, and take him a wife (Gen. xxiv. 2, 3). Reason does look upon this figure in a mean and simple manner, as if Abraham did hate and abominate this people among whom he dwelt, because of their evil conversation; but the Spirit of God in Moses who has thus noted down this figure, has his secret and mysterious meanings couched herein; and plays with the whole written history of the first book of Moses, 1 as with a most pleasant interlude; and points continually by the outward act of the external man upon the spiritual figure of the spiritual eternal man, in the kingdom of Christ.n7423 ¶418
2. The servant must swear unto Abraham an oath, that he would take a wife unto his son out of his family, stock and kindred. Wherefore did Abraham lay an oath upon him, whereas the servant must obey his master without taking an oath; and Isaac would not have taken a wife contrary to his father's mind and will? But the spirit of Moses does look here into the internal figure: Isaac stands here in the figure of Christ; and Abraham's servant stands in the figure of nature; and the Canaanites do stand in the figure of the introduced Serpent's ens, out of which the rebellious, selfish will of man's selfhood is arisen, viz. in the figure of the bestial man, which shall not inherit the kingdom of God. These three the spirit of Moses does set before him in the type, and thereby points at the true man which shall subsist eternally.n7423 ¶419
The inward figure is thus:n7423 ¶420
3. Abraham requires his servant, who was the chief in his whole family. Abraham here betokens God the Father; and the servant, by whom he governs, betokens nature. Nature must here in its might and strength swear unto God, that is, deeply engage and essentially bind itself that it will not take unto Isaac, that is, to the Christians, viz. to God's children, a wife, that is, a matrix, of the Canaanites, viz. of the Serpent's ens; or associate with it to the propagation of the Serpent's ens; that it will not assume the poison of the dark world's property unto it, viz. the Canaanitish property, and introduce it into the children of Christ for their wife, viz. into the tincture of Venus, which is the true female matrix in men and women; but that it will join the true Adamical man, which God had created in his image (viz. the true human essence proceeding from the first original tree out of the first root, viz. from Abraham's stock, who betokens Adam) unto the ens of Christ, viz. to the true Isaac in the children of Christ.n7423 ¶421
4. Understand this thus: Adam has introduced into our flesh and soul the ens of the Serpent and the devil, which nature has taken into soul and body; and has begotten and brought forth therein a selfish, rebellious will, which is disobedient unto God.n7423 ¶422
5. But now, seeing that God had again introduced the holy ens of his holy word into Isaac, which Abraham apprehended in the desire of faith, and represented the same here in Isaac, with a new twig springing forth out of the corrupt tree of the human property, and born out of Christ's spirit, thereupon nature, viz. God's officer, must here deeply engage itself to God, and swear that it will no more take the Serpent's ens for a wife, viz. For its beloved companion and yoke-fellow (understand [that it will not take its comfort] out of the poisonful Serpentine property of the introduced iniquity of the adverse opposite will). But God's officer, viz. nature, must take essence and substance out of Abraham's true climate, where Abraham's home was, in Adam, viz. out of the right human essence; and bring the same to Isaac, viz. to Christ's members in their heavenly spiritual holy ens of faith, as a spiritual woman, with whom the true man takes delight in himself with the heavenly matrix, in pure desire of love, and loves his own nature in God's love, and not in the Canaanitish selfish Serpent's ens, in the apostate, rebellious, ungodly will; that so the new birth might be holy in its virginity as to the inward man.n7423 ¶423
6. For man, in his essence or being, does stand in a twofold essence, viz. in the natural and [in the] supernatural; in the divine ens of the formed Word, and in the natural ens of the centre of nature in the Fiat, viz. in the divine desire; in which desire nature, and the bright-burning world, do take their original; which bright-flaming nature should not any more take the false lust of the bestial Serpent's property into itself: of which the spirit here does prophesy in the inward figure.n7423 ¶424
7. And Abraham's servant said, How, if the woman will not follow me, shall I bring your son again unto the land from whence you came (Gen. xxiv. 5)? The meaning hereof in the inward understanding is this: Nature speaks to God, and says, How, if the right human ens will not follow me, seeing it has a cleaving affection to the Serpent's poison, shall I then bring your son, viz. the holy heavenly ens, again into the land, viz. into the place from whence it came, along with me? That is, when God betrusts the officer of nature with his holy ens, to bring the ,same into the human property, and to take the human ens for a wife of the heavenly man, then says nature, viz. God's officer, How then, if the woman (understand the human ens) will not follow me and come with this Isaac, that is, with the ens of Christ, into the true human land, viz. into the true Adamical paradisical tree, shall I bring your son again, viz. your holy ens, into the place ofn7423 ¶425
8. And Abraham said, Beware you that you do not bring my son thither again. The Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and from the land of my kindred, and that spoke unto me, and swear also unto me, saying, Unto your seed I will give this land; he shall send his angel before you, and you shall there take a wife unto my son. But if the woman will not follow you, then you are clear from the oath: only bring not my son thither again. And then the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware unto him concerning this matter (Gen. xxiv. 6-9).n7423 ¶426
9. The inward meaning is thus: God says to his officer, nature, Have a care, that you do not go according to your reason, and conceive another will, and bring my holy ens again thither from whence it is come, for it must dwell in man. The God of heaven, who has taken the human ens from the eternal Word, from his eternal native country, which is the house of the eternal Father, who has promised man the land of Canaan according to the paradisical property, and moreover has sworn to him, he shall send his angel before you; that so you may take a wife unto my son there, even where the angel, viz. the divine will, shall guide and direct you. That is, when God will betroth and bind himself with his Word and power in his children, with an eternal marriage, then he sends his angel before, viz. his will, into the human ens; that the same does convert and turn itself ton7423 ¶427
10. The nature of the mind must not in its will of reason take upon it to lord and master it, and doubt at what God will do, when the office or charge of a servant is laid upon it; it must not make itself its looking-glass, and doubt, when it sees that the soul lies captivated in the ens of the Serpent; it must not think with itself; I shall not here arrive [with a prosperous success] with my divine message; but it must leave that to God, and discharge its message according to God's command, and commit it to God, how he will bring the woman, viz. the human spirit, and betroth and join it with the son Isaac, that is, with Christ, in the divine ens.n7423 ¶428
11. But if the woman will not follow you, then you are clear of the oath; that is, if the human will, when I send my will before you in man, will not follow you, then the messenger, viz. God's officer, with the sent heaven's ens, is clear. Only, bring not my son thither again; that is, bring not the heavenly ens again into that essence out of which it is come; but stand still therewith, and hear whereunto God shall direct and incline you; for the rain from heaven shall not ascend up again empty without fruit. So likewise God's word and command shall not return home empty, but work and bring forth fruit in its formed wisdom.n7423 ¶429
12. If one man will not, then the same word falls upon another which is capable of it. Therefore nature, viz. the messenger, officer, advocate or petitioner of the heavenly message, must not bring the word with the divine ens back again into that place, viz. into the inward divine voice. For what God once speaks forth by his Word in power, that shall and must stand in a divine form, to the divine contemplation. Nature must go forward as a messenger his way, and declare that the Lord has given Isaac all his goods; that is, he has given to Christ all his goods; and desires now a wife, viz. man, who should give himself in marriage with Isaac in Christ.n7423 ¶430
13. And the servant laid his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware unto him concerning this matter (Gen. xxiv. 9). That is, when God put his holy word with the heavenly ens or essence,l viz. with the formed wisdom, into the natural ens of Mary, as into God's servant, and God and man became one person, then the human nature sware under the thigh of the Father's eternal nature unto God;2 that it would obey God, and henceforward go forth, and seek the human wife, and marry it to the divine ens. All which is to be understood in Christ's person, who in his assumed humanity, as Abraham's, or God his Father's, servant, in the natural property, should go forth with his word and seek this woman, viz. his bride and spouse, which the angel of the Lord, viz. God's will, should bring unto him.n7423 ¶431
1 Did dive, immerse, or baptise. 2 Or, in God.n7423 ¶432
14. And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; and had with him all sorts of his master's goods: and arose and went to Mesopotamia, the city of Nahor (Gen. xxiv. 10). Here now the spirit looks upon the process of God; and intimates, how God sent his angel or messenger, Gabriel, with the voice of nature to the human nature in Nahor, viz. to Adam's nature in the ens of Mary; in which voice the living holy word was hidden with the heavenly living ens; and gave also the Father's nature ten camels; that is, the ten forms of the three Principles to the natural and supernatural fire-life. Namely, seven forms of the centre of nature, and three forms of the three distinctions of the Principles; all which are God's camels whereby he bears and carries all things.n7423 ¶433
15. And the goods of the Lord are the formed wisdom of the great wonders and powers. All these, God's officer took along with him, when he had the divine word in himself, and introduced the same into the human natural ens, even into the ens of Mary; or awakened, opened or manifested the same therein; as a man might express the great deeds and works of God; whereas indeed the outward, compacted, bound-up, sensual tongue, cannot give words sufficient enough to the deep mental understanding.n7423 ¶434
16. For here the spirit of Moses does take the angel's message along with Isaac's figure, and plays externally in the figure, withn7423 ¶435
Isaac and Rebecca, as Christ's figure; and inwardly he plays with Mary, as Adam's essence, and with Christ's, as the virginlike divine ens.n7423 ¶436
17. And the spirit of Moses says further, And the servant caused the camels to kneel down without the city by a well of water at evening time, even about the time that women use to go out to draw water (Gen. xxiv. 11).n7423 ¶437
This signifies and notes out internally, how the mystery of the nature of the three Principles, being the bearers or carriers of the formed wisdom of God, has laid itself down by the divine fountain without the city. The city betokens the hidden mysteries of the divine holy ens of the formed wisdom; about which, the nature of the three Principles 1 has laid itself; for nature is external, and a carrier of the mysteries of God: it lies by the wellspring of God, viz. by the birth of the holy Trinity.n7423 ¶438
1 Or, the three Principles of nature.n7423 ¶439
OF ISAAC TAKING A WIFE The outward figure is thus explained:n7423 ¶440
18. At evening: that is, in the last days of the world, or towards the evening time in man. When the eternal night draws near, then God brings his bearer,l viz. the will of the Father's nature, which lies down, by the fountain of the divine property in man, and will there give his camels, viz. his will, drink. Like as towards the evening, that is, in the last time, he did lay his will to the human nature in the ens of Mary, by the true wellspring of the Covenant, and there gave the human nature drink.n7423 ¶441
19. And as the servant of Abraham, standing by the well of water in Mesopotamia, did purpose and endeavour to fulfil his master's will, and yet did not look upon himself [and cast about in his reason] how it should be, but commended his cause to God, to do as he would please, and only set a lot before him, that he might see what way God would lead and direct him; even so also the spirit of Moses does here play in the figure of Christ. For nature in the ens or seed of Mary was the servant of God, which pitched down before the ens of the Covenant, as an instrument of God, and gave God the honour, and committed it unto him, how he would bring it to the holy virginity in the holy ens of the Covenant in Mary; as here Abraham's servant commended it to God, when he came before the fountain, how he would lead him and whither, or what he should do; that God might bring him to the true virgin, whom God would give his master's son.n7423 ¶442
20. So likewise it was not effected by and from the purpose, understanding or power of nature, that nature was brought to the holy ens in the Covenant, and married the divine Virgin in the ens of the Word of God. Nature understood nothing of it, how it should be brought to pass, or what it should do to purchase or accomplish the same. It knew not the holy virginity in the Covenant. But when God's command did sound or speak unto it, by the angel Gabriel, then it gave God the honour, and committed it to him what he would do and work through it; that God might espouse it to the virgin of wisdom. As here Abraham's servant prayed unto God, that he would bring to the fountain of water the right virgin which God had chosen for him.n7423 ¶443
1 Or, carrier.n7423 ¶444
21. For by the well of God nature shall know what kind of virgin shall come and give the camels, or the bearer, nature, drink. As Rebecca came forth by God's instigation, and gave the camels of Abraham's servants drink, so likewise the divine virginity in the ens of Mary came and gave the essence in the seed of Mary, drink; and took the human nature for a spouse and consort.n7423 ¶445
22. And the human nature in the Covenant, in the seed of Abraham, in his ens of faith (when he apprehended the word of promise in the faith, which was his righteousness), had the fair golden-forehead-jewel 1 in itself; and the two bracelets, which it hung on the word of God, which moved itself in the angel's message in Mary, where then the ens of faith was espoused or married with the now-moving voice; which motion beset and embraced nature; as here Abraham's servant, when he saw that God had brought to him the true virgin, he drew forth the free gift of his master, Abraham, and hung it on the virgin.n7423 ¶446
1 Or, ear-rings.n7423 ¶447
23. Thus also nature, in the Covenant, in the seed of Mary, did put the fair jewel (which God promised Adam in Paradise, and opened in Abraham, which Abraham apprehended in the spirit and faith), upon the voice of God, viz. on the living moving word of God, which sounded in the angel's message, in Abraham's ens of faith; and herewith also, itself.n7423 ¶448
24. For Abraham had laid hold on the word of the Covenant in faith, so that it was formed into an ens, but not wholly into the humanity; and this ens was the fair jewel, which nature bare as a hidden treasure in itself, until the limit of the Covenant, even towards the evening of the world; and then God's living voice sounded into nature in the seed of the woman. And so nature, viz. God's servant, gave forth the hidden pearl, and hung it on the forehead of the virginlike love of Jesus, which was moved in the angel's message; and came now to the fountain to draw forth the shut-up virginity, in man, from the divine ens. And there it obtained its bridegroom, viz. the soul of man, with the Father's jewels and great goods: With this the spirit ofn7423 ¶449
Moses does here play, and holds forth a secret intimation under the outward act.n7423 ¶450
