15. Abraham received the divine ens in his faith's desire, and the same was the stock and the root of Israel. But he was not Israel: for the kingdom of the corrupted nature, and the kingdom of grace, viz. the conceived ens of faith, were not as yet one in him. As when a kernel is sown into the earth, the kernel has as yet no root upon which the stalk, branches and fruits should grow; but the kernel's power draws the essence of the earth into itself; and of both these, viz. of the kernel, and of the earth's power, grows the root, and then the stalk, and above again the manifold fruit.
16. The like also is here to be understood. The divine holy ens is not nature's; but the soul is nature's. Now if the divine ens shall be made manifest, then it must be done through a natural essence [or means], wherein the invisible may come into a visible essence.
17. The divine faith's ens which Abraham received was of the invisible spiritual property; the same desired to introduce itself through the human nature into a visible, substantial, creatural and natural essence, for a working life, wherein the holy light's natural ens, and the soul's fiery natural ens, might work and bring forth fruit in one essence. 1 For the Adamical nature was gone forth from the holy ens which was disappeared in it; and here now was the ground or foundation of the union. And as it is with the kernel in the ground, where the power in the kernel did mix itself with the ens of the earth, and afterwards leaves its shell and husk, when the earth's ens and the kernel's ens is changed into one ens, so likewise it is here to be understood.
1 In one substance or body.
18. Abraham received the divine faith's ens, wherein stood his justification. But his life's nature had not as yet laid hold of it to its own power and strength, for the divine essence does not give itself into nature's own power: indeed it gives itself into the essence of nature, but the divine desire does not incline and yield itself unto nature's own self-will, so that nature should have the predominancy:
a similitude whereof we have in the corn which is sown into the earth.
19. The earthly nature cannot, in its own power, make another corn; and though it draws the corn's ens into self; yet it brings forth only a stalk; in which stalk the corn's ens grows up, and brings itself into a bloom, and again into corn,l whereunto the earthly nature, with its ens, must be only a servant.
20. And as the earthly nature of the earth does always first show its child visibly in the growth, and the corn's ens does therein hide itself; the like also is to be understood here by Abraham. The Adamical nature in Abraham did first manifest itself with its fruit, and that was Ishmael; but the divine ens lay still hidden in his nature, and sprang forth with Isaac; and by Isaac the earthly and also the heavenly nature did again spring forth together, albeit in one seed.
21. But as the earthly ens in the stalk, and the corn's ens in the internal ground, do grow up in and with one another, and yet each sets forth its fruit, viz. the earth the stalk and the corn's mansion, and the corn or kernel the blooms and fruits, and yet the one without the other could not come to essence: the like also is here to be understood.
22. Abraham was the field into which God sowed his corn;
Ishmael was the root, viz. the first birth; Isaac was the fruit which
grew from the seed of God (understand out of the ens of grace); and
Ishmael grew from the ens of nature out of the Father's property.
15. Abraham received the divine ens in his faith's desire, and the same was the stock and the root of Israel. But he was not Israel: for the kingdom of the corrupted nature, and the kingdom of grace, viz. the conceived ens of faith, were not as yet one in him. As when a kernel is sown into the earth, the kernel has as yet no root upon which the stalk, branches and fruits should grow; but the kernel's power draws the essence of the earth into itself; and of both these, viz. of the kernel, and of the earth's power, grows the root, and then the stalk, and above again the manifold fruit.
16. The like also is here to be understood. The divine holy ens is not nature's; but the soul is nature's. Now if the divine ens shall be made manifest, then it must be done through a natural essence [or means], wherein the invisible may come into a visible essence.
17. The divine faith's ens which Abraham received was of the invisible spiritual property; the same desired to introduce itself through the human nature into a visible, substantial, creatural and natural essence, for a working life, wherein the holy light's natural ens, and the soul's fiery natural ens, might work and bring forth fruit in one essence. 1 For the Adamical nature was gone forth from the holy ens which was disappeared in it; and here now was the ground or foundation of the union. And as it is with the kernel in the ground, where the power in the kernel did mix itself with the ens of the earth, and afterwards leaves its shell and husk, when the earth's ens and the kernel's ens is changed into one ens, so likewise it is here to be understood.
1 In one substance or body.
18. Abraham received the divine faith's ens, wherein stood his justification. But his life's nature had not as yet laid hold of it to its own power and strength, for the divine essence does not give itself into nature's own power: indeed it gives itself into the essence of nature, but the divine desire does not incline and yield itself unto nature's own self-will, so that nature should have the predominancy:
a similitude whereof we have in the corn which is sown into the earth.
19. The earthly nature cannot, in its own power, make another corn; and though it draws the corn's ens into self; yet it brings forth only a stalk; in which stalk the corn's ens grows up, and brings itself into a bloom, and again into corn,l whereunto the earthly nature, with its ens, must be only a servant.
20. And as the earthly nature of the earth does always first show its child visibly in the growth, and the corn's ens does therein hide itself; the like also is to be understood here by Abraham. The Adamical nature in Abraham did first manifest itself with its fruit, and that was Ishmael; but the divine ens lay still hidden in his nature, and sprang forth with Isaac; and by Isaac the earthly and also the heavenly nature did again spring forth together, albeit in one seed.
21. But as the earthly ens in the stalk, and the corn's ens in the internal ground, do grow up in and with one another, and yet each sets forth its fruit, viz. the earth the stalk and the corn's mansion, and the corn or kernel the blooms and fruits, and yet the one without the other could not come to essence: the like also is here to be understood.
22. Abraham was the field into which God sowed his corn;
Ishmael was the root, viz. the first birth; Isaac was the fruit which
grew from the seed of God (understand out of the ens of grace); and
Ishmael grew from the ens of nature out of the Father's property.
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