15. The figure of Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech (Gen. xx) is an emphatical type of Christendom, how they should be weak in their own power, and be delivered by God alone; as Abraham was of a faint and timorous spirit, when he was to go among these nations, and prayed his Sarah, that she would say of him, that he was her brother; that so they might not slay him, for her sake. To signify, that a Christian in his own strength is not able to do anything, or to take unto himself therein the spirit of Christ; who gives courage; but he must go only naked among his enemies; and not at all rely on himself and his knowledge, but merely and only upon God's grace.
16. For he himself cannot stand, Christ alone in him must be his sole courage, and steadfast perseverance. As Abraham here, in his own abilities, was full of doubt before Pharaoh and Abimelech, and continually fearful of his life, and must see only when and how God would shield him and his Sarah. And this history is excellently, elegantly and exactly written of Esdras, in the vision of the spirit of Christ concerning Christ's kingdom, as if the spirit had on purpose figured this history concerning Christ's kingdom, for it aims directly thereat.
17. But the outward man understands nothing of the kingdom of Christ. As we may see in Sarah, when she conceived and brought forth Isaac: she said, the Lord has made me to laugh, the people will laugh at this, that the very aged Sarah should give a child suck. She did not yet understand the type [Image] of Christ; but the spirit of Christ in her understood it; and not the natural man in selfhood, but the will which was resigned and given up to God, the same alone did apprehend the Covenant, and the spirit of Christ.
18. But reason, viz. the self-full will, did not perceive anything thereof, it was only matter of mirth and laughter to it; for it looked only upon itself, what it was. As Abraham's will of self-ownhood looked only on itself; and was afraid and dismayed; and yet in him there was the great might over all powers and principalities; but it did not belong to the human ownhood.
19. For Christ in his children does not belong to the human ownhood, viz. to the self-will; neither does he appropriate or give in himself to it; but unto the humble, resigned will; to that he does incline and appropriate himself; and sometimes he does also defend the own will thereby.
20. For the own self-will is of the nature of this world, born of flesh and blood. But the resigned will dies to the world, and is brought forth to life in God. Thus also we are to understand in Abraham and in all Christians a twofold will, viz. one of this world, which always stands in fear; and then, according to the second Principle, viz. the kingdom of heaven, the poor captive soul's will, which dives and immerses itself into God's mercy, in hope.
The forty-sixth Chapter
Of Isaac's Birth, and the Casting Out
of Ishmael, with his Mother, Hagar.
What thereby is signified
1. The Spirit in Moses [Gen. xxi] sets the figure of man's regeneration in its process so exactly and orderly together in the history of Abraham, that a man may even lay hold of it, much more see it; how he does set the natural man in self; and in Christ, so punctually by each other, and points even with the finger at the figure. For when God had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and that plain over against which Abraham dwelt, and brought forth Lot, then Abraham journeyed from thence towards the south; showing that when the kingdom of Christ should be despoiled [corrupt] in any place, that then Christ would depart thence.
15. The figure of Abraham, Sarah, and Abimelech (Gen. xx) is an emphatical type of Christendom, how they should be weak in their own power, and be delivered by God alone; as Abraham was of a faint and timorous spirit, when he was to go among these nations, and prayed his Sarah, that she would say of him, that he was her brother; that so they might not slay him, for her sake. To signify, that a Christian in his own strength is not able to do anything, or to take unto himself therein the spirit of Christ; who gives courage; but he must go only naked among his enemies; and not at all rely on himself and his knowledge, but merely and only upon God's grace.
16. For he himself cannot stand, Christ alone in him must be his sole courage, and steadfast perseverance. As Abraham here, in his own abilities, was full of doubt before Pharaoh and Abimelech, and continually fearful of his life, and must see only when and how God would shield him and his Sarah. And this history is excellently, elegantly and exactly written of Esdras, in the vision of the spirit of Christ concerning Christ's kingdom, as if the spirit had on purpose figured this history concerning Christ's kingdom, for it aims directly thereat.
17. But the outward man understands nothing of the kingdom of Christ. As we may see in Sarah, when she conceived and brought forth Isaac: she said, the Lord has made me to laugh, the people will laugh at this, that the very aged Sarah should give a child suck. She did not yet understand the type [Image] of Christ; but the spirit of Christ in her understood it; and not the natural man in selfhood, but the will which was resigned and given up to God, the same alone did apprehend the Covenant, and the spirit of Christ.
18. But reason, viz. the self-full will, did not perceive anything thereof, it was only matter of mirth and laughter to it; for it looked only upon itself, what it was. As Abraham's will of self-ownhood looked only on itself; and was afraid and dismayed; and yet in him there was the great might over all powers and principalities; but it did not belong to the human ownhood.
19. For Christ in his children does not belong to the human ownhood, viz. to the self-will; neither does he appropriate or give in himself to it; but unto the humble, resigned will; to that he does incline and appropriate himself; and sometimes he does also defend the own will thereby.
20. For the own self-will is of the nature of this world, born of flesh and blood. But the resigned will dies to the world, and is brought forth to life in God. Thus also we are to understand in Abraham and in all Christians a twofold will, viz. one of this world, which always stands in fear; and then, according to the second Principle, viz. the kingdom of heaven, the poor captive soul's will, which dives and immerses itself into God's mercy, in hope.
The forty-sixth Chapter
Of Isaac's Birth, and the Casting Out
of Ishmael, with his Mother, Hagar.
What thereby is signified
1. The Spirit in Moses [Gen. xxi] sets the figure of man's regeneration in its process so exactly and orderly together in the history of Abraham, that a man may even lay hold of it, much more see it; how he does set the natural man in self; and in Christ, so punctually by each other, and points even with the finger at the figure. For when God had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and that plain over against which Abraham dwelt, and brought forth Lot, then Abraham journeyed from thence towards the south; showing that when the kingdom of Christ should be despoiled [corrupt] in any place, that then Christ would depart thence.
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