25. Abraham's servant made him a lot, to know the virgin by, which was this: She that should come and give him, and all his servants and camels drink, that even she should be the right one (Gen. xxiv. 14). Thus also God has planted this lot, and put it into the nature of the soul and the right humanity: that the virgin, which should refresh the soul with the true humanity out of God's love-fountain, the same the soul should desire for its eternal spouse.n7423 ¶451
26. As it came to pass in Mary, when the angel greeted her, he refreshed the soul) and also her seed of the soul's nature, proceeding from the woman's tincture, whereby this soul's essence brought its desire towards the sweet spring-water of the fountain of Jesus, and drank of this water of the love of Jesus; whereby and wherein it was married to the sweet love of Jesus, in Jehova. So that in this seed of Mary) in the limit of the Covenant, a manly virgin of God was conceived; which is Christ Jesus in our humanity, and in the divine ens in the power of the word of God; a formed God, according to the creature; but according to the divine voice, God all in all. Understand, a formed God according to the human property, viz. a visible image of the Deity, and therein the whole invisible immense God in Trinity inn7423 ¶452
27. This whole figure stands in the process of the new birth, and shows how it should come to pass. For Abraham in his faith stands in the figure of Adam, viz. in God the Father's figure; who created him in his very image and likeness. And Isaac his son stands in the figure of the humanity of Christ, viz. in the Son's figure.n7423 ¶453
28. God the Father has given all his goods, understand, of the formed Word, viz. all created and procreated beings, in the place of this world, unto his Son, who manifested himself in the divine Image of the humanity; even as Abraham gave all his goods to Isaac, who was the type of Christ.n7423 ¶454
29. And as Abraham would take a wife unto his son Isaac of his kindred, and sent out his chief officer to take a wife unto his son, and yet did not beforehand name the same unto him, and tell him who she should be; but bade him go only to his father's house, and to his kindred, and see what woman God would bring unto him for his son Isaac to take; so likewise God has sent his officer (who rules chief in his whole house, that is, dominion, which is the voice of his revealed Word) into the world, to the right Adamical man, and not to the Canaanitish Serpent's ens; but to the disappeared virginlike image of God, and to the living soul, which is of God the Father's house, that is, property; and looks out, about a virgin, for a wife to his Son, Jesus Christ; that is, he woos for the heavenly virginity in man, which disappeared in Adam; for this virgin God's officer of nature does woo, by his servants which he sends forth, and bids them make suit for this virginity, for a wife to his Son; and join it with him in marriage.n7423 ¶455
30. And as Abraham did not name aforehand the virgin unto his officer, but commanded him to go unto his father's house, and there look up unto God, and see where he should bid him make suit, and take that virgin which God should choose and bring unto him; so likewise God has sent his officer, viz. his holy word, by his servants, into the world to the true man; not to the Serpent-beasts, for these hear not God's word; they have no hearing in them thereto; like as the Canaanites in the Serpent's ens were even wholly bestial, and half dead as to the divine hearing, by reason of their iniquity and self will.n7423 ¶456
31. And he causes his servants, viz. officers, to sit down by the fountain of his holy word; with command, that they should in their office and charge committed unto them, call upon God, and pray, and teach his word, until God draws the virgin's heart, and brings her to the fountain of his word, to draw water out of the wellspring of God's word.n7423 ¶457
32. And when this virgin, understand the inward divine image, which was obscured in Adam, draws water in the fountain of the divine word, then the officer, Abraham's servant, viz. the Father's will, speaks in the soul, saying, Give me to drink of your sweet water of the eternal virginity; and the precious virgin says to the will of God, Drink, my Lord; I will also draw [water] for your camels. Understand by the camels the essences of the human nature proceeding from the Father's property; and by the virgin, understand the nature and property of the light in the love, viz. the essence of the divine ens of the angelical world, which disappeared in Adam, and now comes again to draw water for its bridegroom the soul.n7423 ¶458
33. And now when the officer, viz. God's will, with his camels, viz. the essences of nature, is refreshed with drink by the virgin; then the forth-sent will of the Father, in the essence of nature, gives thanks unto the true Deity; that God has brought this virgin unto him;n7423 ¶459
that he should take this virgin of the love and humanity of Jesus Christ for a wife.n7423 ¶460
34. And forthwith the will of God the Father, takes the precious jewels which God did incorporate into Adam's soul, even into the light of his life, in Paradise, with the precious name Jesus; yea, which jewels were incorporated in the centre of the soul before the foundation of the world was laid (Eph. i. 4), which have been wholly hidden to the soul; which jewels are the holy fire of the hidden love-desire, and hangs the same on the noble virgin of the heavenly world's essence;n7423 ¶461
as a golden ear-ring 1 of half a shekel weight.n7423 ¶462
1 Or, jewel for the forehead.n7423 ¶463
35. This golden jewel [or ear-ring of half a shekel weight] is the new heavenly essentiality which came down or proceeded from heaven; as Christ said, That he was come from heaven (John iii. 13); there he means the ens proceeding or coming from thence, which was the half-holy humanity, viz. the holy ens in the word, which did unite itself to the disappeared heavenly ens in the humanity; so that this golden jewel of half a shekel weight belongs to the divine sound or word, which comes into the humanity, and is hung upon the heavenly virginity in man.n7423 ¶464
36. And now when the marriage is celebrated, and the virginlike ens betrothed to this holy ens, so that the virginity receives this jewel proffered unto it; then it is a whole shekel of gold; half of the Deity, and half of the humanity.n7423 ¶465
37. And the two bracelets, which Abraham's servants, viz. the will of the Father in the soul's nature, puts on the virgin, which are of ten shekels weight of gold, they are the ten forms of the holy fire which are hung with the new introduced humanity of Jesus Christ, his divine ens, on the disappeared virginity; whereby it again receives its true life.n7423 ¶466
38. And when this virgin has thus received this jewel and bracelets, then it rejoices, and runs to her brother Laban, viz. to the third Principle of the outward humanity, proceeding from the limus of the earth; that is, to the outward soul; and tells this unto him; that is, when the virgin's image does receive the ens of Christ, viz. this fair and precious jewel of half a shekel, together with the holy fire of the word, then it penetrates, with its voice of the divine essence, through the outward man (viz. its brother), and declares the divine power; whereby the outward man (understand the third Principle) is glad, and exceedingly rejoices with the virgin of the inward man, and runs also unto the fountain of the word of God, and prays God that he would be pleased to come in unto him with his word. As here Laban prayed Abraham's servant to come in to him; which Abraham's servant, viz. God's will, does willingly, and turns in unto the outward man.n7423 ¶467
39. As Abraham's servant did, thus does the human nature likewise, when it hears the voice of Christ sounding in the inward man, and sees the ornament which the holy Spirit has put on the virgin's image. Then Laban, viz. the brother of the inward image, does earnestly entreat the will of God to come in.n7423 ¶468
40. And when the will of God (here typified by Abraham's servant) is come in unto Bethuel and Laban, viz. into the third Principle of the humanity, then the officer of God, viz. the word of God which comes into man, says, I will not eat of your food (understand of the outward life's essence) except I obtain my errand: that you give my master, viz.n7423 ¶469
my master's son (that is, the humanity of Jesus Christ) your sister, viz. the heavenly virginity, to wife. And he relates the mission or errand of God to the human nature; that is, he opens to it the divine understanding, so that even the natural man does learn to understand the will of God, in which, before, it was blind.n7423 ¶470
41. And then the poor nature with the soul gives up itself into God's will. And then thus speak Laban and Bethuel, This comes from the Lord; we shall not speak anything against it; behold, here is your place, do with me and with my inward [ground] as you please. Here is Rebecca, viz. the formed word of the heavenly property; take it, and marry it to your master's son, viz. to the humanity of Jesus Christ, according to your good-liking, as the Lord has spoken.n7423 ¶471
42. We see here very exactly how the spirit of Moses does speak in the figure, for he sets Laban, viz. Bethuel's son, before the father; viz. the outward soul before the inward fire-soul, the air-soul before the right fire-soul; albeit they are not two, but one, yet they are understood in two Principles. For the fire-soul gives answer through the airsoul; the fire-soul uses the uncompacted tongue, but the air-soul uses the compacted formed language.n7423 ¶472
43. Therefore the spirit of Moses does set Laban, Rebecca's brother, first, as if the business were done by Laban. To signify, that when God's officer, viz. the will of God, in the drawing of the Father, does come into man, and seeks a lodging, and the virgin, then the outward spirit of man must give its promise; for it is turned away from God and the true resignation: Now it must again give its will wholly and fully into God's will.n7423 ¶473
44. And when it comes to pass that the outward soul, with the inward fire- soul, does wholly consent unto this holy match, and give up itself to God, then the will of God, viz. the officer, in the drawing of the Father, does bow himself again towards the true Deity; that is, he comes again unto its seat and place, and brings forth out of Abraham's treasure (that is, out of God the Father's treasury of his formed wisdom) the silver and golden jewels, and hangs them on Rehecca, viz. the heavenly virginity.n7423 ¶474
45. For these jewels do not belong to Laban, or Bethuel (understand to the outward, or inward fire- soul) while it is here in this earthly life, but to the true virgin, Rebecca, proceeding from the divine ens of the formed holy Word, according to the angelical world's property; viz. according to the second Principle, viz. the inward spiritual new man, which is, with Rebecca, married to the right Isaac, Christ. And therefore the spirit of Moses sets down how Abraham's servant gave Rebecca the golden ear-ring and bracelets, with silver and golden jewels, and raiment; but unto Laban, viz. unto Rebecca's brother, and her mother also, he gave spices 1 (Gen. xxiv. 53).n7423 ¶475
1 Our text, precious things.n7423 ¶476
46. O you wonderful God! how plainly do you set forth the great mysteries ! The silver and golden jewels are the treasure of the divine wisdom in the word of life, which treasure the divine Word brings along with it to the right virginity, which died in Adam, and is again brought in Christ to its beloved; and gives it wholly and peculiarly for the ornament of the banquet. And the raiment is the new humanity, wherewith she comes before her bridegroom; and the spices, which were given to Laban and the mother, are the power and virtues of the Holy Spirit, which are freely given to the fire-soul and the air-soul, by the coming in of the tender humanity of Jesus Christ.n7423 ¶477
47. For the outward soul is not in this life time (seeing yet the earthly body adheres unto it) clothed with the new raiment; neither is the silver and golden jewel of the humanity of Jesus Christ given in this life time wholly unto the peculiar possession and power of the fire-soul; but the spices only, that is, the virtue and pleasant aspect of the Holy Spirit; for the fire- soul might become proud and haughty again, if it should have this virgin in its own power, as Lucifer and Adam did. Therefore the fire-soul must here in this life time remain in its Principle; and in the air-soul, viz. in the third Principle, where the earthly evil man lives, it must take on it the cross of Christ.n7423 ¶478
48. But virgin Rebecca, or Sophia, with her bridegroom, Christ, remain in their own, viz. in the second Principle, in heaven; for St. Paul says, Our conversation is in heaven (Phil. iii. 20); understand, the conversation of the virgin [Sophia], where she, with her beloved, Christ, stands in wedlock; and Christ and virgin Sophia are one person: understand the true manly virgin of God, which Adam was before his Eve when he was man and woman, and yet neither of them, but a virgin of God.n7423 ¶479
49. And now, when these nuptials are celebrated, then Abraham's servant, with all his servants, sits down with his obtained bride, and with father and mother at the table, and eat together the marriage feast (Gen. xxiv. 54). That is, when man, understand the inward virginlike spiritual man, is married to Christ, then God eats of man's will and words; and again man eats of God's will and words. There they sit at one feast, and then 'tis truly said and applied, Whosoever hears you, he hears me. Whosoever hears these men to teach and speak of God, he hears God speak, for they speak in the power of the Holy Spirit's spices, and eat together of the great Supper of Christ.n7423 ¶480
50. O, what a very glorious and sumptuous feast is there kept, where this wedding day is celebrated in manl which no Canaanitish serpent-man is worthy to know, or taste of; yes, he does not experimentally taste of it to all eternity; neither knows he what meat or food is there eaten; also what internal joy is there, where Christ and virginn7423 ¶481
Sophia are bride and bridegroom; and the inward and outward soul sit by the bride, and eat with her of this feast; which we leave to the consideration of the children of Christ, who have been at this wedding feast: No man else in this world understands it: none knows anything thereof, but the right Laban and Bethuel.n7423 ¶482
51. But this bridal does not last continually, but when Abraham's servant had obtained the virgin, and celebrated this feast and wedding day with the father and mother, and Laban; and had continued there all night, he arose up early in the morning, and said, Let me go unto my master.n7423 ¶483
52. When Christ has married himself with virgin Sophia, viz. with the inward humanity, soon after, the voice of God sounds in the soul, and says, I will go away from you with the virgin, and it is continually as if he would force away and depart from man. Then the poor soul must make continual prayers and supplications, that he would be pleased to tarry still longer with it; but the voice oftentimes sounds, Hinder me not, I must go, or make my journey, to my master, you are vain, evil and sinful, I may not tarry with you any longer.n7423 ¶484
53. And then the poor soul calls virgin Rebecca, viz. Christ with his bride, and puts him in mind of his precious word and promise, in that He has promised to remain with us even to the end of the world, and to make his abode in us (Matt, xxviii. 20). And thus one day upon another it is delayed, and yet Christ goes with his bride into his native country, viz. into the second Principle, but the marriage is celebrated in all the three Principles.n7423 ¶485
54. A very excellent figure we have in this also: That when Rebecca went home with Abraham's servant, and Isaac met her in the field, and she asked Abraham's servant what man that was, and he told her that it was his master, Isaac, how she lighted off the camel, and put a veil before her eyes, and was ashamed; and how Isaac took her and carried her into his mother's tent (Gen. xxiv. 61 et seq.).n7423 ¶486
The inward figure is this:n7423 ¶487
55. When the inward disappeared humanity does again obtain the precious jewel, and is quickened in the spirit of Christ, and discovers its beloved Christ in itself, then it falls down into the deepest humility before the holiness of God, and is ashamed that it has lain so long captive in the bestial man, and that it was a queen, but has lost its kingdom in Adam; then it veils its own face before God's glorious clarity, and humbles itself. But Christ takes her into his arms, and leads her into his mother's tent, viz. into the heavenly world's essence, from whence he is come with his heavenly essence, and there she becomes his wife; and thus Isaac is truly comforted for his mother, viz. for the disappeared matrix in the tincture of Venus which died in Adam, and which he again does now obtain in virginlike chastity for his spouse: as here the history concerning Isaac sounds.n7423 ¶488
