to God: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you have said unto me, Return again into your country, and to your first kindred;
I am less than the least of all these mercies which you have bestowed on your servant; to signify that it was only in divine mercy that these two bands, viz. the twofold humanity, returned home again into its first country of Paradise to the angelical kindred.
9. And when Jacob had humbled himself before God, and his brother Esau, He stayed there all night, and took of that which came to his hand, for a present to his brother Esau, two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, and thirty milch camels with their foals, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she asses with ten foals. And put them under the hand of his servants, every herd by itself; and said to them, Go on before me, and leave room for one herd after another. And he commanded the foremost, and said, When my brother Esau meets you, and asks you to whom do you belong? where do you go? and whose these are that you drive? you shall then say, They are your servant Jacob's, who sends them for a present to his lord Esau; and he follows behind after us (Gen. xxxii. 13-18).
10. This type is now the great earnestness, whereby the spirit of God in the figure points at the future. For this present of Jacob to his angry brother Esau, points at the place and condition of Christ. When he should appease the anger of his Father, then he must first send these beasts in our implanted humanity for an atonement, which should be presented to the anger of God.
11. But these beasts, which Christ sent to the anger of God before his passion and death, were our implanted beasts, viz. pride, covetousness, envy, wickedness, lying; whereby one man slanders, disparages, disgraces, shamefully censures with words, discourages, suppresses and exclaims against, as wicked and ungodly; and, summarily, all abominations of the devil and the wicked world.
12. These evil beasts are in Adam in sin all awakened and become living. These very forms or conditions of life, wherein Adam generated his evil beasts, wherein the temperature of nature was rent asunder, Christ took all upon him in our humanity: as they are well intimated in the figure of Jacob by five hundred and eighty; and sent them to the anger of God for an atonement, when he was redeeming the humanity from these beasts.
13. And these beasts were, as to Christ, his being despised, scorned, spat upon; whatsoever the Jewish priests did to him, were all our beasts, which Christ, in his body, gave up to the anger of God, as if he himself were the transgressor: and yet he had generated none of these beasts in his will. But Adam had generated them: and Christ took them on him as a lamb, and presented them to the anger of God on his body and life, and did it as if he himself were the transgressor; so that the anger of God devoured them on his body and life, viz. his inheritance which he had in man, as a natural right; whereby the anger of God laid hold of its own; and his wrath and hunger after this vanity to devour these beasts was appeased.
14. And the spirit of Moses speaks further in the figure of Christ, and says, thus, The present of Jacob went before him, but he stayed that night with the company. And arose in the night, and took his two wives and handmaids, and his eleven children, and went over the ford. And he took them and sent them over the water, and sent over that which he had, and stayed alone (Gen. xxxii. 21-24).
The figure of Christ stands thus:
to God: O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you have said unto me, Return again into your country, and to your first kindred;
I am less than the least of all these mercies which you have bestowed on your servant; to signify that it was only in divine mercy that these two bands, viz. the twofold humanity, returned home again into its first country of Paradise to the angelical kindred.
9. And when Jacob had humbled himself before God, and his brother Esau, He stayed there all night, and took of that which came to his hand, for a present to his brother Esau, two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, and thirty milch camels with their foals, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty she asses with ten foals. And put them under the hand of his servants, every herd by itself; and said to them, Go on before me, and leave room for one herd after another. And he commanded the foremost, and said, When my brother Esau meets you, and asks you to whom do you belong? where do you go? and whose these are that you drive? you shall then say, They are your servant Jacob's, who sends them for a present to his lord Esau; and he follows behind after us (Gen. xxxii. 13-18).
10. This type is now the great earnestness, whereby the spirit of God in the figure points at the future. For this present of Jacob to his angry brother Esau, points at the place and condition of Christ. When he should appease the anger of his Father, then he must first send these beasts in our implanted humanity for an atonement, which should be presented to the anger of God.
11. But these beasts, which Christ sent to the anger of God before his passion and death, were our implanted beasts, viz. pride, covetousness, envy, wickedness, lying; whereby one man slanders, disparages, disgraces, shamefully censures with words, discourages, suppresses and exclaims against, as wicked and ungodly; and, summarily, all abominations of the devil and the wicked world.
12. These evil beasts are in Adam in sin all awakened and become living. These very forms or conditions of life, wherein Adam generated his evil beasts, wherein the temperature of nature was rent asunder, Christ took all upon him in our humanity: as they are well intimated in the figure of Jacob by five hundred and eighty; and sent them to the anger of God for an atonement, when he was redeeming the humanity from these beasts.
13. And these beasts were, as to Christ, his being despised, scorned, spat upon; whatsoever the Jewish priests did to him, were all our beasts, which Christ, in his body, gave up to the anger of God, as if he himself were the transgressor: and yet he had generated none of these beasts in his will. But Adam had generated them: and Christ took them on him as a lamb, and presented them to the anger of God on his body and life, and did it as if he himself were the transgressor; so that the anger of God devoured them on his body and life, viz. his inheritance which he had in man, as a natural right; whereby the anger of God laid hold of its own; and his wrath and hunger after this vanity to devour these beasts was appeased.
14. And the spirit of Moses speaks further in the figure of Christ, and says, thus, The present of Jacob went before him, but he stayed that night with the company. And arose in the night, and took his two wives and handmaids, and his eleven children, and went over the ford. And he took them and sent them over the water, and sent over that which he had, and stayed alone (Gen. xxxii. 21-24).
The figure of Christ stands thus:
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