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
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
stinking carcasse must be trimmed and decked with trappings and fooleries scortation and deflouring of Virgins is a high accomplishment with them they are a kind of people that can complement and behave themselves finely and so often procure the worme that groweth to awake in the heart and conscience of many a Mothers Daughter 10. These are they that are entrusted with Churches Schooles and Universities and ordained and accounted to bee the Shepherds of Christ and yet they lodge the Devill in their hearts these also are preferred to Civill Government and place of Authority in the Common-wealth and then they rule just as he that harboureth in their heart would have them And thus the Superiours commit the greatest wickednesse and the Infetiours learne of them the superiour deviseth how to get the goods or Estate of the Inferiour to himselfe with subtilty under pretence and colour of Law hee layeth Taxes and impositions and saith they are for the good of the Common-wealth he constraineth the poore and silly to take hard paines and be his slave to satisfie his owne Pride he threatens the simple with harsh and rugged words hee takes his sweat and labour from him and afflicteth his bodie hee bringeth all he can to be in bondage under him and yet himselfe hath nothing for his own but one only soule and is but a stranger and a sojourner in this world the needy must consume all his sweat for him and his pleasure there is no pity ease nor rest to be had from him his dog hath a better life then the needie soule under his roofe and all this he accounteth equall just and right though it be not grounded upon nature but in the Dark abysse or bottomlesse pit where one forme or property of Darkenesse afflicteth vexeth tormenteth and tortureth the other and where the life is an Enemie to it selfe 11. Such things the Inferiour learneth of his Superiour and maintaineth himselfe also with craft cozening covetousnesse and knavery for if he did not so he could not fill his belly in Righteousnesse and then his reason telleth him he is forced to doe so to exact more worke profit and commodity and so extort from his neighbour his sweat paines and care without love and Righteousnesse onely to fill his belly He learneth riotousnesse luxurie and Junketings of his Superiour and a true beastiall life But what the Superiour doth in state and delicacie that the Inferiour doth in a Beastiall swinish manner of life thus wickednesse is wrought by wickednesse and the Devill continueth Prince on Earth both over body and soule 12. How wilt thou bee able to subsist when God will judge the secrets of men in his zeale for then the cause of every thing that every wicked man hath had to doe with all shall appeare and curse him euery thing will set its owne cause before him and he shall feele it in his Conscience How wilt thou Superiour bee able to endure when thy Inferiour shall crie woe woe woe to thee for giving him occasion to be lewd and unrighteous and say thou hast bereft him of his sweat and so forced him to yeeld himselfe to doe unrighteously and to embrace vanity how wilt thou be able to render an account of thy Office wherein thou hast been set and placed that thou should'st hinder injurie and unrighteousnesse and keep the wicked in awe by reproofe correction and punishment but thou hast not regarded to prevent his wicked course thou hast onely regarded thy owne covetousnesse how thou might'st deprive him of his sweat thou hast not sought the good of his soule but his sweat and labour for in other things he might doe what hee would himselfe Thou hast gone before him in wicked examples so that hee hath looked upon thee liked thee and followed thy course cursing blaspheming Ambition and defying others hath been thy course and hee hath learned to doe so too and so continually blasphemeth the name of God but thou hast not regarded that thou hast looked after his money and not after the good of his soule 13. And when the severe Judgement of God shall appear and that all works shall bee manifested in the fierie essences when all things shall be tried in the fire what dost thou thinke shall not all such workes remaine in the fire And then the poore soule will crie out against its ungodly accursed labour words and workes and one will curse another for giving him occasion to doe such evill and the torment of falshood will boyle up in the soule and gnaw him for it will be great anguish to him that he hath fooled away so great a Glory for so frivolous vanitie and false delights sake 14. All malice scorne covetousnesse pride and deceit will boyle up in the soule and one torment will continually kindle and gnaw the other that caused it for example where Pride or Covetousnes have caused unrighteousnesse there the unrighteousnesse will gnaw teare and curse that which caused it and then the soule will consider if it were not for this abomination I might attaine Grace and when it shall throughly weigh and consider it selfe it will find that one abomination hath alwayes begotten and brough forth another and shall perceive that it selfe is nothing but a stinking loathsome abomination in the presence of God and then it will cast it selfe in its anguish and torment inwards into its Centre and curse God for having created it to be a soule and the deeper it desireth to throw it selfe the deeper its fall is and yet it must still bee