it so that it entreth into Selfe it must therefore continue close to resigned humilith as a Well doth to its Fountain must suck and drink of Gods Fountain and not depart from the wayes of God at all 27. For as soon as the soule eateth of Selfe and of the light of outward Reason it goeth on in its own opinion and then its doings which it sets forth for Divine are but from the outward Constellation which presently then layeth hold on the soule and maketh it dry and then the soule goeth on in Errours till it yeeld it selfe up again into Resignation and acknowledging it selfe anew to be a defiled child resisteth reason and so getteth the love of God again which is harder to doe now then it was at first for the Devill brîngeth in strong doubts he will not easily leave his Fort of prey 28. This may be seen clearly in the Saints of GOD from the beginning of the world that many who have been driven by the Spirit of God have yet oftentimes departed from Resignation into Selfe viz. into their owne reason and will in which Satan hath cast them into sins and into the anger of God as appeareth by DAVID SOLOMON also by the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles who have oftentimes committed great errours when they have departed from Resignation into Selfe viz. into their own reason and lust 29. Therefore it is necessary for the children of God to know how to behave themselves when they will learn the way of God They must beat down cast away their very thoughts and desire nothing nor have the least will to learn any thing unlesse they find themselves to be in true Resignation so that Gods Spirit leadeth teacheth and guideth mans Spirit and that the humane will which is addicted to it self be wholly broken off from its own lust and resigned in God 30. All speculation in the wonders of God is very dangerous for the spirit of the will may soon be captivated therewith unlesse the spirit of the will goeth or walketh after the Spirit of God and then it hath power in the resigned humility to behold the wonders of God 31 I doe not say that a man should search and learn nothing in naturall Arts and Sciences no for it is profitable for him but a man must not begin with his own reason Man ought not onely to govern his life by the light of outward reason which is good in it selfe but he must sink with that light into the deepest humility before God and set the Spirit and will of God first in all his searching so that the light of reason may see through the light of God And though reason doe know much it must not arrogate to it selfe as if it were in its own possession but give glory to God to whom alone wisdome and knowledge doth belong 32. For the more Reason sinketh it selfe down into simple humility in the sight of God and the more unworthy it accounts it selfe in its sight the more it dieth from self-desire and the more the Spirit of God pierceth through it and bringeth it into the highest knowledge so that it may behold the great wonders of God For the Spirit of God worketh onely in resigned humility in that which neither seeketh nor desireth it selfe The Spirit of God taketh hold of whatsoever desireth to be simple and lowly before him and bringeth it forth in his wonders he hath pleasure onely in those that feare and bow themselves before him 33. For God hath not created us for our selves onely but to be instruments of his wonders by which he desireth to manifest his wonders The resigned will trusteth God and expecteth all good from him but self-will ruleth it selfe for it is broken off from God All that self-will doth is sinne and against God for it is gone out of that order wherein God created it into disobedience and desireth to be its own Lord and Master 34. When its own will dieth from it selfe then it is free from sinne for it desireth nothing but that which God desireth of his creature it desireth onely to doe that for which God hath created it and that which God will doe by it and though it is and must bee the doing yet it is but the instrument of the doing by which God doth what he will 35. For this is the true Faith in Man viz. to die from himselfe viz. from his own desire and in all his beginnings and designes to bring his desire into the will of God and arrogate the doing of nothing to himselfe but esteem himselfe in all his doings to be but a Servant or Minister of God and to think that all he doth or goeth about is for God for in such an intention the Spirit of God leadeth him into true uprightnesse and faithfulnes towards his neighbour for he thinketh thus with himselfe I doe my work not for my self but for God who hath called and ordained me to doe it as a servant in his Vineyard hee listeneth continually after the voyce of his Master who within him commandeth him what hee shall doe The Lord speaketh in him and biddeth him doe it 36. But Selfe doth what outward reason from the starres commandeth into which reason the Devill bringeth himselfe flying in with his desire All what ever Selfe doth îs without the will of God and it is done altogether in the phantasie that the anger of God may accomplish its pastime therewith 37. No work which is done without the will of God can reach the kingdome of God it is all but an unprofitable Imagery in this great turmoyling of mankind for nothing is pleasing to God but what he himselfe doth by the will as his instrument For there is but one onely God in the Essence of all Essences and all that which worketh with him in that Essence is one Spirit with him but that which worketh in it selfe in its own will is in it selfe without being under his dominion it is indeed under or in that Dominion wherewith he ruleth every life but not in or under that holy Divine Government in himselfe but in the dominion of Nature wherewith he governeth evill and good nothing is divine which walketh and worketh not in the will of God 38 Christ saith Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out and burnt in the fire All the works of man which hee hath wrought without the will of God shall bee burnt up in the last fire of God and given to the wrath of God viz. to the pit of darknesse to recreate it selfe withall For Christ saith Hee that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth Whosoever worketh and doth it not in a resigned will with confidence in God he doth but make desolate and scatter it is not acceptable to God nothing is pleasing to him but that which himselfe willeth with his Spirit and doth himselfe by his own instrument 39. Therefore
is set apart and chosen by the children of men who doe but flatter him and for favour have ordained him thereunto 186. Christ sayd Whosoever etreth not by the doore into the Sheepfold that is through MEE but climbeth up some other way the same is a thiefe and a murtherer and the sheep follow him not 187. For they know not his voyce he hath not the voyce of the Spirit of God but the voyce of his own Art and learning onely himselfe teacheth and not the Spirit of God But Christ sayth Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shal be plucked up by the roots 188. How then will he that is ungodly plant heavenly plants that hath no seed alive in its power in himselfe Christ saith expresly the sheep heare not his voyce they follow him not 189. The written Word is but an Instrument whereby the Spirit leadeth us to it selfe within us That Word which will teach must be living in the literall Word The Spirit of God must be in the literall sound or else none is a Teacher of God but a meere Teacher of the Letter a knower of the History and not of the Spirit of God in Christ. 190. All that men will serve God with must be done in faith viz. in the Spirit the Spirit maketh the worke perfect and acceptable in the sight of God All that a man beginneth and doth in faith he doth that in the Spirit of God which Spirit of God doth co-operate in the work◠and that is acceptable to God for he hath done it himself and his power and vertue is in it it is holy 191. But whatsoever is done in Selfe without faith is but a figure and shell of a true Christian work 192. If thou servest thy brother and dost it but in hypocrisie and givest him unwillingly then thou servest not God for thy faith proceedeth not from love nor entreth into hope into thy gift Indeed thou servest thy brother and hee for his part thanketh God and he for his part also blesseth thee but thou blessest not him for thou givest him a grudging spirit in thy gift which entreth not into the Spirit of God into the hope of faith therefore thy gift is but halfe given and thou hast but halfe thy reward for it 193. The same is to be understood of receiving a gift if any giveth in faith in Divine hope he blesseth his gift in his faith but he that receiveth it unthankfully and murmureth in his Spirit he curseth it in the use or enjoyment of it Thus every one shall have his own whatsoever he soweth that he shall also reap 194. And so it is in the Office of teaching what ever a man soweth that also hee reapeth For if any man sow good seed from the Spirit of Christ it sticketh in the good heart and bringeth forth good fruit but in the wicked that are not capable of it the anger of God is stirred 195. If any sow contentions reproaches misconstructions all ungodly people receive it into them it sticketh in them also and bringeth forth fruit accordingly so that men despise revile slander and misconstrue one another out of which Root the great Babel is sprung and grown where men out of meere pride and strife contend about the History and the justification of a poore sinner in the sight of God and thereby make the simple erre and blaspheme insomuch that one brother despiseth and curseth the other and excommunicateth or casteth him to the Devill for the History and the Letters sake 196. Such Railers and Revilers fear not God but to raise the great building of dissention and seeing corrupt lust lyeth in all men in the earthly flesh still therefore they raise and awaken abominations even in the simple children of God and make the people of God as well as the children of Iniquity to blaspheme and so are master-builders of the great Babel of the world and are as usefull as a fift wheele in a Wagon and beside that they erect the hellish building 197. Therefore it is highly necessary for the children of God to pray earnestly that they may learn to know this false building and goe forth from it with their minds and not help to build it up and so themselves to persecute their fellow-children of God whereby they keep themselves back