pottage; for I am faint: and hence his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, Sell me this day your birthright. And Esau answered, Lo! I must even die: and what profit will this birthright be to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and so he sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright (Gen. xxv. 29-34).
This figure externally has but a plain and childlike semblance; but yet it is a figure of the greatest Mysteries. For Esau betokens the first power of the natural, created Adam; and Jacob betokens the power of the other Adam, Christ; thus does the spirit here play with the figure.
3. For Adam's nature came from the field, and was faint, and longed to eat of the pottage which Jacob had. Adam was a limus of the earth, and a limus of heaven; but seeing he died to the limus of heaven, the earthly nature had wearied him in its strife; and in this figure [of faint Adam] Esau here stood.
4. The red lentil pottage, which Jacob had, after which the faint Adam in Esau longed, was the ens of faith, viz. the ens of Christ. The Adamical nature in Esau, in its anguish and toilsome labour, in its corruption and misery, longed after this pottage, which was in Jacob; yet the earthly nature of Esau understood it not, but the soul's nature [understood it], which also longed after Christ's ens, which was strange [or afar off; hidden] to reason.
5. Esau's soulish nature said to Jacob in its longing, Let me, I pray you, taste of the red pottage, for I am weary and faint by reason of the driver or fomenter of the anxious birth; and from this longing or lust he was called Edom, which signifies, in the compaction of the word, in the formation of the Tongue of Sense, as much as a dipping or immersing of the captivate angelical property into the pottage; as if there the soul's longing or lubet, in which the angel's character did yet stand (although captivated), did dip or plunge itself, with the desire, into the holy ens, and would take the holy ens in the divine pottage, viz. the heavenly essentiality into the lust of self: therefore the figure calls him in the High Tongue Edom.
6. For, the desire of Esau's soul said to the divine ens in Jacob, Give me your taste into the essence of my creatural selfhood; but Jacob, that is, the spirit of Christ in the ens of faith, said, Sell me your birthright for the pottage; that is, give me for it the soul's life's form, viz. the centre of the soul's nature, that so your first birth,l viz. the soul's centre, may be my own; and then I will give you the ens of God.
1 Or, birthright.
7. For Esau inherited the first soulish power from his father, and had the soul's centre for a natural due right; after this came the ens of Christ, as a divine free gift without a soulish centre. For the holy ens should receive the soulish centre from the Adamical nature. Now here the Adamical soulish nature did woo for the ens of Christ, and the spirit in Christ's ens wooed for the soulish nature; and the spirit of Christ in Jacob would not give the taste of the divine ens to the soul's nature in Esau, unless it did give him the fiery centre to the beginning of the soulish creature for a propriety; that is, unless it did wholly resign and give up itself in the natural selfness into God's will, and forsake the first birth of the creature, and esteem of itself; in its selfness, as dead; and give over the dominion and will of life to the spirit of Christ in this heavenly pottage.
pottage; for I am faint: and hence his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, Sell me this day your birthright. And Esau answered, Lo! I must even die: and what profit will this birthright be to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and so he sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright (Gen. xxv. 29-34).
This figure externally has but a plain and childlike semblance; but yet it is a figure of the greatest Mysteries. For Esau betokens the first power of the natural, created Adam; and Jacob betokens the power of the other Adam, Christ; thus does the spirit here play with the figure.
3. For Adam's nature came from the field, and was faint, and longed to eat of the pottage which Jacob had. Adam was a limus of the earth, and a limus of heaven; but seeing he died to the limus of heaven, the earthly nature had wearied him in its strife; and in this figure [of faint Adam] Esau here stood.
4. The red lentil pottage, which Jacob had, after which the faint Adam in Esau longed, was the ens of faith, viz. the ens of Christ. The Adamical nature in Esau, in its anguish and toilsome labour, in its corruption and misery, longed after this pottage, which was in Jacob; yet the earthly nature of Esau understood it not, but the soul's nature [understood it], which also longed after Christ's ens, which was strange [or afar off; hidden] to reason.
5. Esau's soulish nature said to Jacob in its longing, Let me, I pray you, taste of the red pottage, for I am weary and faint by reason of the driver or fomenter of the anxious birth; and from this longing or lust he was called Edom, which signifies, in the compaction of the word, in the formation of the Tongue of Sense, as much as a dipping or immersing of the captivate angelical property into the pottage; as if there the soul's longing or lubet, in which the angel's character did yet stand (although captivated), did dip or plunge itself, with the desire, into the holy ens, and would take the holy ens in the divine pottage, viz. the heavenly essentiality into the lust of self: therefore the figure calls him in the High Tongue Edom.
6. For, the desire of Esau's soul said to the divine ens in Jacob, Give me your taste into the essence of my creatural selfhood; but Jacob, that is, the spirit of Christ in the ens of faith, said, Sell me your birthright for the pottage; that is, give me for it the soul's life's form, viz. the centre of the soul's nature, that so your first birth,l viz. the soul's centre, may be my own; and then I will give you the ens of God.
1 Or, birthright.
7. For Esau inherited the first soulish power from his father, and had the soul's centre for a natural due right; after this came the ens of Christ, as a divine free gift without a soulish centre. For the holy ens should receive the soulish centre from the Adamical nature. Now here the Adamical soulish nature did woo for the ens of Christ, and the spirit in Christ's ens wooed for the soulish nature; and the spirit of Christ in Jacob would not give the taste of the divine ens to the soul's nature in Esau, unless it did give him the fiery centre to the beginning of the soulish creature for a propriety; that is, unless it did wholly resign and give up itself in the natural selfness into God's will, and forsake the first birth of the creature, and esteem of itself; in its selfness, as dead; and give over the dominion and will of life to the spirit of Christ in this heavenly pottage.
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