56. And we seriously admonish the reader not to contemn, scorn or deride at our exposition, it is the true ground. For when Isaac met his bride, he came from the well Lahai-roi [from the fountain of the living and seeing one], as Moses says (Gen. xxiv. 62). If any desire to understand our meaning and knowledge, he must then make towards this fountain, that so he may be received with Rebecca; and then he will see from what spirit this pen has written, and in what number and voice 1 it is arisen.n7423 ¶489
57. If any here see nothing, he may well blame himself for blind, and no man else. The Jews, and Turks, and also Babel, may here open their eyes wide, and look upon the figures of the Old Testament aright: they will even find them so.n7423 ¶490
1 Seal, vial or trumpet.n7423 ¶491
The Fifty-First Chaptern7423 ¶492
How Abraham took another wife, of whom he begat six Sons to which he gave gifts; and unto his Son Isaac he gave all his goods; but the others he sent away from his Son Isaac while he yet lived; and also how he died, and was buried by his Sons, Ishmael and Isaac; what hereby is signified unto usn7423 ¶493
1. MOSES says, Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah, and she bare unto him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah (Gen. xxv. 1,2), from whom sprang forth six generations. But of Sarah Abraham begat only one son, at which the whole history points; but of Keturah he begat six sons, concerning whom no peculiar or especial thing is mentioned, but only their families or generations.n7423 ¶494
This is thus to be understood in the inward figure:n7423 ¶495
Abraham and his Sarah must be first old, before he begat Isaac, to signify that Christ should be manifested in the flesh in the old age of the world.n7423 ¶496
2. Isaac was begotten and conceived of Abraham's nature, and of the ens of faith in an old and almost dead matrix, as to the human nature, that so the divine ens might have the pre-eminence. But when Sarah died, Abraham took unto him Keturah, and soon begat of her six sons. Keturah does in its name express the centre of nature. When we form the sensual uncompacted spirits of the letters in this word Keturah, then we understand that Keturah is a formed matrix of nature; which signifies to us, that Abraham, after he had begotten the type of Christ in the ens of faith, should now beget his own likeness as to Adam's nature, out of the six properties of the natural spirit's life, and also set forth and represent his own natural likeness ; and therefore he must also have such a vessel thereunto.n7423 ¶497
3. Sarah must bring forth but one son: to signify that the kingdom of mankind is given but to one; and that they all do belong to this one; and shoula in him become the same only one, as branches on one tree; which [one] should be Christ in all.n7423 ¶498
4. But here Abraham did now with Keturah beget six sons, according to the six properties of the formed nature, of the operation of the six days' works; and Isaac, that is, Christ, is the seventh, viz. the day of rest, or Sabbath, wherein the six sons should enter into rest; even as the six days of the creation, understand the six properties of the centre of nature (viz. the working spirit-life), do rest in the seventh: Thus the Spirit of God does represent the figure in Abraham.n7423 ¶499
5. And we have here a very excellent figure against the reasonwise, who say, That whosoever is not born by nature in the ens of faith [that is, naturally, as it were, begotten of the seed of the woman, which works only by a particular election of God, as they feign] the same is hardened, and cannot attain to the adoption of God, he is not drawn by God, that he should come to the new birth. This figure quite strikes down their fiction, and shows the true ground; and first, it sets forth Isaac, viz. Christ, and declares plainly that to him alone the kingdom of God is hereditary and peculiar, and that no man can have it any more for or from the right of nature; and how we are altogether cast out from thence with Adam, and have lost the same;n7423 ¶500
as the children of Keturah were all cast out from the inheritance of Abraham's goods, and Isaac alone did inherit them.n7423 ¶501
6. And he sets down hereby, how Adam's children were also begotten of Abraham, and how he gave them gifts of his goods (Gen. xxv. 6); betokening how free gifts were given to Adam's natural children, out of God the Father's, and Christ's, goods; as Abraham's goods were given them of grace as a free gift.n7423 ¶502
7. For Abraham did not cast out his natural children from him without gifts: so likewise God did not cast Adam out of Paradise without his free gift; he first gave him the Bruiser of the Serpent in the Word of the Covenant; and afterwards he cast Adam from the childlike inheritance of the natural right; and yet he received him again in the free donation; as Abraham also did not here reject his children and cast them out from the childship, but from the natural right of his goods; yet they were dear unto him in the childship. Therefore he freely gave them gifts of his goods, and thereby he signifies to us, that the kingdom of heaven does indeed belong only unto Christ, viz. to the true Isaac. But as he freely of grace gave the Covenant to Adam, and as Abraham gave gifts out of Isaac's right to the sons of the concubines, so God the Father does still to this day give Adam's, and Abraham's, natural children the Covenant and heritage of Christ, as a free gift of grace.n7423 ¶503
8. And as Abraham's natural children were not disinherited from the Covenant, but only from his goods; so likewise no man is disinherited from the Covenant of God, established in Adam and Abraham. Every man receives the free-given Covenant in the womb, in which free-given Covenant he has power to turn in unto Christ's goods.n7423 ¶504
9. But he has not the goods in the right of nature, to take the same at or by his own will, but as a free gift. He shall and must resign himself up unto the Covenant, as a servant, wholly giving up his own natural will in the Covenant, and forsake the will to the right of nature, and become wholly the Covenant's own; so that he does not any longer introduce his own natural will into the Covenant and free gift, but give up his will to the Covenant. And then the free gift stands in the place of the own- will; and the nature of Adam lives in the free gift, and also enjoys the inheritance; but not in the selfwill, but in the true resignation, where the will of the Covenant becomes man's will.n7423 ¶505
10. For the will of the Covenant inherits the sonship in the right of nature, but the will of the natural selfness is cast out from it, the same must die unto the assuming ownhood; and when it is brought so to pass, it arises in the Covenant in Christ, and possesses the free gift in the right of grace. Christ has manifested himself in the Covenant in Adam's freely-given gift in the human nature, and is become the life and will of the Covenant, and fulfilled the same.n7423 ¶506
11. But now this free-given Covenant which God bestowed on Adam lies in all men, for as sin passed as a birthright from one upon all, so also the Covenant and the free gift of grace passes from one upon all. Every man has Christ in him; but the own- will does not apprehend Christ, but it crucifies him, and will not die to its selfness, that so it might enter into Christ's death, and arise in the Covenant in the will of Christ.n7423 ¶507
12. The own-will desires only to be an outwardly assumed or adopted son of grace, and yet it is cast out from the presence of God, as Abraham cast out his natural children from his goods, and disinherited them, and gave the goods only to Isaac; so likewise the kingdom of God belongs only to the will of the Covenant.n7423 ¶508
13. Which indeed lies in all men; but no man can receive or see the kingdom of God, unless he become the child of the Covenant, so that he forsake the natural forth-proceeded will, and put on the will of Christ in the Covenant; so that his will in the Covenant be born anew in Christ; and then he is a branch on the vine of Christ (John xv. 5), and receives Christ's spirit, will, and life; and becomes, as to the Covenant, Christus [or one anointed]. And thus Christ then dwells in Adam, and Adam in Christ; and this is that which the spirit of Moses does represent in this figure.n7423 ¶509
14. But that Abraham did send the children of his Adamical nature away out of his house with gifts, and did not keep them with him as sojourners, betokens that the external man will, while it is in this life, live in the will of self upon the earth, and that it cannot wholly put off the same according to the earthly man; but this same earthly self-will is cast out of the holiness of God, viz. from the kingdom of heaven.n7423 ¶510
15. And although the free gift of the Covenant lies hid in him, yet the outward earthly man is cast out from Paradise and the Covenant of God, and shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven, but he only shall inherit it who is born of the free gift of the Covenant. Not Adam, but Christ in his members; not the Serpent's ens, and the selfish, rebellious, Ishmaelitish, scoffing, false will, but the will of the Covenant in Ishmael's circumcision, where the mocker is cut off from the Covenant; and Ishmael then becomes Isaac's brother.n7423 ¶511
16. The own, self-made, gross, earthly Adam, who by his own lust has made himself a beast, and received and taken in the devil's desire and will, into the selfly assumed beast, the same cannot be or remain in the image of Christ. He is cast out from thence, and walks in the world of vanity, and his own lust, so that he is not capable of the free gift in the Covenant.n7423 ¶512
17. But the right Adamical man, which God made out of the matrix of the earth, out of which the earth had its original, in the same is the Covenant and the free gift; even as a tincture in the gross lead, which does swallow up in itself the grossness, viz. the gross Saturn in its own desire, and mortifies the Saturnine will, and advances or sublimes its own (understand the tincture's will and propriety) in the lead, whereby the lead is changed into gold.n7423 ¶513
18. Thus likewise we are to understand, that the gross Saturnine self-will, proceeding from the dark world's property in man, cannot dwell in God's house: it is without, in the corrupt world; God has cast it forth out of Paradise; as Abraham cast out his natural Adamical children from Isaac's goods. So also our earthly man as to its assumed grossness and ownhood is not at all fit for, or profitable unto, the kingdom of heaven. It is only the axe wherewith the carpenter builds in this life time, in heaven he has no need of this axe, for he shall not need build him a house for his propriety, but Christ, viz. the formed Word of God, is his house.n7423 ¶514
19. For as Abraham cast out of his house the sons of his concubines with gifts, so likewise the Adamical man is cast out from God, whom Christ, viz. the Father's free gift, receives again unto himself. For when Christ was come into our humanity God suffered him to be hung upon the cross, and be put to death; but received him again in his free favour, and set him at the right hand of the power of God in heaven, and our humanity also with and in him; but the human self-will must die on the cross.n7423 ¶515
20. Thus likewise the spirit of Moses does here signify in the figure, concerning Abraham and his natural children, that the outward natural man shall not dwell in the ens of Christ, for he is cast out of Paradise in Adam; therefore also he cannot be received according to his bestial selfish propriety unto the possession of Isaac's goods; that is, unto the ens of faith, viz. in Christ; and albeit Christ, viz. the free gift of the Father, does dwell in the inward true man which God created in Adam, yet the gross beast, viz. the earthliness and vanity, shall and must in every respect be cast away from Christ. Yea, every man who desires to be a Christian must cast out from himself the earthly will, which longs and breathes after vanity and self-lust.n7423 ¶516
21. As Abraham (in this figure) did not spare his own children, but cast them out, so likewise a Christian must not spare or forbear his children, viz. his own lust and vain desire, and all whatsoever does hang or depend thereon; but daily and hourly cast them out by the understanding, out of the true Temple of Christ, viz. out of God's free gift, and crucify the old Adam. Else, if it be not thus effected, the old self-willed Adam crucifies Christ in him, and so Christ indeed must hang on the cross, and be put to death.n7423 ¶517
22. Also this figure (concerning Abraham's casting out his natural children) does signify that, when Christ, viz. the true Isaac, came into the flesh, viz. into the humanity, Abraham's natural children, viz. the Jews, should, under the kingdom of Christ, be cast out from the natural goods, viz. From all dominion, from country and kingdom; and their rule and dominion should cease. For the dominion belongs only unto Christ, viz. to Christendom; for Christ brought an eternal kingdom with him: the goods were all his; as Abraham's goods belonged to Isaac.n7423 ¶518
23. And although it has not dominion over all, as Isaac had possession and rule of that only which his father left him; for the natural children of Abraham, born of Keturah, became afterwards heathen, and ruled over the outward goods as children of the outward nature: yet Abraham's children, who were in the Covenant under circumcision, must, when Christ did manifest himself, be cast out: To signify that the earthly man also, viz. self in the Serpent's ens which is on the children of the Covenant, must be cast away from God.n7423 ¶519
24. Thus in Abraham and his son Isaac the figure of the kingdom of Christ was represented. But when Christ came into the flesh, God put away the figure; and took from the external children of Isaac the outward goods of the land, Canaan: To intimate, that now the holy land of Canaan is become manifest: where Isaac's children shall take possession of the true promised inheritance in Christ, and no longer have the figure only, but the essence of the figure, viz. the perfect substance, and now forsake the outward goods with the figure, and put on Christ in the flesh.n7423 ¶520
25. But that the Jews, viz. Isaac's and Abraham's children, viz. the children in Christ's figure, did not all turn unto Christ when he did manifest himself in the flesh, has this meaning: God gave them the law of nature; where, in the law, the government of nature was understood externally, and internally Christ, viz. the Covenant, and the promised free gift of God in Paradise. So that the law of nature was to be Christ's sojourner, and the true man also was to live under the law of nature in a right rationality, and yet bring his own nature into Christ's house. And thus the figure of the law must continue among some of Abraham's children, viz. amongst some of the Jews, to signify that the law is Christ's sojourner.n7423 ¶521
26. Understand, that the nature of man shall remain, for it is not so rejected of God, as if clean another new man should arise out of the old; but [the new man] shall arise out of Adam's nature and property, and out of God's, in Christ's nature and property; so that man is become an Adam-Christ, and Christ a Christ- Adam; a Man-God, and a God-Man. And therefore the figure continued still among the Jews; and for this cause they were not all converted to Christ; that so nature might keep its figure and due right; for it shall deliver up its children under the law, viz. the figure of Christ, to God the Father, in Christ. But its figure shall be proved in the fire of God, so that it shall be known who has been the true child of the natural law in the figure of Christ, that has been born in the spirit in the law out of the figure of Christ, and who has not.n7423 ¶522
27. It is not he that has the words and title of the law, that is a Jew, born in the figure and in the law; but he who is born of the promise in Abraham's faith. He that lives in the figure of Christ, viz. in the law in profession, and practises (with mouth and heart) the same, the law of God in Christ's figure has comprehended, and will bring him into the fulfilling of the figure.n7423 ¶523
28. For it does not depend alone on man's knowing, that Christ has given himself into the law, and is become the fulfilling in the law, as the titular Christian boasts; but it depends on God's order, 1 on the mercy of God. Whosoever has been a true Jew, and has put on Abraham's faith in the law, he has put on the ens of Christ, which Abraham conceived or apprehended; which ens of faith the humanity of Christ has fulfilled; and it is hidden to him what it is, for he works in the office of nature in the law of God, which Christ has taken into himself and fulfilled; so that he serves God in the office of nature, and the office of nature serves Christ, for it is become Christ's own propriety.n7423 ¶524