in the place of its Abominations it cannot get out from thence the hellish Matrix wombe or mother holdeth it captive and so it must feed it selfe with aking anguish cursing abominations and bitternesse even with those things which the heart hath wrought here in this life in which at last it despaireth and that is its everlasting food 15 All earthly food and pleasure perisheth at the end of dayes or time and all return again into the Aether Sky Sea Abysse or Receptacle but the will and the desire in the will remaineth for ever 16 Therefore old and young Parents and children Superiours and Inferiours mark and observe you have filled the mother of Nature full of abominations or with all manner of wickednesse the fierce wrath of God is at hand the last judgement is at the doore God will purge or sweep the earth with fire and give every one his due reward the harvest commeth this crop shall not stand every thing will be gathered and carried into its proper Barn He that will take no counsell let him goe on he shall soon feele what the seventh Seale bringeth with it in its center or â—t the end thereof 17 When Reason looketh upon things it saith I doe not see that things are now otherwise then they formerly were besides the world hath alwayes had good and bad in it as histories tell us and men must doe as they doe or else they will be made
THE WAY TO CHRIST Discovered BY IACOB BEHMEN In these Treatises 1. Of true Repentance 2. Of true Resignation 3. Of Regeneration 4. Of the Super-rationall life ALSO The Discourse of illumination The Compendium of Repentance And the mixt world c. LONDON Printed by M. S. for H. Blunden at the Castle in Corn-hill 1648. THE FIRST BOOK Of true Repentance SHEWING How man should stir up himself in mind and will in himselfe and what his earnest purpose and consideration must be Written in the Germane Language Anno 1622. BY JACOB BEHMEN MARK 1. 15. The time is fulfilled and the Kingdome of God is come neer Repent and believe the Gospel Printed by M. S. 1648. The AUTHORS Preface to the Reader that loveth God REader who lovest God if thou wilt use this Booke aright and act in good earnest thou shalt certainely finde the benefit thereof but I desire thou mayest be warned that if thou art not in earnest not to meddle with the deare Names of God in which and by which the Most High Holinesse is named stirred and powerfully desired lest they kindle the Anger of God in thy soule For we must not abuse the Holy Names of God This little Booke is onely for those that would faine repent and are in a desire to beginne Both sorts will finde what manner of words are therein and whence they are born Be you herewith commended to the Eternall goodnesse and mercy of God OF TRUE REPENTANCE How Man must stirre up himself in will and minde and what his consideration and earnest purpose must be when he will performe powerfull and effectuall Repentance and with what mind he must appeare before God when he will aske and obtaine of him remission of sinnes WHen man will go about Repentance and with his prayers turne to God before he begin to pray he must consider his own minde that it is wholly and altogether turned away from God that it is become faithlesse to God that it is onely bent upon this temporall fraile and earthly life bearing no sincere love towards God and his neighbour and also that it wholy lusteth and walketh contrary to the commandements of God seeking it selfe onely in the temporall and transitory lusts of the flesh Secondly he must consider that all this is an enmity against God which Satan hath raised and stirred up in him by his deceit in our first Parents for which abominations sake we die the death and must undergo corruption with our bodies Thirdly he must consider the three horrible chaines wherewith our soule is fast bound during the time of this earthly life the first is the severe Anger of God the Abysse and darke world which is the Center and creaturly life of the soule The second is the desire of the devill against the soule whereby he continually fifteth and tempteth the soul and without intermission striveth to throw it from the truth of God into vanity viz. into pride covetousnesse envie and anger and with his desire bloweth up and kindleth those evill properties in the soule whereby the will of the soule turneth away from God and entreth into selfe The third and most hurtfull chaine wherewith the poore soule is tied is the corrupt altogether vaine earthly and mortall flesh and blood full of evill desires and inclinations Here he must consider that he lieth close prisoner with soule and body in the mire of sinnes in the anger of God in the jawes of the pit of Hell that the anger of God burneth in him in soule and body and that he is that stinking keeper of Swine that hath spent and consumed his fathers inheritance viz. the love and mercy of God with the fatted swine of the divill in earthly pleasures and hath not observed the deare Covenant and atonement of the innocent death and passion of Jesus Christ which Covenant God of meere Grace hath given into our humanity and reconciled us in him also he must consider that hee hath wholy forgotten the Covenant of holy Baptisme in which he hath promised to be faithfull and true to his Saviour and so wholy defiled and obscured his righteousnesse with sinne which righteousnesse God hath freely bestowed upon him in Christ that hee now standeth before the face of God with the faire garment of Christs innocency which