14. As presently the figure is represented to us, when God said to Jacob, Arise, and go to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. Then said Jacob to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away from you the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourself and change your garments:
And let us arise, and go to Bethel; that I may there make an altar to God, that heard me in the time of my trouble, and has been with me in the way which I have gone (Gen. xxxv. 1-3).
15. Which history of Jacob signifies nothing else but this, viz. when Christ would with this Rachel's idol gods, viz. our flesh and blood, depart from this servile house, and go to his Father, then he would by his going forth, when he should build the high altar before God (which altar is himself), layoff these our idols in human self-will, viz. every imagination of self-love, before the altar of God in his death, and cleanse our hearts, viz. our soul's will, and change our garments, viz. our flesh and blood; as this text in the thirty-fifth chapter clearly signifies, and wholly intends it, that Christ would offer us up upon that same Altar of his New Testament, to the God who appeared to us again in our trouble and misery after the fall, in his Covenant of grace.
- 16. But that the text of Moses says, Jacob stole away the heart of Laban the Syrian, in that he secretly fled away with his daughters (Gen.
- xxxi. 20, 21): it has the very same inward spiritual figure contained
in it. For the Word became man, and took Laban's, viz. the earthly Adam's daughters, and brought them by divine subtlety away out of Adam's house into God's house, which in that place is called stealing, in that the children of Adam are thus stolen from the kingdom of God's wrath, that is, brought away in the divine wit and subtlety.
17. For the anger of God had possessed men in the right of nature, but Christ came and married with them, and stole them, together with the idol gods, away from the anger, and offered them up to God upon his Altar, which is himself and laid off the images of man's selflove, and cleansed our garments before God, that we might serve him at this Altar.
18. This is properly understood concerning Rachel's idol gods: the figure indeed sets down only the outward history, but the spirit of God has its figure under it. For the whole history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob stands inwardly in the figure of Christ; for the covenant between Laban and Jacob, and all that happened therein, is a figure of Christ; for Laban here stands in the figure of the kingdom of nature, and Jacob in the figure of Christ.
19. Laban upbraids Jacob, that he fled from him, and did not suffer him first to kiss his children, and that he might conduct them on their way with mirth and with tabrets (Gen. xxxi. 27, 28). Thus also does nature with the children of Christ, when they secretly flee from it, and forsake the idol's house [or temple]; then the children of nature's kingdom upbraid these children of Christ, for fickle forsworn people, for heretics, novellists, new lights, enthusiasts, or whatsoever sect can be named.
And say unto them, When you will depart from your wicked way and enter into another life, why do you not tell it to our high priests, that they may lead you onwards with their ceremonies, viz. confession, sacraments, intercessions? why do you not observe the usage of the Churches, where the kingdom of Christ is in mirth, with roaring, organs, and pipes? Why do you steal away from us secretly, and go another way than our ordinances and decrees prescribe? and therefore are enemies unto them, persecute them, and hunt them with censurings and disgraces, as evil children and forsworn, which had robbed them of their idol gods, and will not honour their hypocrisies for gods; as Laban pursued after Jacob and upbraids him, because he had not first kept that pageantry and solemnity, and told him beforehand that he would travel and be gone.
14. As presently the figure is represented to us, when God said to Jacob, Arise, and go to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. Then said Jacob to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away from you the strange gods that are among you, and cleanse yourself and change your garments:
And let us arise, and go to Bethel; that I may there make an altar to God, that heard me in the time of my trouble, and has been with me in the way which I have gone (Gen. xxxv. 1-3).
15. Which history of Jacob signifies nothing else but this, viz. when Christ would with this Rachel's idol gods, viz. our flesh and blood, depart from this servile house, and go to his Father, then he would by his going forth, when he should build the high altar before God (which altar is himself), layoff these our idols in human self-will, viz. every imagination of self-love, before the altar of God in his death, and cleanse our hearts, viz. our soul's will, and change our garments, viz. our flesh and blood; as this text in the thirty-fifth chapter clearly signifies, and wholly intends it, that Christ would offer us up upon that same Altar of his New Testament, to the God who appeared to us again in our trouble and misery after the fall, in his Covenant of grace.
- 16. But that the text of Moses says, Jacob stole away the heart of Laban the Syrian, in that he secretly fled away with his daughters (Gen.
- xxxi. 20, 21): it has the very same inward spiritual figure contained
in it. For the Word became man, and took Laban's, viz. the earthly Adam's daughters, and brought them by divine subtlety away out of Adam's house into God's house, which in that place is called stealing, in that the children of Adam are thus stolen from the kingdom of God's wrath, that is, brought away in the divine wit and subtlety.
17. For the anger of God had possessed men in the right of nature, but Christ came and married with them, and stole them, together with the idol gods, away from the anger, and offered them up to God upon his Altar, which is himself and laid off the images of man's selflove, and cleansed our garments before God, that we might serve him at this Altar.
18. This is properly understood concerning Rachel's idol gods: the figure indeed sets down only the outward history, but the spirit of God has its figure under it. For the whole history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob stands inwardly in the figure of Christ; for the covenant between Laban and Jacob, and all that happened therein, is a figure of Christ; for Laban here stands in the figure of the kingdom of nature, and Jacob in the figure of Christ.
19. Laban upbraids Jacob, that he fled from him, and did not suffer him first to kiss his children, and that he might conduct them on their way with mirth and with tabrets (Gen. xxxi. 27, 28). Thus also does nature with the children of Christ, when they secretly flee from it, and forsake the idol's house [or temple]; then the children of nature's kingdom upbraid these children of Christ, for fickle forsworn people, for heretics, novellists, new lights, enthusiasts, or whatsoever sect can be named.
And say unto them, When you will depart from your wicked way and enter into another life, why do you not tell it to our high priests, that they may lead you onwards with their ceremonies, viz. confession, sacraments, intercessions? why do you not observe the usage of the Churches, where the kingdom of Christ is in mirth, with roaring, organs, and pipes? Why do you steal away from us secretly, and go another way than our ordinances and decrees prescribe? and therefore are enemies unto them, persecute them, and hunt them with censurings and disgraces, as evil children and forsworn, which had robbed them of their idol gods, and will not honour their hypocrisies for gods; as Laban pursued after Jacob and upbraids him, because he had not first kept that pageantry and solemnity, and told him beforehand that he would travel and be gone.
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