29. For unto him all power is given both in heaven and on earth (Matt, xxviii. 18), under which power the office of nature also is, in the law. For God, in the spirit of Christ, is even the selfsame who gave the law and the office of nature to do righteousness; together with the figure of the kingdom of Christ, with the ens of faith, to Abraham and Moses; and he is also the very same who fulfilled the faith, and the law.n7423 ¶525
30. Thus the Jew works in his faith in Christ's office, viz. in the law, wherewith Christ governs in nature; and has put on Christ in the Covenant, and in the ens of faith in Christ's figure, which Christ has fulfilled.n7423 ¶526
31. For the Christian who confesses Christ in the flesh, works in his faith in the flesh of Christ, and has, in his faith, the law of nature, viz. God's officer, to do uprightly. For Christ rules in the law of God (which he has fulfilled and made a servant) in his children, and kills the law of sin through the fulfilling of his love in his blood and death; both in them who live in the dominion of his law, and also in them who live in the dominion of his conquest, as the Christians do.n7423 ¶527
1 Ordinance.n7423 ¶528
32. For the faith which presses or comes in unto God in the law, in the figure, in the Covenant, the same comes unto God in the ens of Abraham's faith, out of which Christ was born. And he that comes in unto God in the fulfilling of the same, does come or press into God in the humanity of Christ, viz. in the whole process of his suffering, death, and resurrection.n7423 ¶529
33. A Christian is Christ in the inward humanity; and a Jew is Christ in the figure, and in the office of his law, viz. according to nature. But now Adam in his nature and Christ in the divine nature are but one person, one only tree. Who now is here that judges (Rom. viii. 34)?n7423 ¶530
34. St. Paul says, There is no respect of persons before God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and they who have sinned in the law shall he judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall he justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, their conscience also hearing witness to them, and their thoughts within themselves either accusing or excusing each other (Rom. ii. 11-15). That is, or signifies, thus much:n7423 ¶531
35. When the Gentiles do apprehend Christ, then they do apprehend the law of nature to do uprightly, for Christ is the beginning, and the fulfilling, of the law. But the Jews have the law. Now whosoever transgresses and sins (either the Jew in the law of nature, or the Gentile who acknowledges Christ in the law of the fulfilling), each shall be punished or judged in his law; viz. the Jew in the law of God the Father in Christ, and the Christian in the law of the Gospel, viz. in the law of the accomplishment.n7423 ¶532
36. For here is no respect of name, in that one says, I am a Jew, the other, I am a Christian. The name makes no difference in the adoption of God, but the spirit in the heart to do uprightly, to obey God. They all come in the grace under the obedience of Christ unto God; both the Jew and the Christian.n7423 ¶533
37. For without Christ there is neither law nor Gospel; Christ is the righteousness which avails before God in the law, so that man, without Christ, has no God. Now let him run either in the law or Gospel, if he runs in the desire to obey God, then he runs in the law of the accomplishment; for Christ is the only obedience which avails before God, both in the law and Gospel. All men who give up themselves in obedience unto God, they are received in Christ's obedience, viz. in the fulfilling of the obedience, the Jew and the Christian, and so likewise the heathen who has neither the law nor Gospel.n7423 ¶534
38. For if the Gentile desires to obey the only God, and yet knows him not according to the essence of his manifestation, but presses into the obedience of God, then he is a law unto himself; and declares indeed that God has written his law in him, which he has fulfilled in his Son, as Paul says. For he who knows the law and Gospel, knows the same only as a gift of the Giver, who has given him the knowledge; but he that does not know it, and yet desires the power of the law and Gospel, in him God in Christ knows what he pleases.n7423 ¶535
39. For grace does not lie only in knowing, that one knows the grace in Christ; but it lies in the pressing into that grace, and in the mercy of God. One presses into mercy in the law, the other in the Gospel, and the third without the law, and without the knowledge of the Gospel; he that has neither, but hangs on the grace of God, the same is freely given without his knowledge of it.n7423 ¶536
40. Even as the branch on the tree does not know whence the stock does introduce the sap and power into it, it only longs and gasps after the power and virtue of the root, and draws with its desire the sap into itself; even so likewise many an ignorant man does long after his eternal mother, out of whom he is arisen with Adam, and comes in his ignorance [or unknowing condition] again unto the free gift of grace which God freely bestowed on Adam in his fall. For the Covenant and grace passed from Adam upon all originally or by way of inheritance, even as sin passed from one upon all: whosoever desires the grace of the only God, he obtains it in Christ, who is the grace itself.n7423 ¶537
41. The Jews will not believe the outward humanity of Christ, and do deny the same. But the Christians do believe it, and yet defile the same with ungodly conversation; and the one is as the other before God, except the children of faith among the Jews and Christians, whose defiled garment is washed in the blood of Christ.n7423 ¶538
42. We do not hereby confirm or speak for the unbelief of the Jews and Gentiles, that they should or might remain in blindness, for the time of their visitation is at hand,l that they shall see; but we hereby disclose and lay open the wicked Antichrist among the Jews and Christians, in that everyone boasts of his name, and condemns another: the Jew in the law, and the Christian in the Gospel, and the Heathen in his superstition.n7423 ¶539
1 Text, born.n7423 ¶540
43. Each of them will be God's child in his knowledge, and yet the disobedience and unbelief is as great among one people as among another; and they are in the knowledge, only as a figure before God, and none is saved by his knowledge alone. For, that I do believe and hold for a truth, that Christ was born, died and arose again from death for me, does not make me a child of God; the devil knows it also, but it does not avail him; I must put on Christ in the desire of faith, and enter into his obedience, into his incarnation, suffering and death, and arise again in him, and put on the obedience of Christ : then am I a Christian, and not before.n7423 ¶541
44. The judging, censuring and condemning others without God's command is only the Antichrist among the Jews, and among the Christians: Without God's mercy none comes to the sonship: we must all enter in through the free mercy of God; the Jew, and the Christian, and the knower and he that knows not; our knowledge must be filled and abound with the love of Christ effectually, so that we love one another, else knowledge is not at all available. If I bring not my knowledge, with the desire, into the love of God wherewith he has loved us in Christ, and love my neighbour in the love of God in Christ, with that love wherewith God generally loves us, and loved us when we were his enemies, then have I not as yet the love of God dwelling in me.n7423 ¶542
45. But how will he love his brother, who contemns him for his knowledge' sake? Did not God love us when we knew nothing of his love? If a man has not this love of God in him) wherewith God loved us when we knew him not, why does he boast then of God's sonship? If he be the child of God, then he has the free love of God, wherewith he loves all things: ifhe has it not, he is not then as yet capable of the adoption. So now, if anyone contemns and condemns his brother, who has not as yet his knowledge, how can he boast of the love of God, wherewith God loved his enemies in Christ, wherewith Christ prayed for his enemies?n7423 ¶543
46. O you false cold love of the titular Christendom! how does the eternal truth strike you in the face of your conscience, in that you depend only on your knowing, and contend about the mere knowledge, and have not love! you judgest yourself alone in your judging others. One sect and company judges and condemns another, and before God they are no other than the natural children of Abraham, born of Keturah, one laying the blame upon another, that the father had cast them out from the inheritance. And yet they could not see what was the fault, namely, that it was by reason of the evil corrupt nature, which was not a true heir.n7423 ¶544
47. So likewise your judging and censuring others does not entitle you to the goods of Christ: nay, the same is wholly cast out from the inheritance, both of the Jews, and also of the Christians, and also of the Turks. All your contention is nothing else but the mocker, Ishmael, who mocks Christ in his members. You do all abuse the name of God with your judging, and condemn the manifold gifts of the Spirit of God among you, and judge only in self; and not according to the love of Christ.n7423 ¶545
48. Your judging [one another] is only the hurt and wound of the world, wherewith you make the ignorant to err, and bring them to blaspheme. You teach them [the art of ] censuring and condemning, and youyourselves have not the true knowledge in the Spirit of God; you do not teach yourselves, and yet you will be teaching and judging others. And in this way and course you are all, one with another, the disinherited children of Keturah ; you contend, bite and devour one another about Abraham's, viz. Christ's, goods, and yet you have them not: if you had them, then you would have the love of Christ, which is the true goods.n7423 ¶546
49. No knowledge without the love of Christ is at all available to the sonship: it is only Babel, and fable; teaching, and yet effecting and doing nothing, save only honouring the idol Mausim in itself. The knowledge of the high schools, and the knowledge of the devil, without the spirit of Christ in love, do both of them bring only contention and desolation.n7423 ¶547
50. If the devil had not known in self, then he had been [remained to this day] an angel; and if Adam had not desired the self-knowledge without God's love, he had continued in Paradise. If the high schools did not know the sharp acute disputing, they had continued in the simplicity of Christ, and had not brought the whole world, with their contention and disputings, into opinions, and judgings of one another, so that now there is nothing but contemning and condemning in Christendom, and all love and truth is extinct; and men have set and put salvation in opinions [in this or that way and form], and bound the Master to the servant, so that Antichrist domineers over Christ, and yet pretends all for Christ; but indeed he thereby only honours and minds his Lucifer, and his belly-god Mausim, as it is plainly to be seen.n7423 ¶548
51. Now after that Abraham had sent away all the children of the concubines from Isaac's goods, with gifts towards the east, as Moses says, they came into the east country, that is, into the dominion and government of nature, where the essence begins. And Abraham died in a quiet age, when he was old and full of years, and was buried by his Sarah in the cave of Machpelah, which is before Mamre (Gen. xxv.n7423 ¶549
52. Abraham's natural children of the concubines went towards the east: Here the spirit points at the figure of the whole man, when Christ has manifested himself in man, and possessed his goods, as here Isaac. Then nature goes into the east,l viz. into the Father's property, and works, according to the soul, in the first and third Principles; and Christ sits in the midst, viz. in the second Principle, and rules over that which nature in the Father's property does form and fashion in the divine wisdom.n7423 ¶550
53. Therefore Moses says here, that they went towards the east, and points secretly in his figure at the property of man, signifying how nature does possess the east,2 viz. the beginning or rise of the dominion; even as Christ also said, that He was as a Vine-dresser who did glean. In God's kingdom, nature is Christ's servant, but in the kingdom of nature's self or propriety, Christ has given himself with his humility to be a servant, and an assistant, and serves the Father in his natural manifestation, and continually picks up or gleans: what the Father forms through nature, that the Wisdom brings into its treasure.n7423 ¶551
54. Therefore says St. Paul, that the Spirit of God is subject to the children of God, and goes along with them in the searching even into the depths of the Deity (1 Cor. ii. 10). And when it comes thus far, then man is in a quiet old age, and then all things stand in order in him, viz. nature in the morning,3 in the Father's property, and Christ in the evening,4 in the humility. And then man has enough of the outward evil sinful life; he longs continually to enter with his essence into the cave of Machpelah,5 viz. into the eternal mother, as it is before mentioned.n7423 ¶552
1 Text, beginning. 2 Text, morning. 3 East.n7423 ¶553
4 West.n7423 ¶554
5 That is, the twofold pit, as the Dutch translation has it.n7423 ¶555
55. And when he has brought his life's forms into the divine order, as here Abraham had set all things into order, then he gives up himself wholly and fully in one essence into the eternal generatress, and with his own will he resigns up himself into mortification and death, and is wholly tired and weary of the life of self and so rests in his God.n7423 ¶556
The Fifty-Second Chaptern7423 ¶557
Of the History of Isaac, and also of the Birth of Esau and Jacob, and what has been acted concerning them; the meaning thereof is hinted to us in this Chaptern7423 ¶558
1. MOSES says, After the death of Abraham God blessed his son Isaac,and he dwelt by the well of the living and seeing 1 (Gen. xxv. 11). Reason understands this externally of a place where Isaac dwelt, but the spirit looks upon the figure of the life's form, showing how the human nature and creature has dwelt by the wellspring of the divine ens in the Covenant, which Abraham laid hold of in faith; viz. the soul of Isaac dwelt by the wellspring of the holy Trinity, in which the soul received its light, and saw, and knew the will of God; out of which wellspring the highest love of the Deity did manifest itself to the soul, and out of which fountain, afterwards, in the fullness of time, the holy name Jesus, out of Jehova, did manifest itself and espoused itself for a bride unto the soul.n7423 ¶559
1 Lahai-roi.n7423 ¶560
2. The soul of Isaac dwelt by this fountain of the living and seeing, until the same fountain afterwards did pour forth, and open itself in the humanity of Christ in the soul. And then afterwards the soul dwelt in the fountain, when it was exalted in Christ's person to the right hand of God; and then the fountain of God did spring forth through the soul, where then it received the divine might as a prince of God, or as an image or express likeness of God, or as a formed word of the voice of God, through which voice God was made known and manifest.n7423 ¶561
3. So likewise our soul, when it forsakes the earthly will of its assumed self; and apprehends the ens of Christ in the Covenant, and turns itself to God, then it dwells also by the fountain of the living and seeing, that is, by God's eye, which he has again with Christ manifested and opened in the humanity. Indeed our soul does not in this time of the earthly cottage dwell in the wellspring of God, as if it did apprehend the wellspring in self; but like as the sun throughshines the glass, and yet the glass is not turned to be sun, but it dwells by the lustre and virtue of the sun, and suffers the sun to work and shine through it: even so is the soul in this time.n7423 ¶562
4. And further yet, As the sun does give its tincture into the metalline ens, and the metalline ens gives its desire into the sun's tincture, so that out of them both the fair and precious gold is generated, so likewise it is to be understood concerning the soul. The Deity inhabites 1 the soul, but the soul comprehends not the same, as to its creatural power; but the eye or light of God, with the holy lovetincture from the light's lustre, gives itself into the desire of the soul.n7423 ¶563