from the kingdome of God and are seduced 198. According to thē saying of Christ to the Pharisees Woe unto you Pharisees For you compasse Sea and Land to make one Proselite and when he is one you make him twofold more the child of Hell then your selves which truly commeth to passe after the same manner in these modern Factions and Sects among these Cryers and Teachers of strife 199. I desire therefore out of my gifts which are revealed to me from God that all the children of God that intend to be the members of Christ faithfully be warned to depart from such abominable contentions and bloudy fire-brands and to goe forth from all strife with their Brethren and to strive onely after love and righteousnesse towards all men 200. For he that is a good Tree must bring forth good fruits and must sometimes suffer Swine to devour his fruits and yet must continue a good tree still and be alwayes willing to work with God and not suffer any evill to master him And then he standeth and groweth in the Field of God and bringeth forth fruit to be set upon Gods Table which he shall enjoy for ever Amen All that hath breath praise the Name of the LORD Ha le lu JAH Finished by Jacob Behmen 24. Junii 1622. A Table of the Contents of the Chapters CHap. 1. How Man ought to consider himselfe from verse 1. to 29. Ch. 2. How man is created from 30. to 66. Ch. 3. Of the miserable fall of man how he is delivered again from 67. to 86. Ch. 4. How we are born anew and also how we fall into the wrath of God again from 87. to 113. Ch. 5. How a man may call himself a Christian how not from 114. to to 132. Ch. 6. Of right and wrong going to Church receiving of Sacraments Absolution from 133. to 157. Ch 7. Of unprofitable opinions and contention about the Letter from 158. to 179. Ch. 8. Wherein Christian Religion consists and how men must serve God their brethren from 180. to 200. THE Authors Letter to his faithfull Friend Dr Balthasar Walter 1. MY writing to you is to exhort you from a deep Christian consideration and good will not to commit my writings into the hands of every one for they belong not to every one 2. Also none should cast the Pearle into the way to bee troden under foot whereby the highly pretious Name of God might be blasphemed For I know very well what Satan intendeth to doe but it is signified to me that his purpose shall bee brought to nought 3. Yet there is a thicke darknes to be feared in the
is he that passeth through it be times in his young years before the Devill buildeth his fort of prey strong he may afterwards prove a Labourer in the Vineyard of Christ and sow his seede in the Garden of Christ he shall reape the fruit in due time This judgement continueth a long while upon many for severall yeares if he doe not earnestly put on the Armour of Christ but stay till the judgement of temptations first exhort him to Repentance But he that commeth of himselfe of his owne earnest purpose and endeavoureth to depart from his evill wayes the temptation will not be so hard for him neither will it continue so long yet hee must stand out valiantly till victory be gotten over the devill for he shall be mightily assisted all shall turne to the best for him so that afterwards when the day breaketh in the soule he turneth it to the great praise and glory of God that the driver is overcome Short Prayers When the noble Sophia kisseth the soule with her love and offereth her love to it O Most gracious and deepest love of God in Christ Jesus I beseech thee grant me thy Pearle impresse it into my soule and take my soule into thy Armes O thou sweete love I confesse I am uncleane before thee take away my uncleanenesie through thy death and carry through the hunger and thrist of my soule through thy Death in thy Resurrection in thy Triumph cast my whole selfe downe to the ground in thy death take it captive and carry my hunger through in thy hunger O highest love hast thou not appeared in me stay in me and inclose me in thee keepe me in thee so that I may not be able to depart from thee fill my hunger with thy love seede my soule with thy heavenly substance give it thy bloud to drinke and water it with thy Fountaine O great love awaken my disappeared Image in me which as to the Kingdome of heaven disappeared in my father Adam by that word which awakened it in the seede of the woman in Mary quicken it I beseech thee O thou Life and Power of the Deity which hast promised us saying wee will come to you and dwell in you O sweete love I bring my desire into this word of thy Promise thou hast promised that thy Father will give the holy Spirit to those that aske him for it therefore I now bring the desire of my soule into thy Promise and I receive thy Word into my hunger increase thou in me my hunger after thee strengthen me O sweete love in thy strength quicken me in thee that my spirit may taste thy sweetnesse O doe thou beleeve by thy power in me for without thee I can doe nothing O sweete Love I beseech thee through that Love wherewith thou didst overcome the Anger of God and didst change it into Love and divine Joy I pray thee also change the anger in my soule by the same great love that I may become obedient unthee and that my soule may love thee therein for ever O change my will into thy Will bring thy Obedience into my disobedience that I may become obedient to thee O great Love of Jesus Christ I humbly flie to thee bring the hunger of my soule into thy wounds from whence thou didst shed thy holy bloud and didst quench the Anger with Love I bring my hunger into open side from whence came forth both water and bloud and throw my selfe wholy into it he thou mine and quicken me in thy life and let me not depart from thee O my Noble Vine I beseech thee give sappe to me thy branch that I may budde and grow in thy strength and sappe in thy Essence beget in me true strength by thy strength O Sweete Love art not thou my Light enlighten thou my poore soule in its close prison in flesh and bloud bring it into the right way destroy the will of the Devill and bring my body through the whole course of this world through the chamber of death into thy death and rest that at the last day it may arise in thee from thy death and live in thee for ever O teach me what I must doe in thee I beseech thee be thou my willing knowing doing and let me goe no whether without thee I yeeld my selfe wholy up to thee Amen A Prayer For the obtaining the Divine Protection and Government shewing how he minde should worke with in God in Christ the Tree of Life O Thou living Fountaine in thee I lift up the desire of my soule and crie with my desire to enter through the life of my Saviour Jesus Christ into thee O thou Life and Power of God awaken thy selfe in the hunger of my soule with thy desire of love through the thirst which Jesus Christ had upon the crosse after us men and carry my weake strength through by thy mighty hand in thy Spirit be thou the working and will in me with thine own strength blossome in the strength of Iesus Christ in me that I may bring forth praise unto thee the true fruite in thy Kingdome O let my heart and desire never depart from thee But i swimme in vanity in this valley of misery in this outward earthly flesh and bloud and my soule and noble Image which is according to thy Similitude is encompassed with enemies on every side viz. with the desire of the Devill against me with the desire of vanity in flesh and bloud also with all the opposition of wicked men who know not thy Name and I swimme with my outward life in the properties of the starres and elements having my enemies lying in waite for me every where inwardly and outwardly together with death the destroyer of this vaine life and therefore I flie to thee O holy strength of God being thou hast manifested thy selfe with thy love in mercy in our humanity through thy holy Name Jesus and hast also given it to be a companion in us therefore I beseech thee let his Angels that minister to him attend upon our soules and encamp themselves about us and defend us from the fiery darts of the desire of that wicked one which shooteth into us dayly by the curse of the Anger of God which is awakened in our earthly flesh keepe backe by thy strength the infectious rayes of the influence of the stars in their opposition into which raves the wicked one mingleth himselfe with his desire to poison us in soule and flesh and to bring us into false desires and also into infirmity and misery Turne away these Rayes of Anger with the holy Name Jesus in our soule and spirit that they may not touch us and let thy good and holy Angel stand by us to turne away these Rayes of Poyson from our bodies O great Love and sweete strength IHSVH thou fountaine of divine sweetnesse flowing out of the great Eternall Name IEHOVAH I crie with the desire of my
feare of any end where no evill thoughts could touch him neither care nor trouble neither heate nor cold where no night is knowne where there is no day or time any more but an everlasting joy where soule and body tremble for joy and where he should rejoyce at the infinite wonders and vertues in brightnesse of colours and ornament of the infinite begetting in the wisedome of God upon the new christaline Earth which shall be as transparent glasse that he doth so wilfully lose all this for so short and poore a times-sake which yet in this vanity in the evill life of the voluptuous flesh is full of miserie feare and trouble in meere vexation and it goeth with the wicked as with the righteous as the one must die so must the other yet the death of the Saints is an entrance into the eternall rest but the death of the wicked an entrance into the eternall unquietnesse Eightly He must consider the course of the world that all things are but a play wherewith he spendeth his time in unquietnesse and that it goeth with the rich and mighty as with the poore and the begger that all of us equally live and move in the foure Elements and that the mouthfull or morsell of the poore is as relishing and savoury to him in his toyle and labour as that of the rich is to him in his cares also that all of us doe live in one breath and that the rich man hath nothing but the pleasure of the palate and the lust of the eye more then other men for else it goeth with the one as with the other for which lust of the eye man so foolishly forgoeth so great a happinesse and for the sake thereof bringeth himselfe into so great and eternall unquietnesse In this consideration man shall feele in his owne heart and minde especially if he represent and