the 57. question Of the perishing of the world of mans body in and after the resurrection where heaven and hell shall be of the last judgement and wherfore the strife in the creature must be A DISCOURSE BETWEEN A Soule hungry and thirsty after the Fountain of Life the sweet love of Jesus Christ and a Soule enlightned Shewing which way one Soule should seek after and comfort another and bring it in îts knowledge into the Paths of Christs Pilgrimage and faithfully set before it as a looking-glasse the thorny way of the world in which the fallen Soule walketh which leadeth into the Abysse or pit of Hell Composed by a Soule which loveth all that are the Children of JESUS CHRIST under the Crosse. Written in the German Language Anno 1624 By JACOB BEHMEN Alias Teutonicus Philosophus LONDON Printed by M. S. 1648. The Way from Darknesse to true Illumination THere was a poore Soule wandred out of Paradise and came into the Kingdom of this World and there the Devill met with it and asked Whither dost thou goe thou Soule that art halfe blind The Soule sayd I would goe see and speculate the Creatures of the world which the Creator hath made The Devil sayd How wilt thou look upon them when thou canst not know their Essence and property thou wilt looke upō the outside only as upon a graven Image and canst not know them thoroughly The soule sayd How may I come to know their Essence and property The Devil sayd Thy eyes would be opened to see them throughly if thou didst but eat of that from whence the creatures are come to be good and evill and thou wouldst be as God himself is and know what the creature is The soule sayd I am now a noble and holy creature but if I should doe so I should dye as the Creator hath sayd The Devil sayd No thou shouldst not die at all but thy eyes would be opened and thou wouldst be as God himself and receive or possesse good and evill Also thou shalt be mighty powerfull and very great as I am all the subtilty that is in the creatures would be made known to thee The soule sayd If I had the knowledge of Nature and of the Creatures I would then rule the whole world as I listed The Devil sayd The whole ground of that knowledge lyeth in thee doe but turn thy wil and desires from God or goodnesse into Nature and the Creatures and then there will arise in thee a lust to taste and so thou mayst eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil and so come to know all things The soule sayd Well then I will eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evill that I may rule all things by my own power and be a Lord of my self on earth and doe what I will as God himselfe doth The Devil sayd I am the Prince of this world and if thou wouldst rule on earth thou must turn thy lust towards my Image desire to be like me that thou mayst get the cunning wit reason and subtilty that my Image hath And thus the Devill did present to the soule the Mercury in Vulcan that is the fiery wheele of Essence or Substance in the form of a Serpent The soule sayd Behold this is the power which can do all things how may I do to have it The Devil sayd Thou thy selfe also art such a fiery Mercury if thou doest break thy will off from God and bring thy desire into this Art then thy hidden ground will be manifested in thee and then thou mayst work in the same manner also But thou must eat of that fruit wherein each of the foure elements in it self ruleth over the other and are in strife the heat striving against the cold and the cold against the heat and so all the properties of nature work feelingly and then thou wilt instantly be as the fiery wheele is and so bring all things into thy own power and possesse them as thy own The soul did so and what hapened upon it And when the soule broke its will thus off from God and brought its desire into the Vulcan of Mercury viz. the fiery wheele there presently arose a lust to eat of the knowledge of good and evill and the soule did eat thereof As soon as it had done so Vulcan did kindle the fiery wheele of its Substance and so all the properties of nature did awake in the soule and exercised their own lust and desire First then there arose the lust of pride to be great mighty and powerfull to bring all things under subjection at command and so be its own Lord without controule to despise humility and equality to esteeme it self onely prudent witty and cunning and account all folly that is not according to its way Secondly arose the lust of covetousnesse a desire of getting which would draw all things to it selfe into its possession for when the lust of pride had turned away its will from God then the life of the soule would not trust God any further but would take care for its selfe and therefore brought its desire into the creatures viz. into the earth metals trees and other creatures and so the kindled fiery life became hungry and covetous when it had broken it self off from the unity love and meeknesse of God and attracted to it selfe the foure Elements and their essence and brought it selfe into beastiality and so the life became obscure dark void and wrathfull and the heavenly vertues and colours went out Thirdly there awaked a stinging thorny lust in the fiery