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A28518
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A consideration upon the book of Esaias Stiefel, of the threefold state of man, and his new birth written anno Christi 1621, by Jacob Behmen, otherwise called Teutonicus philosophus.; Bedencken über Esaiae Stiefels Büchlein Von dreyerley Zustandt des Menschen unnd dessen newen Geburt. English
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Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing B3400; ESTC R21020
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39,297
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158
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Son alone who is in the Fathers Unmeasurable Bosom he declareth to Us the Word and Will of God in our selves so that we hear and understand his Will and good pleasure within us and are willing to follow the same but yet are oft kept back by the outward sinful flesh so that the Working of that same divine Power goeth not always into the Outward Figure and yet it goeth into the Inward Figure in the Inward Spiritual World whereof S t Paul saith Our Conversation is in Heaven 11. Of which also all the Saints and especially S t Paul hath complained viz. that they have the earnest Will and with the Mind of the Inward Ground serve God but with the flesh the Law of Sin so that the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit Which Lust is daily drowned and killed in the Death of Christ through the Inward Ground yet only in those in whom Christ is risen from Death and thus no Condemnation is to them who are in Christ Jesus For the Bestial Body belongeth to the Earth but the Spiritual Body belongeth to God But whosoever hath not it is living dead and neither heareth nor perceiveth any thing of the Spirit of God it is foolishness unto him according to the Scripture 12. Therefore this Point is not sufficiently understood and declared by maintaining only and alone a Grace received from Without and also such a Forgiveness of Sins The Forgiving of Sins and the Childship received into the Grace consisteth in the Justification of the Blood and Death of CHRIST when CHRIST's Heavenly Blood tinctured us and overcame the Wrath of God in our Soul and Inward divine Ground being out of the Substance of Eternity with the highest Love of the Deity in the Name of JESUS and changed it again into the divine Humility Obedience the torn temperature of our humane Property of Obedience and good Will entering again into the Harmony and Unity of the Properties 13. Then was the Fathers Anger which was awaked in our Lives Properties and had made it self a Governor or Ruler in Soul and Body whereby we were dead to the Kingdom of Heaven and became Children of Wrath turned again into that One Only Love and Likeness of God and our Humane Will dyed away in the Death of Christ from its own I-hood and own Willing and the First Humane Will which God out of his Spirit gave into Adam out-greened again through the Victory of the sweetness of God in Christs Heavenly Blood Then was the Devil and Hell which held Men captive confounded for this the dry Rod of Aaron did signifie which greened in one night and bare sweet Almonds 14. Now as the Sin came from one and thronged from one upon all so also the sweet Grace and Victory in Christ thronged from one upon all The Death and the Anger was broken in pieces in Christ in that one Adamical Soul and a possibility to Grace through the Breaking of Death was opened through which broken Gate the Soulish Will may again turn it self into the first Mother out of which it came in the Beginning as into the Childship or New Birth of a New Life and Will There it may attain and reach the sweet Blood of Jesus Christ which in Christ in our Humanity brake in pieces the Gates of Death and changed the Anger of God in our Humanity in himself into Love wherein the poor captive Soul drinketh out of Gods Fountain and refresheth her self in her fire-breath whereout the New Greening out-greeneth the Hunger and Desire of the Soul becoming then Substantial in the Blood of Christ after an heavenly manner 15. Now like as the Breaking of Death must be done in the Person of Christ in our Soul and Humanity so that the Eternity in Christ wherewith he was come from Heaven and also was in Heaven Joh. 3. overcame the Time as the Life and Will of the Time and did change Time with its Will into the Eternal Will of the Deity and all that was to be done in our received Humanity So must also the Desire of our Soul receive into it self that same Eternal Will in Christ where Time and Eternity stand in an Harmony and Concordance and through that Power sink it self into the Childship as into the Grace that the same Inward Paradisical Ground which dyed in Adam might again out-green in the Will of the Obedience of Christ through his Heavenly and from us received humane Blood 16. In our selves must the Expiation be manifested through Christs once made Expiation indeed through that which once was made in Christs Blood and Death But that same which once came to pass in Christ must also do it in me it must now through Christs Bloodshedding come to pass also in me Christ sheddeth also his Heavenly Blood into my Desire in my poor Soul and tinctureth the Wrath of God therein that the First Adamical Image of God may again appear and become seeing hearing feeling tasting and smelling 17. For that Image which dyed in Adam from the Heavenly Worlds Essence as the right Paradisical one dwelleth not in the four Elements its Essence and Life standeth not in this World but in Heaven which becometh revealed in Christ in us as in the one pure and holy Element whereout the four Elements in the Beginning of Time are sprung and that same New Inward Spiritual Man eateth Christs Flesh and Blood for he liveth and is in Christ Christ is his Stock and he is a branch on the Stock 18. For every Spirit eateth of that of which he hath his Original as the Animalish Mortal Soul eateth of the Spirit of the World of the Stars and Elements of the Kingdom of this World But the true Eternal Soul which is breathed out of the Eternal Word into Man as a Divine Life eateth of its Mother as out of the Holy Substantial Word of God 19. But seeing that this after her separation from God was not possible for her therefore came that same Word of Life as her true Mother again to the out-turned Soul into this Vale of Misery into the Prison of Hell and brought its Heavenly Substance into our Humane as a Body for the Soul and therewith embraced and encompassed our poor captive Soul and did open again her heavenly Mouth afore dead in the Anger of God with the Tincture of Love so that the poor Soul can again eat heavenly Manna Which eating stood in Christs Person with our received Humanity in the Temptation of Christ in the Desart again in the tryal when Adam in Christ ate Manna again from Paradise forty days 20. Therefore I say that if any one be a Christian he is it not through an imputed graceshew from Without his sins are not forgiven him through the once happened Word-speaking from Without as a Lord in this World giveth a Murtherer his Life through an outward imputed Grace No no this availeth nothing before God 21. There is no Grace wherethrough we can come to the Childship
