Earthliness brought into us out of the Earthly and Diabolical Essence as a Contrary Qualm is not that which greeneth but the disappeared Image of God understand that which was given to Adam out of the Divine Substantiality as from the Second Principle out of the Kingdom of Heaven which by the bringing-in of the Earthly dyed or as I might express it was again enclosed or shut up into the Eternal Quietness as into that Nothing when it lost its right Divine Life and this is it in which the Eternal Word became Man and brought in again the living Substantiality with its Entering and Opening and out of Death brought forth Eternal Life This same Divine and also in Death enclosed humane Substantiality or Flesh became Man to which the Earthly Husk only did adhere and held the Earthly burning Death captive in it self Therefore we must observe a Difference when we will speak of our selves 15. The Holy Scripture also speaketh not of a wholly New Flesh viz. that the Old cometh to be conceived wholly New in Divine Essence and begotten in God otherwise it must follow that the Evil introduced bestial Flesh with the bestial Properties were become exalted in the Power of the Majesty 16. And if one would say that the Earthly Qualm is wholly killed in the New Birth out of Christ and that it doth wholly and totally dye in the Death of Christ as the Author of the Book saith That the old Man is altogether Dead and Nothing and Christ alone liveth and governeth in this outward visible Flesh and doth all then must and should Man also eat and drink after the Manner of Paradise and enjoy only an Heavenly Qualm For Christ eateth no more Earthly food but Divine The bestial Maggot-paunch doth neither suffer us to call the Whole Man out of all the Three Births Divine much less the Kingdom of this World of Stars and Elements which is the Qualm Life and Regiment of the outward Man 17. We cannot deny be a Man so holy as he will but that the Spirit of the Outward World is the Spirit Life and Guide of his Outward Flesh and we see clearly how the outward Man standeth in a Starry Constellation when it leaveth him he falleth away and putrifieth 18. Yet since it is given to me of Gods Grace to know what the Earthly and also what the Heavenly Man is in One Person therefore I will a little delineate and signifie how things stand with the Author of the Book sent to me and that out of the Ground although in a childlike simplicity for a Rule to the Author and those that read his Book 19. As for the Author himself I understand that he indeed may well be a godly Man born anew and holy in Christ with his New Birth in the New Man in regard of the Inhabitation of Christ For the Substantial Inhabitation is throughout agreeing with the holy Scripture as he also highly assevereth it and I have in that Point no Objection at all against him It is the true Ground that God hath begotten us for children out of his Heavenly Substance in himself through his Power in the Word in Christs Flesh and Blood out of his own Essence 20. I understand also Flesh and Spirit in one Substance and by no means Spirit without Flesh and Blood I understand also that it is come to pass in the Womans seed and cometh yet always to pass and I say upon sure ground that Christ in and out of mine own humane Essence is born a new Creature in my self as the Author also throughout saith 21. But the Author wanteth the Understanding of the Three Principles in one another viz. of the Threefold World one within another He distinguisheth not one from another He hath wrapt up himself wholly with all Reason and Senses and hath cast himself wholly into the Incarnation of Christ into his Suffering Death and Resurrection and hath denyed his own outward Life He desireth to live only in and of Christ He rejects all what is and liveth contrary to it He desireth nothing but what is of Christ that Christs Life Spirit and Will may be his Spirit Life and Will Thus he is as it were sunk down into the Life Will and Spirit of Christ so that his old man is as it were dead although according to the Kingdom and Qualm of this World in his own Principle in himself he liveth and is not dead for he cannot dye until the Spirit of the Outward World in his Constellation do leave him and yet he doth not dye then but goeth into the Mysterium of the Outward Principle with his Wonders and Works until the Judgment of God for the Restitution of all that which we have lost in Adam 22. This right Christian Entrance of the Author is very Right and without falshood it is also gone rightly with him in Christ if it be so indeed as I fully perceive as he writeth of himself But his knowledg of himself what and how he is were need better to be declared He hath cast himself into the middle of the Tree where he indeed is safe and stands very Well But the Root of the Tree is yet hidden to him he standeth therein as a Twig but in the middle 23. When