he hath defiled as a dirty ragged and patched keeper of Swine that hath continually eaten the graines of vanity with the devills swine and is not worthy to be called a Sonne of the Father and member of Christ. Fourthly he must earnestly consider that wrathfull death waiteth upon him every houre and moment and will lay hold on him in his sinnes in his garment of a Swine keeper and throw him into the pit of hell as a for sworne person and breaker of faith who ought to be kept in the darke dungeon of death to the judgement of God Fifthly he must consider the earnest and severe judgement of God where he shall be presented living with his abominations before the judgement all those whom he hath here offended and injured with words and works and caused to doe evill so that by his instigation or compulsion they also have committed evill shall come in against him cursing him and all this before the eyes of Christ and also before the eyes of all holy Angels and men and that there he shall stand in great shame and ignominy and also in great terror and eternall desperation and that it shall for ever grieve him that he hath fool'd away so great and eternall happinesse and salvation for the pleasure of so short a time and not looked to himselfe better that he might also have beene in the communion of the Saints and have injoyed eternall light and divine power and vertue Sixtly he must consider that the ungodly loseth his noble image God having created him for his Image and getteth in stead thereof a deformed vizard like a hellish worme or ugly Beast wherein he is Gods enemy and against heaven and all holy Angels and men and that his communion is for ever with the devills and hellish wormes in the horrible darknesse Seventhly He must earnestly consider the eternall punishment and torment of the damned that in eternall horror they shall suffer torments in their abominations which they have committed here and may never see the land of the Saints in all eternity nor get any ease or refreshment as appeareth by Dives the rich man All this man must earnestly and seriously consider and remember that God hath created him in such a faire and glorious Image in his owne likenesse in which he himselfe will dwell that he hath created him in his praise for mans owne eternall joy and glory viz that he might dwell with the holy Angels and children of God in great joy power and glory in the eternall light in singing and melodious harmonie of the angelicall and divine Kingdome of joy to rejoyce eternally with the children of God without
that I may die from my vanity and sinne in the death of my Redeemer Jesus Christ. O thou breath of the great love of God quicken I beseech thee my weake breath in me that it may begin to hunger and thirst after thee O Lord Jesus thou sweete strength I beseech thee give my soule to drinke of thy fountaine of Grace thy sweete water of eternall life that it may awake from death and thrist after thee O how extreame fainting I am for want of thy strength O mercifull God doe thou turne me I beseech thee I can not turn my selfe O thou vanquisher of death helpe me I pray thee to wrestle How fast doth the Enemy hold me with his three chaines and will not suffer the desire of my soule to come before thee I beseech thee come and take the desire of my soule into thy selfe be thou my drawing to the Father and deliver me from the devills Bonds looke not upon my deformity in standing naked before thee having lost thy garment I pray thee doe but thou cloath my breath which yet liveth in me and desireth thy grace and let me yet once see thy salvation O thou deepe love I pray thee take the desire of my soule into thee bring it forth out of the bonds of Death through thy Death in thy Resurrection in thee O quicken me in thy strength that my desire and will may begin to spring up and flourish anew O thou vanquisher of death and of the wrath of God doe thou overcome in me selfe breake its will and bruise my soule that it may feare before thee and be ashamed of its owne will before thy judgement that it may be obedient to thee as an instrument of thine subdue it in the bonds of death take away its power that it may Will nothing without thee O God the Holy Ghost in Christ my Saviour teach me I pray thee what I shall doe that I may turne to thee O draw me in Christ to the Father and helpe me that now and from hence forward I may goe forth from sinne and vanity and never any more enter into it againe Stirre up in me a true sorrow for the sinnes I have committed O keepe me in thy Bonds and let me not loose from thee lest the Devill sift me in my wicked flesh and bloud bring me again into the death of dea h O enlighten thou my spirit that I may see the divine path and walke in it continually O take that away from me which alwayes turneth me away from thee O give me that which alwayes turneth me to thee take me wholy from my selfe and give me wholy to thy owne selfe O let me beginne nothing let me will thinke and doe nothing without thee O Lord how long Indeed I am not worthy of that which I desire of thee I pray thee let the desire of my soule dwell but in the gates of thy Courts make it but a servant of thy servauts O deliver it out of that horrible pit wherein there is no comfort nor refreshment O God in Christ Jesus I am blinde in my selfe and know not my selfe for vanity thou art hidden from me in my blindenesse and yet thou art neere unto me but thy wrath which my desire hath awakened in me hath made