Mysterium Magnum (An Exposition of the First Book of Moses, called Genesis)

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 shewed it to them. 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 judgment. 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.

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 like¬ wise the wrath had already taken the children of Sodom by the hand of their essence, and brought them into the judgment of execution. And we will signify and apply (O Babel) this figure unto the time of thy seal: mark and observe it, ye daughters, children of Lot: it con¬ cerns you. 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 trieth and sifteth them whether they be capable of the grace that is tendered unto them; and sets judgment 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 sheweth 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.

7. And then he sends them both angels together, to wit, the angel of righteousness, and the angel of truth; and first threateneth them severely, and exhorts them, and sets the judgment before them; but when they grow1 wholly a Sodom, he leaveth 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 saith the angel of truth in his children, Hasten and go out, the punishment and ruin is at hand. 8. Thus we declare unto thee, Babel, that God hath already long since sent thee messengers, and with the declaration of the Gospel hath tendered thee his grace; and therewith also hath mightily threatened to punish thee with ruin. But thou hast made only a con¬ tentious disputing Babel of the light of the Gospel, and art now the well-fatted Sodom. 9. And know for certain, that the Lord for a farewell hath now sent thee two angels, one hath the truth in him, and bids Lot with his daughters to go out from Sodom; and the other hath the severe judg¬ ment, and hath now at last sifted thee, and turned thy inward signature outwards, and set it before the Lord; and thy murderous1 cry is come up before the presence of the Most High; and it is exceed¬ ing great; he hath sent his angel to destroy thee, and to overturn the cities.

10. Thy signature wherewith thou art now outwardly marked is the great covetousness and envy, together with thy ammunitionmoney; and the great wrathful severity of thy oppression of the poor and miserable, in that thy covetousness hath served itself so high, that it desires to devour all into itself, whence thy great enhancement of man’s necessaries2 is risen. 11. But thou sayest, Now it is a good and a prosperous time; the sun is risen upon me, and shineth 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. 12. But hear now, what at present the sound of the trumpet declareth. It saith, Go out from Sodom; the sun is risen in love and anger, this we will not hide from you. The angel of truth hath now already taken Lot’s daughters, with the father, and his wife, by the hand; and bids them go; it is time; this thou shalt soon see by woeful experience. 13. For the angel of anger hath also taken thee into judgment, and therefore thou art so wrathful, covetous, murderous, and wicked. Do but behold thyself, whether we speak truth. Thou gettest thyself much to spend in thy signature; and thou hast 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.

14. And Moses speaketh further: And when he had brought Lot forth, he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, and stay not also in this whole plain; escape unto the mountain, lest thou be consumed. But Lot said unto him, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, seeing thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, be pleased to magnify thy mercy which thou hast shewn unto me, in that thou hast 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 1 Thy Cain like crying ruin upon others. covetousness and pride of man, who seeks to maintain it by the sword. one: Ob, let me escape thither (is it not a little one P) and my soul shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing, that I should not overturn the city for which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither ■ for I can do nothing till thou 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).

The inward figure stands thus: 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 judgment; understand, the soul of Lot, in which the Word of Promise in the Covenant had opened itself according to the spiritual property, into which also the now sent voice of truth and judgment did force, and defended Lot from and in the judgment. 16. For with the judgment 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 judgment, and from the children of Sodom. Therefore the angel said, Deliver thyself, and look not behind thee into judgment, viz. into the enkindled wrath, lest the same take thee. As happened to Lot’s wife, who turned her desire back again to see and behold what the wrath of the Lord should be. 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 proveth spirit, and body; and if it reacheth anything of which it is capable, it devoureth it into itself.

18. Now the soul of Lot trembled and stood in fear before the angel of the judgment, 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 taketh his children, in the time of punishment and judgment, into his love, defendeth them, and brings them forth from great destruction ; as he did here unto Lot, and also unto the upright children in the final destruction ofjerusalem. 19. Also the angel of vengeance said: I can do nothing, until thou be come thither. Oh! thou wonderful God, who can hinder thee? 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. 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.

21. Therefore the Lord said to Lot, I cannot do anything, until thou 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 5 for when he came thither the turba must be extinguished, as the name, in the uncompacted tongue of sense, doth express it. 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). 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 judgment 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 judgment, 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.

The inward figure stands thus: 24. It rained brimstone and fire from the Lord from heaven, saith 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 brim¬ stone and fire was generated in turba magna in the third Principle: 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,1 which the constellation casteth forth from itself, which is a materia thereunto. Although it be no palpable matter of substance, yet it is a spiritual substance, in which Mercurius doth enkindle itself in the Salniter, viz. in the fire-crack, where then also the flagrat or fire-crack doth fix itself into a substance or essence, which is brimstone. 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, doth 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 stirreth 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 doth 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.