a man will satisfie the humane Mind so that it may yeeld it self into Eternal Rest then a man must shew it the Root of the Tree whereout Spirit and Flesh have their Origiginal A man must shew and manifest unto him the Center both of the Eternal and also of the Original Nature so that he may comprehend the Earthly and also the Heavenly Mysterium Then is the Eternal Beginning and the Eternal End altogether One In this the Spirit of the Soul lieth down to rest for it seeth the Wheel wholly and perfectly 24. With this Description the weak corrupted Nature is very ill contented for a thing is requested of it that it cannot do The Author saith it ought altogether to dye that Christ alone might live in the Flesh This the Nature will not but hopeth for a Renovation the which it putteth on as a garment but not Essentially in Power But as fire doth through-glow a stone so the beams of the Holy Ghost go often out of the Second Principle of the New Man through the Old And as Iron in the glowing and without the glowing is still Iron at one time as at the other so is also the Earthly Man 25. He must be servant to the Inward Man when the New with his glowing Divine Fire goeth through him he also willingly doth it so long as the fire-glowing shineth through him but he cannot change himself into the Inward Kingdom For the outward Flesh and Blood saith Christ shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven it shall and must putrifie as an husk from the Essence of the Corn sown in the field 26. You have Beloved Sirs the Ground of this Mystery in my Book of the Incarnation of Christ and in a
one Body 159. For I do very well know the Authors Spirit and I love to speak to him seeing he for Christs Name sake as you mention hath suffered much and willingly hath brought his Life into Christs footsteps therefore I acknowledg him for a right true Christian 160. But he need not to be ashamed to learn to know himself better and to learn more in the Spirit in the Spouse of Christ For Christ saith Seek and ye shall find The Wisdom hath neither number nor end 161. I say of my self nothing else but that I first am become an A. B. C. Scholer and will heartily seek in the Spouse of Christ of the Spirit of Christ in my Brethren and Members Me in them and them in Me. 162. I do not arrogate to me yet any perfect knowledg for that which is perfect is not of mine understanding but revealed in the Spirit of Christ in my Brethren I am in my self as a Nothing that I might be found and known to be somewhat in the knowledg of my Brother in his Spirit and that God in Christ may be All in us both the Understanding Willing and Doing 163. Therefore I exhort you not to take this otherwise then Christianly and Brotherly for I am not a Master of your Spirit and Knowledg but your help in the Lord that the Authors Course may not be in vain nor the Name of Christ blasphemed in his Members as Babel hath done I have written this short Declaration and Explanation to refresh us in our knowledg in the Lord What is more is to be found in the Book of the Threefold Life and in the three Books of the Incarnation of Christ and do commend you all to the Love of JESUS CHRIST Dated on the Sunday Quasi modo geniti Anno 1621. A Theosophick EPISTLE or LETTER WHEREIN The Life of a true Christian is Described What a Christian is and How he cometh to be a Christian Together with a Description What a Titular Christian is What the Faith and Life of both of them is Written to a good Friend of his in Christian Brotherlike and Memberlike Admonition and a good Intention BY JACOB BEHMEN LONDON Printed by John Macock 1653. The Fountain of the Heart of JESUS CHRIST be our Refreshing Renovation and Eternal Life 1. BEloved and much respected Friend in Christ I do wish to you out of a memberlike obligation as one branch on the Tree is bound to do to the other in a co-operating Desire the open Fountain of Grace which God hath revealed in Christ Jesus in our Humanity that the same may flow in you richly and the Divine Sun therethrough bring into the Soul his Love-beams and therewith awake and open the great Magnetick Hunger of the Soul as the true divine Mouth after Christs Flesh and Blood together with bodily Welfare 2. For as much as I have often perceived by your loving Friend D. K. and also in my presence marked that you in the Drawing of the Father have an extraordinary Thirst and great Longing after his Life which he hath manifested in Christ Jesus out of his highest Love therefore I would not omit out of a memberlike obligation to visit you with a short Epistle upon the desire of the D. and also of your self and to recreate and refresh my self somewhat in that same Fountain of the Life of Jesus Christ with you since it is meer Joy unto me that our Paradisical Pearl-tree greeneth and worketh fruit in our fellow-members to our Eternal Joy 3. And herewith I will shew unto you out of