set before his eyes his owne end that he shall get a hearty sighing and longing after the mercie of God and will begin to bewaile his committed sinnes that hee hath spent his dayes so ill and not observed nor considered that he standeth in this world in a field in the growing to be a fruit either in the Love or in the Anger of God and then he will first begin to find in himselfe that he hath not yet laboured at all in the vineyard of Christ and that he is a drie branch in the vine of Christ. And then in many whom the Spirit of Christ toucheth in such a consideration there ariseth aboundant sorrow griefe of heart and inward lamentation over the dayes of his wickednesse which he hath spent so in vanity without any working in the Vineyard of Christ. Such a one now whom the Spirit of Christ bringeth into sorrow and Repentance so that his heart is opened that he can know and bewaile his sins is very easily to be helped he needeth but to draw to him the promise of Christ viz. That God willeth not the death of a sinner but that he wisheth them all to come unto him and hee will refresh them and that there is great joy in heaven for one sinner that repenteth let such a one but lay hold on the words of Christ and wrap himselfe up into the passion and death of Christ. But I will speake with those who feele indeede a desire in themselves to repent and yet cannot come to acknowledge and sorrow for their committed sins the flesh saying continually to the soule stay a while it is well enough or it is time enough to morrow and when to morrow is come yet the flesh saith again to morrow the soul in the meane while sighing and fainting conceiveth neither any true sorrow for the sinnes it hath committed nor any comfort Unto such a one I say I will write a processe or way which I my selfe have gone that hee may know what he must doe and how it went with me if peradventure any be minded to follow it and then he shall perceive what is hereafter written A processe of Repentance WHen any man findeth in himself by the former consideration a hunger that he would willingly repent and yet findeth no true sorrow in himselfe for his sinnes which hee hath committed and yet perceiveth an hunger or desire to sorrow being the poor captive soule continually sigheth feareth and must acknowledge it selfe guilty of sinnes before the Judgement of God such a one I say can take no better course then this viz. to wrap up his senses and minde and also his reason together and make to himselfe at the same time presently in the first consideration when he perceiveth in himselfe a desire to repent a mighty strong purpose and resolution that he will this very houre nay this minite immediatly enter into Repentance and go forth from his wicked way and not at all regard the power and honour of the world and if it should be required would forsake and disesteeme all things for true Repentance sake and take such an earnest firme and strong resolution that he will never goe forth from it againe though he should be made the foole scorne of all the world for it and that with his minde he will goe forth from the beauty and pleasure of the world and patiently enter into the Passion and Death of Christ in and under the Crosse and set all his hope and confidence upon the life to come and that now in righteousnesse and truth he will enter into the Vineyard of Christ and doe the will of God and in the Spirit and will of Christ begin and finish all his actions in this world and for Christs Word and Promise sake who hath promised us heavenly reward willingly suffer and beare every adversitie and crosse that he may but be numbred in the communion or fellowship of the children of Christ and in the bloud of the Lambe Jesus Christ be incorporated and united unto his Humanity He must firmely imagin to himself wholly wrap up his soule in this that in this his purpose he shall obtaine the love of God in Christ Jesus and that God will give unto him according to his faithfull promise that noble pledge the holy Ghost for a beginning that in the Humanity of Christ as to the heavenly divine substance he shall be borne a new againe in himselfe and that the Spirit of Christ will renew his minde with his Love and Power and strengthen his weake faith also that in his divine hunger he shall get the flesh and bloud of Christ for foode and drinke in the desire of his soule which continually hungreth and thristeth after it and with the thirst of the soule drinke the water of eternall life out of the sweete fountaine of Jesus Christ as Christs most true and stedfast Promise is He must also wholly and firmely imagine to himselfe the great love of God That God willeth not the death of a sinner but that he repent and live that
soule to come into thee my soule crieth to come into that Spirit from whence the soule was breathed into the body and which hath formed it in the likenesse of God my soule desireth in its thirst to get the sweete fountaine which springeth from IEHOVAH into it selfe to refresh Gods breath of Fire which it selfe is so that the sweete Love of IESVS may rise in its breath of Fire through the Fountaine IESVS springing out of IEHOVAH and that CHRIST the holy one may be manifested and become Man in my disappeared Image of heavenly spirituall corporality and that the poore soule may receive its beloved Bride againe in its Armes with whom it may rejoyce for ever O IMMANVEL thou Wedding Chamber God and Man I yeeld up my selfe into the Armes of thy Desire towards us in us it is thy selfe whom I desire O blot out the Anger of thy Father with thy love in me and strengthen my weake Image in mee that I may overcome and tame the vanity in flesh and bloud and serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse O thou great and most holy Name and power of God IEHOVAH which hast stirred thy selfe with thy most sweete power IESVS in the limit of the Covenanted promise to our Father Adam in the womans seede in the Virgine Mary in our disappeared heavenly Humanity and brought the living essentiality of thy holy power in the Virgin-wisedome of God into our humanity which was extinguished as to thee and hast given it to us to be our life victory and new Regeneration I entreate thee with all my strength beget a new holy life in me by thy sweete power IESVS that I may be in thee and thou in me and that thy Kingdome may be made manifest in me and that the will and conversation of my soule may be in heaven O great and incomprehensible God thou who fillest all things be thou my Heaven in which my new Birth in CHRIST IESVS may dwell let my spirit be the stringed Instrument harmony sound and joy of thy holy Spirit strike the strings in me in thy Regenerate Image and carry through my Harmony into thy Divine Kingdome of Joy in the great Love of God in the wonders of thy Glory and Majesty in the Communion of the holy Angelicall Harmony build up the holy City Zion in me in which as children of Christ we all live together in one City which is Christ in us into thee I wholly plunge my self do with me what thou pleasest Amen A Prayer In temptation under the Crosse of Christ at that time when all our enemies assault us and when we are persecuted and hated in the Spirit of Christ and slandered and reproached as evill doers POore man that I am I walke full of anguish and trouble in my Pilgrimage into my native Country again from whence I came in Adam and goe through the thistles and thornes of this world to thee againe O God my Father The thornes teare me on every side and I am afflicted and despised by my enemies they scorne my soule and despise it as an evill doer who hath broken the faith with them they despise my walking towards thee account it foolish they thinke I am senselesse because I walke in this thorny way and goe not along with them in their hypocriticall way O Lord Jesus Christ I flie to thee under the Crosse O deare Immanuel receive me and carry me into thy selfe through the Path of thy Pilgrimage in which thy selfe didst walke in this world viz. Through thy Incarnation Poverty Reproach and Scorne also through thy anguish Passion and Death Make me like unto thy Image send thy good Angel along with me to shew me the way through the horrible thorny wildernesse of this world assist me in my misery comfort me with that comfort wherewith the Angel comforted thee in the Garden when thou didst pray to thy Father and didst sweat drops of bloud sustaine me in my Anguish and Perfecution under the reproach of the devills and all wicked men that know not thee but refuse to walke in thy way O great love of God they know not thy way and doe this in blindnesse through the deceit of the devill have pitty on them and bring them out of blindnesse into the light that they may learne to know themselves and how they lie captive in the filth and mire of the devill in a darke dungeon fast bound with three chaines O great God have mercy upon Adam and his children redeeme them in Christ the new Adam I flie to thee O Christ God and Man in this Pilgrimage which I must passe in this darke valley every where dispised and troubled and accounted an ungodly wicked man O Lord it is thy judgement upon me that my sinnes and inbred vanity may be judged in this pilgrimage before thee and I as a curse be made an open spectacle on which thy Anger may satiate it selfe and thereby may take the eternall reproach away from mee It is the token of thy love and thereby thou bringest me into the reproach anguish suffering and death of my Saviour Jesus Christ that so I may die from vanity in my Saviour and spring up in his Spirit with my new life through his reproach and ignominie through his Death I beseech thee O Christ thou patient Lamb of God grant me patience in my way of the Crosse through all thy anguish reproach thy death and passion thy scorne and contempt upon the Crosse where thou wert despised in my stead and bring me therein as a patient Lamb to thee into thy victory Let me live with thee and in thee and convert my persecutors which unknowne to themselves by their reproaching sacrifice my vanity and inbred sinnes before thy Anger they know not what they doe they thinke they doe me harme but they doe me good they doe that for me which I should doe my selfe before thee I should daily lay open and acknowledge my shame before thee and thereby sinke my selfe downe into the death of thy beloved Sonne that my shame might die in his death but I being too too negligent weary faint and feeble therefore thou usest them in thy Anger to open and discover my vilenesse before thy Anger which thy wrath taketh hold of and sinketh it downe into the death of my Saviour O mercifull God my vaine flesh cannot know how well thou intendest towards me when thou sufferest my Enemies to take my vilenesse from me and sacrifice it before thee my earthly minde supposeth that thou afflictest me for my sinnes and I am extreamely perplexed at it but thy Spirit in my inward new man telleth me that it is of thy love towards me that thou intendest good to me by it when thou sufferest my enemies to persecute me it is best for me that they performe the worke in my stead and unfold my sins before thee in thy anger that it may swallow them up that