me darke O take but the desire of my soule to thee prove it O Lord and bruise it that my soule may attaine a Ray of thy sweete Grace I lie before thee as a dying man whose life is passing from his lipps as a smale sparke going out kindle it O Lord and raise up the breath of my soule before thee Lord I waite for thy Promise which thou hast made saying As I live I will not the death of a sinner but that he should turne and live I sincke downe my selfe into the Death of my Redeemer Jesus Christ and waite for thee thy Word is Truth and Life Amen In this or the like manner every one may confesse his sinnes as he himselfe findeth in his conscience what finnes he hath brought his soule into Yet if his purpose be truely earnest to use a forme is needlesse for the Spirit of God which at that instant is in the will of the minde will it selfe make the prayer for him in his conscience for it is it the Spirit of God which in a true earnest desire worketh repentance and intercedeth for the soule before God through the death of Christ. But I will not hide from the beloved Reader who hath a Christian purpose but shew how it commonly useth to goe with those who are in such a firme purpose and resolution though it goeth otherwise with one then with another according as his purpose is more or lesse earnest and great for the Spirit of God is not bound but useth diverse wayes as he knoweth fittest for every one Yet he that hath beene in the warres can tell how to fight and informe another that may happen to be in the like case Now if it so come to passe that such a heart with a strong resolution and purpose doth thus come before God and enter into repentance it hapneth to it as with the Canaanitish woman as if God would not heare the heart remaineth without comfort its sins and unworthynesse do also present themselves as if it were unworthy of comfort the mind is as it were speechlesse the soule groaneth in the deepe the heart receiveth nothing nor can it so much as poure forth its confession before God as if the heart and soule were shut up the Soule would faine but the flesh keepeth it captive the Devill shutteth it up strongly and representeth to it the way of vanity againe and tickleth it with the lust of the flesh and saith in the minde stay a while doe this or that first gather money or goods aforehand that thou maist not stand in neede of the world and then afterwards enter into an honest life into repentance it will be time enough then O how many hundreds doe perish in such a beginning if they goe backe againe into vanity and are as a young graft broken off with the winde or weithered by the heate Beloved soule marke if thou wilt be a champion in thy Saviour Christ against death and hell and would'st have thy yong graft grow become a tree in the Kingdome of Christ thou must go on and stand fast in thy first earnest purpose it costeth thy first paternall inheritance and thy body and soule too to become either an Angell in God or a Devill in Hell If thou wilt be crowned thou must fight thou must overcome in Christ and not yeeld to the Devill thy purpose must stand firme thou must not preferre temporall honour and goods before it when the spirit of the flesh saith stay a while it is not convenient yet then the soule must say now is my time for me to goe backe againe into my fathers my native Countrey out of which my father
Adam hath brought me no creature shall keepe me backe and though thou earthly body shouldest thereby decay and perish yet I will now enter with my will and whole desire into the Garden of Roses of my Redeemer Iesus Christ through his suffering and death into him and in the death of Christ subdue thee thou earthly body which hath swallowed up my Pearle from me which God gave to my Father Adam in Paradise and I will breake the will of thy voluptuousnesse which is in vanity and binde thee as a mad-dogge with the chaine of my earnest purpose and though thereby thou should'st become a foole in the account of all men yet thou must and shalt obey the earnest purpose of my soule none shall unloose thee from this chaine but the temporall death Whereto God and his strength helpe me Amen A short Direction How the poore soule must come before God againe and how it must fight for the noble garland what kinde of weapons it must use if it will goe to warres against Gods Anger against the Devill the World and Sinne against flesh and bloud also against the influence of the stars and elements and all his other enemies BEloved Soule there is earnestnesse required to doe this it must not be a meere commemoration or repeating of words the earnest resolved will must drive this worke else nothing will be attained For if the soule will obtaine the triumphant Garland of Christ from the Noble Sophia it must wooe her for it in great desire of love to get it at her hands it must intreate her in her most holy Name for it and come before her in most modest humility and not like a lustfull Bull or a wanton Venus for so long as any are such they must not desire these things for they shall not obtaine them and though something should be obtained by such in that condition it would be but as a glimpse but a chast and modest minde may well obtaine so much as to have the soule in its noble Image which died in Acam quickened in the heavenly Corporality as to the inward ground and put on the Garland yet if this come to passe it is taken off againe from the soule and layed by as a Crowne useth to be after a King is