41 . We have a very excellent and notable example and type of this in the first birth, which opened the womb, that it was to be sanctified and offered up to,the Lord; and yet the true living offering proceeds from the second, new birth, as we may see in Abel, Isaac and Jacob. Cain, Ishmael and Esau were the first-born, the inheritance belonged to them; but the lot and mercy fell upon Abel, Isaac and Jacob; for the first ens of man was infected and made crazy by the devil. Therefore it must be given to the fire for an offering and food; and out of the offering, viz. out of the fire of God's anger, the love of God was made manifest in mercy;
and the first Adam was the sojourner [servant] of the second in Christ, for the second redeemed the first.
42. The devil's desire and the bestial ens of the Serpent had got the upper hand in the matrix of Eve, and apprehended the first seed in the desire. Now the kingdom of God did yet belong to the first man, but seeing he did lose it by his negligence the first Adam must be offered to the earth, and also its first seed [must be offered] to the anger.
43. And after this first seed Abel came forth in the holy Covenant, and offered his sweet blood, to the anger for the sinful seed, that the anger might let its flame fall, and suffer the first birth to press through in the blood of the second [ through death and the anger into life].
44. The first birth was a murderer, which signifies the devil in man. The second was the offering of [or for] the first, that the angerdevil in the first Adam might be appeased in the offering of the second.
45. Not that we would exalt or take in the wicked into the offering of Christ, so long as he is wicked; the devil devours most of the wicked crew: only, the wicked sinner has an open gate made for him in the offering of the second [Adam], if he did convert and turn himself (from his wickedness).
46. But that some write, there was a twofold seed which did sever itself in Eve, viz. one wholly devilish from the ens of the
Serpent, and the other from the ens of Christ [or the promised seed of the woman] in the Covenant [is nothing so] . These have not at all learned the A B C in this school. They have only a dreaming shadow and fiction of the Mystery, and not the true sight. Thus they build the election of grace upon this; but they are much mistaken; they speak only the Serpent's words, which desired to have it so. Observe it thus:
47. Adam had only one limbus to his seed, and Eve only one matrix for her seed, but they both stood in three Principles. The Principles were in contest, as still they are at this day. The second Principle, viz. the kingdom of God or the angelical world, did disappear in the soul's seed, and God espoused his only, most holy Word again therein, unto the new birth.
48. And this espousal or betrothment stood as well in Cain's ens as in Abel's ens. But in the striving wrestling wheel, in the contest of the three Principles, Cain's ens was apprehended in the anger, and covered with the Serpent's monster. Not so, to an impossibility, as if he were born to condemnation; but even to a possibility of the free will, whether he would lay down the self-full, assumed, and selfappropriated right in Adam, and live in God's will, or whether he would live unto himself: Upon this was the election set.
49. Now God knows whereinto the free will is entered: If it be entered into iniquity and selfhood, then God's anger establishes or confirms it in its choice to condemnation; but if it be entered into the Word of the Covenant, then God confirms it to be a child of heaven. And here that saying has its proper signification and application, I have mercy on whom I will, and whom I will I harden. God knows his children even in the ens in the mother's womb; to what end should he give his pearl to him whom he yet knows would turn himself away from him? The pearl's ground lies indeed in man, but hidden and shut up; if he brought his will into the pearl it would open itself in him.
50. All men proceed from one only seed; but in one the holy fire glimmers, and in another it lies as 'twere shut up and cannot [glimmer] by reason of the mire of the Serpent.
51. You say, Then is the Serpent's ens more mighty than
41 . We have a very excellent and notable example and type of this in the first birth, which opened the womb, that it was to be sanctified and offered up to,the Lord; and yet the true living offering proceeds from the second, new birth, as we may see in Abel, Isaac and Jacob. Cain, Ishmael and Esau were the first-born, the inheritance belonged to them; but the lot and mercy fell upon Abel, Isaac and Jacob; for the first ens of man was infected and made crazy by the devil. Therefore it must be given to the fire for an offering and food; and out of the offering, viz. out of the fire of God's anger, the love of God was made manifest in mercy;
and the first Adam was the sojourner [servant] of the second in Christ, for the second redeemed the first.
42. The devil's desire and the bestial ens of the Serpent had got the upper hand in the matrix of Eve, and apprehended the first seed in the desire. Now the kingdom of God did yet belong to the first man, but seeing he did lose it by his negligence the first Adam must be offered to the earth, and also its first seed [must be offered] to the anger.
43. And after this first seed Abel came forth in the holy Covenant, and offered his sweet blood, to the anger for the sinful seed, that the anger might let its flame fall, and suffer the first birth to press through in the blood of the second [ through death and the anger into life].
44. The first birth was a murderer, which signifies the devil in man. The second was the offering of [or for] the first, that the angerdevil in the first Adam might be appeased in the offering of the second.
45. Not that we would exalt or take in the wicked into the offering of Christ, so long as he is wicked; the devil devours most of the wicked crew: only, the wicked sinner has an open gate made for him in the offering of the second [Adam], if he did convert and turn himself (from his wickedness).
46. But that some write, there was a twofold seed which did sever itself in Eve, viz. one wholly devilish from the ens of the
Serpent, and the other from the ens of Christ [or the promised seed of the woman] in the Covenant [is nothing so] . These have not at all learned the A B C in this school. They have only a dreaming shadow and fiction of the Mystery, and not the true sight. Thus they build the election of grace upon this; but they are much mistaken; they speak only the Serpent's words, which desired to have it so. Observe it thus:
47. Adam had only one limbus to his seed, and Eve only one matrix for her seed, but they both stood in three Principles. The Principles were in contest, as still they are at this day. The second Principle, viz. the kingdom of God or the angelical world, did disappear in the soul's seed, and God espoused his only, most holy Word again therein, unto the new birth.
48. And this espousal or betrothment stood as well in Cain's ens as in Abel's ens. But in the striving wrestling wheel, in the contest of the three Principles, Cain's ens was apprehended in the anger, and covered with the Serpent's monster. Not so, to an impossibility, as if he were born to condemnation; but even to a possibility of the free will, whether he would lay down the self-full, assumed, and selfappropriated right in Adam, and live in God's will, or whether he would live unto himself: Upon this was the election set.
49. Now God knows whereinto the free will is entered: If it be entered into iniquity and selfhood, then God's anger establishes or confirms it in its choice to condemnation; but if it be entered into the Word of the Covenant, then God confirms it to be a child of heaven. And here that saying has its proper signification and application, I have mercy on whom I will, and whom I will I harden. God knows his children even in the ens in the mother's womb; to what end should he give his pearl to him whom he yet knows would turn himself away from him? The pearl's ground lies indeed in man, but hidden and shut up; if he brought his will into the pearl it would open itself in him.
50. All men proceed from one only seed; but in one the holy fire glimmers, and in another it lies as 'twere shut up and cannot [glimmer] by reason of the mire of the Serpent.
51. You say, Then is the Serpent's ens more mighty than
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