and entereth with the desire into him and he will not cast out them that come unto him he hath given to the will an open gate in Christ saying Come unto me all yee that are heavie laden with sinnes I will refresh you take my yoak upon you that is the Crosse of the enmity in the flesh which was the yoak of Christ who must beare it for the sinnes of all men This crosse the resigned will must take upon it in the evill earthly sinfull flesh and beare it after Christ in patience in hope of deliverance and always brea kt he head of the Serpent with the resigned will of the soule in Christs will and Spirit and kill and destroy the earthly will in Gods anger and not let it rest on a soft bed when sinne is committed thinking I wil repent one time or other 26. No no the earthly will groweth strong fat and wanton upon this soft bed But so soon as the breath of God shineth in thee and sheweth sinne to thee the will of the soul must sink it selfe down into the passion and death of Christ wrap it selfe up close in it and take the passion of Christ into its possession and be a Lord over the death of sin by the death of Christ and kill it and destroy it in the death of Christ. 27. It must die though it be never so unwilling Be at enmity with the voluptuous earthly flesh give it not what it would have let it fast and suffer hunger till its tickling cease account the will of the flesh thy enemy and do not what the desire in the flesh will and then thou shalt bring a death into the death in the flesh 28. Regard not any scorne of the world think they doe but scorn thy enemy and that it is become a foole to them nay doe thou thy selfe account it thy foole which Adam caused thee to have in thee and suffered to be thy false heire Cast the sonne of the bond-woman out of the house that strange child which God did not give to be in the house of life in Adam at the beginning for the son of the bond-woman must not inherit with the son of the free-woman 29. The earthly will is but the son of the Bond-woman for the foure elements should have been mans servants but Adam hath brought them into filiation Therefore God said to Abraham when he had opened the covenant of the promise in him Cast out the son of the bond-woman for hee shall not inherit with the sonne of the free This sonne of the Free is Christ which God of his grace hath brought again into the flesh for us viz. a new mind wherein the will viz. the eternall will of the soul may draw and drink the water of life of which Christ speaketh saying Whosoever shall drink of this water that he will give us it shall spring up in him and be a Fountain of eternall life This Fountaine is the renovation of the mind of the soule viz. the eternall Astrum or Constellation of the eternall Nature viz. of the creaturely property of the soul. 30. Therefore I say that all fictions and devices to come to God by let them have what name soever they will which men contrive and invent for wayes to God are lost labour and unprofitable without a new mind There is no other way to God but a new mind which turneth from wickednes and entreth into repentance for the sinnes it hath committed and goeth forth from its iniquity and willeth it no more but wrappeth its will up in the death of Christ and with all earnestnesse dieth from the sinne of the soule in the death of Christ so that the mind of the soule willeth sinne no more 31. And although all the Devils did follow him hard and did go with their desire into the flesh yet the will of the soule should stand still and hide it selfe in the death of Christ willing and desiring nothing but the Mercie of God 32. No hypocriticall flattery or outward comforting ones self availeth at all as when men will cover sinne and iniquity in the flesh with the satisfaction of Christ and remain in Self still Christ saith Except ye turn and become as children yee shall not see the Kingdome of God the mind must become as wholly new as in a child that knoweth nothing of sinne Christ saith also Ye must be born anew or else yee shall not see the Kingdome of God There must arise a will wholly new in the death of Christ it must be brought forth out of Christs entring into the humanity and rise in Christs resurrection 33. Now before this can be done the will of the soule must dye in the death of Christ first for in Adam it received the son of the bond-woman viz. sinne into it This the will of the soul must first cast out and the poore captive soule must wrap it selfe up in the death of Christ earnestly with all the power it hath so that the sonne of the bond-woman viz. sin in it selfe may dye in the death of Christ. 34. Truly sin must dye in the will of the soule or else there can be no vision of God for the earthly will in sinne and the anger of God shall not see God but Christ that came into the flesh The soul must put on the Spirit and flesh of Christ it cannot inherit the Kingdome of God in this earthly Tabernacle for the kingdome of sin hangeth to it outwardly which must putrifie in the earth and rise again in new power 35. Hypocrifie flattery and verball forgivenesse availeth nothing we must be children not by outward imputation but born of God from within in the new man which is resigned in God 36. All such flattering of our selves in saying Christ hath paid the Ransome and made satisfaction for sinne he is dead for our sinnes if we also do not dye from sinne in him and put on his merit in new obedience and live therein all is false and a vain frivolous comfort 37. He that is a bitter enemy and hater of sinne he can and may comfort himselfe with the sufferings of Christ he that doth not willingly see hear nor tast sinne but is at enmity with it and would willingly always doe that which is well and right if he knew but what he ought to doe he that is such a one I say hath put on the Spirit and will of Christ. 38. The outward flattery of being accounted a child of God by imputation or externall application is false and vain the work done in the outward flesh onely doth not make the child of God but the working of Christ in the Spirit maketh and is the child of God which working is so powerfull in the outward work that it shineth forth as a new light and manifesteth it self to be the child of God in the outward work of the flesh 39. For if the eye of the soule be light then the whole body is
imagination and make it my own this it is to beleeve 90. The will must goe forth from the vanity of the flesh and willingly yeeld it selfe up to the suffering and death of Christ and to all the reproach of vanity which scorneth it because it goeth forth from its owne house wherein it was born and minds vanity no more but meerly desires love of God in Christ Jesus 91. In such a hunger and desire the will impresseth into it self the Spirit of Christ with his heavenly corporality that is its great hunger and desire taketh hold of and receiveth the body of Christ viz. the heavenly substantiality into its disappeared Image within which the word of the power of God is the working 92. The hunger of the soule bringeth its desire quite through the bruised property of its humanity in the heavenly part which disappeared in Adam which humanity the sweet fire of love in the death of Christ did bruise when the death of that heavenly humanity was destroyed 93. And so the hunger of the soule received into it into its disappeared corporality through the desire the holy heavenly substance viz. the heavenly corporality Christs heavenly corporality which filleth the Father all over and is high unto all and through all things And through that the disappeared heavenly body riseth in the power of God in the sweet name Jesus And this raised heavenly spirituall body is the member of Christ and the Temple of the holy Ghost a true mansion of the holy Trinity according to Christs promise saying we wil come to you and make our abode in you 95. That essence of that life eateth the flesh of Christ and drinketh his bloud For the Spirit of Christ viz. the Word which made it selfe visible with the humanity of Christ out of and in our disappeared humanity through the outward man of the substance of this world swalloweth its holy substance into its fiery every spirit eateth of its own body 96. Now if the soule eat of this sweet holy and heavenly food then it kindleth it selfe with the great love in the Name JESUS whence its fire of anguish becommeth a great triumph and glory and the true Sunne ariseth to it wherin it is born to another will 97. And here is the wedding of the Lamb which we heartily wish that the Titular and Lip-christians might once find by experience and so passe from the history into the substance 98. But the soule obtaineth not the pearle of the Divine power and vertue for its proper own during the time of this life because it hath the outward bestiall flesh sticking to its outward man 99. The power of which espouseth it selfe in the wedding of the Lamb sinketh it selfe down into the heavenly Image viz. into the substance of the heavenly Man who is the Temple of Christ and not into the fire-breath of the soul which is yet during this whole lifes time fast bond to the outward Kingdome to the bond of vanity with the breath of the aire and is in great danger 100. It darteth its beames of love indeed very often into the soul whereby the soule receiveth light but the Spirit of Christ yeeldeth not it self up to the fire-breath in this lifes time but to the breath of light onely which was extinguished in Adam in which the Temple of Christ is for it is the true and holy heaven 101. Understand aright now what the New-birth or Regeneration is and how it commeth to passe as followeth The outward earthly mortall man is not born anew in this lifes time nor the outward flesh nor the outward part of the soule they continue both of them in the vanity of their wills which awaked in Adam they love their mother in whose body they live viz. the Dominion of this outward world and therein the birth of sin is manifest 102. The outward man in soule flesh we mean the outward part of the soule hath no Divine will neither doth he understand any thing of God as the Scripture saith The naturall man perceiveth nothing of the Spirit of God c. 103. But the Fire-breath of the inward world if it be enlightned once understandeth it It hath a great longing sighing hunger and thirst after the sweet fountain of Christ it refresheth it selfe by hungring and desiring which is the true faith in the sweet Fountain of Christ from his new body from the heavenly substantiality as a hungry Branch in the Vine Christ. 