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,1 which is called turba magna, being a turba in the soul of the outward world in the spirit of nature, whence the outward nature doth inflame and enkindle itself; and the three first [properties]2 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, Tbe Lord rained brimstone and fire from tbe Lord out of heaven. 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 doth move itself, then it is even so in spiritual property, which God calleth his wrath and anger, and a consuming fire; for if this inward

1 Or, darting flash. 2 The prime Ternary of nature. 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. 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 denoteth, that she was most of that very property,1 viz. covetous in the desire, in which she also was taken and apprehended in the sifting [probation] of the angel. 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. 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 moved2 but in the sound. 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].

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. 32. And it was done to the end that man should yet see what he is 1 Or, that property was most predominant in her. 2 That is, awakened and stirred up, and not atoned. according to the outward body, if God withdraweth his spirit there¬ from; and that he requireth 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.

33. As the present Babylonical Christendom doth, which also with Lot’s wife receiveth the grace only externally [or by a strange imaginary imputation], and comforts itself with the grace, but remaineth in the heart in selfhood, and the lust of the flesh, un¬ converted; and hath turned its eyes only towards Sodom, but with the mouth it is gone out of Sodom, and the body is yet at Sodom, and looketh with Lot’s wife only upon covetousness, and temporal pleasure, and will not go with the heart out of Sodom. 34. Therefore the angel of the wonders saith, Thou art sifted, and apprehended1 in the turba, thou art [guilty, and] capable of the brimstone-fire: thy verbal hypocrisy, in that thou sayest that thou art gone out of Babel, and Sodom, doth not at all avail thee; thou art wholly captivated with Lot’s wife in the three first; seeing thou hungerest only after the three first; and usest the spirit of Christ [only] for an external covering, and wilt not hear in thee what now the Lord speaketh; but hearest only what the Antichrist speaketh in his pride, covetousness, envy, and anger, how thou mayest please thy earthly mortal idol, Mausim [and Mammon], viz. self-love, selfwill, self-sense.

35. Thou seekest and honourest only the external idol-god, viz. silver, and gold, copper, and the fullness of the belly to thy luxurious, sumptuous, and stately Sodomitical pleasure. And this idol is also sifted for thy sake, and is made nigh and far off unto thee, and thou understandest not what it means. Thou sayest, There is no danger, and it may well be helped and amended; we may contrive it well enough to a good use. But thou knowest not what is thereby signed and signified. The most inward figure of Lot’s wife being turned into a pillar of Salt, is this : 36. When these two angels came from Abraham, viz. from the spirit of Christ, unto Sodom to Lot, and he bowed himself before the 1 Taken or captivated. 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 declareth very sufficiently. 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,1 or branch on the ens of Abraham.

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 doth 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 probation2 in the turba. 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 ofJEHOVA, out of the name Jesus, so these two lines of affinity were in the tree of won¬ ders, 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.

40. But seeing his two daughters did also stand in this judgment, and were apprehended in the same spirit which opened itself in Lot, 1 Or, line of affinity. 2 Or sifting trial. and received also the same properties as their father, it must be so. And it was so permitted of God, that these two sons, Ammon 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. 41. But in that the spirit in Moses doth so cover it and saith, 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 declareth; but this was a work of the Spirit of God, and hereby also he covereth the external shame. 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 righteous¬ ness 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 saith, He hath shut them up all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all (Rom. xi. 32).

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. 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. 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.

46. Therefore we ought narrowly to observe what it means, when the spirit in Moses draweth a veil before his face, that it doth not appear wholly pure before God : and yet for the unavoidableness’ sake it must be so. 47. And in the deeds of God we ought not to judge according to reason; for reason looketh 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. How God led Abraham very wonderfully, and how he always stood by him in Tempta¬ tion, and defended him: What we are to understand hereby i . 4 B R A H A M must be only as a pilgrim upon the earth, and travel Txfrom one place unto another, and dwell in tents;1 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. 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.

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 Christendom2 among the nations, and cast reproach upon it, as they would sinfully reproach Sarah, Abraham’s wife. 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-labour3 thereof, and suppose to find out Christ by their acute disputations and arguments. 1 Gen. xx. 2 The true Christians. 3 A work of prating and fair spoken discourse. 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.

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 shewed 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. 7. Through which means God brought the nations to the faith; [for] when he came unto a fleshly unbelieving people, then he shewed himself in power and wonders; which the carnal nations seeing, did convert themselves, and turn unto God. 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. 9. Thus also it hath fallen out in Christendom, when they have been weary of1 the spirit of Christ; and made only a prating business thereof, the spirit of Christ hath 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.