crowned with it it is layed by and kept so it is also with the soule because it is yet encompassed with the house of sinne that if the soule should fall againe it Crowne might not be defiled This â— spoken plainely enough for the children that know and have tried these things None of the wicked are worthy to know any more of them The Processe A sober minde is there requisite which in an earnest purpose all deepests humility with sorrow for â— sinnes cometh before God in which there is such a resolution that a man will not enter any more into the old footsteps of vanity and though the whole world should account him a foole for it and he should loose both Honour and Goods nay and the temporall life also yet he would abide constant therein If ever he will obtaine the love and marriage of the noble Sophia he must make such a vow as this in his purpose and minde For Christ himselfe sayth He that forsaketh not wife and children brethren and sisters money and goods and all that even he hath and even his earthly life to follow me he is not worthy of me Here Christ meaneth the Mind of the soule so that if there were any thing that would keepe the mind backe from it though it have never so faire and glorious a pretence or shew in this world the minde must not regard it but rather part with it then with the love of the Noble Virgine Sophia in the bud and blossome of Christ in his tender Humanity in us as to the Heavenly Corporality For this is the Flower in Sharon the Rose in the Valley wherewith Solomon delighteth himselfe and termeth it his deare Love his chast Virgine which he loved so much as all other Saints before and after him did whosoever hath obtained her called her his pearle After what manner to pray for it you may â—ee by this short direction following the worke it selfe must be committed to the Holy Ghost in every heart wherein it is sought he â—ormeth and frameth the Prayer for him The Prayer I Poore unworthy person come before thee O Great and Holy God and I lift up mine eyes to thee though I be noâ— worthy yet thy great mercy viz. thy faithfull Promise in thy word hath now encoucouraged me to lift the eyes of the deâ—iâ—e of my soule up to thee for my soule hath now layd hold on the word of thy promise and received it into it and therewith it conâ—eth to thee and though â—t be but a sâ—â—ange childe before thee which was dâ—sâ—â—bedieâ—t unto thee yet now it desireth to be obedient and my soule doth now iâ—fold it selfe with its desire into that word which became man which became flesh and bloud which hath broken 〈◊〉 and death in my humanity which hath changed the Anger of God into love in the soule which hath deprived death of its power and hell of its victory in soule and body which hath opened a gate for my soule to the cleare face of thy strength and power O Great and Most Holy God I have brought the hunger and desire of my soule into this most holy Word and now I come before thee and in my hunger call into thee thou living fountain through thy word which became flesh and bloud thy word being become the life in our flesh therefore I receive it firmely into the desire of my soule as my owne life and I pâ—erce into thee with the desire of my soul through the word in the flesh of Christ viz. through his holy conception in the Virgine Mary his whole Incarnation his holy Nativity his Baptisme in Jordan his temptation in the wilâ—ernene where he overcame the Kingdome of the Devill and of this world in the Humanity through all his powerfull miracles which he did on earth through his reproach and ignominy his innocent death and passion the shedding of his bloud when Gods anger in soule and flesh was drowned through his rest in the Sepulcher when he awaked our father Adam ouâ— of his sleepe who was fallen into a dead sleepe as to the Kingdome of Heaven through his love which pierced through the Anger and destroyed Hell in the soule through his resurrection from the dead his ascention the sending of the holy Spirit into our soule and spirit and through all his words and promises one of which is that thou O God the Father wilt give the holy Spirit to them that aske it in the Name and through the Word which became man O thou life of my flesh and of my soule in Christ my Brother I beseech thee in the hunger of my soule and intreate thee with all my powers though they be
he will depart and leave his fort of prey here heaven and hell are fighting one against the other Now if the soule continue constant and getteth the victory over the devill in all his aâ—â—aults disesteeming all temporall things for the love of its noble Sophia then the precious garland will be set upon it for a token of victory Here the virgine which manifesteth her selfe from the deare name JESUS with Christ the treader upon the Serpent Gods anointed commeth to the soule and kisseth it with her sweetest love in the essence most inwardly and impresseth her love into its desire for a token of victory and here Adam in his heavenly part riseth againe from death in Christ of which I cannot write for there is no pen in this world that can expresse it it is the wedding of the Lambe where the noble Pearle is sowne with very great triumph though in the beginning it be small like a graine of mustard-seed as Christ saith Now when the wedding is over the soule must take heed that this Tree oft spring and grow as it hath promised its Virgine For then the Devill will presently come with his tempestuous storme ungodly people who will