30. Moses says further, But they said one among another, We trespassed against our brother, that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he wept to us, and we would not hear him; therefore now this trouble comes upon us. Reuben answered them, and said, Did I not tell you as much, when I said, Sin not against the lad; and you would not hear? and now is his blood required. But they knew not that Joseph understood it; for he spoke to them by an interpreter. And he turned himself from them, and wept; and when he turned himself to them again, and spoke with them, he took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes (Gen. xlii. 21-24).
31. This figure now is the earnestness of repentance, when man in his repentance stands before God, when he seeks to God [and weeps to him], when his conscience and sins awake: as here the brethren of Joseph did. Then he says in himself, This have I merited and deserved by my sins, that I have helped to deride, scorn and crucify Christ within me, and without me in my fellow-members, and have not regarded the entreaties and beseechings in my fellowChristians, but have scorned, derided, and judged them to damnation. At present it touches me home, when I will turn to God by repentance, now his sobs and tears withhold me, in that I have driven him away for my voluptuousness, jesting, sport and wantonness, now I stand here, and the heaven in me in my conscience is become as iron.
32. Then says God in the conscience, have you not known well enough; moreover, have I not caused my word to be told unto you; you knew well that you did wrong, but your evil stubborn self-will must reign; and now you would have grace. And the devil says, It is to no purpose, grace is gone, heaven is shut up, hell is open, leave off, you will not attain it.
33. But the great mercifulness in the grace of Christ in the inward ground presses in with his pity and great compassion; although at present he still hides his countenance of love from it, that the soul does not know it, and makes the troubled soul full of misery, that in self it beseeches and weeps before God, and accounts itself guilty of all evil and wickedness; and begins in such kindled lamentation bitterly to complain of its sins, and to be sorry, and is also so full of shame in the presence of Christ that it hides its countenance before God, and knows not what to do for lamentation. For it sees in itself with its own eyes that the severe righteousness of God holds and binds it in its life: as the brethren of Joseph must see that their brother was bound for their sins before their eyes.
34. For though Christ be stirring in the soul's essence in the inward ground of the incorporated grace, and shatters it, that it sees and bewails its sins, yet he sets himself very strangely against the strangely, as if he understood not their speech, and spoke to them by an interpreter.
35. This same interpreter is even that which brings the soul into such repentance, which otherwise could not be; for it has nothing more in its own power but this: that it may turn its abyssal unfathomable supernatural will towards God, viz. that out of which it is proceeded, and there stand still, which yet is very hard for it, and yet possible. 1 Unless its will have quite broken off itself from the incorporated gate of grace, and given itself up to the poison and infection of the devil, so that the will of the abyss of the soul is entered into a figure 2 of a false or wicked thistle, and be wholly poisonous. Then it is hard, for then it asks not after repentance at all, but is careless and negligent, and obdurate, and desires at no time to convert, neither is it sorry for any evil or wickedness, but takes delight therein and rejoices at it, so long as it carries the body about it; and then it is quite lost: but where there is yet a little spark of divine desire left, there is remedy.
1 Note the ability of the soul to attain grace.
2 The condition, posture, and quality.
30. Moses says further, But they said one among another, We trespassed against our brother, that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he wept to us, and we would not hear him; therefore now this trouble comes upon us. Reuben answered them, and said, Did I not tell you as much, when I said, Sin not against the lad; and you would not hear? and now is his blood required. But they knew not that Joseph understood it; for he spoke to them by an interpreter. And he turned himself from them, and wept; and when he turned himself to them again, and spoke with them, he took Simeon from among them, and bound him before their eyes (Gen. xlii. 21-24).
31. This figure now is the earnestness of repentance, when man in his repentance stands before God, when he seeks to God [and weeps to him], when his conscience and sins awake: as here the brethren of Joseph did. Then he says in himself, This have I merited and deserved by my sins, that I have helped to deride, scorn and crucify Christ within me, and without me in my fellow-members, and have not regarded the entreaties and beseechings in my fellowChristians, but have scorned, derided, and judged them to damnation. At present it touches me home, when I will turn to God by repentance, now his sobs and tears withhold me, in that I have driven him away for my voluptuousness, jesting, sport and wantonness, now I stand here, and the heaven in me in my conscience is become as iron.
32. Then says God in the conscience, have you not known well enough; moreover, have I not caused my word to be told unto you; you knew well that you did wrong, but your evil stubborn self-will must reign; and now you would have grace. And the devil says, It is to no purpose, grace is gone, heaven is shut up, hell is open, leave off, you will not attain it.
33. But the great mercifulness in the grace of Christ in the inward ground presses in with his pity and great compassion; although at present he still hides his countenance of love from it, that the soul does not know it, and makes the troubled soul full of misery, that in self it beseeches and weeps before God, and accounts itself guilty of all evil and wickedness; and begins in such kindled lamentation bitterly to complain of its sins, and to be sorry, and is also so full of shame in the presence of Christ that it hides its countenance before God, and knows not what to do for lamentation. For it sees in itself with its own eyes that the severe righteousness of God holds and binds it in its life: as the brethren of Joseph must see that their brother was bound for their sins before their eyes.
34. For though Christ be stirring in the soul's essence in the inward ground of the incorporated grace, and shatters it, that it sees and bewails its sins, yet he sets himself very strangely against the strangely, as if he understood not their speech, and spoke to them by an interpreter.
35. This same interpreter is even that which brings the soul into such repentance, which otherwise could not be; for it has nothing more in its own power but this: that it may turn its abyssal unfathomable supernatural will towards God, viz. that out of which it is proceeded, and there stand still, which yet is very hard for it, and yet possible. 1 Unless its will have quite broken off itself from the incorporated gate of grace, and given itself up to the poison and infection of the devil, so that the will of the abyss of the soul is entered into a figure 2 of a false or wicked thistle, and be wholly poisonous. Then it is hard, for then it asks not after repentance at all, but is careless and negligent, and obdurate, and desires at no time to convert, neither is it sorry for any evil or wickedness, but takes delight therein and rejoices at it, so long as it carries the body about it; and then it is quite lost: but where there is yet a little spark of divine desire left, there is remedy.
1 Note the ability of the soul to attain grace.
2 The condition, posture, and quality.
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There is commentary on page 1.