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 to God. 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 hath 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 hath 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.

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. 14). And unto thee, O Germany,1 it is now shewn (and also to those nations of whom thou art born with the name of Christ), in that thou hast for a long time walked under the mantle of Christ with a heathen¬ ish heart, and boasted of the adoption, but lived only in the iniquity of the flesh: That thy judgment is nigh at hand. 13. For the angel of the judgment calleth aloud to the residue of Abraham’s children in Christ, Go out of Sodom: Abraham in Christ is gone away from you; ye have no more of Christ than an empty breath; and a disputing verbal lip-labour; a mockery, whereby one brother doth contemn, scorn, and mock another for Christ’s know¬ ledge’ sake, and only killeth Christ in his members. The city, Jerusalem and Babylon, wherein thou hast gloried [and proudly perked up thyselfin thy devout hypocrisy] shall go to ruin. Amen. 14. Lo, a star shineth from the East and North, which shall blind¬ fold thee, and break down thy walled towers and strongholds in Jerusalem and Babylon. For thou art 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

1 And to thee also, O England. enter into the city of God, which he hath set open to all nations and tongues of the earth, that his glory may be known : A light for all nations [or people]. 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. 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,1 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 aimeth directly thereat.

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 hath 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 type2 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 appre¬ hend the Covenant, and the spirit of Christ. 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. 19. For Christ in his children doth not belong to the human ownhood, viz. to the self-will; neither doth he appropriate or give in himself to it; but unto the humble, resigned will; to that he doth

1 Note, Esdras. 2 Image. incline and appropriate himself; and sometimes he doth also defend the own will thereby. 20. For the own self-will is of the nature of this world, born of flesh and blood. But the resigned will dieth 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 diveth and immerseth itself into God’s mercy, in hope. The Forty -Sixth Chapter Of Isaac’s Birth, and the Casting Out of Ishmael , with his Mother, Hagar. What thereby is signified !• f | 'he Spirit in Moses1 setteth the figure of man’s regeneration in JL 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 doth 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 jour¬ neyed from thence towards the south; shewing that when the king¬ dom of Christ should be despoiled2 in any place, that then Christ would depart thence.

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, with¬ out any interpretation or exposition; wherefore the spirit in Moses wrote down this history; and from whence he looketh as through an exact perspective. For Abimelech denoteth the man of ingenious and discreet reason, viz. the true man, but without Christ, only in the creature, as he is created. Gerar betokeneth the strong austere life of nature, wherein the understanding must dwell, which nature is cor¬ rupted, and from that corruption casteth or darteth temptations and oppositions continually into the life’s understanding, or reason-light; 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. The inward figure of this stands thus:

3. When God had manifested himself to Abraham, and set forth the figure of Christ and his kingdom, and also the power of judgment 1 Gen. xxi. 2 Corrupt. 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 : 4. If we see a man whom the Spirit of God driveth, and by whom he oftentimes speaketh, 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.

5. Thus God proveth 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 often¬ times 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. 6. And although it doth fall out, that sometimes we see such a man whom God driveth 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 doth; but think that God doth thus set his children under the cross to prove them; that they should learn to know themselves. And then the sun ariseth 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. 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 carnal wisdom1 of the flesh] into God.

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; shewing how Christ and the natural man dwell by one another;2 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. 9. And when the resigned will hath wholly cast him out,3 then the poor nature of man sitteth 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 up

1 Or, natural carnal wisdom. 3 Understand, the self-assuming will of nature, which seeks to be master in man. herself to die, then the angel came again unto her, and called her, and comforted her, and shewed her also a fountain; and told her that she should not be so afraid of death, her son must yet become a great nation. The inward figure of this is thus: 10. When Isaac, that is, Christ, is born in the convert, then the spiritual new-born will rejecteth its own evil nature; it contemneth it, and condemneth it to death; casteth 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. 11. And when the new-born will hath 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 doth forsake it; and then it even gives up itself wholly to death; and wandereth in itself in the wilderness; and looketh upon itself as a foolish and simple one, who is every one’s by¬ word and laughing stock.

12. And then when the nature doth willingly give itself there¬ unto, 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 condi¬ tion; 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.

13. That is (we must understand) when Christ is born in man, he rejecteth the vanity of nature, with the will which worketh and desireth vanity, and maketh the natural will to be servant, whereas before it was lord and master. But nature standeth in the wilderness, in the vanity of death, encompassed with sin; and now it must work and bring forth fruit, and yet it looketh upon itself as wholly im¬ potent; 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 hopeth, and doubteth; that is, it hopeth amendment, that it might yet once be delivered from the scornful contempt, and be set again into the honour of its selfhood; but it drieth 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.