life viz. envie a hellish poyson and a property which all Devils have and a torment which makes the life an enemy to God and to all creatures Which envie did rage furiously in the desire of covetousnesse as a sting of poyson in the body Envie cannot endure but hateth and mischieveth that which covetousnesse could not draw to it selfe by which the noble love of the soule was smothered Fourthly there awaked in this fiery life a torment like fire viz. anger which would murther and destroy all that which would not be subject to this pride Thus the ground and foundation of hell which is called the anger of God was wholly manifested in this soule and thereby it lost the Paradise of God and the Kingdome of heauen and became such a worme as the fiery Serpent was which the Devil presented to the soule in his owne Image and likenesse And so the soule began to rule on earth in a beastiall manner and did all things according to the will of the Devill living in meere pride covetousnesse envy and anger and having no true love towards God any more but there did arise in the stead thereof an evill beastiall love of filthy Lechery wantonnesse and vanity and there was no purenesse more in the heart for the soule had left Paradise and taken the Earth into its possession the Minde thereof was onely bent upon
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
can also enter into that whereinto Man bringeth the desire of his soul which is also from the eternall in wickednesse 11. For the originall of the soule and of Angels out of the eternall is the same But the Divell hath no power more over the time or temporary condition of this world but in the great Turba wheresoever that kind leth it selfe in the eternall and naturall wrath there he is busie as in warres fighting and strife as also in great tempests without water in the fire he proceedeth as farre as the Turba goeth in great showres and tempests of thunder lightning and haile but he cannot direct them for he is not Lord or Master in them but servant 12. Thus the creature stirreth up with the desire good and evill life and death The Humane Angelicall desire standeth in the center of the eternall Nature which is without beginning and wherein it kindleth it selfe whether in good or evill it accomplisheth its work in that 13. Now God created every thing for and in that wherein it should be the Angels for and in heaven and Man for and in Paradise if therefore the desire of the creature goe forth from its own mother then it entreth into the contrary will and into enmity and it is tormented with the contrariety therein and so a false will ariseth in a good and thence the good will entreth into its nothing again viz. into the end of Nature and Creature and so leaveth the creature in its own evill or wickednesse as appeareth by Lucifer and also by Adam and had not the will of the love of God met with him and of meere mercy entred into the humanity again there could be no good will in man 14. Therefore all speculation and searching about Gods will is a vain thing without the mind be converted For when the mind stādeth captivated in the selfe-desire of the earthly life it cannot o comprehend what the will of God is it runneth on but in Selfe from one way into another and yet findeth no rest for selfe-desire evermore bringeth disquietnesse but when it sinketh it selfe wholly into the mercy of God desiring to die from it selfe and to have Gods will for a guide to the understanding so that it acknowledgeth and esteemeth it selfe as nothing and willeth nothing but what God will and then if the desire of anger in the earthly flesh goe along or joyneth with the Devils imagination and assaulteth the will of the soule then the resigned desire crieth to God and saith Abba Ioving father deliver me from the evill And then though the earthly wil should grow too strong in the wrath of God by the infection of the Devill the desire of anger would work but in or upon it selfe as St. Paul saith Now if I sin I doe it not but sin that dwelleth in my flesh also now I serve the Law of God in my mind but in my flesh the law of sinne Paul meaneth not that the will should consent in the will of the flesh but sin is so strong in the flesh viz. the awakened anger of God in Selfe that oftentimes it is brought into lust by force through the evill provocations of wicked men or else by beholding worldly pomp and glory so that it wholly bedeafeth the resigned will and ruleth by force 15. Now when sin is wrought in the flesh then the wrath sporteth it selfe therewith and catcheth at the resigned will and then the resigned will crieth to God for deliverance from the evill and prayeth that God would remove the sinne away from it aud bring sin into the center viz. into death that it might die 16. And S. Paul saith further Now there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus that are called according to the purpose of God that is those that in that purpose of God in which God called man are again called in the same calling to stand again in that purpose of God wherein he created man to be his likenesse and image of him 17. So long as a mans own will standeth in Selfe so long it is not in the