outward flesh and blood that it is Christs flesh and moreover perfectly holy and without fault Only I can with Truth say of the Inward Man born of God that he is conceived in Gods Essence as in the Word of Life which was again promised Adam in Paradise which opened it self in the Bound in the most blessed Virginlike Mirror as in the Divine Virginity in our Substantiality that was shut up in the Death 54. For in this Conception is the Kingdom of Heaven or the Heart of God the Man to the seed which is sown and the seed of the Woman understand the seed of the Soul and of the noble Image inclosed in the Death is the Matrix which receiveth into it the seed of God after an Essential manner so that God and Man becometh One Person according to the form or manner of the three Worlds as they stand one in another and yet the one is not the other for they possess not one the other but every one dwelleth in it self so that although God in Christ be born in Us yet we can by no means say when we speak of the whole Man I am Christ for the Outward is not Christ But thus we can and may say upon good ground I am in Christ and Christ is become Man in me 55. But his humane Kingdom is not of this World and I with my new Man in Christ am not of this World For S t Paul saith also that our Conversation is in Heaven whence We understand the Outward Mysterium wait for our Saviour Jesus Christ For the Outward Mysterium on Man shall put on Jesus Christ first in the Last Day when the Turba shall afore be taken from the Mysterium in which the Sin-mirror standeth which belongeth to the Anger of God therefore a Judgments-day is ordained when all shall be restored which we have lost in Adam 56. But if we with this outward visible and palpable Flesh were wholly perfect then must the Outward Man have put on Paradise again and then the Outward Man were Immortal and Unperishable and could go through Earth and Stones the four Elements also were as it were swallowed up in One as we shall be in the Last Day then must and should the Outward Man also eat no more of the forbidden Tree the Magical Impregnating would also begin and we not be born after a bestial or animal manner 57. But if the Author hath as he saith put on Paradise then he is taken up I as yet can say no such thing of my self I have also sought the Pearl with Earnestness and have also thereby obtained a Jewel It is also given me to know the First Man in Paradise how he was before the Fall and after the Fall and have also seen the Property of Paradise but not in the outward Man 58. I say also that the Inward Man hath put on the Kingdom of God and liveth in Heaven in God But there is yet a great Difference between the Outward and the Inward Man as also between Us and the World of Paradise Paradise greeneth no more through the Earth the Lord hath Cursed the Earth and the Outward Man dwelleth on the Cursed Earth and eateth the Cursed fruit he swalloweth down the Curse into himself and therefore here in this World there is no whole or absolute Perfection 59. But so far indeed it comes with Man if he entereth into the New Birth that he can tame the Outward Man so that he must do what he would not Willingly for the Inward depriveth him of the Power and throughthrongeth him as the Gold doth in a gross Stone But as the grossness in the Stone becometh not Gold so also the outward Man becometh not God otherwise it should follow that also the Outward World should be changed into the pure Deity 60. The Outward Man is the Outward World of the Stars and Elements and the Inward Man in Christ is the Inward Divine World and the Soul is the Fire-world for she hath the Eternal Center to Nature in her self that Center is the Dark World Therefore when she loseth Gods Light she standeth in her self in the Pit in the Dark World viz. in Gods Anger 61. That also the Author saith He is through Christ so transmuted in the Death that he cannot sin any more and thereupon leaveth the outward name of the outward Worlds Substance that needeth another far plainer Declaration and will hardly be taken or granted unless it cometh to a clearer Understanding For the most holy men have acknowledged themselves sinners not that they desire it or would do it but they complain of it before God that the outward Man is become Living in the Anger of God and that the Anger ruleth in them as that high Apostle Paul saith Now if I sin I do it not but the sin that dwelleth in my Flesh Rom. 7. 62. Now where sin dwelleth in the Flesh there is yet no Perfection therefore lie saith further Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death And saith I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord So then with my Mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the Flesh the Law of Sin The Scripture saith Before thee is none living Righteous Item The Heavens are also not pure before God Why should then also an Angels name be given to the outward fleshly Man that lieth inclosed in the Anger of God He is but evil and striveth continually against Gods Law and belongeth to the Earth and his Mysterium to the Judgment of God He shall purge the floor 63. But that it is said We are dead to sin in the Death of Christ is very true that is once done for us all but we must yet always die unto Sin in the Death of Christ we must always kill the Man of Sin that the New may live But we cannot wholly kill him but take him captive and always pour Water on him out of Gods Meekness into his Fire-burning 64. For the Soul is a Fire-eye and is the greatest Life it will have Substance in which its Fire may burn But since it is in Adams fall turned and bent into this World therefore the Kingdom of the Stars and Elements is entered into it to lodg there which often bring-in a strange Turba Now if the Heavens be not clean before God how will then that be clean that is governed by the Outward Heaven namely the Outward Life that is only driven by the Outward Heavens Regiment 65. The Incorruptible as the new Man cannot put on the Corruptible as the outward Flesh for Turba is therein this shall first come to pass in the Judgment of God when the Turba shall be taken away from the Outward Mysterium 66. But that the Author saith It is not possible that a Regenerate man can sin by that we know he understandeth not sufficiently the Mysterium of the Soul We see it was possible in Adam when his outward Man was pure