And therefore she laughed within herself, and said, Now I am old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also ? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, and say, Is it of a certain, that I shall bear a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come unto you again, as I live, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied it, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, No, but you did laugh (vv. 1-15).
1 Or, in that manner. As our translation, According to the time of life.
5. O you great and wonderful God! how plainly and simply do you represent and portray the kingdom of your Son in the humanity; how lively and fully are the greatest Mysteries delineated herein; and indeed they are so plainly represented in such entire singleness and simplicity, as Christ, who, notwithstanding [he] was the King of Israel, did ride into Jerusalem upon an ass. Here the proud world may have a very true looking-glass, and see if they be the children of this simplicity.
6. The great love and humility of God in Christ's person is fully represented in this figure, how God came in the deepest humility and simplicity into the humanity, when the humanity was inflamed with highest heat of the wrathful indignation of God's anger, as the figure here denotes.
7. The three men came before Abraham's tent in the very heat of all the day. This signifies, that God did first incorporate [or betroth] himself with his Love-Covenant, and also with the fullness of time touching the Covenant, when the human day, understand the six properties of the days, were most of all inflamed and set on fire in the wrath of nature in man; that is, in the fall. And afterward, in the fullness of time, when the humanity of these six days was in the very exceeding burning heat of vanity and the bestial property, he did manifest himself with his tender humanity out of the ens of the holy Covenant, and came in three persons of the Deity before the earthly man's essence, or earthly cottage, viz. the soul's tent, and appeared to Abraham, that is, to Adam in his children, viz. to the human essence.
8. And here is fully set forth the type and image of Christ: When Abraham espies these men he goes to meet them; and bows himself towards the earth; and runs away from the door of his tent unto them; and prays them to rest under the tree, until he should do that for which they came.
9. We must look upon this figure thus: When the divine voice had represented itself to Abraham, in the ens wherein it would become man in three persons, then Abraham's apprehended ens of faith set itself forth also to this image, viz. to the triune humanity in the figure, for the ens in the Covenant in Abraham's faith was surrounded with the great heat of God's anger, when the human day was grown hottest in the human essence.
10. But when he looked up, and saw the type of the triune Deity standing before him, this faith's ens, in deepest humility in Christ's person (being that which was to become Christ), did bow itself before the Trinity of the Deity, which was come unto him; which would in the fullness of time give forth and manifest itself with the voice (which now spoke in these three men with him) in this ens of faith (being the humanity of Christ before his Father), and said, Lord, if I have found grace in your sight, pass not away from this ens of faith, viz. your servant.
And therefore she laughed within herself, and said, Now I am old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also ? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, and say, Is it of a certain, that I shall bear a child, which am old? Is any thing too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come unto you again, as I live, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied it, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, No, but you did laugh (vv. 1-15).
1 Or, in that manner. As our translation, According to the time of life.
5. O you great and wonderful God! how plainly and simply do you represent and portray the kingdom of your Son in the humanity; how lively and fully are the greatest Mysteries delineated herein; and indeed they are so plainly represented in such entire singleness and simplicity, as Christ, who, notwithstanding [he] was the King of Israel, did ride into Jerusalem upon an ass. Here the proud world may have a very true looking-glass, and see if they be the children of this simplicity.
6. The great love and humility of God in Christ's person is fully represented in this figure, how God came in the deepest humility and simplicity into the humanity, when the humanity was inflamed with highest heat of the wrathful indignation of God's anger, as the figure here denotes.
7. The three men came before Abraham's tent in the very heat of all the day. This signifies, that God did first incorporate [or betroth] himself with his Love-Covenant, and also with the fullness of time touching the Covenant, when the human day, understand the six properties of the days, were most of all inflamed and set on fire in the wrath of nature in man; that is, in the fall. And afterward, in the fullness of time, when the humanity of these six days was in the very exceeding burning heat of vanity and the bestial property, he did manifest himself with his tender humanity out of the ens of the holy Covenant, and came in three persons of the Deity before the earthly man's essence, or earthly cottage, viz. the soul's tent, and appeared to Abraham, that is, to Adam in his children, viz. to the human essence.
8. And here is fully set forth the type and image of Christ: When Abraham espies these men he goes to meet them; and bows himself towards the earth; and runs away from the door of his tent unto them; and prays them to rest under the tree, until he should do that for which they came.
9. We must look upon this figure thus: When the divine voice had represented itself to Abraham, in the ens wherein it would become man in three persons, then Abraham's apprehended ens of faith set itself forth also to this image, viz. to the triune humanity in the figure, for the ens in the Covenant in Abraham's faith was surrounded with the great heat of God's anger, when the human day was grown hottest in the human essence.
10. But when he looked up, and saw the type of the triune Deity standing before him, this faith's ens, in deepest humility in Christ's person (being that which was to become Christ), did bow itself before the Trinity of the Deity, which was come unto him; which would in the fullness of time give forth and manifest itself with the voice (which now spoke in these three men with him) in this ens of faith (being the humanity of Christ before his Father), and said, Lord, if I have found grace in your sight, pass not away from this ens of faith, viz. your servant.
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