my small gifts and knowledg What a Christian is and Wherefore he is called a Christian namely that only He is a Christian who is become capable of this high Title In Himself who hath turned himself with his Inward Ground Mind and Will to the free-given Grace in Christ Jesus and is in his Souls-Will become as a young Child that only longeth after the Brests of the Mother and sucketh the Brests of the Mother whereof it liveth 4. So also this Man only is a Christian whose Soul and Mind entereth again into the First Mother whereout the Life of Man is sprung viz. into the Eternal Word which hath revealed it self with the true Milk of Salvation in our Humanity being blind in regard of God and drinketh this Mother-milk into his hungry Soul whence the New Spiritual Humanity springeth and the fiery Soul being out of the Fathers Propriety reacheth and obtaineth herewith the place of the Love of God in which place the Father begetteth his Beloved Son wherein alone the Temple of the Holy Ghost which dwelleth In Us is found and wherein also alone the Spiritual Mouth of the Soul which eateth Christs Flesh and drinketh his Blood is understood 5. For He alone is a Christian in whom Christ dwelleth liveth and Is in whom Christ after the Inward Ground of the Soul and the Heavenly Essence which disappeared in Adam is risen and become Living He that hath in his Inward Ground put on Christs Victory against Gods Wrath as also against Hell Devil Death and Sin I say Christs Humanity Passion Death and Resurrection the Seed of the Woman to wit Christ in his Victory also overcoming in him and dayly triumphing upon the Serpents head in the Will of the Wicked Flesh and killing the sinful Lusts of the Flesh 6. For in Christ alone we are received to be Gods Children and heirs of Christ not through an outward strange shew of a special grace-receiving through a strange merit of a grace imputed from Without but through a Childlike Inhabiting Memberlike and Essential grace where the Conqueror of Death to wit Christ with his Life Substance and Power ariseth In Us from our Death and ruleth and worketh In Us as upon a Branch on his Vine as the Writings of the Apostles throughout do witness 7. He is not a Christian who only comforteth himself with the Passion Death and Satisfaction of Christ and imputeth the same unto himself as a grace-gift and yet remaineth an Unregenerated Wilde Beast such a Christian is every Ungodly Man for every one will fain be saved through a grace-gift The Devil also would very willingly be an Angel again through Grace received or applyed from Without 8. But that he should turn and become as a Child and be born a new out of Gods Grace-Water of Love and the Holy Ghost that pleaseth him not So also it pleaseth not the Titular-Christian who putteth about himself the Grace-mantle of Christ and yet will not enter into the Childship and the New Birth although Christ saith he cannot otherwise see the Kingdom of God 9. For what is born of the Flesh is Flesh and cannot inherit the Kingdom of God Joh. 6. To be fleshly minded is Enmity with God but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace and He alone heareth Gods Word that is born of God for alone the Spirit of Grace in Christ heareth Gods Word 10. For no man hath seen God the
Day out-greeneth in us through our Eternal Night and changeth the Night to wit Gods Anger Hell Death Anguish and Eternal Destruction into the Divine Day of Joyfulness although the Dark Night with the Ens of the Serpent and the Poyson in flesh and blood rageth and striveth against it 51. Therefore beloved Sir and Christian Brother we have more need to endeavor for the growth of the noble Pearl-tree and how we may come to it then to run after the unprofitable pratling and fancy where one Brother despiseth reproacheth and proclaimeth the other for an Heretick nay giveth him to the Devil for an Opinions sake which he hath made to himself 52. I tell you in my knowledg given me of God that it is a meer Deceit of the Devil who doth thus bring us poor men into Opinions contemning and reproaching that we strive for the husk and mean while lose Love and Faith and attain not to the New Birth 53. Our whole Religion is but a Childrens-work namely that we wholly go out from our own Knowing Willing Runing Disputing and resolve to enter into the Way which bringeth us again into our Lost Country and how we may return to our Mother who hath born us in the Beginning out of her self 54. Now if we will do this we must not come to her in our own Will in Pride and Contempt of her Children our fellow-Christians and fellow-Members for we are the Lost Son who is become a Swineherd and have spent our Patrimony filthily with the sty-hogs of the Devil and the World We must enter into our selves again and well consider our selves and our Fathers house and must set before us the Mirror of the Law and the Gospel and see how far we