10. As we have a powerful example of this in Jacob, who must be in a servile condition twenty years as a servant, till the twelve stocks of the tribes of Israel were begotten by him. To signify that a Christian must be born under the servile yoke of the corrupt, domineering, selfwilled Adamical nature; but if any should as a Christian be born of the line of Christ, then must the parent 2 be given up as a servant to God, and be in the kingdom of nature, only as a servant of God, who in his heart forsakes all temporal things, and accounts nothing his own, and in his condition and employment esteems himself but as a servant, who serves his Lord therein.
11. As Jacob, who under this service of his begat the stocks or tribes of Israel, signifies that they should be strange guests in this world, and serve God their Lord in the kingdom of nature therein, who himself would vote 3 them their wages; that they should with great riches go out of this world and enter into the kingdom of Christ, viz. into their first Adamical Paradisical native country, as Jacob in his service got his stepfather's goods, with great blessing.
1 Stock, family or genealogy. 2 Mother.
3 Promise or appoint.
The inward spiritual figure stands thus:
12. When Adam was fallen he must go forth out of Paradise, and yield up himself to be a servant under the spirit of the world in the kingdom of this world, and be subject to the stars and the four elements, and serve them in their dominion, and provide for and take care of their children, viz. the creatures of this world, as we see before our eyes.
13. But when he was to go out of Paradise, as Jacob out of his father's house, the Lord meets him, and shows him the entrance in again into Paradise, through the seed of the woman, and destroyer of the serpent; as he showed the same also to Jacob, by the ladder which reached to heaven (Gen. xxviii. 12).
14. And when Adam was gone out of Paradise, then he must submit himself to be a servant under a strange yoke, and serve the kingdom of nature in its wonders, and provide for or take care of the children of nature, which kingdom of nature in the fall became strange to him, in that it now holds him by constraint, and vexes him with heat and cold, sickness and misery, and holds him captive in itself, and uses him in its service, which before was his best friend and patron. 1
15. And as Jacob in this figure must flee to his friend, his mother's brother, and serve him whom he kept as a servant, and yet also, in respect of his daughter, as a son-in-law; so also must Adam serve under the servile yoke of his great father,2 viz. the kingdom of nature, which kingdom gave him its daughter to wife; of whom under this yoke he begat the children of God in the blessing of God, and also places his children as ministering servants in his father's house, viz.
in the kingdom of this world.
16. And as Jacob obtained great riches in the blessing of God, and acquired the goods of his master with subtlety, in that he subtly used the half-peeled, streaked sticks before the drinking troughs, where the sheep drank, upon which they conceived, and brought forth ringstraked 3 sheep, particoloured (Gen. xxx. 37 et seq.); so also when Adam was come under the servile yoke of the kingdom of nature, wherein also the envy and subtlety of the devil domineered according to the kingdom of wrath, God showed him that he should with subtlety acquire to himself the kingdom of nature, viz. the working of nature, with its wonders; and procure the power of nature for an eternal propriety, that his works, which he operates in the kingdom of nature, must follow him into his eternal native country, and be his own.
1 Text, grandfather. 2 Text, grandfather.
3 Pied or spotted.
10. As we have a powerful example of this in Jacob, who must be in a servile condition twenty years as a servant, till the twelve stocks of the tribes of Israel were begotten by him. To signify that a Christian must be born under the servile yoke of the corrupt, domineering, selfwilled Adamical nature; but if any should as a Christian be born of the line of Christ, then must the parent 2 be given up as a servant to God, and be in the kingdom of nature, only as a servant of God, who in his heart forsakes all temporal things, and accounts nothing his own, and in his condition and employment esteems himself but as a servant, who serves his Lord therein.
11. As Jacob, who under this service of his begat the stocks or tribes of Israel, signifies that they should be strange guests in this world, and serve God their Lord in the kingdom of nature therein, who himself would vote 3 them their wages; that they should with great riches go out of this world and enter into the kingdom of Christ, viz. into their first Adamical Paradisical native country, as Jacob in his service got his stepfather's goods, with great blessing.
1 Stock, family or genealogy. 2 Mother.
3 Promise or appoint.
The inward spiritual figure stands thus:
12. When Adam was fallen he must go forth out of Paradise, and yield up himself to be a servant under the spirit of the world in the kingdom of this world, and be subject to the stars and the four elements, and serve them in their dominion, and provide for and take care of their children, viz. the creatures of this world, as we see before our eyes.
13. But when he was to go out of Paradise, as Jacob out of his father's house, the Lord meets him, and shows him the entrance in again into Paradise, through the seed of the woman, and destroyer of the serpent; as he showed the same also to Jacob, by the ladder which reached to heaven (Gen. xxviii. 12).
14. And when Adam was gone out of Paradise, then he must submit himself to be a servant under a strange yoke, and serve the kingdom of nature in its wonders, and provide for or take care of the children of nature, which kingdom of nature in the fall became strange to him, in that it now holds him by constraint, and vexes him with heat and cold, sickness and misery, and holds him captive in itself, and uses him in its service, which before was his best friend and patron. 1
15. And as Jacob in this figure must flee to his friend, his mother's brother, and serve him whom he kept as a servant, and yet also, in respect of his daughter, as a son-in-law; so also must Adam serve under the servile yoke of his great father,2 viz. the kingdom of nature, which kingdom gave him its daughter to wife; of whom under this yoke he begat the children of God in the blessing of God, and also places his children as ministering servants in his father's house, viz.
in the kingdom of this world.
16. And as Jacob obtained great riches in the blessing of God, and acquired the goods of his master with subtlety, in that he subtly used the half-peeled, streaked sticks before the drinking troughs, where the sheep drank, upon which they conceived, and brought forth ringstraked 3 sheep, particoloured (Gen. xxx. 37 et seq.); so also when Adam was come under the servile yoke of the kingdom of nature, wherein also the envy and subtlety of the devil domineered according to the kingdom of wrath, God showed him that he should with subtlety acquire to himself the kingdom of nature, viz. the working of nature, with its wonders; and procure the power of nature for an eternal propriety, that his works, which he operates in the kingdom of nature, must follow him into his eternal native country, and be his own.
1 Text, grandfather. 2 Text, grandfather.
3 Pied or spotted.
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