5. For the desire of the soul is the Fiat,2 which takes the power of the holy love-tincture into itself; and makes it essential; so that the divine tincture, proceeding from the desire of the true love- spring (viz. from the fountain of the living and seeing), and the soul's believing desire, do become one essence.n7423 ¶564
1 Or, dwells through the soul. 2 Note what the Fiat is.n7423 ¶565
6. Understand, a spiritual essence. And this same spiritual essence is the inward new man, viz. a new house or habitation of the soul, in which it dwells according to the inward heavenly world; the name of which essence is Sophia, viz. the Bride of Christ, Christ's humanity; in which the glorious Jacob's Star of the dear and precious name, Jesus, is a shining light, whereby the soul sees and knows God.n7423 ¶566
7. The soul is not changed into the Deity, viz. into [Lahai-roi] the fountain of the living and seeing, for it is the eternal and temporal nature's. But the Deity is not nature's, but the will to nature, and manifests itself through the soul's nature. As the fire manifests itself through the iron, where then the iron seems as if it were mere fire, and yet it keeps its own nature, and the fire also its own, and the one does only dwell in the other, and one is the manifestation of the other. The iron has no power over the fire, only the fire gives itself to the iron, and the iron gives its ens to the fire, and so both are changed into one, and yet remain two essences: So likewise it is to be understood with the soul and the Deity.n7423 ¶567
8. And as the fiery property is different from the gross iron, and has another source, so likewise the new spiritual humanity in the ens of Christ in the divine love-fire is far another essence than the earthly body; albeit the soul is understood in the fire, and in the light's lustre the body of Sophia; for the power or virtue of the light is the tincture or the beginning to the new spiritual body; which power, the soul's believing desire takes, and forms or brings it into an essence:n7423 ¶568
that is, it makes it essential: it becomes an essence or spiritual body from the desire, which spiritual essence is the Temple of God, of which the Scripture speaks.n7423 ¶569
9. But our Babylon will understand nothing hereof, but will be wholly blind therein; for she will not know how Christ is born in the faith in us, and how faith comes to essence; but she will downright make the half-Serpent man to be an assumed and adopted child of grace, and set it in God's Temple. But it avails not. Shall the devil sit at the right hand of God in the fountain of the living and seeing? He has been once cast away from thence, he shall not any more possess the same: a beast is not Sophia: The Scripture says, You must be converted, and be born anew as children, else you shall not see God (Matt, xviii. 3).n7423 ¶570
10. The soul cannot see God, save only in its new-born image; only through and in virgin Sophia, in Jacob's Star, viz. in the name of Jesus, it sees in Jehova, in the wellspring of the life of God. It is not itself this very fountain: it gives only the fire to the manifestation of this fountain. But the fountain is understood in the light, viz. in the meekness of the light.n7423 ¶571
11. Now the soul's magic fire-source could not so be enkindled that a shining lustre of a light might arise in the soul's fire, ifthe divine love-desire, viz. the love ens, had not given itself into the soul's fire. The ens of Christ out of the divine love gives itself into the soul's fire-source, which the soul's fire eats into its fiery essence, and thereupon the life of the wrathfulness dies, and the fair precious light is thence generated; for here Christ arises out of the consuming fire of the Father's property, according to his anger, from death, out of the fire of another life. Here the magical soul's fire becomes the precious Sophia's bridegroom, and here are man and wife; viz. both tinctures, of the fire and of the light, become one person, viz. an angel of God.n7423 ¶572
12. Here Lucifer loses his throne, and the Serpent his viperous seed, and Christ sits at the right hand of God in man; and man then dwells truly by the fountain of the living and seeing. And this is that which the spirit of Moses sets forth by this figure concerning Isaac's habitation: if we would but once become seeing, and forsake the mere husk, and know ourselves aright, not according to the earthly beast, but according to the inward spiritual heavenly man.n7423 ¶573
13. As to the part of the bestial soul [of man], that attains not the precious image in this lifetime for propriety. The mortal soul, either from the stars or four elements, attains it not; only the inward soul, out of the eternal Word of God, out of the eternal nature, out of the formed Word, out of God's essence according to God's love and anger, viz. out of the centre of the eternal nature, which has its original out of the divine desire through the eternal Verbum Fiat,l whereby the divine lubet forms and fashions the wisdom into a substance, to the contemplation of the Deity: This [soul is that which] is betrothed to Sophia.n7423 ¶574
14. The outward soul is now betrothed and espoused to the stars and four elements, to form and bring forth the wonders of God's formed wisdom, in figures, both in words and works. This outward soul obtains sometimes only a look from Sophia, for it has the death and mortality in itself; but it shall after this time be changed again into the first image, which God created in Adam, and leave the Serpent's ens to the earth, which shall at the end of days be tried in the fire of God, where the Serpent's introduced desire shall evaporate from it; and then the whole image of God, out of all the three Principles, stands in one essence, and even then God fills all in all (Eph.n7423 ¶575
i. 23): This is here to be understood by this figure.n7423 ¶576
15. Further, the spirit of Moses describes the children of Ishmael, and relates how he begat twelve sons, from whom twelve princes arose in their generations, and he sets down, at last, He fell in the presence of all his brethren (Gen. xxv. 16-18). Here he means before Isaac's generation;n7423 ¶577
and yet he waxed great in worldly dominion before them, and potent nations did arise from him; and Isaac with his children and posterity were only as pilgrims, and travelled up and down from one place to another, until they were at last redeemed from the Egyptian bondage, and possessed the promised land.n7423 ¶578
The inward figure.n7423 ¶579
16. Ishmael, in his twelve princes, typifies the kingdom of the corrupt nature of man's property, which kingdom is twofold; viz. six numbers out of the inward life's figure, and six numbers out of the earthly outward life's figure; viz. the outward, visible, palpable man, and the inward, spiritual, soulish man. Both these have twelve numbers in the figure, whence twelve princes arose, according to the inward and outward nature's property. These the spirit of Moses puts in the figure and says, that they fell in the presence of all their brethren; to signify that the twelve dominions of the inward and outward nature of the human property, in its corruption, fell before the twelve dominions new born of the ens of faith in their corrupt self; for the devil had set his dominion and power into these properties.n7423 ¶580
17. But when the promised seed of faith was conceived in Abraham, it did suppress and beat down the devil's power in the dominion of man's self; and then happened the spiritual fall in Ishmael's line, wherein the devil, as a haughty prince, had set himself to bear the chief sway and domination; for Christ kills the pride of the Serpent in man.n7423 ¶581
18. Now says Moses, Ishmae lfell in the presence of all his brethren. This was nothing else but a spiritual fall of the human selfness before God, for as to this world they were famous, renowned people, as their princely dominions do testify; whereas on the contrary Isaac's generation were a long time only strangers among the nations; which signifies that Christ's kingdom and dominion is not in this world's nature; and yet the kingdoms of this world shall fall before Christ, and be in subjection to Christ.n7423 ¶582
19. Afterwards, the spirit of Moses describes Isaac's children by Rebecca, and says, that she was harren, and Isaac intreated the Lord for hit wife, and God war intreated of him; and Rebecca conceived with two sons, which strove together in the womb. Here now the figure of the kingdom of nature, and also of the kingdom of Christ in the new birth, is clearly set forth: for Rebecca's two sons which she brought forth, viz. Esau and Jacob, point at two lines; viz. Esau proceeds from Abraham's own Adamical corrupt nature; and Jacob arises in the ens of faith, in which Abraham's faith's ens had incorporated itself into his Adamical nature, in which also the Covenant and the line of Christ stood, who should bruise the Serpent's head in the Adamical nature.n7423 ¶583
20. And here is deciphered and held forth how the two kingdoms in the two brothers, viz. the devil's kingdom in the corrupt nature of Esau, in Adam's own nature of the introduced Serpent's ens; and also the kingdom of Christ in Jacob in the ens of faith, did both strive together while they were children even in the womb; where then the kingdom of nature in Esau began to fall before the kingdom of Christ in Jacob; for here the woman's seed already bruised the head of the Serpent's ens, its might, in Esau; and the Serpent already stung the woman's seed, viz. the ens of faith in Jacob, on the heel, and therefore they struggled together in the womb.n7423 ¶584
21. Also we have here a very emphatical pregnant figure in Rebecca, in that she was shut up and could not be opened to conceive of Isaac's seed, until Isaac had intreated the Lord, that he would open the withholdmentl in the Covenant in Rebecca; where then the Lord was intreated in the Covenant concerning the barrenness of Rebecca, so that he did open the tincture in the woman's seed to this impregnation or conception.n7423 ¶585
1 Stop, or strong bar; barrenness.n7423 ¶586
22. The seed of faith was in Isaac inherited from his father Abraham, but Rebecca had not this ens. Indeed she was in the Covenant, but the ens of faith was not in her in the essence, but only in the Covenant; and therefore her matrix was shut up, and was not capable of the ens of faith, so long, till Isaac immersed his believing desire into the Lord (understand into the centre of nature in Rebecca), so that the spirit of the Lord did move itself in the Covenant in Rebecca, and moved also the Covenant, together with her Adamical nature, so that the barrenness in her matrix was disclosed, both in the shut-up ens in the Covenant, and then likewise the Adamical matrix, whereupon she conceived two sons, of the property of two kingdoms.n7423 ¶587
23. And this is the meaning of the saying, The Lord was intreated, when Isaac brought his faith's desire, through the eternal and temporal nature, into the Lord; and therewith did earnestly press for his wife Rebecca, that the Lord would be pleased to open her through his prayer and faith's desire, that so she might be with child by him. Which faith's desire, together with the Adamical nature's desire, gave in themselves into the barrenness of the matrix in Rebecca, and opened her. Whereupon she conceived both natures' properties, from a twofold seed of Isaac.n7423 ¶588
24. Not that we are to think or understand that Jacob was wholly conceived of the ens of faith, but as well of the Adamical sinful nature as Esau; only, the kingdom of grace in the Covenant set forth its figure in the ens of faith in him; and in Esau the kingdom of nature, viz. the right corrupt Adamical nature did set forth its figure; not as a separation, sundry partition or rejection, but to signify that Christ should be conceived and born with his holy divine ens in the Adamical corrupt nature, and destroy death and the stronghold of sin, together with the self-raised desire to ownhood and propriety in self; and mortify the same with the love-desire in the divine ens, and ruinate the devil's rampant fort of prey, which he has built up to himself therein; and change the wrath of God according to the eternal nature, in the centre of the dark fiery- world's property, into divine love and joy, and tincture the Adamical nature with the holy tincture of the love-fire.n7423 ¶589
25. Therefore the corrupt Adamical nature in its type was represented in the womb in Esau, with the type of Christ in Jacob; and they both must be formed of one seed, to signify that Christ should give in himself to our corrupt nature, and redeem our corrupted right Adamical nature from corruption, and introduce it into his own holy nature in himself.n7423 ¶590
26. Also God did represent in Esau the figure of his wrath, and [of] the devil's might, who had possessed the kingdom of nature in man; and shows how he would fight, and exercise great enmity against the ens of faith and the kingdom of grace, which should deprive him of his strength.n7423 ¶591
27. Reason says, Wherefore should God permit the devil to fight against the kingdom of his grace? Hear and hearken, you very blind and altogether ignorant reason: Learn the A B C in the centre, how God's love, and the kingdom of grace and mercy, would not, nor could not, be manifest without strife and enmity; and then you have here no further question: Go forward into the centre of this book, and you findest the ground.n7423 ¶592
28. And when the strife between the two kingdoms began in these children in the womb, so that they strove or spurned against each other, Rebecca became discontented and troubled at it, and said, If it should be thus with me, wherefore am I with child? And she went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from your bowels; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the greater shall serve the lesser (Gen. xxv. 22,23).n7423 ¶593
29. These two nations, which were conceived of one seed in Rebecca, are on one part the man of the Adamical selfish nature in selfness, viz. the original of man; and on the other part the new spiritual man, regenerated of the kingdom of grace in the Covenant. These came out of one seed: one out of the Adamical nature alone, and he was the greater [or elder], viz. the first man which God created in his image, which became corrupt and died as to God; the other came indeed out of the same Adamical nature, but the kingdom of grace in the ens of faith had given in itself unto it as a conqueror, and this was, as to the Adamical nature, the lesser [or younger], but God was manifest in him; therefore the greater (viz. the first Adamical man in Esau's line) should serve and be subject to the lesser (who was the least according to the human property, but the greatest in God).n7423 ¶594
30. And yet we do not see that Esau was subject to Jacob; but it is the spiritual figure, showing how the kingdom of nature in man should be broken by the children of God, and made subject to the kingdom of grace, viz. to the divine humility, and wholly dive itself into the divine humility, and be born anew of the humility. Thus the spirit of God showed this by the answer to Rebecca, saying that it should be a striving or fighting kingdom, where indeed the first corrupt man, being the greater or elder in nature, should strive gainst the lesser, viz. the spirit of Christ in his lowliness and humility, and persecute him. But the Adamical man must at last be obedient and subject unto the humility of Christ, if he will be Abraham's child and heir; but if not, then he must be so long cast out from Abraham's and Christ's goods, till he does humble himself and freely yield under Christ's humility, and forsake the ownhood of the greater and elder self and enmity, assumed in Adam.n7423 ¶595
31. By Rebecca's trouble, discontent, impatience and regret, in that she runs to enquire of the Lord, wherefore the strife was in her, that the children did so struggle together, is signified thus much unto us: That when Christ does manifest himself in the Adamical nature, then begins and arises the strife of both these kingdoms, viz. the devil's kingdom in God's anger in the Serpent's ens, and also Christ's kingdom. When Christ bruises the Serpent's head, then arises great disquietness in the mind, for the Serpent stings Christ, viz. the new birth, on the heel, and then arises this kicking and spurning, viz. a lamentable and woeful distress. And then says reason in the mind, with Rebecca, If it should be thus with me, wherefore am I entered into the divine impregnation, into repentance? Am not I thereby come only into disquietness, and thereby become a fool to the world, and to my reason also? And then arises the combat, and Satan's bruising in the mind, with anguish and grief; and then the mind knows not whither to betake itself but runs into penitency, and asks the Lord wherefore it goes so with it.n7423 ¶596