are departed from Gods Righteousness and Truth as also from the Brotherly Love and well examine our Heart whereto it is enclined 55. Now when we do this we shall find in our selves many hundred Evil Beasts which we have placed in the stead of God and still do honour the same above God and shall then first see what terrible Beasts are become manifest in Adam through the false Lust and wherefore God said to Adam The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head to wit of the monstrous Beasts 56. Viz. We shall first see in our Desire the proud Lucifer who is departed from the Divine and Brotherly Humility and contemneth the Members of his Body and hath set himself over them as a God and Lord in whom there is no Divine Love either to Love God or his Neighbor 57. Secondly We shall find a Beast in our Properties which is like a covetous greedy Sow or swine which will draw all to it self and alone eat and possess all and desireth more then it needeth wherewith the proud Lucifer may brag and vaunt himself that he is a God over Substance who can domineer and hath power and might over his fellow-branches and we shall see how this proud Lucifer hath broken himself off from the Tree of Life and from the growth of Love and would be a Tree of himself therefore he is also dryed up in respect of God 58. Thirdly We shall find the poysonous envious Serpent in our Property which stingeth about it as a Poyson viz. Envy which wisheth no man so well as it self which stingeth and rideth in other mens hearts and slandereth them with words and praiseth only the proud Lucifer in it and calleth its falshood an Angel of God 59. Fourthly We shall find the fiery Dragon sitting in Hellish fire in our Property viz. Anger which if Covetousness and Envy cannot obtain it will strike with fists and take it by force and is so raging mad that he bursteth his Life for Wickedness and breaketh in the fiery Malice and is a very dry branch on the Tree which is only fit for the fire 60. Fifthly We shall find many hundred Beasts in our Desire which Pride loveth and honoreth more then God and Covetousness draweth to it self for a Treasure wherewith Pride braggeth as if they were Gods and thus doth withdraw from his Brother his Life that he is forced to spend it in misery and trouble through his Violence and Extortion 61. Now when a man doth thus behold himself in this Mirror of his Self-hood and is become aware of these evil Beasts then he may rightly imagine them to himself and hereby consider the grievous Fall of Adam and think that all these evil Desires one with another have their original in him out of the Monster of the Serpent through the Devils bringing-in of them into our first Parents 62. For all the Properties of the Desires lay in Adam in an Harmony and Equality and the one loved the other But such false Desires are sprung up in Men through the Devils Envy which awaked the false Lust in Adam and Eve to prove the Discord and Unequality and to taste what Good and Evil is to feel Heat and Cold and to try the multitude of the Properties so that now these Lusts draw and desire their like unto themselves and every Desire of these Properties is a several Liveshunger in Man which hath broken it self off from the Harmony and against the Love and Likeness of its fellow-branches and Brothers lustfully desireth to draw their Life and Maintenance to it self and to make it self a Lord over it and will be its Own 63. All which runneth against the Divine Will and Ground and is a perjury against God and is also against the Course of Nature as a Man may see by the Earth Trees and all Plants how all stand and grow lovingly one by the other and rejoyce in one Mother and how one branch on the Tree doth in-flow to the other his sap and vertue and the one serveth the other 64. For so was also the Life of Man Joh. 1. brought out of the Eternal Word into the Image of Man being out of the Limus of the Earth in a lovely Equality and Harmony so that all the Properties of the Life stood in an equal Weight in the Temperature in one Love and did love themselves or one another 65. But when the Devil did throw his Poyson and false Desire therein then the Properties of Life were divided into many Desires whence Strife Infirmity Dissolution and the Grossness of the Body is sprung through the false Desire and Bringing-in of the Bestial Properties whereby the Image of God which was from the Heavenly Substance disappeared whereof God said unto them What Day thou shalt eat of the Plant of knowledg of Evil and Good thou shalt dye the Death that is to the Kingdom of God as it also came to pass 66. And we ought to imagine really to our selves that this Bestial false Desire in Men is the Monster of the Serpent and an Enmity with God and the Kingdom of Heaven and that we therein are nothing else but Children of Hell and the Wrath of God and may not therein inherit or possess the