20. Thus Babel also would fain have it, that the children of Christ should only enter in to God through their pageantries and solemnities, and belly-ordinances; and whosoever will enter in to God otherwise than through their ordinances, and flee from this servile house [of bondage], he is damned and cannot come to God.
21. But Jacob can well go to his father without Laban's pageantry and solemnity; and though he upbraid Jacob and calls his way wrong, yet his way was right in the sight of God. For God had commanded him so, and Laban could not withhold him at all. So also Christ's children, when the spirit of Christ in them commands them to flee out from Babel, cannot be withheld; also it does not hurt them, though the world blames them never so for it, and scorn, deride, disgrace, and upbraids them for fools, heretics, and enthusiasts.
22. Yet the Most High reproves and charges Laban that he speak not otherwise to Jacob than friendly;! that is, the disdain 2 of
Babel towards the children of Christ must, in the end, turn to their mere joy and kindness, and now Laban must let them depart with their goods and riches. For God commands his children to flee from Babel (Rev. xviii. 4), and to go into the first country of their father (out of which they are departed with Adam), not through the solemnity and pageantry of Babel, but through the conversion of the mind and will: viz. a new obedience.
1 Courteously and kindly.
2 Blasphemies, reproach, misusage.
23. For God has as much pleasure in the solemnity and pageantry of Babel, as in Laban's tabret and piping. He requires a penitent, converting heart, which in highest simplicity and humility, without any solemnity or pageantry, draws near unto him, and departs from Babel: with such a one he goes along and blesses him.
- 24. For when Jacob was gone forth, without solemnity and pageantry, then the angels of God met him, whom he called God's host (Gen.
- xxxii. 1, 2);
which signifies that when the children of God go forth from human inventions 1 and imaginations, and account all earthly things as nothing, and slip away from the hypocrisy of all their titulary brethren, then they get the angels of God for a guard, who go along with them, and lead them on their way in their going out from Babel, as here was done to Jacob.
25. For as soon as Christ is born in a man, so that the mind goes forth out of the Adamical servile house of images, 2 then the angels of God are appointed his guardians.
1 Trifles, fables, chimeras, fantasies. 2 Or imaginary conceits.
The Sixtieth Chapter
How Esau went to Meet Jacob, with four
hundred Men, Soldiers: what this signifies.
And how Jacob sent a Present to his Brother
Esau; and how a Man wrestled with him
the whole Night. What all this means [Gen. xxxii.]
FOR THE READER HIGHLY TO CONSIDER OF
1. MOSES says, And Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau into the land ofSeir, in the borders of Edom. And commanded them, saying, Tell my lord Esau thus, your servant Jacob says thus, I have been long abroad with Laban until this time: and I have oxen, and asses, sheep, menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent forth to you my lord to tell you, that I might find grace in your eye. The messengers returned again to Jacob, and said, We came to your brother Esau, and he also comes to meet you, with four hundred men. Then Jacob feared very much, and was in distress: and divided the people that were with him, and the sheep and oxen, and the camels, into two companies; and said, If Esau come upon one company, and smites it, the rest will escape (vv. 3-8).
2. This whole chapter stands eminently in the figure of Christ. For when the Word was become Man, and would now go forth from this world and with our humanity possess his eternal mansion, then meets him this host of soldiers in the kingdom of nature in the anger of God.
20. Thus Babel also would fain have it, that the children of Christ should only enter in to God through their pageantries and solemnities, and belly-ordinances; and whosoever will enter in to God otherwise than through their ordinances, and flee from this servile house [of bondage], he is damned and cannot come to God.
21. But Jacob can well go to his father without Laban's pageantry and solemnity; and though he upbraid Jacob and calls his way wrong, yet his way was right in the sight of God. For God had commanded him so, and Laban could not withhold him at all. So also Christ's children, when the spirit of Christ in them commands them to flee out from Babel, cannot be withheld; also it does not hurt them, though the world blames them never so for it, and scorn, deride, disgrace, and upbraids them for fools, heretics, and enthusiasts.
22. Yet the Most High reproves and charges Laban that he speak not otherwise to Jacob than friendly;! that is, the disdain 2 of
Babel towards the children of Christ must, in the end, turn to their mere joy and kindness, and now Laban must let them depart with their goods and riches. For God commands his children to flee from Babel (Rev. xviii. 4), and to go into the first country of their father (out of which they are departed with Adam), not through the solemnity and pageantry of Babel, but through the conversion of the mind and will: viz. a new obedience.
1 Courteously and kindly.
2 Blasphemies, reproach, misusage.
23. For God has as much pleasure in the solemnity and pageantry of Babel, as in Laban's tabret and piping. He requires a penitent, converting heart, which in highest simplicity and humility, without any solemnity or pageantry, draws near unto him, and departs from Babel: with such a one he goes along and blesses him.
- 24. For when Jacob was gone forth, without solemnity and pageantry, then the angels of God met him, whom he called God's host (Gen.
- xxxii. 1, 2);
which signifies that when the children of God go forth from human inventions 1 and imaginations, and account all earthly things as nothing, and slip away from the hypocrisy of all their titulary brethren, then they get the angels of God for a guard, who go along with them, and lead them on their way in their going out from Babel, as here was done to Jacob.
25. For as soon as Christ is born in a man, so that the mind goes forth out of the Adamical servile house of images, 2 then the angels of God are appointed his guardians.
1 Trifles, fables, chimeras, fantasies. 2 Or imaginary conceits.
The Sixtieth Chapter
How Esau went to Meet Jacob, with four
hundred Men, Soldiers: what this signifies.
And how Jacob sent a Present to his Brother
Esau; and how a Man wrestled with him
the whole Night. What all this means [Gen. xxxii.]
FOR THE READER HIGHLY TO CONSIDER OF
1. MOSES says, And Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau into the land ofSeir, in the borders of Edom. And commanded them, saying, Tell my lord Esau thus, your servant Jacob says thus, I have been long abroad with Laban until this time: and I have oxen, and asses, sheep, menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent forth to you my lord to tell you, that I might find grace in your eye. The messengers returned again to Jacob, and said, We came to your brother Esau, and he also comes to meet you, with four hundred men. Then Jacob feared very much, and was in distress: and divided the people that were with him, and the sheep and oxen, and the camels, into two companies; and said, If Esau come upon one company, and smites it, the rest will escape (vv. 3-8).
2. This whole chapter stands eminently in the figure of Christ. For when the Word was become Man, and would now go forth from this world and with our humanity possess his eternal mansion, then meets him this host of soldiers in the kingdom of nature in the anger of God.
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