104. And the cause why the fiery soule cannot attain to perfection during this lifes time is because it is fast bound with the outward bond of vanity through which the Devill continually casteth his venemous Rayes of influence upon it and so fifteth it that it often biteth at his bait and poysoneth it selfe from whence misery and anguish ariseth so that the Noble Sophia hideth her selfe in the Fountain of Christ in the heavenly humanity for she cannot draw neere to vanity 105. For she knew how it went with her in Adam when she lost her Pearle which is of grace freely bestowed again upon the inward humanity therefore she is called Sophia viz. the Bride of Christ. 106. Here she faithfully calleth to the fiery soule viz. to her Bridegroom and exhorteth him to repentance and to the unburthening of himselfe or going from the abomination of vanity 107. Here warre assaulteth the whole man wherein the outward fleshly man lusteth against the inward spirituall man and the Spirituall against the fleshly and so man is in continuall warfare and strife full of trouble misery anguish and care 108. The inward saith to the fiery soule O my soule O my love turne I beseech thee and goe forth from vanity or else thou losest my love and the noble Pearle 109. Then saith the outward Reason viz. the bestiall soule Thou art foolish wilt thou be a foole and the scorn of the world Thou needest the outward world to maintain this life beauty power and glory is thy chiefest Treasure wherein onely thou canst rejoyce and take delights Why wilt thou cast thy selfe into anguish misery and reproach Take thyâ— pleasure which will doe both thy flesh and thy â—mind good 110 With such filth the true man is often defiled viz. the outward man defileth himselfe as a Sow in the mire and obscureth his Noble Pearle For the more vain the outward man groweth the more dark the inward man cometh to be till at length it disappeareth together 111. And then the faire Paradificall Tree is gone and it will be very hard to recover it again for when the outward light viz. the outward soule is once enlightned so that the outward light of Reason is kindled by the inward light then the outward soule commonly useth to turn hypocrite and esteem it selfe divine and though the Pearle be gone which sticks hard to many a man 112. And so the tree of Pearle in the Garden of Christ is often spoyled concerning which the Scripture maketh a hard knot or conclusion
viz. That these who have once tasted the sweetuesse of the world to come if they fall away again they shall hardly see the kingdome of God 113. And though it cannot he denied but that the gates of grace do yet stand open yet the seeming light of the outward Reason of the soule so keepeth them back that they suppose they have the Pearle and yet live to the vanity of this world and dance with the Devill after his pipe CHAP. V. How a man may call himselfe a Christian and how not 114. HEre a Christian should consider wherefore he calleth himselfe a Christian and ponder well whether he be one or no For surely my learning to know and understand that I am a sinner and that Christ hath killed my sins on the Crosse and shed his bloud for me doth not make me a Christian. 115. The inheritance belongeth onely to the children A maid-servant in a house knoweth well enough what the Mistresse would have to be done and yet that maketh her not an heire of her Mistresses goods The very Devils know that there is a God yet that doth not change them into Angels again But if the Maid-servant in the house shall be married to the Sonne of her Mistresse then she may come to inherit her Mistresses goods And so it is to be understood also in our Christianity 116. The children of the History are not the heires of the goods of Christ but the legitimate children regenerated of the Spirit of Christ For God sayd to Abraham Cast out the son of the Bond woman he shall not inherit with the son of the Free For he was a scorner and but a Historicall sonne of the faith and spirit of Abraham and so long as he continued such a one he was not a true inheritor of the faith of Abraham and therefore God commanded he should be cast out from inheriting his goods which was a type of the Christendome which was to come 117. For the promise of Christendome was made to Abraham therefore the type was then also represented by two brethren viz. Isaac and Ishmael shewing how Christendome would behave it selfe and that two sorts of men would be in it viz. true Christians and lip Christians who under the Title of Christianity would be but mockers as Ishmael and Esau was who also was a type of the outward Adam as Jacob was a type of Christ and his true Christendome 118. Thus every one that will call himselfe a Christian must cast away and out from himselfe the sonne of the Bond-woman that is the earthly will and be evermore killing and destroying of it and not settle it in the inheritance 119. Nor give the Pearle to the Bestiall man for him to spoâ—â— himselfe withall continually in the outward light in the lust of the flesh but we must with our Father Abraham bring 〈◊〉 sonne of the right will to Mount vooria and be willing in obedience to God 〈◊〉 offeâ— in up alwayes willingly dying from sin in the death of Christ giâ—â—ng no place to the Beast of vanity in the Kingdome of Christ nor â—â—ffâ—ring it to grow wanton proud covetous envious and malicious all these are the properties of Ishmael the son of the Bond-woman whom Adam begat in his vanity of the wanton whore the false Bond-woman by the Devils imagination out of the earthly property in flesh and bloud 120. This Mocker and Titular-Christian is the sonne of a whore he must be cast out for he must not inherit the inheritance of Christ in the Kingdome of God he is not fit he is but Babel a confusion of that one language into many languages he is but a talker and a wrangler about the inheritance he meanes to get it to himselfe by talking and wrangling by the hypocrisie of his lips and seeming holinesse and yet he is but a blood-thirsty murtherer of his brother Abel who is a true heire 121. Therefore we say what we know that he that will call himselfe a true Christian must try himselfe and find what kind of properties drâ—â—e and rule him whether the Spirit oâ— Christ driveth him to truth and righteousnes and to the love of his neighbour so that he would willingly doe good if he knew but how to perform it 122. Now if he find that he hath such a hunger after such a vertue then he may surely think that he is drawne And then he must put it in practice and not have a will onely without doing The drawing of the Father to Christ consisteth in the will but the true life consisteth in the doing for the right Spirit doth that which is right 123. But if there be the will to do and yet the doing followeth not then the true man is shut up in vain lust which keepeth the doing captive and he is but an hypocrite and an Ishmaelite he speaketh one thing and doth another and witnesseth that his mouth is a lyer for he himselfe doth not that which he teacheth and so he onely serveth the Bestiall man in vanity 124. For he that will say I have a will and would willingly doe good but for the earthly flesh which I have which keepeth me back that I cannot yet I shall be saved by grace for the merits of Christ I comfort my selfe with his merit and sufferings he will receive me of meere grace without any merits of my owne and forgive me my sinnes such a one I say is like him that knew what food was good for his health yet did not eat of it but eat poyson in stead thereof from whence sicknesse and death would follow 125. What good doth it the soule to know the way to good if it will not walk therein but go a wrong way that leadeth not to God What good will it doe the soule to comfort it self with the filiation of Christ with his passion and death and so flatter it selfe if it will not enter into the filiall birth that it may be a true child born out of the Spirit of Christ c. out of his suffering death and resurrection Surely the tickling and flattering of it selfe with Christs mirits without the true innate childship is falshood and a lye whosoever he be that teacheth it 126. This comfort belongeth onely to the penitent sinner who striveth against sinne and the anger of God When temptations come and the Devill assaulteth the soule then the soule must wholly wrap it selfe up in the passion and death of Christ and in his Merits 127. Christ indeed hath merited redemption for us alone but he hath not merited it as such a merit for upon a Merit a Reward is given that for his own proper merits sake he would outwardly freely grant us his childshîp and so receive us for children when we are none No hee himselfe is the merit he is the open gate that leadeth through death through that gate we must enter But he receiveth no beast into his merit but those onely that turn and become as children