32. And then the Lord shows him in his language that Christ now is in him in hell, and assaults the devil's strong rampant fort of prey. Whereupon there is such contest and disquietness in him; and shows him how his reason, and the Adamical nature, viz. the greater part of his life, must be broken, and dive itself wholly into resignation, into the deepest humility, into the process of Christ under his cross, and become a stranger to itself, yes, its own enemy, and go with the reason, and the greater Adamical will, into its Nothing.n7423 ¶597
33. And when this is done, then Esau, viz. the Adamical nature, is indeed born, and comes forth always first. But Jacob, viz. the spirit of Christ, comes soon after, and deprives Esau of the kingdom and power, and makes nature a servant; and then Esau, viz. nature, must serve Jacob, viz. the spirit of Christ. Then it is even here as the Son said unto the Father: Father, the men were yours, and you have given them me (John xvii. 6), and I give unto them eternal life (John x. 28).n7423 ¶598
34. Understand, nature is the Father's property, for it is the strength and might, viz. the fire-spirit. This fire-spirit was given to the light- or love-spirit in Christ, viz. to the holy name Jesus, which introduced itself in Abraham's believing desire into an ens, out of which Christ, and then the new man out of Christ, is born; unto whom the kingdom of nature in the Father's fire-property was given. And he wholly gave his love ens for food unto the Father's fire- source, viz. to the fiery soul in the Father's nature: and even there Christ, with love, took possession of the Father's fire- strength, and changed it into the glory of the triumphant kingdom of joy : And thus also it is to be understood in the new birth of man.n7423 ¶599
35. And Moses says further: And now when the time came that Rehecca should he delivered, behold there were twins in her womh. And the first which came out was red, and all over rough like an hairy hide; and they called his name Esau. And presently after came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and they called him Jacob (Gen. xxv. 24-26). Here now stands the figure so lively and so clearly set forth, that even reason may see it: That which before was hinted at with words in the spiritual figure, that stands here in a lively personal figure. For Moses says, Esau came forth first, who was red, and had a rough skin.n7423 ¶600
36. Red betokens the Father's nature in the fire: Rough betokens the earthly bestial nature, which Adam, with his lust, introduced into himself from the earthliness. His name is called Esau from the sensual language, from the property of the formation of his nature's property. The same in its formation in the language of nature stands thus: E. is the original ex uno, viz. aus dem Einem [out of the One] : and is the true angelical property created in Adam: Sau 1 is the formed beast or selflust, which has enclosed and shut up the E., and obscured and slain the same in itself that is, when it was extinct in it as to the light's fire; yet the Sau, viz. the outward bestial man who had changed the E., viz. the angelical image, into a beast, did yet remain in its form. Therefore the spirit called his name Esau, viz. a formed or amassed image of lust, turned from its fine pureness into grossness, wherein notwithstanding the E. did still remain, but wholly encompassed and shut up with the Sau.n7423 ¶601
1 Sau signifies sow, or the earthly swinish property.n7423 ¶602
37. After this Esau comes Jacob, viz. the type or image of Christ, conceived in the ens of faith, and holds Esau by the heel. This declares that the Adamical image which God created shall and must be born first, for the same is it, which shall live for ever, but not in its rough beast's hide: for in that Jacob holds Esau, viz. the first man, by the heel, signifies that the second Adam, viz. Christ, is born after the first Adam, and takes hold of him behind, and brings him back again from the course of his own self will, into the first mother, from whence nature is arisen, viz. to another new birth.n7423 ¶603
38. But that Esau goes forward with his birth, and Jacob, by holding him by the heel, cannot withhold him, betokens that the earthly man in his selfness should go forward, and not go wholly in this lifetime back again into the mother of the new birth, but he would walk up and down with the bestial man through this time. For the beast shall not be new born, but [what shall be re-born is] the image of God, which was lost or perished in Adam.n7423 ¶604
39. And it further denotes, how Christ should take the true Adamical created man by his heel, that is, by the mind of his conversation, and put him back again into the first mother, whence he did arise; and how the spirit of Christ should follow after the earthly man in this lifetime. When as the devil would be the earthly man's chief guide in the anger of God, then Christ should come after him, and take the inward property of the poor, fallen and captivated man, viz.n7423 ¶605
the poor corrupt mind of the soul, into his arms, and draw it back again out of the devil's nets and snares, as Christ said, That he was as a vine-dresser who gleaned. For in this lifetime the Adamical nature's image stands before, and the image of Christ [stands] behind; therefore the natural man must die, and Christ must arise and put himself forth eminently in him.n7423 ¶606
40. And it shows further, how the spirit of Christ in Jacob's line should take Esau in this lifetime by his heel, and hold and rebuke him; and by his children labour to hinder and suppress his evil conversation and wicked walkings. But the Esauitish generation would contemn, despise and only trample it underfoot; and lay about them as an evil, malicious, fiery beast. As it even so comes to pass, when God sends his prophets, that they must reprove and rebuke men; then they even spurn them away from them as dogs, and will by no means endure them. But Jacob, that is, the spirit of God, holds them yet by the heel, and makes them naked and bare, so long till Jacob's footstep or impression is known.n7423 ¶607
41. Jacob signifies, in the formation of the name in the high tongue, a strong lubet or desire out of the mental tongue, viz. out of the name JEHOVA, brought into a compaction or ens; where the I takes the A, and exalts itself in the A, and takes the sensual tongue into the mental, viz. into the COB, so that the O is set for the centre of the word; where then the profound name of God is conceived or brought into the O, and therein it is rightly understood how the Father's nature, viz. the spirit of sense in A, C and B, does form itself into the I and O, for I is the centre of the highest love, and O is the centre of the perceptive Word in the Deity, which is understood [to be] without or beyond all nature.n7423 ¶608
42. This the spirit has understood in Isaac, therefore they call him JACOB, so long till this name was moved through the I in the ens of faith, so that the I opened the C and B, and put forth the formed or conceived ens in the O, seeing the I had formed itself with the O in nature, through nature as a holy blossom, and then the name was called JESUS: for the I brought itself again into the enclosed shut- up Engels-Eigenschaft (angel's property) in Adam's nature, and than the A was put into E: for the Father gave his nature in the humanity to the son, viz. to the I, and the Son made again thereout an Engel (angel) of it through the I. For the I entered into the deepest humility and lowliness. And then the figure stood thus IE, out of which the fiery lovespirit went forth, and made itself predominant; and set forth before it its character with the S and V, for the S is the character of the holy fire, and the V is the character of the efflux, issuing forth or emanation, out of the fire.n7423 ¶609
43. Thus the name Jacob was in the fullness of time in the ens of Mary changed into the name Jesus, which understanding has been as dumb and dead both to the Jews and Christians; seeing no nation does any more understand its own language, and contends only about the compaction of the formed nature of the outward name, and understanding. The mental tongue none will learn to understand, how the same has formed, imprinted and ideafiedl itself in the words and names in the sensual tongue; and yet the whole understanding lies therein, without opinions. If we were not so very blind and shut up in ignorance, suffering self in pride to rule and govern us, we should soon attain to the deepest understanding. But the Antichrist bears the supremacy, therefore Esau alone rules in the understanding.n7423 ¶610
1 formed and modelised.n7423 ¶611
44. And Moses says further, And when the children were grown up, Esau was a cunning hunter, and a man of the field; and Jacob was a plainl man, and dwelt in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, and loved to eat of his venison:n7423 ¶612
but Rebecca loved Jacob (Gen. xxv. 27,28). O you wonderful God, how very simply and plainly are the greatest Mysteries typified and deciphered! Who can be able to understand, without your spirit, from whence it was that the precious man Isaac, in the type of Christ, loved the natural man in Adam's corrupt image, Esau, more than Jacob, in the type of Christ in his figure? If you had not in your knowledge vouchsafed me to understand the same, I must be here even stark blind: But it is your counsel, OLord, that we know you, and your time is born, that you reveal the secrets.n7423 ¶613
45. Moses says, that Esau was a hunter, and a man of the field, and the father loved to eat of his venison, and loved him above Jacob. Here stands an external figure, as if Isaac loved Esau for his activeness, cunning skill or worldly exercise, and loved him more than Jacob. So wholly has the Lord the heart of the wise and of his children in his hand, that his children must not in their will do what they please, and oftentimes well understand, but [must do] what God wills.n7423 ¶614
46. Also we herein see how oftentimes God withdraws the Mysteries from the most holy, that they must be even children in them; and although they bear the divine play in their hands, and 'tis their work and exercise, yet they must have a child-like heart in the understanding thereof; as it may be seen here in Isaac.n7423 ¶615
47. He loved Esau more than Jacob, why so? The ens of Christ lay in him, which ruled him. For Christ should love his enemies, viz. the corrupt Esau, and his natural children; him he loved more than his divine nature; for he brought his divine nature into the death of the corrupt Adam, and loved Adam's corrupted nature2 more than his holy ens, which he, for man's corrupt nature's sake, gave into the fire of God's anger, that so he might redeem it in his love. Of this, Isaac was here a figure in the image of Christ, who loved his hunter in his evil nature more than Jacob. He did not love his iniquity, but his child-like nature, to which he would do much good; as Christ loved us in our Adamical nature, and did us good. He did not love us according to the will of sin in us; as Isaac also did not therein love his son Esau, but [he loved him] according to the Father's nature and property, according to the child-like filial nature.n7423 ¶616
1 Honest.n7423 ¶617
2 Not his sin in the nature, but his poor undone nature by sin, which he by death freed from sin and death.n7423 ¶618
48. When Isaac entreated the Lord, that his Rebecca might conceive, his natural desire, with the lubetl of the divine ens of faith, entered into Rebecca, whereby Rebecca was opened. And so the natural love of Isaac, which was environed with faith, was propagated in his seed, and opened itself in Esau. Isaac's love did not open itself in Esau as to his corrupt nature; [I say] not according to the kingdom of the nature of this world, but according to the Covenant, according to the second Principle, viz. according to God's kingdom, which the external nature in him had not as yet apprehended; as the divine ens in Abraham did open and manifest itself according to the second Principle, and not in the mortal corrupt Adamical nature of the outward world: The like also is here to be understood in the figure in Esau.n7423 ¶619
1 Earnest longing.n7423 ¶620
49. Not that Esau did receive the ens of Christ in the Covenant as Jacob [did], but [he received] his father's love-desire, in which the hidden Covenant stood unmoveable. Now there was thus a conjunction with his father's natural love (for every property loves its own likeness, especially if the likeness be proceeded forth from the essence or thing loving), as Esau was conceived in Rebecca of his father through his love-desire.n7423 ¶621
50. And it even denotes that the divine ens in God's love in Isaac loved the miserable human nature, to redeem it. Therefore God manifested his love in Abraham's faith, and introduced the same into an ens; so that this same love, which God gave to redeem mankind, should love the human nature in its shut-up abandoned condition. As, in very truth, the true real Adamical nature ordained by God was shut up in Esau, and, on the contrary, the kingdom of the wrath had the outward dominion. Now to redeem this, the spirit in the Covenant, through Isaac's nature, loved his son Esau, viz. the filial nature, and not only because that he was a hunter of the creatures.n7423 ¶622
51. Yet here also by this hunter we are even to understand the same as is set down before concerning Nimrod, who was a mighty hunter before the Lord. For this whole description of the first book of Moses is God's spirit's figure, type or representation, where he plays 1 with the kingdom of nature, and then also with Christ's kingdom; and he has so portrayed, delineated and typified the acts of the holy Patriarchs under his figure, that we may clearly see in all the histories the glance or allusion of God's spirit, how he has delineated and set forth to the life the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of nature, and also the devil's kingdom in the wrath of the eternal nature. And neither the Jews nor the Christians hitherto have had a right understanding of the same, which among the patriarchs was rightly understood in its true meaning.n7423 ¶623
52. But afterwards, when their children and posterity gave no heed unto the same, but disregarded the true understanding, and loved their evil nature more than the spirit in the Covenant, then the understanding was put out2 among them; until they at last also lost the Book of the Law,3 with the holy histories, and Esdras wrote for them again the figure and history, in the spirit of God; and that, very short, brief and exactly, according to the spiritual figure; in which they were more blind than seeing; as to this day their eyes are blinded; and that, because they abused the knowledge of the true God, and served the nature of this world, and honoured their evil will, above God. Therefore also God has withdrawn himself from them, with his Mysteries; and has suffered them to run up and down with the figure, as children full of ignorance; until the Gentiles' time, in the manifestation of grace (in which they also have only abused the time of grace, and the open seal, in their evil nature) does also come to its end and limit: And then the figure shall be fully manifest in the essence for a witness to all nations:4 and after that, the Judgement (Matt. xxiv. 14).n7423 ¶624
1 Or, sets forth, as in a map. 2 Or, quenched.n7423 ¶625
3 Esdras wrote the Book of the Law and Histories again after they were lost.n7423 ¶626
4 Substantially declaring the very thing itself; unclothiag it of its figures and parables.n7423 ¶627
53. And the spirit of Moses says further, Jacob was a plain man, and dwelt in tents, and Rebecca loved Jacob (Gen. xxv. 27, 28). Reason understands this figure [as] of a woman-like, motherly, natural love; but the spirit has not written this figure for that, for Rebecca pressed earnestly, that Jacob might receive the blessing of Abraham and Isaac. She loved Jacob as to his original, which although she might not so well understand externally and rationally, yet the spirit in the Covenant understood it in her, which moved her also to bear such a love towards Jacob; for there was also a conjunction between the mother and son.n7423 ¶628
