1. THE spirit in Moses has set before him the whole figure of man, by Abraham, showing what his condition should be in this world; and what hereafter should become of him. For after he had first spoken of the beginning, viz. of the stock of the human tree, showing whence it did spring, he afterwards declares its boughs and branches, together with its power and virtue, and mentions how this tree is corrupted in its power and essence; and that God has bestowed the highest tincture upon it to tincture it again, and renew it; and how the poison in the essence of the tree is to be resisted. 2
2. Here he does now very wonderfully signify how this tree has stood in the corrupt property in a strange field, and rooted itself with the root into a strange or alienate ownhood, wherein the root was not native; and how the root of the human tree must forsake the strange field, together with the strange introduced essence; and wholly give itself freely out of its life's will and desire.
3. Also hereby is signified, how the place whence the human root did spring, is between the holy spiritual world, and this earthly corrupt world; and that man's propriety, from whence he is sprung, does stand in a double cave,3 viz. in two Principles; and how he must be buried in this twofold pit, as a kernel which is sown into the ground; and how also [this cave of Machpelah] this twofold pit, is man's propriety, of which essence or substance he himself is, essentially.
4. The figure of this we see here in Abraham, that when he conversed in this outward world; he possessed upon the earth no land of his own, but went from one place unto another, and was everywhere a stranger. But when his Sarah died, then he would have a burying place for a certain possession for his wife, himself also, and his children;
and moreover, he would not have it for nothing, but buy it; all which
1 Gen. xxiii.
2 Or, has been withstood.
3 Our Text has it, The Cave of Machpelah, which here, in the
German version
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 does here signify.
5. Moses says, Sarah died at Hebron, in the head city 1 in the land of Canaan (Gen. xxiii. 2). This may very well thus be: but the spirit has his figure under it; for he looks upon the centre, where the death of the saints is; and where the true man must die, as namely, in the head city, Hebron, that is, in the formed word; where he has introduced the ownhood and selfish lust into the formed word of his life's property; and set himself up into a self-full dominion and regiment, as into a head city, where the self-will has framed and contrived to itself a city, or propriety in the formed word, and built it up for its own peculiar land of possession; where he indeed supposes he is a god, or something of his own, that he may do with and how he please. Now this self-will must die in the head city, viz. in the formed ens of the word in its centre, viz. in the city of its ownhood.
6. And this city, Hebron, lies right over against Mamre, viz. between the eternal and the temporal nature; where [the cave of Machpelah] the twofold pit is, viz. the kingdom of God, and [the kingdom] of nature; for in this twofold pit, Abraham would bury his Sarah, and have the pit for his own.
1. THE spirit in Moses has set before him the whole figure of man, by Abraham, showing what his condition should be in this world; and what hereafter should become of him. For after he had first spoken of the beginning, viz. of the stock of the human tree, showing whence it did spring, he afterwards declares its boughs and branches, together with its power and virtue, and mentions how this tree is corrupted in its power and essence; and that God has bestowed the highest tincture upon it to tincture it again, and renew it; and how the poison in the essence of the tree is to be resisted. 2
2. Here he does now very wonderfully signify how this tree has stood in the corrupt property in a strange field, and rooted itself with the root into a strange or alienate ownhood, wherein the root was not native; and how the root of the human tree must forsake the strange field, together with the strange introduced essence; and wholly give itself freely out of its life's will and desire.
3. Also hereby is signified, how the place whence the human root did spring, is between the holy spiritual world, and this earthly corrupt world; and that man's propriety, from whence he is sprung, does stand in a double cave,3 viz. in two Principles; and how he must be buried in this twofold pit, as a kernel which is sown into the ground; and how also [this cave of Machpelah] this twofold pit, is man's propriety, of which essence or substance he himself is, essentially.
4. The figure of this we see here in Abraham, that when he conversed in this outward world; he possessed upon the earth no land of his own, but went from one place unto another, and was everywhere a stranger. But when his Sarah died, then he would have a burying place for a certain possession for his wife, himself also, and his children;
and moreover, he would not have it for nothing, but buy it; all which
1 Gen. xxiii.
2 Or, has been withstood.
3 Our Text has it, The Cave of Machpelah, which here, in the
German version
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 does here signify.
5. Moses says, Sarah died at Hebron, in the head city 1 in the land of Canaan (Gen. xxiii. 2). This may very well thus be: but the spirit has his figure under it; for he looks upon the centre, where the death of the saints is; and where the true man must die, as namely, in the head city, Hebron, that is, in the formed word; where he has introduced the ownhood and selfish lust into the formed word of his life's property; and set himself up into a self-full dominion and regiment, as into a head city, where the self-will has framed and contrived to itself a city, or propriety in the formed word, and built it up for its own peculiar land of possession; where he indeed supposes he is a god, or something of his own, that he may do with and how he please. Now this self-will must die in the head city, viz. in the formed ens of the word in its centre, viz. in the city of its ownhood.
6. And this city, Hebron, lies right over against Mamre, viz. between the eternal and the temporal nature; where [the cave of Machpelah] the twofold pit is, viz. the kingdom of God, and [the kingdom] of nature; for in this twofold pit, Abraham would bury his Sarah, and have the pit for his own.
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