14. And when this comes to pass, then it is right in the way to Beer-sheba; and wandereth 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 reproved1 in these temporals for unrighteous and abominable. 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 goeth 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 casteth 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 doth 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.

1 Blamed or upbraided. 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 cometh the angel of God to Hagar, that is, to the poor forsaken and dying nature, and saith, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad, where he lieth. Arise, take up the lad, and hold him in thy hand, for I will make him a great nation. And then God openeth the eyes of Hagar, viz. of nature, and she sees a well of water, and then filleth 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. The inward exceeding precious and worthy figure of this stands thus: 17. When man hath put on Christ in faith, and is entered into right true repentance, and hath in his mind forsaken the whole world, even all its honour, goods, and things temporal; then the poor nature of man doth thus stand in the mortification of self, as is above-mentioned concerning Hagar and her son. For it desireth also to die, even to the senses and cogitations of the mind, and to enter wholly into resigna¬ tion.

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.1 And even there the divine Word heareth the voice of the child’s crying, viz. the troubled disconsolate mind in its thoughts;2 for it soundeth therein in the divine voice; and saith in the divine voice to nature, viz. to Hagar, What aileth thee, thou troubled and perplexed nature? fear not, God hath heard the voice of the lad, viz. of thy thoughts, which thou hast offered up in the desire to God: Arise, that is, lift up thyself to God in this resignation; and stand up in the voice which hath graciously heard thee, and looked upon thee, and take thy cogitations, viz. thy 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 openeth unto nature the fountain of living water; so that it receiveth, 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.

1 Thoughts, meditations. 2 Cogitations, meditations. 19- And then God is with this lad of the thoughts, and he groweth great in the wilderness, that is, in the corrupt nature; the right, discreet and intellectual child groweth 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 shooteth down out of his spirit, with the holy spirit, the evil beasts and birds in his brethren; he teacheth them, and reproveth them with divine arrows. 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 layeth 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 : 21. This Egyptian woman is his flesh and blood, with reason, wherein the idol Mausim, viz. the Babylonical whore sitteth, where the devil hath 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.

22. This whore is now the exercise and probation of the spiritual cogitations or senses in the Christian mind; but this whore doth not hurt the children of Christ; indeed it hath 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 hath 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,1 and bear with it the foul shame and reproach, so long till the unclean idolatrous whore dieth. And then this lad is led of the angel into Isaac’s tent, viz. into Christ’s flesh and blood. 23 . And this is the very real figure of the spirit in Moses, wherefore he hath so punctually and emphatically deciphered this figure; for the spirit in Moses aimeth so directly and fully at the mortifying of man’s

1 Note. — How we cannot so much as think a good thought. selfhood; and plainly speaketh, 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 dieth 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. 24. A very excellent figure the spirit in Moses doth 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 thy sight because of the lad, and because of the bond-woman ; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken to her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

The inward precious figure of this is thus: 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 hath the whorish Egyptian bondwoman, with her scoffing son of vanity, in his arms. And now, when it happeneth that oftentimes the mocker, viz. Ishmael, the son of the bond-woman, doth break forth out of him, yea, even wholly without his will and purpose, that Sarah (that is, honest minds, to whom God doth make it known) do reprove him; nay, and is oftentimes 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 doth not know, that he in this time of his earthly life stands in the judgment 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. 26. But the Lord speaketh in the spirit of the humility of Christ: Let it not seem grievous in thy sight, that people do find fault with thy words, and reject thy labour. Hearken to Sarah, viz. to the divine voice; and do thou thyself cast out from thee whatsoever thou hast at any time spoken or meant evilly, wrongfully or partially. For in Isaac, that is, in thy deepest humility, thy seed shall be called; where, in thy words and works, the spirit of God worketh in love; and not in thy natural selfness and peculiar ownhood of reason, wherein the son of the bond- woman speaketh and worketh. 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 judg¬ ment 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 every one passeth his sentence and judgment there¬ upon: God judgeth upon the earth externally by men, both by the evil and by the good.

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 speaketh, judgeth, or doth from partiality or favour, doth belong again unto judgment, 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 speaketh to the natural man, that he should not despair in this judgment, but take it in good part, and be content that his words and works are judged. 29. Therefore we say, as the Lord hath 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. 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 passeth upon the figure only, shewing 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. 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 hath dealt with man in types and parables; as Christ also did when he came upon the earth : He spake all these mysteries in parables, for man’s unworthiness’ sake. 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.

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 prophesieth 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. 34. As indeed hitherto men have reviled Christ in the outward image of simplicity in his children and members, in which, reason hath seen and known no more, than Hagar and Ishmael in their miserable banishment; under which, notwithstanding, the voice of the angel hath 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 hath been only an Antichrist. Now, this mocker and Antichrist shall be revealed under this trumpet’s sound; and be cast out of1 the children of God into the abyss, which Babel shall see in a short time: Declareth the spirit of the wonders of God.