54. For Rebecca was shut up and barren; but when Isaac did bring his prayer and earnest desire to God for her, then the ens in the Covenant gave itself into his faith in his desire, and so, forth in the opening of Rebecca into the conception; for herewith also the barren or shut-up mother was opened, so that her fruit, viz. Jacob, and she came into one degree of nature, and received one and the same love from Isaac's desire: for the ens of faith was conceived in the tincture of Venus in Rebecca. And as it is said of Mary, Christ's mother after the humanity, that she was blessed among all women, so also Rebecca did here receive the blessing from the divine ens; indeed not in the high degree as Mary, but yet according to the property of the Covenant. And hence it was that the love of the Covenant was manifest in her (as the ens of faith was also [manifest] in Jacob, wherein the love of God burned), so that she loved Jacob more than Esau. For the love-desire in the mother and son was from one original, and therefore her desire inclined itself more towards Jacob than Esau; and also because that the heavenly holy matrix [which had] disappeared in Adam, was moved in her image [which was] disappeared or dead as to the heavenly world's essence, which matrix afterwards was wholly opened in Mary. Now this matrix did long to receive the ens of Christ which was manifest in Jacob, which first was to be effected in Mary; and yet the spirit in the Covenant did take its love-sport and delight herewith [in Rebecca] .n7423 ¶629
55. But that the spirit of Moses says, Jacob was a plain [honest] man, and remained in tents, he understands thereby that the true Jacob in the ens of faith remained in the tents of the outward nature; that the ens of faith remained in his nature, which is only a tent thereto; that he did not give himself wholly to the tent, as Adam did, but he remained therein, in his Principle, till God, in the fullness of time, brought him forth in Christ's humanity through the tents of nature.n7423 ¶630
The Fifty-Third Chaptern7423 ¶631
How Esau contemned his Birthright, and sold it for a Mess of Lentil- Pottage: What we are to understand by this Figuren7423 ¶632
1. WHEN the spirit of Moses had set down the birth of Esau and Jacob, he proceeds to relate presently how the natural Adamical man would but little or nothing regard this high gift in the Covenant, and would seek only after the belly-filling of the earthly life, as Esau, who gave his birthright for pottage of lentil, that he might but serve his belly.n7423 ¶633
The figure of Moses stands thus:n7423 ¶634
2. And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint.n7423 ¶635
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray you, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: and hence his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, Sell me this day your birthright. And Esau answered, Lo! I must even die: and what profit will this birthright be to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and so he sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright (Gen. xxv. 29-34).n7423 ¶636
This figure externally has but a plain and childlike semblance; but yet it is a figure of the greatest Mysteries. For Esau betokens the first power of the natural, created Adam; and Jacob betokens the power of the other Adam, Christ; thus does the spirit here play with the figure.n7423 ¶637
3. For Adam's nature came from the field, and was faint, and longed to eat of the pottage which Jacob had. Adam was a limus of the earth, and a limus of heaven; but seeing he died to the limus of heaven, the earthly nature had wearied him in its strife; and in this figure [of faint Adam] Esau here stood.n7423 ¶638
4. The red lentil pottage, which Jacob had, after which the faint Adam in Esau longed, was the ens of faith, viz. the ens of Christ. The Adamical nature in Esau, in its anguish and toilsome labour, in its corruption and misery, longed after this pottage, which was in Jacob; yet the earthly nature of Esau understood it not, but the soul's nature [understood it], which also longed after Christ's ens, which was strange [or afar off; hidden] to reason.n7423 ¶639
5. Esau's soulish nature said to Jacob in its longing, Let me, I pray you, taste of the red pottage, for I am weary and faint by reason of the driver or fomenter of the anxious birth; and from this longing or lust he was called Edom, which signifies, in the compaction of the word, in the formation of the Tongue of Sense, as much as a dipping or immersing of the captivate angelical property into the pottage; as if there the soul's longing or lubet, in which the angel's character did yet stand (although captivated), did dip or plunge itself, with the desire, into the holy ens, and would take the holy ens in the divine pottage, viz. the heavenly essentiality into the lust of self: therefore the figure calls him in the High Tongue Edom.n7423 ¶640
6. For, the desire of Esau's soul said to the divine ens in Jacob, Give me your taste into the essence of my creatural selfhood; but Jacob, that is, the spirit of Christ in the ens of faith, said, Sell me your birthright for the pottage; that is, give me for it the soul's life's form, viz. the centre of the soul's nature, that so your first birth,l viz. the soul's centre, may be my own; and then I will give you the ens ofn7423 ¶641
1 Or, birthright.n7423 ¶642
7. For Esau inherited the first soulish power from his father, and had the soul's centre for a natural due right; after this came the ens of Christ, as a divine free gift without a soulish centre. For the holy ens should receive the soulish centre from the Adamical nature. Now here the Adamical soulish nature did woo for the ens of Christ, and the spirit in Christ's ens wooed for the soulish nature; and the spirit of Christ in Jacob would not give the taste of the divine ens to the soul's nature in Esau, unless it did give him the fiery centre to the beginning of the soulish creature for a propriety; that is, unless it did wholly resign and give up itself in the natural selfness into God's will, and forsake the first birth of the creature, and esteem of itself; in its selfness, as dead; and give over the dominion and will of life to the spirit of Christ in this heavenly pottage.n7423 ¶643
8. But seeing Esau's reason did not understand this, he said to Jacob: Lo, I must even die, what then is this first birth to me: so very lightly did reason pass over it, and knew not what the poor soul stood in need of. But the spirit of Moses played here in the inward figure, and does secretly hint hereby at what this externally signified.n7423 ¶644
9. And Jacob said, Swear unto me this day. That is, the life of Adam in Esau should freely give itself out of the fiery might, and wholly give itselfup to the divine ens, and forsake the fiery right of ownhood; and it should do it this day, that is, from henceforward for ever. And this is said, to swear in God, viz. wholly, deeply and fully to cast, immerse, give up, and resign one's self into the divine power, and not resist upon pain of God's rejection.n7423 ¶645
10. And he sware unto him; and when as he had sworn he was called Edom. For the fiery soul's nature did dive and immerse itself into the lubet of the divine ens; whence this lentil pottage is said to be reddish. For here in this oath the fiery essence entered into the lubet of the divine ens; and thus the light's ens received the fire's ens. And the spirit of Moses plays here in the figure, [alluding] how the soul's property in the fire's essence must wholly resign up and eternally immerse itself into the incarnation of Christ, in the divine light and love ens in the Covenant, viz. into the divine lubet; and how the light's ens would receive and take pity on the corrupted, miserable, fiery soul's nature, [and cause it to repent] and quit itself of its lust; and also how the poor soul would give up its natural right for this red pottage.n7423 ¶646
11. For this is even a figure, showing how God the Father gives his nature, viz. the soul, to his Son Christ, in the love ens, wholly for his own propriety, where the fiery right is made subject to the love in the light. For thus it goes also in our new birth: the soul longs after this pottage; but ifit will taste it, it must give its birthright for it; and moreover it must swear to God this day, that is, for ever, to forsake and quit its,nature's right: which the outward reason looks upon as ridiculous and foolish, (I mean the children of the earthly lust), that when a man gives honour, goods, and also the temporal life, for this pottage, they even call him a fool, as here theyn7423 ¶647
12. There is in this figure a twofold understanding, viz. inwardly it is the figure of Christ and Adam, as it is above mentioned; and outwardly it is the figure of the earthly man, showing how carelessly and slightly he passes over it, and sells and gives away the heavenly substance to fill his carnal belly, and to satiate his lustful will. The poor soul indeed longs in its essence after this red pottage, but the earthly reason desires only a lentil pottage for the lusting belly; as the like also is here to be understood in Esau.n7423 ¶648
13. The soul of Esau longed after Jacob's heavenly ens; but the earthly Esau, according to the outward soul, minded only the earthly power; the kingdom of nature was so very &trong and earthly in him, that he neither understood nor regarded the eternal, but said, What profit shall this birthright do unto me, seeing I must even die. And he sat down, and did eat and drink the earthly food for the heavenly.n7423 ¶649
14. And Moses says, that when he had eat and drunk, he rose up and went away; that is, he filled his belly with the pottage of lentils, and sold Jacob his nature-right, and went with the earthly man away from the divine enjoyment.n7423 ¶650
The inward divine figure is thus:n7423 ¶651
15. Abraham received the divine ens in his faith's desire, and the same was the stock and the root of Israel. But he was not Israel: for the kingdom of the corrupted nature, and the kingdom of grace, viz. the conceived ens of faith, were not as yet one in him. As when a kernel is sown into the earth, the kernel has as yet no root upon which the stalk, branches and fruits should grow; but the kernel's power draws the essence of the earth into itself; and of both these, viz. of the kernel, and of the earth's power, grows the root, and then the stalk, and above again the manifold fruit.n7423 ¶652
16. The like also is here to be understood. The divine holy ens is not nature's; but the soul is nature's. Now if the divine ens shall be made manifest, then it must be done through a natural essence [or means], wherein the invisible may come into a visible essence.n7423 ¶653
17. The divine faith's ens which Abraham received was of the invisible spiritual property; the same desired to introduce itself through the human nature into a visible, substantial, creatural and natural essence, for a working life, wherein the holy light's natural ens, and the soul's fiery natural ens, might work and bring forth fruit in one essence. 1 For the Adamical nature was gone forth from the holy ens which was disappeared in it; and here now was the ground or foundation of the union. And as it is with the kernel in the ground, where the power in the kernel did mix itself with the ens of the earth, and afterwards leaves its shell and husk, when the earth's ens and the kernel's ens is changed into one ens, so likewise it is heren7423 ¶654
1 In one substance or body.n7423 ¶655
18. Abraham received the divine faith's ens, wherein stood his justification. But his life's nature had not as yet laid hold of it to its own power and strength, for the divine essence does not give itself into nature's own power: indeed it gives itself into the essence of nature, but the divine desire does not incline and yield itself unto nature's own self-will, so that nature should have the predominancy:n7423 ¶656
a similitude whereof we have in the corn which is sown into the earth.n7423 ¶657
19. The earthly nature cannot, in its own power, make another corn; and though it draws the corn's ens into self; yet it brings forth only a stalk; in which stalk the corn's ens grows up, and brings itself into a bloom, and again into corn,l whereunto the earthly nature, with its ens, must be only a servant.n7423 ¶658
20. And as the earthly nature of the earth does always first show its child visibly in the growth, and the corn's ens does therein hide itself; the like also is to be understood here by Abraham. The Adamical nature in Abraham did first manifest itself with its fruit, and that was Ishmael; but the divine ens lay still hidden in his nature, and sprang forth with Isaac; and by Isaac the earthly and also the heavenly nature did again spring forth together, albeit in onen7423 ¶659
21. But as the earthly ens in the stalk, and the corn's ens in the internal ground, do grow up in and with one another, and yet each sets forth its fruit, viz. the earth the stalk and the corn's mansion, and the corn or kernel the blooms and fruits, and yet the one without the other could not come to essence: the like also is here to be understood.n7423 ¶660
22. Abraham was the field into which God sowed his corn; Ishmael was the root, viz. the first birth; Isaac was the fruit which grew from the seed of God (understand out of the ens of grace); and Ishmael grew from the ens of nature out of the Father's property.n7423 ¶661
for the ens of grace had given itself into the ens of nature. Now each did set forth its own figure: with Ishmael the kingdom of nature, and with Isaac the kingdom of grace [was represented]. Isaac was the twig which sprang up out of the field of faith, viz. in the line of Christ; and from him came Jacob, viz. the branch forth- spreading and displaying itself into a tree with many boughs and branches.n7423 ¶662
23. Not that we are to understand that Jacob did grow and spring forth only out of the kingdom of grace; for the kingdom of nature, in which Ishmael and Esau stood, was also his ground as to the creature, but the ens of faith had given itself thereinto, and tinctured nature, and advanced its power, viz. the line of the Covenant of God, inn7423 ¶663
1 Kernels, seeds.n7423 ¶664
24. As a blossom upon the stalk has far a more pure subtle property than the stalk and root; and as out of the blossom first the fruit and a new seed proceeds, viz. out of the subtle ens; so likewise in Jacob, the blossom of the kingdom of Israel first came forth; and no more in the division, as it is to be understood with Ishmael and Isaac, but both kingdoms together, viz. the kingdom of nature and the kingdom of grace, not any more each kingdom by itself or apart in the figure; but in the type of the new regeneration, showing how God in his love had given himself again into man, viz. into the kingdom of nature, and how through his power the wicked ens of the Serpent (sown by the devil into the kingdom of nature) should be broken and killed.n7423 ¶665
25. Therefore God called Jacob, Israel, viz. a flourishing, forthspreading tree of many boughs and branches ; or, as it is understood in the formation of the word in the High Tongue, a flourishing or fresh springing of Paradise. Where the / gives itself into the root, to a new centre, and springs forth powerfully through the root, with which the Word of the Covenant is understood in the name JESUS. For this / is the character of the Unius, viz. of the eternal One in the divine tubet, which Adam lost when he departed from the 7, viz. from the only will of God, and entered into self and into the various multiplicity of the properties in their disharmony, unequality and discord, to try, prove and taste good and evil, in the five senses.n7423 ¶666
26. This / brought itself of grace again into the divided, rent and torn properties of the Adamical human tree; and sprang forth through and with the Adamical tree; and hence he had his name, Israel; being as a great number and power of such branches, all which do spring and grow forth in the new tincture. In which also the ens of the corrupt nature grew up all along; even as the sun's and the earth's power do work and grow together in the fruit of the tree, and are always in contest one with another, until the fruit be ripe, and a new kernel for another fruit be produced and also ripe, and then the tree leaves the fruit, and sows the new kernel for another young tree.n7423 ¶667
27. In this nature and manner also arose the strife and combat with Esau and Jacob in the womb; to signify that the corrupt nature with the Serpent's ens should be rejected and cast off; as the tree does let fall its ripe fruit, and desires only the kernel [to propagate its like] : so it was here when the ens of Christ did stir itself up in Jacob, then arose the strife and enmity. For the ens of Christ should rule; and the wrath in the Serpent's ens, that would also rule; and hence came the contest about the dominion and kingdom. The ens of Christ set itself aloft in Jacob, and bruised the head of the essence of the Serpent's ens in Esau, and even there the Serpent stung Christ on the heel, and thence it came that both the children did strive and struggle together in the womb.n7423 ¶668