Letters of the word proceed from and stand all in one Root which is the spirit of God as the many flowers stand all in the earth and grow by one another None of them fight with the other about their colours smell and taste they suffer the Earth the Sun the Raine the Wind the heate cold to doe with them as they please and yet every one of them grow in their own Essence and property 167. And so it is with the children of God they have various gifts and knowledge yet all from one Spirit They all rejoyce at the great wonders of God and give thankes to the most High in his wisdome why should they long contend about him in whom they live and have their being and of whose substance they themselves are 168. It is the greatest folly that is in Babel for people to strive about Religion as the Devill hath made the World to doe so that they contend about Opinions of their owne forging viz. about the Letter though the Kingdome of God consisteth in no Opinion but in Power and Love 169. As Christ said to his Disciples and left it to them at the last saying Love one another as I have loved you For thereby men shall know that you are my Disciples If men would as fervently seeke after Love and righteousnesse as after Opinions there would be no strife on Earth and wee should live as children in our Father and should need no Law or Ordinance 170. For God is not served by any Law but only by Obedience Lawes are for the wicked which will not embrace Love and Righteousnesse they are compelled and forced by Laws 171. We all have but one only order which is to stand stil to the Lord of all Beings resign our wil up to him and suffer his Spirit to play what musick he will and work and make in us what he will and wee give to him againe as his own fruits that which he worketh and manifesteth in us 172. Now if we did not contend about the various fruits gifts and knowledge but did acknowledg them in one another like children of the Spirit of God what could judge us For the Kingdome of God consisteth not in our knowing and supposing but in power 173. If wee did not know halfe so much and were more like children and had but a Brotherly minde or good will towards one another and did live like children of one and the same mother and as branches of one tree taking our sap all from one root we should be far more holy then we are 174. Knowledge serves only to this end to learne to know wee having lost the Divine power in Adam and so now are inclined to evill that wee have evill properties in us and that doing of evill pleaseth not God so that with our knowledge wee might learne to do right Now if we have the power of God in us and desire with all our powers to doe and to live aright then our knowledge is but our sport wherein we rejoyce 175. For true knowledge is the Manifestation of the Spirit of God through the eternall wisedome Hee knoweth what he will in his children He powreth forth his wisedome and wonders by his children as the Earth produceth its various flowers 176. Now if we dwell one with another like humble children in the spirit of Christ one rejoycing at the Gifts and knowledge of another who would judge or condemne us who judgeth or condemneth the birds in the woods that praise the Lord of all Beings with various voyces every one in its owne Essence Doth the Spirit of God reprove them for not bringing their voyces into one harmonie doth not the sound of them all proceed from his power and they sport before him 177. Those men therefore that strive and wrangle about knowledge and the will of God and despise one another for that are more foolish then the birds in the woods and the wild beasts that have no true understanding they are more unprofitable in the sight of the Holy God then the flowers of the field which stand still quietly submitting to the Spirit of God and suffering him to manifest the Divine Wisedome and power through them yes those men are worse then Thistles and Thornes that grow among faire flowers for they stand still indeed those men are like the ravenous Beasts and Birds of prey which fright the other birds from singing and praising God 178. In summe they are the growth of the Devill in the anger of God which must by their paine yet serve the Lord for by their plaguing and persecuting they presse out the sappe through the Essence of the children of God so that they move and stir themselves in the Spirit of God with praying and continuall sighing in which the Spirit of God moveth himselfe in them 179. For thereby the Desire is exercised and so the Children of God grow greene flourish and bring forth fruit for the children of God are manifested in Tribulation as the Scripture saith when thou chastiâ—est them they cry fervently to Thee CHAP. VIII Wherein Christian Religion consisteth and how men should serve God and their Brethren 180. ALL Christian Religion wholly consisteth in this To learn to know our selves First what we are and whence we are come how we are gone forth from the Unity into dissention wickednesse and unrighteousnesse how we have awakened and stirred up these things in us 181. Secondly how we were in the Unity when we were the children of God in Adam before he fell Thirdly how we are now in dissention and disunion in strife contrariety Fourthly whither we goe when we passe out of this corruptible Being whither we goe with the immortall and whither with the mortall part 182. In these foure poynts our whole Religion consisteth viz. to learn to come forth from disunion vanity and to enter again into that one Tree Christ in us out of which we are all sprung in Adam 183. We need not strive about any thing we have no contention Let every one exercise himselfe in learning how he may enter again into the love of God and his Brother 184. The Testaments of Christ are nothing else but a loving Boâ—d or brotherly covenant wherewith God in Christ bindeth himselfe to us and * us to him All teaching willing living and doing must aim at that All teaching and doing otherwise whatsoever is Babel and a fiction also a meer graven Image of pride in unprofitable judgings a disturbing of the world and an hypocrifie of the Devil wherewith he blindeth simplicity 185. Every one whatsoever that teacheth without the Spirit of God and hath no divine knowledge and yet setteth himselfe up for a Teacher in the Kingdome of God and will serve God with teaching that teaching is false and doth but serve the belly his Idoll and his own proud and insolent mind in desiring to be honored and accounted holy he beareth an office to which he
thing its owne will is without GODS will and there the Devill dwelleth and all what ever is without God The Scholar 42. How farre then is Heaven and Hell from one another The Master As far as day and night something and nothing are one from another they are in one another and they doe cause joy and trouble one to another Heaven is through the whole world and without the world all over without being divided or included in a place and worketh through the Diviâ—â— Manifestation but onely in it self and in that which commeth into it or in that wherein it becommeth manifest and there God is revealed for heaven is nothing but a manifestation of the eternall One wherein all worketh and willeth in quiet love Hell also is through the whole world and dwelleth and worketh also but in it selfe and in that wherein the foundation of Hell is manifested viz. in Selfe and in the false or evill will The visible world hath both Heaven and Hell in it Maâ— as to his Temporall life is only of the visible world and therefore during the time of this life he seeth not the spirituall world for the outward world with its substance is a cover to the spirituall world as the soule is covered with the body But when the outward man dyeth then the spirituall world as to the soule is manifested either in the eternall light with the holy Angels or in the eternall darknesse with the Devils The Scholar 43. What is an Angel or the soule of a man that they may be manifested thus either in Gods love or anger The Master They came from one originall they are a Branch of the Divine Sience of the Divine will sprung from the Divine Word and made an object of the Divine Love they are come out of the ground of eternity from whence Light and Darknesse spring viz. Darknesse consisting in the receiving of Self-desire and Light consisting in willing the same with God and there the love of God is in the working but in the receiving of Self in the willing of the soule Gods will worketh in pain and is a Darknesse that the light may be known They Heaven and Hell are nothing else but a manifestation of the Divine will either in Light or Darknesse according to the properties of the spirituall world The Scholar 44. What then is the Body of a Man The Master It is the visible world an Image and essence of all that the world is and the visible world is a manifestation of the inward spirituall world come out of the eternal light out of the eternall darknesse out of the spiritual weaving twining or connexion and it is an object or resemblance of eternity wherewith eternity hath made it self visible where self-wil and resigned will viz. evill and good work one with another and such a substance the outward man also is for God created man of the outward world and breathed into him the inward spirituall world for a soule and an understanding life and therefore in the things of the outward world man can receive and work evill and good The Scholar 45. What shall be after this world when all things perish The Master The materiall substance onely ceaseth viz. the foure elements the Sun Moon and Starres and then the inward world will be wholly visible and manifest But whatsoever hath been wrought by the Spirit in this time whether evill or good I say every work shal separate it self there in a spirituall manner either into the eternal light oâ— into the eternal darknesse for that which is born from each will penetrateth again into that which is like it selfe And there the darknesse is called Hell and is an eternall forgetting of all good and the light is called the Kingdome of God and is an eternall joy and an eternall praise in the Saints that they are delivered from the evill pain The last judgement is a kindling of the fire both of Gods love and anger in which the matter of every substance perisheth and each fire shall attract its own into it selfe viz. the substance that is like it selfe that is Gods fire of love draweth into it whatsoever is born in the love of God in which also it shall burn after the manner of love and yeeld it selfe up into that substance But the pain draweth into it selfe what is wrought in the anger of God in darknesse and consumeth the false substance and then there remaineth onely the painful or aking will in its own forme Image and figure The Scholar 46. What Matter and Form or shape shall our bodies rise with The Master It is sown a natural grosse elementary body which in this life time is like the outward elements and in this grosse body there is the subtile power and vertue as in the earth there is a subtile good vertue which is like the Sun and is one and the same with the Sunne which also in the beginning of time did spring and proceed out of the Divine power and vertue from whence all the good vertue of the body hath been received this good vertue of the mortall body shall come again and live for ever in a kind of transparent Crystalline material property in spirituall flesh and bloud