scoffe at contemne and crie down this for madnesse and then a man must enter into the Processe of Christ under his crosse Here it will appeare indeed and in truth what Christians we are here he must suffe himselfe to be proclaimed a fooâ—e and ungodly wretch nay his greatest friends who favoured him or flattered him in the lusts of the flesh will now be his enemies and though they know not why yet they will hate him thus Christ hideth his Bride wholy under the crosse that she may not be knowne in this world The Devill also striveth that these children may be hidden from the world lest perhaps many such branches should grow in that Garden which he supposeth to be his This I have set downe for the Information of the Christian-minded Reader that he might know what to doe if the same should befall him A very earnest Prayer in Temptation Against Gods Anger in the Conscience and also against flesh and bloud when the Tempter cometh to the soule and wrestleth with it MOst deep Love of God in Christ Jesus leave me not in this distresse I confesse I am guilty of the sinnes which now rise up in my minde or conscience if thou forsake me I must sinke hast thou not promised me in thy word saying If a mother could forget her child which yet can hardly be yet thou wilt not forget me thou hast set me as a signe in thine hands which were pierced through with sharpe nailes and in thy open side whence bloud and water gushed out Poore man that I am I am caught in thy Anger and can in my ability doe nothing before thee I sink my selfe downe into thy wounds and death O Great Mercy of God I beseech thee deliver me from the Bonds of Satan I have no refuge in any thing but onely in thy holy wounds and death into thee I sinke downe in the anguish of my conscience doe with me what thou wilt In thee I will now live or die as pleaseth thee let me but die and perish in thy death do but bury me into thy death that the anguish of hell may not touch me How can I excuse my selfe before thee that knowest my heart and reines and settest my finnes before mine eyeâ— I am guilty of them and yeeld my self into thy Judgement accomplish thy Judgment upon me through the Death of my Redeemer Jesus Christ. I fly unto thee thou righteous Iudge through the Anguish of my Redeemer Iesus Christ when he did sweate the bloudy sweat on the Mount of olives for my sake and was scourged of Pontius Pilate for me and suffered a crown of thornes to be pressed on upon his head that his bloud came forth O Righteous God hast thou not set him in my stead he was innocent but I guilty for whom he suffered wherefore should I despaire under thy wrath O blot out thy anger in me through his anguish passion death I give my selfe wholly into his anguish passion death I will stand still in his anguish passion before thee do with me what thou pleasest onely let me not depart from his anguish thou hast freely given me his anguish and drowned thy Wrath in him and though I have not accepted it but am departed from him and am become faithlesse yet thou hast given me this precious pledge in my flesh and bloud for he hath taken my flesh and soule upon his heavenly flesh and bloud and hath satisfied the Anger in my flesh and soule in him with his heavenly bloud Therfore receive me now in his satisfaction and put his anguish passion and death in thy wrath which is kindled in me and breake thy Iudgement in me in the bloud of his love O Great Love in the Bloud and and Death of Iesus Christ I beseech thee breake the Fort of prey which the Devill hath made and built up in me where he resisteth me in the way of thy grace drive him out of me that he may not overcome me for no one living can stand in thy fight if thou withdraw thy hand from him O come thou breaker through the Anger of God destroy its power helpe my poore soule to fight and overcome it O bring me into thy victory and uphold me in thee breake in peeces its seate in my vanity that is kindled in my soule and flesh O mortifie the desire of my vanity in flesh and bloud which the Devill hath now kindled by his false desire by hellish anguish desperation O quench it with thy water of eternall life bring my anguish forth through thy death I wholy sink my selfe down into thee and though both soul and body should this houre faint and perish in thy wrath yet I will not let thee goe Though my heart saith utterly no no yet the desire of my soule shall hold fast on thy truth which neither death nor the devill shall take away from me For the Bloud of Iesus Christ the Sonne of God cleanseth us from all our sinnes this I lay hold on and let the Anger of God doe what it will with my sinne and let the Devill roare over my soule in his Fort of prey which he hath made as much as he will Neither the Devill Death nor Hell shall pull me out of my Saviours wounds Thou must at length be confounded in me thou noysome devill and thy fort of prey must be forsaken for I will drowne it in the love of Iesus Christ and then dwell in it if thou canst Amen An Information in Temptation BEloved Reader this is no jesting matter he that accounteth it so hath not tried it neither is he judged as yet and though it should be deferred till his last end which is dangerous yet he must passe through this Iudgement Happy
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
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