28. Not that we are to understand that Esau was wholly out of the Serpent's ens. No; he was of the right Adamical nature, from his father Isaac and Abraham; only, God did here set forth the figure of the kingdom of nature, which was poisoned in man, and then [he] also [set forth] the figure of the kingdom of grace; showing that the natural man must forsake his own evil will, and therewith also wholly immerse and give up himself into the kingdom of grace. And the figure which was here represented in Esau was to show that the evill Adamical man did not at all avail [in God's sight, that it was not profitable for the kingdom of God, but] it was cast away and rejected from God, and that man must wholly forsake his natural right of selfness, and wholly give in himself into God's will.n7423 ¶669
1 Jacob's evil nature was as rejected of God, as Esau's, only the figure was set in Esau; not that he was personally, and wholly from all eternity predestinated to damnation, as Babel falsely teaches.n7423 ¶670
The Fifty-Fourth Chaptern7423 ¶671
How Isaac, by reason of the Famine, went down to Abimelech, King of the philistines at Gerar; And how the Lord appeared there to him, and commanded him to stay there, and renewed there the Covenant of his Father with him: of the meaning of this, in its Spiritual Figure 1n7423 ¶672
1 Gen. xxvi.n7423 ¶673
1. THE twenty-sixth chapter of Genesis does further relate the history touching Isaac; how God did so very wonderfully guide him, and renewed the Covenant of his father Abraham with him, and preserved and blessed him and his wife with him. For seeing the kingdom of grace in the Covenant of God was now manifested in him, the blessing of God did now spring forth effectually in his purpose through the kingdom of nature.n7423 ¶674
2. And, on the contrary, how the devil was an utter enraged enemy to this blessing, and desired to sift and search the kingdom of nature in Isaac, and in his wife Rebecca (in whom as yet the Serpent's ens lay in the earthly flesh) through the lust of King Abimelech.n7423 ¶675
3. And this again is a figure of Adam in Paradise, and also of Christ in the new regeneration; showing how Adam went into King Abimelech's land, that is, into a strange kingdom, viz. into the four elements, where he has denied his wife, viz. the matrix of the heavenly generatress in him, in that he introduced his lust into the bestial property.n7423 ¶676
4. As here Isaac did stand in fear of his life before King Abimelech, by reason of his wife, even so Adam, in his strange lust in the kingdom of the four elements and the stars, did also stand in fear before the strange king, viz. before the kingdom of this world, and denied his heavenly birth out of fear of the kingdom of this world; and gave his eternal will to the king of this world, that it might the better fare with him in his strange lust, as Isaac thought to do with his wife, who stood herewith in the figure of Adam.n7423 ¶677
5. Which figure the divine imagination did represent unto itself in Isaac, and set down withal the Covenant of the new birth, viz. his promised truth, how he would lead and guide the children of his grace in the presence of the strange king, viz. in the kingdom of this world; and preserve them from 1 the lust and desire of this king, and would lay hold of this king with his power, and change his lust and desire, viz. the lust of the stars and four elements, into another will of the essential desire. So that the sharp and severe might of the astrum in flesh and blood should be changed into a covenant of peace, and do no hurt to the children of grace in the Covenant; but it should serve them to bring forth the blessing and fruits, that they might grow greatly, as here Isaac with King Abimelech stood surrounded in the mere blessing of God; and his possession of goods and cattle grew so great, that King Abimelech thought he would be too potent and mighty for him, and therefore commanded him to go out of his land.n7423 ¶678
6. Which is a figure of the new birth in the kingdom of nature; that if the inward spiritual man does in divine power outgrow or overtop the kingdom of nature, then the kingdom of the outward nature in flesh and blood in the spirit of the world 2 is sore afraid and astonished at it, for it sees and feels its ruin and decrease, and would fain preserve its ownhood and propriety in the outward life.n7423 ¶679
7. And then comes the spiritual man in the Covenant of the new birth, and reproves King Abimelech, viz. the outward life in the spirit of the outward world, for the wells of water which the divine thoughts, viz. the servants of the new man, had digged in the soul's ground, viz. in the eternal centre. Because Abimelech with his servants, viz. the evil earthly thoughts, imaginations and senses, had filled them up with the vain lust of the flesh. This sets forth and represents the wells of water which Abraham's servants, viz. Abraham's faith's desire, had digged in the ens of faith; about which wells Abimelech's servants, viz. the desires of the flesh, have contended for, and continually filled them [up with earth] ; which Isaac's servants do again open in the root of Israel, and at last dig up a well wherein they find of the living water; and there they did pitch their tent, which well signified Christ: for they called the place Beer-sheba, viz. an opening, or a contrition; which signifies the repentance, breaking up, or contrition of the earthly will. In which repentance the water of life, viz. Christ, flows forth.n7423 ¶680
1 Before. 2 In spiritu mundi, in the cosmic spirit.n7423 ¶681
8. This whole twenty-sixth chapter of Genesis is a figure, of the poor fallen man in the corrupt kingdom of nature, signifying how he does swim therein, and how the poor soul is tossed to and fro therein, and seeks itself in outward things, and labours to advance its strength and power, and yet finds nowhere any abiding place therein, but wanders from one thing into another, and works now in this, and then in that, and soon in another, and seeks rest, but finds none; until it comes unto Beer-sheba, viz. into humility before God, and then the well of living water springs forth to it, out of God'sn7423 ¶682
9. Now although the words in this text of the twenty- sixth chapter do seem to treat only of external things, yet it is nothing else but the spirit in Moses alluding or playing, under the external history, with a spiritual figure of the kingdom of nature, and of the kingdom of Christ; for he begins and speaks of a great famine which was come into the land, for which distress' sake Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.n7423 ¶683
The inward spiritual figure is this:n7423 ¶684
10. When God had created Adam, he came into the famine, viz. into the temptation, wherein the soul ought not to eat of the outward kingdom, but of the inward; but seeing it turned itself with its will into the outward kingdom, it did live in the famine, viz. in the hunger after the outward world's substance; and therefore it turned itself unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar; that is, to the corrupt kingdom in God's anger, viz. to the heathenish king, and was subject to it.n7423 ¶685
11. And then the Lord appeared unto it, as here he did to Isaac, and said, Go not into Egypt (that is, you poor depraved soul, go not into the bestial lust), but remain in the land which I shall tell you of; and be you a stranger in this land; that is, remain in my Covenant, and be with the soul a stranger in this house of flesh, wherein the soul is not at home; And look, I will be with you, and bless you; for unto you, and unto your seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham your father (vv. 2, 3). That is:n7423 ¶686
12. Remain but steadfast in my will, and then I will give you after this [lifetime] the kingdom of nature, according to its inward good ground, for possession and propriety; and I will perform and ratify my oath (viz. Jesus Christ, whom I promised you in your fall, and whom I introduced into Abraham's faith) unto you for ever; and I will, in the kingdom of nature, wherein you must in this time stand, work, labour, toil, and be in need and distress, even multiply your seed as the stars in heaven; and give your seed all the wrought powers and works to an eternal propriety, and through your seed all the nations of the earth shall he blessed (v. 4). That is :n7423 ¶687
13. Through your ens of faith (which in Christ, viz. in the aim and limit of the Covenant, shall be manifested in the kingdom of your nature and creatural property, and become man in you) all nations, viz. the whole Adamical tree shall be blessed; and therefore, because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, commandments, ways, and laws (v. 5). That is, Abraham has received my working word into his soul's desire, and obeyed my voice in its operation; which divine operation is the command, law, and form. Out of which operation also God showed Abraham, by the circumcision, the figure of the kingdom of Christ, that the same should cut off the sin and vanity; which figure God called his charge, law in the Covenant, and his statute.n7423 ¶688
14. The spirit of Moses does now proceed further in the relation of this figure, and signifies, under the outward history of King Abimelech, how that Abimelech's servants and Isaac's servants contended ahout the wells of water, and that Abraham's and Isaac's servants digged the wells of water, which wells were continually stopped up by the envy and enmity of the Philistines (vv. 18-21). By which figure the spirit secretly signifies how the children of the saints, viz. the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac, have always digged in their ens of faith for the wellspring of life in the Covenant, and have also obtained the knowledge of the Messiah.n7423 ¶689
15. But these wells were continually covered and obscured by the devil in God's anger, and by their earthly reason, until they apprehended and laid hold of the promise of the Messiah in faith. And then they said we have digged a well, and have found of the water of life: the same, Isaac called Shebah,l and therein hints at the Sabbath, Christ, as he also forthwith says, that thereupon the place was called Beer-sheba (vv. 32, 33), viz. a contrition, and breaking of the anger and envy of the devil in man's property; to signify that the Sabbath, Christ, viz. the spiritual wellspring, is truly called Beer-sheba, viz. a contrition of death, where the Sabbath introduces itself into death, and brings forth the fountain of life through death.n7423 ¶690
1 Text, Saba.n7423 ¶691
16. At which fountain the children of God's Covenant did pitch their tent, and waited upon the promise, until the same fountain was opened in the humanity, and flowed forth out of Christ's blood and death; of which the poor soul drank, and thereby was brought into the eternal Sabbath, where it was redeemed and freed from the strife of the Philistines, viz. from the contention of the anger of God and of the devil. As the history in this text does clearly signify thus much in the High Tongue; which the spirit of Moses has thus represented in the figure, and does play with the description of this figure.n7423 ¶692
17. As indeed the whole Old Testament is a figure of the New, and the New a figure of the future eternal world, wherein the figure shall stand in divine power, and the spirit of God shall in eternity play with his deeds of wonder; to which end also he has created man, and inspired 1 the power of his voice, viz. the living word, into him, that so he might be an image of the eternal Word, with which image the eternal spirit will play, and work wonders; that so there may be a joy and knowledge in the eternal wisdom.n7423 ¶693
18. Now when, as the spirit of Moses had pointed out the figure of Adam and Christ under a history, he proceeds, and further relates how it must go with the children of God in this time, showing in what desire the poor soul in flesh and blood lies captive, and is continually vexed and tormented, as here Isaac and Rebecca. For the text says, When Esau war forty years old he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebecca (vv. 34,n7423 ¶694
And in this place he speaks no further of these wives, or their children; to signify that it is a figure, whereby he alludes at something else; which reason looks upon as very strange, and wonders that God should yet permit two evil women to be with holy Isaac, through his son Esau; with whom he and his fair, blessed Rebecca must live in trouble, vexation and opposition: so very secretly does the spirit of Moses set forth his figure, that reason must even be blind in it.n7423 ¶695
1 Or, inspoken.n7423 ¶696
The spiritual figure is thus:n7423 ¶697
19. The forty years of the age of Esau, or of Isaac after he begat Esau, signifies, that Adam with his Eve, when as he was man and woman, and yet neither of them, did stand in Paradise forty days in the temptation or proba, and had joy with his fair Eve, viz. with his female 2 property in himself:n7423 ¶698
2 Or, feminine.n7423 ¶699
20. But Abimelech, viz. the king of this world, had introduced his lust into this fair female 1 rose-garden, viz. into the tincture of Venus; understand, into the holy life of love in Adam; and stirred the centre of the soul's nature, whereupon Adam became lusting and longing to take to him in his property yet two wives, viz. the bestial wife, according to the beast-like property out of the four elements; and the astral [sidereal or starry] wife from the constellation [or astrum of this world]; which wicked woman did awaken in Adam's female property, which he took up to wife for his lust. As Esau did the wives of scorn and mockery, with whom he caused mere grief of mind, and lamentable perplexity to himself and his right female property: and we indeed do still suffer and endure the same, and must consume our time with them in misery and lamentation.n7423 ¶700
1 Or, feminine.n7423 ¶701
21. Further, this figure denotes the forty years of Israel in the wilderness, when they did eat manna, and rejoiced with Rebecca under a strange king; where they lived in the kingdom of this world, and yet were led, preserved and nourished in the divine arm; and therefore they grew great before the world, as Isaac under king Abimelech. And when Israel, after forty years, pitched their tent at Beer-sheba, viz. in the promised land, they yet took these two wives to them in their fleshly lust; which caused mere grief of heart to them, for which two wives' sake they were sorely punished of God, and were at last for their sake, driven from Beer-sheba.n7423 ¶702
22. Thirdly, this figure denotes the hard combat of Christ in the wilderness, in Adam's stead, where Christ in our humanity took these two wives (which were manifest in Adam through his strange son, or will) unto his heavenly essentiality, and suffered them to hunger forty days, so that they must resign and give in their desire to the divine essence, and learn to eat heavenly manna. To signify that this earthly lust [in us], from the stars and four elements, should be broken in Christ's death, and cease.n7423 ¶703
23. Fourthly, it denotes the forty hours of Christ in the grave, where these two wives of unquietness in the human property were changed again into one eternal wife, viz. into the true Rebecca, and right Adamical Eve, which was in Adam before his Eve.n7423 ¶704
24. Fifthly, it points at the forty days of Christ after his resurrection, when the two wives of Adam and Esau were again changed into a manly virgin, when this virgin, viz. Christ in our male and female property, did rightly stand out the forty days of Adam in Paradise, when he was tried; and therefore he set himself by divine might into the royal throne of ejected Lucifer, as a judge; and with these two wives in one virginity, and one only person or image, would rule over him,l as the causer of man's misery, seeing he was the great cause thatn7423 ¶705
Adam, viz. the image of God, did manifest, by his son of the new will, yet two wives in his virginity.n7423 ¶706
1 Viz. Lucifer.n7423 ¶707
25. This, the spirit in Moses and Esdras has mystically and secretly hinted at under an outward figure, showing how it should afterwards fall out. And although it is very likely that reason will not believe us, we care not for that, and it matters not much; seeing we have not disclosed this for its sake, but for the sake of the understanding children. However, we know very well in what vision we write [we know from what spirit's illumination and knowledge we have set down some glances of the great mysteries signified by this short divine history of Moses].n7423 ¶708
The Fifty-Fifth Chaptern7423 ¶709
Showing what we are to understand by Isaac's blessing Jacob, unknowingly, when he was old and ready to die [Gen. xxvii.]n7423 ¶710