as also the good vertue of the earth shall when the earth also shall bee Crystalline and the Divine light shine in every thing that hath a Being Essence or Substance And as the grosse earth shall perish and not return so also the grosse flesh of Man shall perish and not live for ever But all things must appeare before the judgement and in the judgement bee separated by the fire yes both the earth and also the ashes of the humane body For when God shall once move the Spirituall world every Spirit shall attract its spirituall substance to it selfe viz. a good Spirit and soule shall draw to it selfe its good substance and an evill one its evill substance But we must here understand such a substantiall materiall power and vertue whose substance is meere vertue like a materiall tincture whose grossnesse is perished in all things The Scholar 47. Shall we not rise again with our visible bodies and live in them for ever The Master When the visible world perisheth then all that which hath come out of it and hath been externall shall perish with it there shal remain of the world onely the heavenly Crystalline Nature and Form and so there shall remain of Man also onely the spirituall earth For man shall be then wholly like the spiritual world which as yet is hidden The Scholar 48. Shall there be also husband and wife or children and kindred in the spirituall life or shall one associate with another as they doe in this life The Master Why art thou so fleshly minded There will be neither husband nor wife but all will be like the Angels of God viz. Masculine Virgins there will be neither sonne nor daughter brother nor sister
are One in Christ as a Tree and its Branches are one The Scholar 55. How then will those subsist in the day of that judgement who torment and vex the poore and distressed and deprive him of his very sweat necessitating and constraining him by force to be subiect to their wills and account them their foot-stool onely that they may domineere and spend his sweat labour and pains in volupâ—uousnesse pride and vainglory The Master Those doe it to Christ himselfe and that which they doe belongeth to his severe sentence and judgement for in so doing they lay violent hands on Christ and persecute him in his members And besides they help the Devill to augment his kingdome and by such pressing and constraining them they draw the poore off from Christ and make him seek a lewd and unlawfull way to fill his belly Nay they doe the very same which the Devill himselfe doth who without intermission resisteth the Kingdome of Chrîst which consisteth in love All these if they doe not turn with their whole heart to Christ and minister to him must goe into Hell fire where there is nothing but such meere selfe as that which hee hath exercised over the poore The Scholar 56. But how will it fare with those and how will they subsist that in this time doe so contend about the Kingdome of Christ and persecute reproach slander and revile one another for it viz. for their Religion The Master All those that have not yet known Christ and are also but as a type or figure of Heaven and Hell striving with each other for the victory All rising swelling pride which maketh striving about opinions is an Image of Selfe and whosoever hath not Faith and Humility nor is in the Spirit of Christ viz. love is onely armed with the Anger of God and helpeth forward the victory of the Imaginary Selfe viz. the Kingdome of Darknesse and the anger of God For at the day of judgement all Selfe shall be given to the Darknesse and all their * unprofitable contentions in which they seek not after love but meerly after their Imaginary selfe that they may boast themselves in their opinions stirre up Princes to wars for such Imaginary and conceited opinions sake and so by those Images they lay wast desolate whole Countries of people All such things belong to the judgement which will seperate the false from the true and then all Images or opinions shall cease and all the children of God shall walk in the love of Christ and He in Us. All whosoever in this time of strife are not zealous in the Spirit of Christ and desirous to further love only but seek their own profit in strife are of the Devill and belong to the pit of Darknesse and shall be separated from Christ for in heaven all serve God their Creator in humble love The Scholar 57. Wherefore then doth God suffer such strife and contention to be in this time The Master The life it selfe standeth in strife that it may be made manifest sensible and palpable and that the wisdome may be made separable and known and it maketh the eternall joy of the victory to be For there will arise great praise in the Saints from hence that Christ in them hath overcome Darknesse and all selfe of Nature and that they are delivered from the strife at which they shall rejoyce eternally when they shall know how the wicked are recompenced And therefore God suffereth all things to stand in a free-will that the eternall Dominion both of Love and Anger of Light and of Darknesse may be made manifest and known and that every life might cause and raise its own sentence in it selfe For that which is now a strife and pain to the Saints in their misery shall be turned into great joy to them and that which hath been a joy and pleasure to ungodly persons in this world shall be turned into eternall pain and shame to them Therefore the joy of the Saints must arise to them out of Death as the light ariseth out of a Candle by the dying and consuming of it in its fire that so the life may be freed from the painfullnesse of Nature and possesse another world And as the light hath quite another property then the fire hath for it giveth and yeeldeth forth it self but the fire taketh in and consumeth it selfe so the holy life of meeknesse springeth forth through death when selfe-will dyeth and then Gods will of love onely ruleth and doth all in al. For thus the eternall One hath attained feeling and separability and brought it selfe forth again with the feeling through Death in great joyfulnesse that there might he an eternall delight in the infinite Unity and an eternall cause of joyfulnesse and therefore painfulnesse must now be the ground and cause of this motion or stirring to the manifestation of all things And herein lieth the mystery of the hidden wisdome of God Every one that asketh receiveth every one that seeketh findeth and to every one that knocketh it shall be oned The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the holy Ghost be with us all Amen HEB. 12. 22 23 24. Thank yee the Lord for ye are now come to Mount Zion to the Citie of God to the heavenly Jerusalem to the innumerable company of Angels and to the generall assembly and Church of the first born who are written in heaven And to God the Judge of all and and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new Testament or Covenant And to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things then that of Abel Amen Praise and glory and wisdome and thanksgiving and honour and power might be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne our GOD and the Lamb for ever and ever Amen The Contents of this Treatise in briefe divided into eight parts I. From the 1. to the 7. question How men may come to the super-sensuall life II. From the 8. to the 11. question How men must and may rule over all Creatures and can be like all things III. From the 12. to the 24. question How men may come to continual repentance and may subsist in temptation IV. From the 25. to the 35. question How love and sorrow stand together in one and what love is what its power and vertue height and greatnesse is and where it dwelleth in man Also the neerest way to attain it V. From the 36. to the 39 question Whither the blessed and the damned souls go when they depart and how heaven and hell is in man VI. From the 40. to the 43. question Where the Angels and Devils dwell in this worlds time How farre heaven and hell are asunder and what and whence the Angels and soules are VII The 44. question What the body of man is and why the soule is capable of receiving good and evill VIII From the 45. to
his crosse so that the Devill seeth it not Therefore bee alwayes sober and watchfull and resist the crafty and subtill Devill that yee may live for ever Amen A Letter or Epistle FROM IACOB BEHMEN to a good friend of his Our Salvation or Redemption consisteth in the working of the love of JESVS CHRIST that is in us 1. MY very loving and Christian Friend I wish you the highest peace with the hearty love of a fellow-member of CHRIST working in the desire that the true Sunne of the effectuall love of JESUS CHRIST may continually rise and shine in your Soule Spirit and Body 2 Your letter dated the 24 of January I received 14. dayes after Easter rejoycing to see in it that you are a thirsty fervent and desirous searcher and lover of the true ground of the knowledge of Divine mysteries which I perceive you have sought and searched for with diligence 3 But that my writings are come to your hands and please you is certainly caused by the appointment of GOD who bringeth lovers to that which they love and often useth strange meanes whereby he satisfieth the desire of them that love a thing and feedeth them with his gifts and graces and putteth an Ens or Substance of the true fire into their love that it may burn aright and you may rest assured if you continue your constancy in love to truth that it will open reveale and manifest it self to you in its flaming love and make it self certainly known but the searching of it must be begnn aright for we attain not the true ground of divine knowledge by the sharp searthing of our reason froÌ„ without but the searching must begin from within in the Hunger of the soule for Reason peâ—etrateth no further then its own Aâ—rum or Constellation of the outâ—ard world from whence Reason haâ—h â—ts originall 4 But the soul searcheth in its own Astrum or Constellation viz. in the â—nward spirituall world from whence â—his visible world hath proceeded and â—own forth and was produced and wherein its ground or Root standeth 5. But then if the soule would search its own Astrum or Spirituall Constellation viz. the Mysterium Magnum or the eternall Divine Nature it must first wholly yeeld up all its power its wil to the divine love and grace within it and become a childe and turn it selfe to â—ts Center by Repentance and desire to doe nothing but that onely which the Spirit of God desireth to search by it 6 And when it hath