according to his awakened properties for the great power of the soule and of the body caused it 50. And then man must be tried whether he would stand and subsist in his own powers before the Tempter the Devill and before the wrath of the eternall Nature and whether the soule would continue in the equall agreement of the properties in true Resignation under Gods Spirit as an instrument of Gods Harmony a tuned instrument of divine joyfulnesse for the Spirit of God to strike upon This was tried by this Tree here and this severe commandement was added Thou shalt not eat thereof For at that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death 51. But it being known to God that Man would not stand and that he had already imagined and lusted after good evill God said It is not good for man to be alone Wee will make him an Help meet for him 52. For God saw that Adam could not generate Magically having entred with his lust into vanity Now therefore Moses saith God caused a deep sleep to fall upon him and he slept that is seeing man would not continue in obedience of the divine harmony in the properties submitting himselfe to stand still as an instrument of the Spirit of God therefore God suffered him to fall from the Divine Harmony into an harmony of his own viz. into the awakened properties in evill and good the spirit of his soule went into these 53. And there in this sleep he dyed from the Angelicall world and fell to be the share of the outward Fiat and then bad farewell to the eternall Image which was of Gods begetting Here his Angelicall form power lay on the ground and fell into a swound 54. And then by the Fiat God made the woman out of him ex matrice Veneris of the matrix of Venus viz. out of that property wherin Adam had the begettresse in himselfe and so out of one body he made two and divided the properties of the Tinctures viz. the watery and fiery Constellations in the Element yet not wholly in substance but in the Spirit viz. the properties of the Watery and Fîery Soule 35. And yet it is but one thing but the property of the Tincture was divided the desire of Self-love was taken out of Adam and formed into a woman according to his likenesse and therefore man now so eagerly desireth the Matrix of the woman and the woman desireth the Limbus of the man viz. the Fire-element the originall of the true soule by which is meant the Tincture of fire For these two were one in Adam and therein consisted the Magicall begetting 56. And as soon as Eve was made out of Adam in his sleep both Adam and Eve were at that instant ordained and constituted in the outward naturall life having the members given thē for Bestiall and animall multiplication and also the earthly Carkasse into which they might put their vanity and live like beasts 57. Which the poore soule that is captivated in vanity is at this day ashamed of that its body hath gotten a bestiall monstrous shape as is manifest And from hence came mankind to be ashamed of their members and nakednesse and to borrow their clothîng from the earthly creatures having lost the Angelicall form and is changed into a Beast 58. This clothing sheweth man sufficiently that having this awakened vanity and heat and cold seizing upon him he is not at home with his soule therein For the vanity together with this false clothing must perish and bee severed from the Soule again 59. Now when Adam awaked from sleep he beheld his wife and knew that she came out of him For he had not yet eaten of vanity with his outward mouth but with the imagination desire and lust onely 60. And it was the first desire of Eve that she might eat of the Tree of vanity of Evill and Good to which the Devill in the form of a Serpent perswaded her saying That her eyes should bee opened and she bee as GOD himself which was both a lye and truth 61. But he told her not that she should lose the divine light and power thereby he only said her eyes should be opened that she might taste prove and know evill and good as he had done he did not tell her neither that heat and cold would awake in her and that the property of the outward constellations would mightily domineere in the flesh and in the mind 62. His onely aim was that the Angelicall Image viz. the Substance which came from the inward spirituall world might disappeare in them for then they would be constrained to live in subjection to the grosse earthlinesse the Constellations and then he knew well enough that when the outward world perished the soule should then be with him in darknesse for he saw that the body should dye which he perceived by that which God had intimated and so he supposed yet to be Lord to all eternity in the place of this world in his false shape which he had gotten and therefore he seduced Man 63. For when Adam and Eve were eating of the fruit evill and good into the body then the imagination of the body received vanity in the fruit then vanity awaked in the flesh and the Dark-world got the upper hand dominion in the vanity of the earthlinesse upon which the faire Image of heaven that proceeded out of the Heavenly divine world instantly disappeared 64. Here Adam and Eve dyed to the Kingdome of heaven and awaked to the outward world and then the faire soule in the love of GOD disappeared as to the holy power vertue and property and in stead thereof the wrathfull anger viz. the Darkfire-world awaked in it and so the soule became in one part viz. in the inward Nature a halfe Devill and in the outward part of the outward world a beast 65. Here are the bounds of Death and the gates of Hell for which cause God became man that he