37. Also hereby is hinted very clearly, that a child of God in this world's being does not stand daily and hourly in the operation of the spiritual figure, that his spirit can see and know that [only]; but also in the natural, where the Spirit of God goes also along working in the work of nature, and manifests itself in another property in him. As it may be seen here in Abraham, and all the saints, that God did sometimes manifest himself to them in the figure of Christ, and sometimes again in the cross, and labour, in the temptation and contrariety of the nature of the corrupt Adam; so that they have lived in weakness and infirmities, as all Adam's children [have done and do].
38. And we ought not to look upon and consider this figure concerning Abraham, in all that the spirit of Moses and Esdras [Esra] has written down, but as a type of Christ and Adam, viz. of the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of nature; that hereby God has represented the figure of Christ and his Christendom, how he would again redeem and deliver them from the great toil and labour.
39. Wherewith also the kingdom of darkness in the pain and torment is continually represented, and how the same does pant and reach after man, and how man does stand here [in this life], as in a field, and grows; on whom sometimes the sun of divine love does glimpse and shine, and sometimes again God's wrath and anger; and how man must be purged, tried and purified. And the chiefest and most especial point herein is this: that a man must give up and resign himself to God, in faith and full assurance, and hold still unto him, and let him work in him as he please; and how also he must learn to bend and bow his own nature, and lead it towards God; that it, in all things may desire to be God's instrument and servant, and desire and will to work nothing but what belongs to the divine manifestation in the wonders of nature, for the contemplation of God's wisdom; and on the contrary reject the own-will of the devil, and all desire to selfhood.
40. And we should not look upon the written history of Moses concerning the patriarchs, so blindly as the Jews and Babel do; as if they were only a mere history. No; the same is not only full of the types of Christ and Adam, viz. of the old, and the new man, but there are also secret and mysterious intimations and prophecies concerning the hidden spiritual world, showing what shall be after this time.
41. Reason must know, that the Spirit of God has not laboured in the work only to set forth the histories of the ancients, which for the most part seem but simple and childlike. No; they are set forth for a type and information.
42. The Spirit of God has represented the greatest wonders therein, which he would accomplish in man; and that, in a plain, simple and childlike manner, that so the pride of the devil, and the subtlety or wisdom of reason might be confounded and made foolish thereby.
43. For we must know, that the greatest power and virtue, together with the wonders, does lie in the humility and lowliness; and how God is so near unto all things, and yet nothing apprehends him, unless it stand still unto him, and give up the own-will; and then he works through all, as the sun [works] through the whole world.
The Forty-Ninth Chapter
Of the Death of Sarah,
and the hereditary Sepulchre of Abraham:
What is understood and signified thereby 1
37. Also hereby is hinted very clearly, that a child of God in this world's being does not stand daily and hourly in the operation of the spiritual figure, that his spirit can see and know that [only]; but also in the natural, where the Spirit of God goes also along working in the work of nature, and manifests itself in another property in him. As it may be seen here in Abraham, and all the saints, that God did sometimes manifest himself to them in the figure of Christ, and sometimes again in the cross, and labour, in the temptation and contrariety of the nature of the corrupt Adam; so that they have lived in weakness and infirmities, as all Adam's children [have done and do].
38. And we ought not to look upon and consider this figure concerning Abraham, in all that the spirit of Moses and Esdras [Esra] has written down, but as a type of Christ and Adam, viz. of the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of nature; that hereby God has represented the figure of Christ and his Christendom, how he would again redeem and deliver them from the great toil and labour.
39. Wherewith also the kingdom of darkness in the pain and torment is continually represented, and how the same does pant and reach after man, and how man does stand here [in this life], as in a field, and grows; on whom sometimes the sun of divine love does glimpse and shine, and sometimes again God's wrath and anger; and how man must be purged, tried and purified. And the chiefest and most especial point herein is this: that a man must give up and resign himself to God, in faith and full assurance, and hold still unto him, and let him work in him as he please; and how also he must learn to bend and bow his own nature, and lead it towards God; that it, in all things may desire to be God's instrument and servant, and desire and will to work nothing but what belongs to the divine manifestation in the wonders of nature, for the contemplation of God's wisdom; and on the contrary reject the own-will of the devil, and all desire to selfhood.
40. And we should not look upon the written history of Moses concerning the patriarchs, so blindly as the Jews and Babel do; as if they were only a mere history. No; the same is not only full of the types of Christ and Adam, viz. of the old, and the new man, but there are also secret and mysterious intimations and prophecies concerning the hidden spiritual world, showing what shall be after this time.
41. Reason must know, that the Spirit of God has not laboured in the work only to set forth the histories of the ancients, which for the most part seem but simple and childlike. No; they are set forth for a type and information.
42. The Spirit of God has represented the greatest wonders therein, which he would accomplish in man; and that, in a plain, simple and childlike manner, that so the pride of the devil, and the subtlety or wisdom of reason might be confounded and made foolish thereby.
43. For we must know, that the greatest power and virtue, together with the wonders, does lie in the humility and lowliness; and how God is so near unto all things, and yet nothing apprehends him, unless it stand still unto him, and give up the own-will; and then he works through all, as the sun [works] through the whole world.
The Forty-Ninth Chapter
Of the Death of Sarah,
and the hereditary Sepulchre of Abraham:
What is understood and signified thereby 1
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