24. Fifthly, it points at the forty days of Christ after his resurrection, when the two wives of Adam and Esau were again changed into a manly virgin, when this virgin, viz. Christ in our male and female property, did rightly stand out the forty days of Adam in Paradise, when he was tried; and therefore he set himself by divine might into the royal throne of ejected Lucifer, as a judge; and with these two wives in one virginity, and one only person or image, would rule over him,l as the causer of man's misery, seeing he was the great cause that
Adam, viz. the image of God, did manifest, by his son of the new will, yet two wives in his virginity.
1 Viz. Lucifer.
25. This, the spirit in Moses and Esdras has mystically and secretly hinted at under an outward figure, showing how it should afterwards fall out. And although it is very likely that reason will not believe us, we care not for that, and it matters not much; seeing we have not disclosed this for its sake, but for the sake of the understanding children. However, we know very well in what vision we write [we know from what spirit's illumination and knowledge we have set down some glances of the great mysteries signified by this short divine history of Moses].
The Fifty-Fifth Chapter
Showing what we are to understand by Isaac's blessing Jacob, unknowingly, when he was old and ready to die [Gen. xxvii.]
THE GATES OF THE GREAT MYSTERIES
OF THE WHOLE BIBLE
1. WHEN reason reads this history of the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis it has a twofold conjecture upon the same: one is as if Rebecca [only] loved Jacob more than Esau, and therefore brought him by craft to obtain the blessing of his father; and again it conceives, that indeed it was from the appointment and providence of God, because Esau was not worthy of the blessing, and therefore it will take upon it wholly to condemn Esau, whereupon also it has set the predestination; and yet it understands nothing at all of this wonderful figure.
2. Now, if we would rightly understand and interpret this figure, then we must set here in the figure the patriarch Isaac, in God the Father's stead, who alone can bless, who also blessed Isaac in Abraham's seed, that Isaac should again bless his seed in the Covenant's line.
3. And Esau was set in the place of the depraved nature, viz. in the kingdom of the corrupt nature in man's property, apprehended in the anger of God.
4. And Jacob we set in the new birth, in the humanity of Christ, which God the Father blessed instead of the depraved Adam, when he brought forth a new generation out of our humanity in this line.
5. And we see here how Adam has fooled away and lost the blessing and divine unction, and how he was rejected in the earthly image, from God; and how he has lost his right of the divine unction; as here Esau [had lost] the first birth, and also the blessing.
The inward spiritual figure stands thus:
- 6. Isaac was old, and expected to die, and called Esau his first-born son, that he might bless him with the blessing of Abraham, and bade him go take some venison, and dress it for him, that he might eat gladly thereof, that his soul might be refreshed, and the blessing of the Lord might put forth itself in him, that he might bless Esau. And Esau went and did as his father would have him, that so he might he blessed (Gen.
- xxvii. 1-4). This, in the inward understanding in the figure, is thus:
7. When Isaac was ready to die, the blessing in God the Father's property moved itself in him, and would bless the natural seed of the Adamical nature, viz. the kingdom of nature, in Esau: for Isaac longed after venison, viz. after the kingdom of nature in the bestial property, viz. after the depraved Adamical man, as to the first creation.
8. For the Father's blessing would cast itself upon Adam, in whose stead Esau stood; but the heavenly ens was extinct in the first Adam, and therefore the natural man might not be helped and remedied only with a blessing; but there must be another serious earnestness: the blessing must become a substance, viz. man, in the kingdom of nature; of which [substantial blessing] the kingdom of nature was not capable, in its own power and might: as here Esau, in his kingdom of nature, was not capable of the Father's blessing.
24. Fifthly, it points at the forty days of Christ after his resurrection, when the two wives of Adam and Esau were again changed into a manly virgin, when this virgin, viz. Christ in our male and female property, did rightly stand out the forty days of Adam in Paradise, when he was tried; and therefore he set himself by divine might into the royal throne of ejected Lucifer, as a judge; and with these two wives in one virginity, and one only person or image, would rule over him,l as the causer of man's misery, seeing he was the great cause that
Adam, viz. the image of God, did manifest, by his son of the new will, yet two wives in his virginity.
1 Viz. Lucifer.
25. This, the spirit in Moses and Esdras has mystically and secretly hinted at under an outward figure, showing how it should afterwards fall out. And although it is very likely that reason will not believe us, we care not for that, and it matters not much; seeing we have not disclosed this for its sake, but for the sake of the understanding children. However, we know very well in what vision we write [we know from what spirit's illumination and knowledge we have set down some glances of the great mysteries signified by this short divine history of Moses].
The Fifty-Fifth Chapter
Showing what we are to understand by Isaac's blessing Jacob, unknowingly, when he was old and ready to die [Gen. xxvii.]
THE GATES OF THE GREAT MYSTERIES
OF THE WHOLE BIBLE
1. WHEN reason reads this history of the twenty-seventh chapter of Genesis it has a twofold conjecture upon the same: one is as if Rebecca [only] loved Jacob more than Esau, and therefore brought him by craft to obtain the blessing of his father; and again it conceives, that indeed it was from the appointment and providence of God, because Esau was not worthy of the blessing, and therefore it will take upon it wholly to condemn Esau, whereupon also it has set the predestination; and yet it understands nothing at all of this wonderful figure.
2. Now, if we would rightly understand and interpret this figure, then we must set here in the figure the patriarch Isaac, in God the Father's stead, who alone can bless, who also blessed Isaac in Abraham's seed, that Isaac should again bless his seed in the Covenant's line.
3. And Esau was set in the place of the depraved nature, viz. in the kingdom of the corrupt nature in man's property, apprehended in the anger of God.
4. And Jacob we set in the new birth, in the humanity of Christ, which God the Father blessed instead of the depraved Adam, when he brought forth a new generation out of our humanity in this line.
5. And we see here how Adam has fooled away and lost the blessing and divine unction, and how he was rejected in the earthly image, from God; and how he has lost his right of the divine unction; as here Esau [had lost] the first birth, and also the blessing.
The inward spiritual figure stands thus:
- 6. Isaac was old, and expected to die, and called Esau his first-born son, that he might bless him with the blessing of Abraham, and bade him go take some venison, and dress it for him, that he might eat gladly thereof, that his soul might be refreshed, and the blessing of the Lord might put forth itself in him, that he might bless Esau. And Esau went and did as his father would have him, that so he might he blessed (Gen.
- xxvii. 1-4). This, in the inward understanding in the figure, is thus:
7. When Isaac was ready to die, the blessing in God the Father's property moved itself in him, and would bless the natural seed of the Adamical nature, viz. the kingdom of nature, in Esau: for Isaac longed after venison, viz. after the kingdom of nature in the bestial property, viz. after the depraved Adamical man, as to the first creation.
8. For the Father's blessing would cast itself upon Adam, in whose stead Esau stood; but the heavenly ens was extinct in the first Adam, and therefore the natural man might not be helped and remedied only with a blessing; but there must be another serious earnestness: the blessing must become a substance, viz. man, in the kingdom of nature; of which [substantial blessing] the kingdom of nature was not capable, in its own power and might: as here Esau, in his kingdom of nature, was not capable of the Father's blessing.
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