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 appeareth 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 doth 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. 36. This is an excellent figure [and pregnantly intimates] how God terrifieth 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 doth 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 hath dealt wrongfully and unrighteously with him.

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 terrifieth sin and death; and how the poor corrupt nature doth turn itself, in the horror and acknowledg¬ ment of sin, to God, as here Abimelech turned unto Abraham; and how it then giveth 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 pointeth, 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. Of the Covenant of Ahimelech and Abraham , shewing what the same is, in the spiritual figure; and what the Spirit in Moses, under his veil, doth here point at A VERY PRECIOUS AND EXCELLENT GATE TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD IN BEER-SHEBA I. /courteous and friendly Reader, know, that if a man should V^/write many hundred books of the history of Abraham, yet he could not sufficiently express the abundant richness which lieth 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 other¬ wise it is not to be understood by the natural man; and yet the Lord doth 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.

The outward figure in the Text of Moses stands thus: 2. And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech, and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest: Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal unfaithfully1 with me, nor with my children, nor grand-children: but according to the kindness which I have done unto thee, thou shalt also do unto me, and to the land wherein thou 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 hath done this thing: neither didst thou 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 thou hast set apart by themselves? And he answered, Seven lambs thou shalt 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.

3. But the spirit of Christ under the veil of Moses hath ciphered out before him far another figure, wherewith he alludes and prophesieth; for under all the acts of Abraham which the spirit of Moses hath 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 doth so aptly and exactly set its figure, as if he played therewith. 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 shewed Hagar; which Abraham, that is, Christ, digged; where afterwards Christendom preached of1 the name of the Lord, the eternal God, in Christ, by this well of water in Beer-sheba. 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 be 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.

The inward holy figure stands thus: 6. Abimelech and Phichol, who spake with Abraham concerning the covenant, the spirit doth here represent in the type of God the Father, and then also of nature. King Abimelech points at the Father 1 Or, called on. 437 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. 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 doth hint at this figure, and representeth, under King Abimelech, Adam in the Father’s property and nature. 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.

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 signifieth and sets forth pregnantly by way of allusion in this figure. 10. God the Father bringeth 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 speaketh to Abraham in the figure of Christ, Wherefore didst thou not tell me that God was in Sarah, viz. in this image? wherefore didst thou not say unto me that she was thy wife? understand, Christ’s wife, which is called the woman’s seed in this mother, for I had almost heinously offended towards her. 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 shewed 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 bringeth forth by it;

and spake by the field-captain, viz. by the outward nature to Abraham in Christ : Take now thy wife, viz. the heavenly matrix in me; for, lo! God is with thee in all that thou dost. That is, I will restore again unto thee 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 thee; take it, it is thy 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. 12. Now the soul in the Father’s property spake to Abraham in Christ, seeing (Matt, xxviii. 18) all power over the humanity was given unto him, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt not shew any unkindness1 to me, nor my children, nor my nephews; but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, do thou also unto me, and to the land wherein thou art 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 humanity2 for a peculiar possession, and say thus: Seeing I have given thee the power in the human property which is mine, to be thy own, swear now unto me by God;

that is, deeply bind thyself therewith into an essential oath, or one eternal covenant; that thou wilt not shew 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 often¬ times 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 thee, even unto thy image, (in that I have restored unto thee again this heavenly matrix, which in Adam was captivated in my wrath, and disappeared from thy image, in my anger), thou shalt 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 thou sojournest.

13. For Christ is a stranger in our earthly humanity, and our earthly humanity doth oftentimes make our children or grand¬ children 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. 1 Or, unfaithfulness. 2 That is, all mankind. But Christ should shew 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 sweareth 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. 1 1) : for Abraham in Christ, viz. in the figure, said, I will swear, that is, I will do it. 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 itself to another property.

15. And Abimelech, that is, the soul, answered, I wot not who hath 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 hath done this hurt. Also, thou didst not tell it unto me; that is, thou didst not declare unto me that thy image was in me; that this holy divine fountain was thine, which my servants, viz. my essences, have taken it to selfhood.1 Moreover, I heard not of it, but to-day; that is, thou hast not revealed to me that this fountain is thy seat, save to-day only; that is, to-day, where thou dost again manifest thyself in me in Adam with a Covenant of Grace, where now I heard thy voice in me. 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.

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 1 Turned it to a selfish ownhood. saith, by themselves , signifieth 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-,1 they belong not to man’s selfhood. 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 liveth in it; also it doth signify that his creatural person, with the seven properties of the humanity, shall dwell among us as a distinct person, as eternal high priest. 19. And Abimelech said, What mean these seven lambs which thou hast 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 thy seven properties of our divine nature by them¬ selves?

