19. The man Christ does withhold God's righteousness and severe judgement from falling on the crew of wicked men, else they had been devoured at the first disobedience in Paradise. This is he which comes before God, and into God, viz. into God's anger, for he is of God, and therefore he can come before God [draw near to, or intercede with, God] .
20. That is, the formed Word, viz. the creature, stands before the judgement, and sits in judgement, and suffers not the anger to judge, so long as there are righteous people; as is here to be seen; if there had been but ten righteous persons, God had spared them. Indeed there were but three persons only which were righteous before God, viz. Lot, with his two daughters. His wife was also not fit [or capable of this mercy], therefore although she went out of Sodom, yet she remained still, and was turned to a pillar of salt, as shall afterward be cleared and expounded.
21. Abraham, that is, the spirit of Christ, entreats so far with God that God would spare all these places for ten persons' sake. But they were all revolted and gone astray, save his brother's son, who was a stranger among this people, whom God first brought out, before he enkindled the wrath.
22. The spirit here speaks very covertly and hiddenly in Moses and Esdras, 1 who wrote again these Acts in the Spirit of God, after that they were lost among the children of Israel. And we here see very fully and pregnantly, how exactly and punctually the spirit here aims at the figure in Abraham, and points out what thereby is to be understood.
1 Note. -Esdras wrote the Book of these Acts, viz. Genesis, etc.
23. For at the appearance unto Abraham he speaks of three men; and here he speaks of two angels, which went towards Sodom, and destroyed the cities; to signify that the person of Christ is the third, which went not along; for here only two went, viz. God's truth, and God's righteousness, viz. the judgement, and the truth: the judgement remained in [or upon] Sodom, and the truth brought Lot out.
24. And when both these [angels] at even (when their time was out, and their day passed) came to Sodom, Lot sat at the Gate, and when he saw them, he arose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face towards the ground; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. But they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
And he earnestly entreated them; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and baked them unleavened cakes, and they did eat (Gen. xix. 1-3).
25. If we should declare and explain this in its right understanding, then we would express it after this manner: The cry of the Sodomites was the curse which Noah laid upon Ham, when he cursed him (by reason of his unchaste, wanton, bestial eyes and desire); this same cursed, bestial spirit had propagated and bred up itself in the malicious, profane, wholly earthly and serpentine property, in the flesh and soul of this generation of Ham, so that it had established itself in a kingly dominion, under which they lived more like to beasts, than true men.
26. This cry of the cursed Serpent's ens, grown up to its full height in the anger, was made manifest, and sounded aloud in its mother, viz. in the anger of God in the dark world's property, and had awakened the judgement upon and in itself: And now God sent his judgement upon the Serpent's ens. This was now the time of Enos, his hidden, and at present opened seal (as it is before mentioned concerning the seven lines 1 [or general junctures of time]) where his mystery was at the end; and was now revealed as a sound of his preaching in the Word of power, both in love and anger.
1 Ch. 30 of this book, v. 36.
19. The man Christ does withhold God's righteousness and severe judgement from falling on the crew of wicked men, else they had been devoured at the first disobedience in Paradise. This is he which comes before God, and into God, viz. into God's anger, for he is of God, and therefore he can come before God [draw near to, or intercede with, God] .
20. That is, the formed Word, viz. the creature, stands before the judgement, and sits in judgement, and suffers not the anger to judge, so long as there are righteous people; as is here to be seen; if there had been but ten righteous persons, God had spared them. Indeed there were but three persons only which were righteous before God, viz. Lot, with his two daughters. His wife was also not fit [or capable of this mercy], therefore although she went out of Sodom, yet she remained still, and was turned to a pillar of salt, as shall afterward be cleared and expounded.
21. Abraham, that is, the spirit of Christ, entreats so far with God that God would spare all these places for ten persons' sake. But they were all revolted and gone astray, save his brother's son, who was a stranger among this people, whom God first brought out, before he enkindled the wrath.
22. The spirit here speaks very covertly and hiddenly in Moses and Esdras, 1 who wrote again these Acts in the Spirit of God, after that they were lost among the children of Israel. And we here see very fully and pregnantly, how exactly and punctually the spirit here aims at the figure in Abraham, and points out what thereby is to be understood.
1 Note. -Esdras wrote the Book of these Acts, viz. Genesis, etc.
23. For at the appearance unto Abraham he speaks of three men; and here he speaks of two angels, which went towards Sodom, and destroyed the cities; to signify that the person of Christ is the third, which went not along; for here only two went, viz. God's truth, and God's righteousness, viz. the judgement, and the truth: the judgement remained in [or upon] Sodom, and the truth brought Lot out.
24. And when both these [angels] at even (when their time was out, and their day passed) came to Sodom, Lot sat at the Gate, and when he saw them, he arose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face towards the ground; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early, and go on your ways. But they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
And he earnestly entreated them; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and baked them unleavened cakes, and they did eat (Gen. xix. 1-3).
25. If we should declare and explain this in its right understanding, then we would express it after this manner: The cry of the Sodomites was the curse which Noah laid upon Ham, when he cursed him (by reason of his unchaste, wanton, bestial eyes and desire); this same cursed, bestial spirit had propagated and bred up itself in the malicious, profane, wholly earthly and serpentine property, in the flesh and soul of this generation of Ham, so that it had established itself in a kingly dominion, under which they lived more like to beasts, than true men.
26. This cry of the cursed Serpent's ens, grown up to its full height in the anger, was made manifest, and sounded aloud in its mother, viz. in the anger of God in the dark world's property, and had awakened the judgement upon and in itself: And now God sent his judgement upon the Serpent's ens. This was now the time of Enos, his hidden, and at present opened seal (as it is before mentioned concerning the seven lines 1 [or general junctures of time]) where his mystery was at the end; and was now revealed as a sound of his preaching in the Word of power, both in love and anger.
1 Ch. 30 of this book, v. 36.
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