purpose and calling of God it is not called for it is gone forth from its own place but when the mind turneth it selfe back again into the calling viz. into Resignation then the will is in the calling of God viz in the place for and in which God created it and then it hath power to become the child of God as it is written He hath given us power to become the children of God 18. The power which he hath given us is his purpose for and in which he created Man in his Image this God hath brought again into the humanity and he hath given power unto that power to break the head of sinne in the flesh viz. the will and desire of the Serpent that is the resigned will in Christ treadeth upon the head of the desire of the sinful wil of the Serpent and killeth again the sins which were committed This power that is given becommeth a death to death and the power of life to life 19. Therefore no man can make any excuse as if he could not will Indeed while he sticketh fast in himselfe in his own desire and serveth onely the law of sinne in the flesh he cannot For he is kept back as being a servant of sinne but when he turneth the center of his mind away and turneth it into the will and obedience of God then he can 20. Now the center of the mind is come out of eternity out of Gods Omnipotence it can bring it selfe into what it will and whither it will for that which 〈◊〉 out of the eternall hath no Law but the will hath a law to obey God and is born out of the mind and it must not rent it selfe away from that out of which God created it 21. Now God created the will of the mind for and in Paradise to be a companion with him in the Kingdom of divine joy it ought not to have removed it selfe from thence but since it hath removed it self from thence God hath brought his will again into the flesh in his new-brought-in will hath given us power to bring our will into it and to kindle a new light in it and so to become his children again 22. God hardeneth no man but his own will which goeth on in the flesh of sin that hardeneth the mind viz. the will of Self bringeth the vanity of this world into the mind and so the mind is shut up and continueth so 23. God so far as he is called God is God cannot will any eivll for there is but one onely wil◠in God and that is eternall love a desire of thatwhich is his like viz. Power Beauty and Vertue 24. God desireth nothing but what is like his desire his desire receiveth nothing but what it selfe is 25. God receiveth no finner into his power and vertue unlesse the sinner goe forth from his sinnes
must bee in us too for the Devill dwelleth in hell wheresoever he is he is in hell and cannot come out of it Yes when he possesseth a Man hee dwelleth in hell viz. in the Anger of God in that man 12. Therefore we ought to consider well what Man is and how hee is a Man and then we may perceive that a true Christian is not a meere Historicall New Man as if it were enough for us outwardly to confesse Christ and beleeve that he is the Son of God and hath paid the ransome for ns for righteousnes availeth nothing if it be imputed from without that is by beleeving onely that it is imputed but an innate righteousnesse or the righteousnesse born in us in which we are the children of God that availeth 13. And as the flesh must dy so also the life and will must dye from sin and be as a child knowing nothing but longeth after the mother which brought it forth so must also the will of a Christian enter again into its mother viz. into the Spirit of Christ and become a child in it selfe in its own will and power having its will and desire inclined and directed onely towards its mother and a new will and obedience in righteousnesse which willeth sinne no more must rise from death out of the Spirit of Christ. 14. For that will is not born a-new which desireth and admitteth vanity into it selfe and yet there remaineth a will which longeth after vanity and sinneth in the New-born or Regenerate Man Therefore the Image of man must well be considered and how the New-birth commeth to passe seeing it is not wrought in the mortall flesh and yet truly and really in us in flesh and bloud in Water and Spirit as the Scripture saith 15. We should therefore rightly consider what kind of man it is in us that is the member of Christ and Temple of God who dwelleth in heaven And then also what kind of man it is that the Devill Ruleth and driveth for he cannot meddle with the Temple of Christ nor doth he care much for the mortall flesh and yet there are not three men in one another for all make but one man 16. Now if we will consider this rightly we must consider Time and Eternity and how they are in one another also light and darknesse good and evill but especially the originall of man This may thus be considered 17. The outward world with the Starres and foure Elements wherein Man and all creatures live neîther is nor is called God Indeed God dwelleth in it but the substance of the outward World comprehendeth him not 18. We see also that the light shineth in darknesse and the darknesse comprehendeth not the light and yet they both dwell in one another The foure Elements are also an example of this which in their originall are but