Wherefore, seeing thou shouldst regenerate mankind, and dwell in them, wilt thou also set forth thy seven properties of our divine nature in a distinct human person? And Christ answered in the figure of Abraham, Thou shalt take seven lambs from my hand, that they may be an eternal testimony unto me, that I have digged this well. That is to say, Christ speaketh to his Father in man’s person, Thou shalt 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.

20. And the spirit in Moses speaketh wholly under a veil; there¬ fore, 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 liveth and seeth in the dis¬ appeared 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. 21. And the place of God at Beer-sheba is shewn to us poor men, 1 Or, by himself. where God the Father hath 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 doth wholly give up itself to repen¬ tance, 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 hath 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.

22. Thus now we ought steadfastly to trust our dear Immanuel, Jesus Christ, who hath 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. 23. And Moses saith 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,1 that is, inclined to good and evil. This denotes that the poor soul, although it hath 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 Philistrean2 essence of the flesh; which is a constant adversary to this King Abimelech, viz. to the poor soul, and only forsaketh the Covenant and oath; and brings itself, in its Philistrean,2 selfish, lustful concupiscence and desires, into selfhood, as into its own land.

24. And hereby it is signified to the poor Christians, that they must lodge and lie with the new birth in this Philistrean land3 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 ofjesus Christ, which is a stranger with Abraham in Beer-sheba, viz. in the earthly cottage. 1 Or, Philistineal. 2 Or, Philistine. 3 Philistine Land. 25. And the spirit in Moses speaketh 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. This is as much as if he should have said: The spirit of Christ in Abraham (when the soul hath received the Covenant and oath, that it is contrite in true repentance) doth plant trees in Beer-sheba; that is, it bringeth forth heavenly branches in this penitent heart in the strange land, the earthly man; and preacheth, from these new branches, of the name of the eternal God, and dwelleth a long time, viz. the time of the whole earthly life, in this Philistrean1 cottage.

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; shewing 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 Philistrean1 children, that they, in his preaching, may come to him in Beer-sheba, that is, into true and unfeigned repentance. 27. Thus very exactly doth the spirit in Moses play here with the type of Christ under an external history in a simple child-like form; and shews us how we must continually stand in temptation, trials, danger and opposition; and how God doth 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, hath 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 himself before him; and with great recompense and gifts made a covenant with him. Thus also it goeth 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.

How God Tried Abraham , and set forth the Figure of Christ’s Offering in his Suffering and Death1 I. after that the spirit in Moses had deciphered the figure of the Covenant of God, established in Christ Jesus with his children, shewing 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 (i Cor. xv. 24), which he had given him in the humanity, so that afterwards, and to all eternity, God might be 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.

2. The spirit in Moses doth set forth this figure very clearly, even to the end of all his writings, and playeth 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, like¬ wise in the spiritual figure, and shew what is thereby to be under¬ stood. 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 hath 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. 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; shewing how Abraham, that is, Adam, should offer up his person1 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.

4. Now the voice of God spake to Abraham, and said, Abraham! And he answered, Here am I. That is, God called to Adam in Abraham, viz. to all men, and said : Take thy own son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of Moriah-, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon a mountain which I will tell thee of (Gen. xxii. 1, 2). Here the spirit looketh with Isaac upon Christ, for in Isaac lay the Covenant, and the ens of Abraham’s faith, out of which Christ should come. Now said the voice of God to Adam in Abraham, Take thy son, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering upon the mountain which I shall tell thee 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 hath 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.

5. For said the spirit in Moses: Thy son whom thou lovest , viz. thy own will, which hath 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. 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, purgeth2 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,

1 Text, image. 2 Evaporates. 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 dieth, then also all its branches in it do die;1 and as the tree doth renew its youthful growth, it also introduceth 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. 7. Now said God : Upon the mountain which I shall shew thee. 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 doth. 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 shews 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 type2 of Jesus Christ, will offer us according to the body. And when the Lord calleth 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 thoupleasest.

8. And Abraham rose up early in the morning , and saddle d% 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). This figure stands thus: When the voice of God calleth us, then we should with Abraham go presently: for early in the morning signifieth here, when the voice breaks forth as the dawning of the day; when God in us calleth us. When man hath a thought come into him, saying, Thou shouldst return, amend, and truly repent; then it is time. He must forthwith girt his ass, viz. the bestial man with power. Although he [the bestial 1 Note. — How Christ’s death was effectual to all men. 2 Image, or likeness. 3 Text, girt. 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 prophesieth: for Christ must girt this ass early, with the voice of God, and go to the offering.