yeelded and resigned it selfe thus seeking nothing but goodnesse and the glory of God and its own salvation and also how it may serve and love its neighbour and doth then find in it selfe a desire to have divine and also Naturall knowledge then it may know or be sure that it is drawn or inclined to it by GOD and then it may well search that deep ground which is mentioned in my Writings 7 For the Spirit of GOD searcheth by that soule and bringeth it at length into the deepes of the Deitie as Saint Paul faith The Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 8 Loving Sir it is a simple childish way that leadeth to the highest wisdome the world knoweth it not You need not travell into far Countries to seek for wisdome in remote places she standeth at the doore of your soule and knocketh and if shee shall find an empty resigned free place in the soule she will there reveale her selfe indeed and rejoyce therein more then the Sunne in the Elements If the soule yeeld it selfe up to wisdome for a full possession then she penetrateth through it with her flaming fire of love and unlocketh all mysteries to the soule 9 Sir you may perhaps wonder how a plain Lay-man could come to understand such high things having ever read them nor heard them â—om any man But loving Sir I tell â—ou that which you have seen in my â—ritings is but a glimpse of the myâ—eries for a man cannot write them God shall account you worthy to â—e the light kindled in your soule â—u would see taste smell feele and â—eare unspeakable words of GOD â—oncerning this knowledge And â—ere is the true Theosophicall Schoole â— Pentecost where the soule is taught of God 10 After this there is no more need â— searching and painfull toyling aâ—out it for all doores or gates and open a very simple silly man â—ay attaine it if he doe not hinder â—imselfe by his own willing and runâ—â—ng For it lieth in man beforeâ—nd and needeth onely to be awaâ—ned stirred up hatched or quickâ—d by the Spirit of GOD. 11 In my Talent or Writings â—s in my simplicity I was able to deâ—ribe it you shall easily â—ind the way â— it especially in this foregoing book which also is of my Talent and but for few weeks agoe published in print which Sir I present to you in love as to my Christian fellow-member and exhort you to read it over often for its vertue is the more the better liked In this Book you will see a true short ground and it is a sure ground For the Authour in his practice hath found it so by experience 12 But for the ground of the high Naturall Mysteries which you and Mr. Walter and Mr. Leonhart Elverne desire a further and a clearer explanation of be pleased to enquire of Mr. Walter for it for I have sent to you and him an explanation and other new writings if you shall like them you may cause them to be copied out you will find very great knowledge in them I ould that all of you might truly understand it I would fain have made it more plain but in respect of the great depth and also in regard of the unworthy it may not be done Christ sayth Matth. 7. 7. Seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you None can give it to another every one must get it himselfe of GOD One may well give a manuduction or direction to another but he cannot give him the understanding of it 13 Yet know this That a Lilly blossometh to you yee Northerne Countreys If you doe not destroy it with the Sectarian contention of your learned Men it will grow to be a very flourishing or great Tree among you But if you rather choose to contend dispute and wrangle then to know the true God the Ray or Influence will passe over you and touch but some few and then afterwards you will be forced to fetch water from strangers for the thirst of your soules 14 If you shall rightly observe it my writings will give you great furtherance in it and the Signat-Starre above your Pole will help you for its time born or begun 15 I will freely and readily give you what the Lord hath given me but look to it and bestow it aright it will be a witnesse for you against the Mockers Scorners or Despisers None ought to look upon my person it is the
whatsoever is done by the conclusions of humane Selfe in matters of the divine will and knowledge is a meere Fiction or Fable and it is Babel and is but a worke of the starres and of the outward world and not ackowledged by God to be his work but it is the play of the wrastling wheele of Nature wherein good and evill wrastle one with the other what the one buildeth the other destroyeth And this is the great misery of vain turmoylings all which belongeth to the judgement of God to decide the quarrell 40. Whosoever therefore worketh or laboureth much in such turmoylings he worketh but for the judgement of God for no whit of it is perfect and permanent ît must all be separated in the putrifaction For that which is wrought in the anger of God will be received thereby and shall be kept in the mystery of its desire to the day of Gods judgement where evill and good shall be severed 41. But if a man turn and go forth from himself and enter into the will of God then also that good which he hath wrought in himself shall be freed from the evill which he hath wrought For Isaiah saith Though your sins be as red as scarlet if yee turne and repent they shall become as wooll white as snow for the evill shall be swallowed up in the wrath of God into death and the good shal goe forth as a sprout out of the wild earth CHAP. II. 1. WHosoever intendeth to work any thing that is good and perfect wherein he hopeth eternally to rejoyce and enjoy it let him depart from himselfe viz. from his own desire and enter into Resignation into the will of God and work with God and though the earthly desire of Selfe in flesh and bloud cleaveth to him yet if the will of the soule doe not receive that desire into it Self cannot perform any work for the resigned will continually destroyeth the being of Selfe againe so that the anger of God cannot reach it but if it should happen to reach it sometime as it may so come to passe yet the resigned will prevaileth with its power and then it beareth the figure of a victorious work in the wonders and may inherit the filiation Therefore it is not good to speake or doe any thing when Reason is kindled in the desire of Selfe for then the desire worketh in the anger of God by which a man would suffer losse for his work is brought into the anger of God and kept there to the great day of Gods judgement 2. Every evill desire whereby a man thinketh craftily to gather to himselfe much of the world from his neighbour to the hurt of his neighbour is taken into the anger of God and belongeth to the judgement wherein all things shall be made manifest and every power and Essence both in good and evill shall be presented to every one in the mystery of the revelation 3. All evill workes done purposely belong to the judgement of God but he that turneth hee goeth out from them and those his works belong to the fire All things shall and must be made manifest in the end for therefore God brought his working power into essence that the love and anger of God might be made manifest and be a representation of Gods deeds of wonder to his glory 4. And every creature must know that it should continue in that condition wherein it was created or else it doth run on into a contrary will and into enmity to the will of God and bringeth it selfe into pain For a creature which is created of darknesse hath no pain in the darknesse As a venomous Worm hath no pain in its venome the venome is its life and if it should lose its venome and have some good thing in stead thereof brought into it and be made manifest in its essence this would bee pain and death to it and so also the evill is pain and death to the good 5. Man was created of for and in Paradise of for and in the love of God but if hee bring himselfe into anger which is as a poysonous pain and death then that contrary life is a pain and torment to him 6. If the Devill had been created of the wrathfull Matrix for and in Hell and had not had the divine Ens he could have no pain in Hell but he being created for and in Heaven and yet did stirre up the source or property of darknesse in himselfe and did bring himselfe totally into darknesse therefore the light is now a pain to him viz. an everlasting despairing of Gods grace and a continuall enmity being God cannot endure him in himselfe but hath spewed him out and therefore the Devill is angry and wrathfull against his own mother of whose Essence and Being he hath his originall viz. the eternall Nature which keepeth him prisoner in his own place as a revolter or fallen Spirit and sporteth it selfe in him with its property of anger and wrath And seeing he would not help forward the delight of the Divine joy therefore he must now doe the contrary and be an enemy against goodnesse For of God and in him are all things darknesse and light love and anger fire and light but hee calleth himselfe God onely as to the light of his love 7. There is an eternall contrariety between darknesse and light neither of them comprehendeth the other and neither of them is the other yet there is but one onely Essence Being or Substance wherein they subsist but there is a difference in quality and will and yet the Essence or Substance is not divided but a Principle maketh the division so that the one is a nothing in the other and yet it is there but not manifest in the property of that thing wherein it is 8. For the Divell continued in his own Dominion or Principality but not in that wherein God created him but in the aking painfull birth of eternity in the center of Nature and the property of wrath in the property which begetteth darknesse anguish and pain Indeed he is a Prince in the place of this world yet in the first Principle in the Kingdome of Darknesse in the Pit 9. But not in the Kingdome of the Sunne Starres and Elements he is no Lord or Prince therein but in the wrathfull part viz. in the root of the evill of every thing and yet he hath no power to doe what hee pleaseth with it 10. For there is some good in all things which holdeth the evill captive and shut up in the thing there he can walk and rule onely in the evill when it stirreth up an evill desire in it selfe and bringeth its desire into wickkednesse which the inanimate creatures cannot doe but man can doe it through the inanimate creature if he bring the center of his will with the desire out of the eternall center into it which is an Inchantment and false Magick The will of the Devill