one element which îs neither hot nor cold nor dry nor moist and yet by its stirring severeth it selfe into foure properties viz. into Fire Aire Water and Earth 19. Who would beleeve that fire produceth water and that the originall of fire could be in water if we did not see it with our eyes in tempests of thundring lightning and rain and did not find also that in living creatures the essentiall fire in the body dwelleth in the bloud and that the bloud is the mother of the fire and the fire the father of the bloud 20. And as God dwelleth in the world and filleth all things and yet possesseth nothing and as the fire dwelleth in water and yet possesseth it not also as the light dwelleth in darknesse and yet possesseth not the darknesse as the day is in the night and the night in the day time in eternity and eternity in time so is man created according to the outward humanity he is the time and in the time and the time is the outward world and it is also the outward man 21. The inward man is eternity and the spirituall time and world which also consisteth of light and darknesse viz. of the love of God as to the eternall light and of the anger of God as to the eternall darknesse whichsoever of these is manifest in him his spiirit dwelleth in that be it darknesse or light 22. For light and darknesse are both in him but each of them dwelleth in it selfe and neither of them possesseth the other but if one of them doe enter into the other and will possesse it then that other loseth its right and power 23. The passive loseth its power For if the light be made manifest in the darknesse then the darknesse loseth its darknesse and is not known or discerned Also on the contrary if the darknesse arise in the light and get the upper hand then the light and the power thereof is extinguished This is to be considered also in man 24. The eternall darknesse of the soule is hell viz. an aking source of anguish which is called the anger of God but the eternall light in the soul is the kingdome of heaven where the fiery anguish of darknesse is changed into joy 25. For the same nature of anguish which in the darknesse is a cause of sadnesse is in the light a cause of the outward and stirring joy For the source in light and the source in darknesse is but one eternall source and one nature and yet they have a mighty difference in the source the one dwelleth in the other and begetteth the other and yet is not the other The fire is painufll and consuming but the light is yeelding friendly powerfull and delightfull a sweet and amiable joy 26. This may be found also in man he is and liveth in three worlds One is the eternall dark-world viz. the center of the eternall nature which produceth the fire viz. the source of anguish 27. The other is the eternall light-world which begetteth the eternall joy which is the Divine Habitation wherein the Spirit of God dwelleth and wherein the Spirit of Christ receiveth the humane substance and subdueth the darknesse so that it must be a cause of joy in the Spirit of Christ in the light 28. The third is the outward visible world in the foure elements and the visible starres though indeed every element hath its peculiar constellation in it selfe whence the desire and property ariseth and is like a mind 29. Thus you may understand that the fire in the light is a fire of love a desire of meeknesse and delightfulnesse but the fire in the darknesse is a fire of anguish and it is painfull irk some enimicitious and full of contrariety in its essence The fire of the light hath a good relish or taste but the taste in the essence of darknesse is unpleasant loathsome and irksome For all the Forms till fire are in great anguish CHAP. II. How Man is created 30 HEre we are to consider the creation of Man Moses saith God created Man in his Image in the Image of God created
he him This we understand to be both out of the eternal and temporall birth out of the inward spirituall world which hee breathed into him into the created Image and then out of the substance of the inward spirituall world which is holy 31. For as there is a nature and substance in the outward world so also in the inward spirituall world there is a Nature and Substance which is Spirituall out of which the outward world is breathed forth and produced out of light and darknesse and created to have a beginning and time 32. And out of the substance of the inward and outward world Man was created out of in the likenesse of the birth of all substances The body is a Limbus of the earth also a Limbus of the heavenly substance for the earth is breathed forth out of the dark and light world In the word Fiat viz. in the eternall desire man was taken out of the earth and so created an Image out of time and eternity 33. This Image was in the inward and spirituall element from whence the foure elements proceed and are produced In that one element was Paradise for the properties of nature from the fire-dark-and-light-world were all in harmony in like agreement both in number weight and measure none of them was manifested eminently more then another and so there was no fragility therein for one property was not predominanr ovet another neither was there