that they might cover themselves with a mantle, with fair and plausible maxims, conclusions and determinations, then came the knotty acute logic, whereby men dispute. One part of them says he is Christ, in power and authority; the other part contradicts and opposes it, that part setting his followers and dependants with his pretences into the blood of Christ, and builds all authority and holy sermons upon it; and so the spirit of Christ in the inward ground set itself against it, and says, He is the Antichrist: This time has continued to our time wherein we live.
70. XI. With Joseph begins the time when Christ will be manifested again, when he shall cast to the ground the adder and serpent,
Dan, with the chair of Antichrist, with all might and power of selfhood in the kingdom of Christ upon earth, and terrify it with his countenance, when Joseph's brethren must be ashamed of their great unfaithfulness which they have committed against Joseph, in that they cast him into the pit, and moreover sold him for money. And then will all subtlety, craft, flattery, hypocrisy and deceit be made manifest, and will, by the aspect of Joseph's countenance, be cast to the ground. And it is that time wherein it will be said, Babylon, she 's fallen, she is fallen, and is become a habitation of all devils and abominable beasts and fowls (Rev. xviii. 2). And then Joseph springs up in his own power and virtue, and his daughters pass on in their ornament, and his blessing begins.
71. XII. With Benjamin begins the time of the evening, under Joseph's time, for then he shall again divide and distribute the spoil of the first Christendom. He belongs to the first and last time, especially to the first time of Joseph, when Christ begins to be manifested; and then he is first eager as a wolf, and devours far and wide, when he begins to bite and devour Antichrist; yet all that while he is but a wolf: But when Joseph's countenance shall be unveiled, then he is ashamed, as a wolf that is taken in a gin, and begins to be a lamb, and to yield his fat and plenty of wool.
72. This is the testament of Jacob, in its true figure, wherein the spirit has pointed at the times; and the spirit of Moses says, When Jacob had finished all these sayings he drew his feet up together upon the bed, and departed, to signify that when these his prophecies would be all fulfilled, then God would call again the unfolded nature in the strife of time into himself and draw it together into the temperature; and then would this time have an end, and strife cease. This we desired a little to delineate for the lover of truth. Let him search further in the spirit of God, which searches all things, even the deep things of the Deity, and then he will see our ground in the truth.
The Seventy-Eighth Chapter
of the Holy Patriarch Jacob's Burial in the land of Canaan. What is thereby to be understood *
* Genesis 50.
1. THE burial of Jacob, that Joseph should carry him again into the land of Canaan, after his death, and bury him with his fathers, and that Joseph went thither with a great company, with all the children of Israel, and many Egyptians, it prefigures to us Christ's powerful exit out of this world, when the Adamical man, after its death, should again be carried from this Egypt and house of torment into its father's first country, into Paradise, into which Christ will bring it.
that they might cover themselves with a mantle, with fair and plausible maxims, conclusions and determinations, then came the knotty acute logic, whereby men dispute. One part of them says he is Christ, in power and authority; the other part contradicts and opposes it, that part setting his followers and dependants with his pretences into the blood of Christ, and builds all authority and holy sermons upon it; and so the spirit of Christ in the inward ground set itself against it, and says, He is the Antichrist: This time has continued to our time wherein we live.
70. XI. With Joseph begins the time when Christ will be manifested again, when he shall cast to the ground the adder and serpent,
Dan, with the chair of Antichrist, with all might and power of selfhood in the kingdom of Christ upon earth, and terrify it with his countenance, when Joseph's brethren must be ashamed of their great unfaithfulness which they have committed against Joseph, in that they cast him into the pit, and moreover sold him for money. And then will all subtlety, craft, flattery, hypocrisy and deceit be made manifest, and will, by the aspect of Joseph's countenance, be cast to the ground. And it is that time wherein it will be said, Babylon, she 's fallen, she is fallen, and is become a habitation of all devils and abominable beasts and fowls (Rev. xviii. 2). And then Joseph springs up in his own power and virtue, and his daughters pass on in their ornament, and his blessing begins.
71. XII. With Benjamin begins the time of the evening, under Joseph's time, for then he shall again divide and distribute the spoil of the first Christendom. He belongs to the first and last time, especially to the first time of Joseph, when Christ begins to be manifested; and then he is first eager as a wolf, and devours far and wide, when he begins to bite and devour Antichrist; yet all that while he is but a wolf: But when Joseph's countenance shall be unveiled, then he is ashamed, as a wolf that is taken in a gin, and begins to be a lamb, and to yield his fat and plenty of wool.
72. This is the testament of Jacob, in its true figure, wherein the spirit has pointed at the times; and the spirit of Moses says, When Jacob had finished all these sayings he drew his feet up together upon the bed, and departed, to signify that when these his prophecies would be all fulfilled, then God would call again the unfolded nature in the strife of time into himself and draw it together into the temperature; and then would this time have an end, and strife cease. This we desired a little to delineate for the lover of truth. Let him search further in the spirit of God, which searches all things, even the deep things of the Deity, and then he will see our ground in the truth.
The Seventy-Eighth Chapter
of the Holy Patriarch Jacob's Burial in the land of Canaan. What is thereby to be understood *
* Genesis 50.
1. THE burial of Jacob, that Joseph should carry him again into the land of Canaan, after his death, and bury him with his fathers, and that Joseph went thither with a great company, with all the children of Israel, and many Egyptians, it prefigures to us Christ's powerful exit out of this world, when the Adamical man, after its death, should again be carried from this Egypt and house of torment into its father's first country, into Paradise, into which Christ will bring it.
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