2. Here men should rightly look upon the purpose of God, what the spirit of God means thereby, for Esau stood in the type or image of the corrupted Adam, and Jacob in the type of Christ, which came to help poor Adam. Therefore must these two brothers come of one seed, to signify that God would become man, and that God's seed, viz. his Word, and Adam's seed in its own nature, should be manifested in one person, and become man; and that God's seed should overcome the corrupted Adam's seed with great divine love, and quench the Father's anger with love, and the love should wholly give itself into the anger of the soul, that God's grace, compassion and mercy in the love may pass through the anger, and also change the anger into compassion; as here Jacob, with his present, and in great submission and humility, yielded himself to his brother Esau, and changed his anger, which he bare towards Jacob, in respect of the natural right of the first-born, and of the blessing, into such great compassion that Esau fell about his neck and wept in great compassion, and his anger in him was turned into love; even as Christ, with his great love and humility in our assumed humanity in our fiery burning angry soul,2 changed his Father's anger into such great mercy and compassion, that the divine righteousness in the anger ceased and departed from our souls.
2 Anger-soul.
3. For as Jacob appeased his brother Esau with the present and [with] humility, when he gave up himself into the anger of Esau, so also Christ appeased the anger of God, when he gave up his heavenly blood with the great tincture of love into the anger of God to be devoured; then was the anger, viz. the nature of the dark world which was manifested in Adam, turned again into the divine light of love, viz. into a love-fire.
4. Moses says, Jacob lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Esau coming with four hundred men. And he divided his children to Leah and to Rachel, and to both the handmaids. And set the handmaids with their children foremost, and Leah with her children next, and Rachel with Joseph last.
And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, till he came to his brother (Gen. xxxiii. 1-3).
The inward precious figure stands thus:
When Christ, in our assumed humanity, entered into his suffering, then the anger of God in the four elements of the body came to meet him; and then Christ divided his Deity and his humanity, viz. the heavenly world's substance, which he brought from God in our humanity, and the kingdom of the natural humanity from Adam, into two several Principles: for the Deity, as to the omnipotency, stood yet still. Therefore says the humanity on the cross, My God, why have you forsaken me (Matt, xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 34; Ps. xxii. 1)?
5. The two wives of Jacob, with their children, signify here, in Christ's state and condition, the twofold soul, viz. that from time and that from eternity. And the two handmaids, with their children, signify here, in this state and condition of his, the heavenly and the earthly corporeity, viz. Leah, in her blear-eyedness signifies the spiritus mundi in limo terraej wherein the corruption in Adam was effected, wherein God promised the Destroyer of the Serpent; and wherein Christ should be manifested. And therefore in Leah the line of Christ, viz. the Destroyer of the Serpent in the type and prefiguration, was born, viz. Judah; and Rachel signifies the extinguished ens of the heavenly world's substance, wherein the true soul dwells, which faded in Adam's fall and became unfruitful; as Rachel; till God in the spirit of Christ made her fruitful; as was done to Rachel.
1 The spirit of the world in the dust of the earth.
2. Here men should rightly look upon the purpose of God, what the spirit of God means thereby, for Esau stood in the type or image of the corrupted Adam, and Jacob in the type of Christ, which came to help poor Adam. Therefore must these two brothers come of one seed, to signify that God would become man, and that God's seed, viz. his Word, and Adam's seed in its own nature, should be manifested in one person, and become man; and that God's seed should overcome the corrupted Adam's seed with great divine love, and quench the Father's anger with love, and the love should wholly give itself into the anger of the soul, that God's grace, compassion and mercy in the love may pass through the anger, and also change the anger into compassion; as here Jacob, with his present, and in great submission and humility, yielded himself to his brother Esau, and changed his anger, which he bare towards Jacob, in respect of the natural right of the first-born, and of the blessing, into such great compassion that Esau fell about his neck and wept in great compassion, and his anger in him was turned into love; even as Christ, with his great love and humility in our assumed humanity in our fiery burning angry soul,2 changed his Father's anger into such great mercy and compassion, that the divine righteousness in the anger ceased and departed from our souls.
2 Anger-soul.
3. For as Jacob appeased his brother Esau with the present and [with] humility, when he gave up himself into the anger of Esau, so also Christ appeased the anger of God, when he gave up his heavenly blood with the great tincture of love into the anger of God to be devoured; then was the anger, viz. the nature of the dark world which was manifested in Adam, turned again into the divine light of love, viz. into a love-fire.
4. Moses says, Jacob lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Esau coming with four hundred men. And he divided his children to Leah and to Rachel, and to both the handmaids. And set the handmaids with their children foremost, and Leah with her children next, and Rachel with Joseph last.
And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, till he came to his brother (Gen. xxxiii. 1-3).
The inward precious figure stands thus:
When Christ, in our assumed humanity, entered into his suffering, then the anger of God in the four elements of the body came to meet him; and then Christ divided his Deity and his humanity, viz. the heavenly world's substance, which he brought from God in our humanity, and the kingdom of the natural humanity from Adam, into two several Principles: for the Deity, as to the omnipotency, stood yet still. Therefore says the humanity on the cross, My God, why have you forsaken me (Matt, xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 34; Ps. xxii. 1)?
5. The two wives of Jacob, with their children, signify here, in Christ's state and condition, the twofold soul, viz. that from time and that from eternity. And the two handmaids, with their children, signify here, in this state and condition of his, the heavenly and the earthly corporeity, viz. Leah, in her blear-eyedness signifies the spiritus mundi in limo terraej wherein the corruption in Adam was effected, wherein God promised the Destroyer of the Serpent; and wherein Christ should be manifested. And therefore in Leah the line of Christ, viz. the Destroyer of the Serpent in the type and prefiguration, was born, viz. Judah; and Rachel signifies the extinguished ens of the heavenly world's substance, wherein the true soul dwells, which faded in Adam's fall and became unfruitful; as Rachel; till God in the spirit of Christ made her fruitful; as was done to Rachel.
1 The spirit of the world in the dust of the earth.
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