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 confesseth 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. 10. And on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar ojf( Gen. xxii. 4). Here the spirit pointeth 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 off. 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 Judgment, and the final offering, afar off. Also it signifieth, that Abraham in the spirit saw the offering of Christ afar off, viz. above two thousand years then to come. And that the spirit saith, 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 doth allude with the outward figure at that which was and is to come.

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). The figure of it internally stands thus: 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. 12. This points at his ascension according to the humanity, when he had finished the sacrifice he went thither,1 and worshipped in our assumed humanity, unto God his Father; that is, our assumed soul, in divine power and property, doth pray and intercede for our weak¬ nesses and ignorances, unto and before God. Therefore saith 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.

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, Te 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 hath already sounded; and therefore hold not this for an uncertain fiction. The Morning Star and Messenger of the Annunciation is appeared. 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). The inward figure stands thus: 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 doth here point at this figure, how Christ should take our introduced sin upon himself, and carry it to the burnt offering. 15. And Abraham took the knife, and the fire: Abraham denoteth

1 Yonder, or to that place. 2 Note. — Jesus’s coming again. Acts i. 1 1. Adam, who took the fire of God’s anger into himself; and the knife signifieth 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. 16. And Isaac spake 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). The precious figure is thus: The spirit here playeth 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 saith: Behold, my father! here I have taken on me the sin and death in the humanity; here is now the fire of thy anger, viz.

the divided life’s forms of man’s property, selfhood and own will; in this now I have the fuel, wherein thy fire of anger burneth: Here now I have the wood, viz. the sins of all men; and also thy fire to the offering; where is now the lamb,1 viz. 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 him¬ self a lamb for the burnt offering; and they went both of them together.

17. Here Christ doth in Isaac’s figure present himself in our assumed humanity to his Father; and saith, Where is now the lamb for 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. 18. And that the spirit of Moses saith, 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.

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. 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.

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 cometh the voice of God, as it came to Abraham, and to Hagar in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, and saith, Do not anything to nature, viz. thy son : now I know thou believest God. 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 hath 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.

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 there¬ with, 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 oflsaac. 24. Not as Babel teacheth. 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, Te are saved by grace, in Christ’s merit. The will of self attains it not, but that which entereth into Christ’s death, and dieth; 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.1

25. And Moses saith, The angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham (Gen. xxii. 11): that is, when man 1 Note. — To whom Christ’s death is not profitable. resigneth up his will wholly, and willingly desireth 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,1 then God calleth man with a double2 voice; as here he did Abraham, where God said unto him, Abraham, Abraham. That is, he calleth to him in his own voice in his word, and also in the voice of the human essence; that is, he openeth to him the divine hearing in himself, so that he heareth 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 ariseth again in the uncompacted sensual tongue, so that man heareth what the Lord speaketh in him. Of which Babel knoweth nothing, nor can know, nor will know; but climbeth up continually in the compacted tongue on the tower of Babel into a heaven of human selfhood; and hath put Christ’s garment outwardly upon itself; but it hath not the twofold voice; therefore also it doth not hear when God calleth Abraham.

26. And Abraham answered, Here am I. And he [the angel] said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy only son for my sake (Gen. xxii. 12). That is thus: when man hath 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 hath lost its right [its own law and will]. Then saith the spirit of God by the soul, Do nothing to thy nature; now I know that it is given up and resigned to me, and that the soul hath now an assurance3 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. 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 hath 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;

1 Ensign. 2 Twofold. 3 Plerophory. 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 for¬ sake every creature. And then he lieth bound upon the wood of the burnt-offering’s altar, and waiteth for the voice of God from heaven, which calleth 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 saith, Now I know that thou fearest God, and puttest thy trust in him alone, for the human will sinketh into the most pure being of God. 28. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and lo ! a ram was hung in a thicket by his horns: and he went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name oj the place. The Lord1 seeth; as it is said to this day, Upon the mount where the Lord seeth (Gen. xxii. 13, 14). This is the golden figure which sheweth that the killing, death and dying, doth not reach the true man, but only the ram with his horns, which sticketh in the flesh and blood in the thorns of sin. And it chiefly denotes that the true human soul2 in Christ and his children shall not die in this burnt offering of God;

but after that it hath resigned up the will of self, then God openeth its eyes, that it seeth the ram behind it, viz. it spieth the will of the wild evil flesh, and learns to know it, which will sticketh 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 seeth, and offereth 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 hath introduced.

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 beast 1 Jehovah-jireh. 2 Text, souls-man. for the burnt offering. The Lamb of God in Adam shall not be con¬ sumed 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 seeth; that is, when the ram is offered, then this place is afterwards the temple of God, where the Lord seeth.

