16. And then, when it is thus prepared that it quite despairs of itself, and gives up itself wholly into the death of selfhood; then comes the angel of God to Hagar, that is, to the poor forsaken and dying nature, and says, What ails you, Hagar? fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad, where he lies. Arise, take up the lad, and hold him in your hand, for I will make him a great nation. And then God opens the eyes of Hagar, viz. of nature, and she sees a well of water, and then fills her bottle with water, and gives the lad drink, who grows in the desert, and is a good archer, and dwells even in the wilderness of Paran, and must take an Egyptian wife.
The inward exceeding precious and worthy figure of this stands thus:
17. When man has put on Christ in faith, and is entered into right true repentance, and has in his mind forsaken the whole world, even all its honour, goods, and things temporal; then the poor nature of man does thus stand in the mortification of self, as is above-mentioned concerning Hagar and her son. For it desires also to die, even to the senses and cogitations of the mind, and to enter wholly into resignation.
18. And when it stands thus in the thoughts of death, having given up its will and cogitations into mortification, then the inward voice of God's Word manifests itself in the mind and senses. [Thoughts, meditations]. And even there the divine Word hears the voice of the child's crying, viz. the troubled disconsolate mind in its thoughts;[ Cogitations, meditations] for it sounds therein in the divine voice; and says in the divine voice to nature, viz. to Hagar, What ails you, you troubled and perplexed nature? fear not, God has heard the voice of the lad, viz. of your thoughts, which you have offered up in the desire to God: Arise, that is, lift up yourself to God in this resignation; and stand up in the voice which has graciously heard you, and looked upon you, and take your cogitations, viz. your son, by the hand of faith; and guide and govern the [powers of the] mind; they shall not die, but live, and go; for I will make them a great nation; that is, to a great divine understanding and capacity in divine Mysteries; and God opens unto nature the fountain of living water; so that it receives, into the bottle of its essence in itself of God's well-spring, and therewith it gives the lad, viz. the senses [or powers of the mind] drink.
19. And then God is with this lad of the thoughts, and he grows great in the wilderness, that is, in the corrupt nature; the right, discreet and intellectual child grows great in the spirit of the Lord, and becomes an archer; that is, an archer of the Lord, and his brethren; who shoots the birds of prey, and the wild beasts; understand, he shoots down out of his spirit, with the holy spirit, the evil beasts and birds in his brethren; he teaches them, and reproves them with divine arrows.
20. But he must dwell in the wilderness of Paran, viz. in the corrupt flesh; and in the wilderness amongst ungodly people, and there he must be an archer of God; and his mother, viz. nature, gives him an Egyptian woman, that is, nature lays a fleshly woman by the noble mind born in Christ's spirit, with which the noble new-born mind must sit in wedlock, and be plagued with this idolatrous fleshly woman. Understand it thus:
21. This Egyptian woman is his flesh and blood, with reason, wherein the idol Mausim, viz. the Babylonical whore sits, where the devil has his pulpit, which, to the precious mind, is the cross of Christ, where the woman's seed, viz. the spirit of Christ, must incessantly bruise the Serpent's head, viz. the devil's introduced desire in this whore of Babylon.
16. And then, when it is thus prepared that it quite despairs of itself, and gives up itself wholly into the death of selfhood; then comes the angel of God to Hagar, that is, to the poor forsaken and dying nature, and says, What ails you, Hagar? fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad, where he lies. Arise, take up the lad, and hold him in your hand, for I will make him a great nation. And then God opens the eyes of Hagar, viz. of nature, and she sees a well of water, and then fills her bottle with water, and gives the lad drink, who grows in the desert, and is a good archer, and dwells even in the wilderness of Paran, and must take an Egyptian wife.
The inward exceeding precious and worthy figure of this stands thus:
17. When man has put on Christ in faith, and is entered into right true repentance, and has in his mind forsaken the whole world, even all its honour, goods, and things temporal; then the poor nature of man does thus stand in the mortification of self, as is above-mentioned concerning Hagar and her son. For it desires also to die, even to the senses and cogitations of the mind, and to enter wholly into resignation.
18. And when it stands thus in the thoughts of death, having given up its will and cogitations into mortification, then the inward voice of God's Word manifests itself in the mind and senses. [Thoughts, meditations]. And even there the divine Word hears the voice of the child's crying, viz. the troubled disconsolate mind in its thoughts;[ Cogitations, meditations] for it sounds therein in the divine voice; and says in the divine voice to nature, viz. to Hagar, What ails you, you troubled and perplexed nature? fear not, God has heard the voice of the lad, viz. of your thoughts, which you have offered up in the desire to God: Arise, that is, lift up yourself to God in this resignation; and stand up in the voice which has graciously heard you, and looked upon you, and take your cogitations, viz. your son, by the hand of faith; and guide and govern the [powers of the] mind; they shall not die, but live, and go; for I will make them a great nation; that is, to a great divine understanding and capacity in divine Mysteries; and God opens unto nature the fountain of living water; so that it receives, into the bottle of its essence in itself of God's well-spring, and therewith it gives the lad, viz. the senses [or powers of the mind] drink.
19. And then God is with this lad of the thoughts, and he grows great in the wilderness, that is, in the corrupt nature; the right, discreet and intellectual child grows great in the spirit of the Lord, and becomes an archer; that is, an archer of the Lord, and his brethren; who shoots the birds of prey, and the wild beasts; understand, he shoots down out of his spirit, with the holy spirit, the evil beasts and birds in his brethren; he teaches them, and reproves them with divine arrows.
20. But he must dwell in the wilderness of Paran, viz. in the corrupt flesh; and in the wilderness amongst ungodly people, and there he must be an archer of God; and his mother, viz. nature, gives him an Egyptian woman, that is, nature lays a fleshly woman by the noble mind born in Christ's spirit, with which the noble new-born mind must sit in wedlock, and be plagued with this idolatrous fleshly woman. Understand it thus:
21. This Egyptian woman is his flesh and blood, with reason, wherein the idol Mausim, viz. the Babylonical whore sits, where the devil has his pulpit, which, to the precious mind, is the cross of Christ, where the woman's seed, viz. the spirit of Christ, must incessantly bruise the Serpent's head, viz. the devil's introduced desire in this whore of Babylon.
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