any strife or contrariety among the powers and properties 34. Into this created Image God breathed the Spirit and breath of understaÌ„ding out of all the three worlds as one onely soule which is in the inward dark and fire world of the eternall spirituall nature according to which God calleth himselfe a strong zealous God and a consuming fire 35. And this now is the eternall creaturely great soule a magical breath of fire in which fire consisteth the originall of life from the great power of variation Gods anger and the eternall darknesse is in this property so farre as sire reacheth without giving light 36. The second property of the breath of God is the Spirit of the source of light proceeding from the great fiery desire of love from the great meeknesse according to which God calleth himselfe a loving mercifull God in which consisteth the true Spirit of understanding and of life in power 37. For as Light shineth from fire and as the power of understanding is discerned in the light so the breath of the light was joyned to the breath of the fire of God and breathed into the Image of man 38. The third property of the breath of God was the outward aire with its Constellation wherein the life and Constellation of the outward substance and body did consist This he breathed into his Nostrils and as time and eternity hang together and as time is produced out of eternity so the inward breath of God hung to the outward and this threefold soul was at once breathed into man 39. Each substance of the body received the Spirit according to its property thus the outward flesh received the outward aire and its constellations for a rationall and vegetative life to the manifestation of the wonders of God and the light-body or heavenly substance received the breath of the light of the great divine powers and vertues which breath is called the holy Ghost 40. Thus the light pierced through the darknesst viz. through the dark breath of sire and also through the breath of the outward aire and its constellation and so deprived all the properties of their power that neither the anguish of the breath of Fire in the inward property of the soule nor heat and cold nor any of all the properties of the outward constellation might or could be manifested 41. The properties of all the three worlds in soule and body were in equall agreement and weight That which was inward and holy ruled through the outward viz. through the outward parts of the outward life of the outward Starres and the foure Elements and that was the holy Paradise 42. And thus Man was both in heaven and also in the outward world and was Lord over all the creatures of this world nothing could destroy him 43. For such was the earth also till the curse of God was The holy property of the Spirituall world sprung up also through the earth and brought forth holy Paradisicall fruits which man could then eat in a Magical Paradisicall manner 44. And had neither need of teeth nor entrails in his body For as the light swalloweth up darknesse and as the fire devoureth water and yet is not filled therewith just such a center man also had for his mouth to to eat withall according to the manner of eternity 45. And in such a manner he could also generate his like out of himself without any dividing or opening of his body and spirit as God did generate the outward world and yet did not divide himselfe but did in his desire viz. in the word Fiat manifest himselfe and brought it into a figure according to the eternall spirituall birth so also man was created such an Image and likenesse according to time and eterntiy out of both time and eternity yet in and for an eternall immortall life which was without enmity and contrariety 46. But the Devill having been a Prince and Hierarcha in the place of this world and having been cast out for his pride into the dark anguishing painfull and hostile property and source into the wrath of God Hee therefore envied man that glory of being created in and for the Spirituall world the place which he himselfe had and therefore brought his imagination into the Image of Man and made it so lusting that the dark world and also the outward world arose in Man and departed from the equall agreement and harmony and so one over weighed the other 47. And then the properties were every one made manifest in it self and every one of them lusted after that which was like it selfe viz. that which was out of the birth of the dark world and also that which was out of the birth of the light world would each of them eat of the Limbus of the earth according to its hunger and so evill and good became manifest in Adam 48. And when the hunger of the properties went into the earth from whence the properties of the body were extracted then the Fiat drew such a branch out of the earth as the properties could eat of in their awâ—kened vanity for this was possible 49. Being the spirit of the strong and great magicall power of Time and Eternity was in Adam from which the earth with its properties was breathed forth and so the Fiat â— viz. the strong desire of the eternall Nature attracted the essence of the earth And thus GOD let the Tree of knowledge of good evill grow for Adam