30. And the spirit of Moses speaketh very hiddenly hereof, and saith, Hence it is said still to this day: Upon the mount where the Lord seeth. The mount is the life’s nature, where the Lord hath seen, not only in Abraham and Isaac, but he seeth 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 seeth through nature, as the sun throughshineth a glass, or as a fire through-heats an iron. 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 hath bestowed his heart to that end, to redeem us from pain and torment.

32. When the soul with the right nature hath 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 main¬ tenance, 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. 33. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast

done this thing , and hast not spared thy only son, that I will bless and multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand that is upon the seashore ; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies ; and through thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed ■ because thou hast obeyed my voice. And so Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba, and dwelt there (Gen. xxii. 15-19). This is now the seal of faith: when man hath wholly given himself up to God, then God sweareth 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.

34. For so soon as the judgment of the earthly man hath been held in the penitent man, so that the soul rejecteth the will of the evil flesh, viz. the will of the animal soul, and brings it into judgment to the condemnation of death, and resigns itself up wholly unto God; then God sweareth 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. 35. After these things Moses mentioneth how the blessing of Abraham did spread forth itself, and he maketh 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 hath 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.

36. As we may see again in this figure, how God hath not rejected 1 Passed or went. 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 signifieth, 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 hath 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 man, 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. 37. Also hereby is hinted very clearly, that a child of God in this world’s being doth 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 some¬ times 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].

38. And we ought not to look upon and consider this figure con¬ cerning Abraham, in all that the spirit of Moses and Esdras1 hath written down, but as a type of Christ and Adam, viz. of the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of nature; that hereby God hath repre¬ sented the figure of Christ and his Christendom, how he would again redeem and deliver them from the great toil and labour. 39. Wherewith also the kingdom of darkness in the pain and torment is continually represented, and how the same doth pant and reach after man, and how man doth stand here [in this life], as in a field, and grows; on whom sometimes the sun of divine love doth 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 1 Text, Esra. Note. — Concerning Esdras. 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.

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, shewing what shall be after this time. 41. Reason must know, that the Spirit of God hath 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. 42. The Spirit of God hath 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. 43. For we must know, that the greatest power and virtue, together with the wonders, doth 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 worketh through all, as the sun [worketh] through the whole world.

Of the Death of Sarah , and the hereditary Sepulchre of Abraham: What is understood and signified thereby1 i. rpHE spirit in Moses hath set before him the whole figure of JL man, by Abraham, shewing 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, shewing whence it did spring, he afterwards declares its boughs and branches, together with its power and virtue, and mentioneth how this tree is corrupted in its power and essence; and that God hath 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.2 2. Here he doth now very wonderfully signify how this tree hath 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. 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, doth 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.

4. The figure of this we see here in Abraham, that when he con¬ versed 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 ; and moreover, he would not have it for nothing, but buy it; all which 2 Or, hath been withstood. is rendered a double cave, or a twofold pit. 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 doth here signify. 5. Moses saith, 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 hath 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 hath 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 hath 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 supposeth 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.

6. And this city, Hebron, lieth 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. 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 hath 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 hath bought it for his blood of the heavenly essentiality (for the holy tincture), understand [he hath 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 saith the spirit, the children of Heth had this field for their own possession.

8. This signifieth, that God’s children must wholly forsake the 1 Our Text, Kirjath-arba. 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. 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, hath given to the children of Heth, 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 lubet1 hath brought itself out of the property of both centres, into an ens, and into the creature of the humanity; which human creature hath broken itself off from 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 doth here compare to pure silver, and so secretly intimates in the figure.

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 bowed himself before the children of the land (Gen. xxiii. 7); and entreated them for it; whereas they would freely have given him the field, and bowed them¬ selves before him. But the spirit of Moses hath its figure here; for he hath represented man to him in a very perfect model ; for which cause also he playeth in the process in the figure; shewing 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. 11. And that the children of Heth 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 hath indeed freely

1 Or, good will and pleasure. 2 The Cave of Machpelah, the double valley. 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 offereth 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 cave1 of Machpelah should not be taken, but dearly purchased with the most precious substance. God took the earnest or ransom of Christ for his cave1 of Machpelah, for payment. Therefore Abraham must stand in Christ’s figure; for the body must be buried in the cave1 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. 12. For Moses saith, 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 lieth, 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.

13. And we see very clearly what the spirit of Moses meaneth in its figure; for first it representeth 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 doth not reach this twofold cave; and though he should be therein, yet he liveth only in the apostate essence in the ownhood of the devil, viz. in the intro¬ duced Serpent’s ens in the dark world’s property, which is manifest and predominant in the Serpent’s ens. 14. The chiefest piece in this figure is, that the spirit of Moses doth point at the twofold life; how this world hath 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