3. For the kingdom of nature, viz. the natural Adam, was the firstborn Esau, which was angry with Jacob, that is, with Christ, for the blessing and heavenly inheritance, viz. for the eternal life ; because it must die, and lose its right; in which kingdom the anger of God had gotten the dominion. That same anger of God came to meet Christ, when he was about to bring his acquired goods into the eternal country of his Father, viz. into the love of God; as Esau did Jacob, in the type or image of the figure. And Christ was astonished at this warrior, viz. the anger of God, as may be seen on the mount of Olives: as Jacob was astonished at the anger of Esau.
4. And as Jacob divided the herds into two parts, because of the wrath of Esau, that if Esau should smite one company the other might escape: so also was the humanity of Christ divided into two substances, viz. into a heavenly, whereof he speaks, saying, He was come from Heaven, and was then in Heaven (John iii. 13); and also into an earthly, from our flesh and blood; that if the anger of God did smite the one part, viz. our humanity, with death, yet the heavenly part should escape the wrath, and penetrate through death, and therein make our humanity living. For the messengers which Jacob sent to Esau are nothing else but the prayers of Christ, which he sent through the anger of God into his love, viz. into the mercy, that our humanity might find grace and favour with God.
5. For as Jacob sent to Esau, saying he had been long abroad with Laban, even till this time, and had with him men servants and womenservants, and camels, with other cattle; that he might with all this find grace and favour with his lord Esau: so also Christ says to his Father, in our humanity (viz. in Adam) which he has assumed, he has been long abroad absent from the kingdom of God, and has brought forth,l in the kingdom of this world in God's works of wonder, many images out of the divine wisdom through the formation of nature, that he might with these formations of wonders find grace and favour with God, seeing these wonders were brought forth through the nature of his manifested wrath; that so they might come to the eternal divine vision and contemplation.
1 Born, generated, or begotten.
6. But the anger went to meet him in the four elements, and would devour the earthliness and evil of them. For Esau's four hundred men signify nothing else but the wrath of nature in the four elements of the body: and they went to meet the humanity of Christ. When Christ was bringing the created image of Adam in our humanity into God, viz. into Paradise, then would the wrath of God first kill the Adamical image, that it might no more live in the kingdom of anger, seeing it was to live in God.
7. And as Jacob humbled himself before God, and said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who have said unto me, Return again into your country, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you: I am unworthy of the least of all your mercy, and all your faithfulness and truth, which you have afforded unto your servant; for I had no more but this staff with which I went over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me from the hand of my brother,from the hand of Esau: for I am afraid of him, lest he come and smite me, with the mother and the children (Gen. xxxii. 9-11). So also Christ humbles himself in our assumed humanity before God; and though God in the prophet David, in our assumed humanity, has hidden him sit at his right hand until he has laid all his enemies under his footstool (Ps. ex. 1), yet he humbles himself even as Jacob did before the anger of Esau: so also did Christ before the anger of his Father.
8. And as Jacob said, When I went over this Jordan I had only this staff, but now am become two bands; so also when Christ, viz. the eternal Word of divine love, came to us in our humanity, then it was only the staff of divine grace. But in our humanity, in the servile house of Adam, he was enriched with two bands, viz. a twofold humanity, the heavenly, extinguished in Adam, and the earthly from the limus of the earth. Therefore he says, in this twofold humanity, as Jacob said
3. For the kingdom of nature, viz. the natural Adam, was the firstborn Esau, which was angry with Jacob, that is, with Christ, for the blessing and heavenly inheritance, viz. for the eternal life ; because it must die, and lose its right; in which kingdom the anger of God had gotten the dominion. That same anger of God came to meet Christ, when he was about to bring his acquired goods into the eternal country of his Father, viz. into the love of God; as Esau did Jacob, in the type or image of the figure. And Christ was astonished at this warrior, viz. the anger of God, as may be seen on the mount of Olives: as Jacob was astonished at the anger of Esau.
4. And as Jacob divided the herds into two parts, because of the wrath of Esau, that if Esau should smite one company the other might escape: so also was the humanity of Christ divided into two substances, viz. into a heavenly, whereof he speaks, saying, He was come from Heaven, and was then in Heaven (John iii. 13); and also into an earthly, from our flesh and blood; that if the anger of God did smite the one part, viz. our humanity, with death, yet the heavenly part should escape the wrath, and penetrate through death, and therein make our humanity living. For the messengers which Jacob sent to Esau are nothing else but the prayers of Christ, which he sent through the anger of God into his love, viz. into the mercy, that our humanity might find grace and favour with God.
5. For as Jacob sent to Esau, saying he had been long abroad with Laban, even till this time, and had with him men servants and womenservants, and camels, with other cattle; that he might with all this find grace and favour with his lord Esau: so also Christ says to his Father, in our humanity (viz. in Adam) which he has assumed, he has been long abroad absent from the kingdom of God, and has brought forth,l in the kingdom of this world in God's works of wonder, many images out of the divine wisdom through the formation of nature, that he might with these formations of wonders find grace and favour with God, seeing these wonders were brought forth through the nature of his manifested wrath; that so they might come to the eternal divine vision and contemplation.
1 Born, generated, or begotten.
6. But the anger went to meet him in the four elements, and would devour the earthliness and evil of them. For Esau's four hundred men signify nothing else but the wrath of nature in the four elements of the body: and they went to meet the humanity of Christ. When Christ was bringing the created image of Adam in our humanity into God, viz. into Paradise, then would the wrath of God first kill the Adamical image, that it might no more live in the kingdom of anger, seeing it was to live in God.
7. And as Jacob humbled himself before God, and said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who have said unto me, Return again into your country, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you: I am unworthy of the least of all your mercy, and all your faithfulness and truth, which you have afforded unto your servant; for I had no more but this staff with which I went over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me from the hand of my brother,from the hand of Esau: for I am afraid of him, lest he come and smite me, with the mother and the children (Gen. xxxii. 9-11). So also Christ humbles himself in our assumed humanity before God; and though God in the prophet David, in our assumed humanity, has hidden him sit at his right hand until he has laid all his enemies under his footstool (Ps. ex. 1), yet he humbles himself even as Jacob did before the anger of Esau: so also did Christ before the anger of his Father.
8. And as Jacob said, When I went over this Jordan I had only this staff, but now am become two bands; so also when Christ, viz. the eternal Word of divine love, came to us in our humanity, then it was only the staff of divine grace. But in our humanity, in the servile house of Adam, he was enriched with two bands, viz. a twofold humanity, the heavenly, extinguished in Adam, and the earthly from the limus of the earth. Therefore he says, in this twofold humanity, as Jacob said
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