might destroy death and change Hell into great love again and destroy the vanity of the Devill 66. Let this be told you yee children of men it is told you in the sound of the Trumpet that you should instantly goe forth from the abominable vanity for the fire therof burneth CHAP III. Of the lamentable fall of Man and of the meanes of his Deliverance 67 NOw when Adam and Eve fell into this vanity then the wrath of Nature awaked in each property and in the desire impressed the vanity of the Earthlinesse and wrath of GOD into it selfe 68. And then the flesh became grosse and rough as the flesh of another beast and the noble soule was captivated in the essence therewith and saw that its body was become a beast and it saw also the bestiall members for multiplication and the stinking Carkasse into which the desire would stuffe the loathsomnesse which it was ashamed of in the presence of GOD and therefore they hid
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
thereby but it is thus When Christ ariseth then Adam dyeth in the the essence of the Serpent when the Sunne riseth the night is swallowed up in the day and the night is no more so sins are forgiven 147. The Spirit of Christ eateth of his holy substance the inward man is the receiver of the holy substance he receiveth what the Spirit of Christ bringeth into him viz. the Temple of God Christs flesh and blood But what doth this concern a Beast Or what doth it concern the Devils Or the soul that is in the anger of God these eat of the heavenly body that is in the heaven they dwell in which is the Abysse or bottomlesse pit 148. And thus it is in the Office of Preaching the ungodly heareth what the outward soul of the outward world preacheth that he receiveth viz. the History and if there be straw or stubble in that which is taught he sucketh the vanity out of that and the soule sucketh the venemous poyson and the murthering cruelty of the Devill from it wherewith that soule tickleth it selfe in hearing how to judge and condemne others 149. And if the Preacher be one that is dead and hath no true life in him but soweth venome and reproach proceeding out of his affections then it is the Devill that teacheth and the Devill that heareth such teaching is received into a wicked heart and bringeth forth wicked fruits by which the world is become a Murthering Den of Devils so that if you look among the Teachers and Hearers there is nothing to be found but revilings slanderings and reproachings also contention about words and wrangling about the Hâ—sk 150. But the holy Ghost teacheth in the holy Teacher and the Spirit of Christ heareth through the soule and the Divine house of the Divine sound in the holy Hearer the holy man hath his Church in himselfe wherein he heareth and teacheth 151. But Babel hath a heap of stone into that she goeth with her seeming holinesse and hypocrisie there she loveth to be seen in fine cloathes and there maketh a very devout and godly shew the church of stone is her God in which she putteth her confidence 152. But the holy man hath his church about him every where and in himselfe for he alwayes standeth and walketh and sitteth and lyeth down in his church he is in the true Christian church in the Temple of Christ the Holy Ghost preacheth to him out of every creature whatsoever he looketh upon hee seeth a Preacher of God therein 153. Here now the scoffer will say I despise the Church of stone where the congregation meeteth but I say I doe not for I doe but discover the hypocriticall Whore of Babylon which committeth whore ome with the church of stone and termeth herselfe a Christian but is indeed a Strumpet 154. A true Christian brings his Holy Church within him into the congregation His Heart is the true Church where a man must practice the service of God If I did goe a thousand times to Church and to the Sacrament every week and heard absolution declared to me every day and have not Christ in me then all is false an unprofitable fiction and graven Image in Babell and no forgiving of sinnes 155. A Holy Man doth Holy works from the Holy strength of his mind the work is not the expiation or reconciliation but it is the building which the true Spirit buildeth in his substance it is his habitation but the fiction and fancie is the habitation of the false Christian into which his soule entreth with dissimulation The outward hearing reacheth but to the outward and worketh in the outward onely but the inward hearing goeth into the inward and worketh in the inward 156. Dissemble roare cry sing preach and teach as much as thou wilt if thy inward Teacher and Hearer be not open then all is nothing but Babel a fiction and a graven Image whereby the Spirit of the outward world doth modell and make a graven Image in resemblance to the inward 157. And maketh a Holy shew therewîth as if hee did performe some Divine or Holy service to GOD whereas many times in such service and worship the Devil worketh mightily in the imagination and very much tickleth the heart with those things which the flesh delighteth in which indeed not seldome happeneth to the children of GOD as to their outward man if they doe not take great heed to themselves the Devill doth so â—ift them CHAP. VII Of unprofitable opinions and strife about the Letter 158. A True Christian who is born anew in the Spirit of Christ is in the simplicity of Christ and hath no strife or contention with any man about Religion he hath strife enough in himselfe with his own beastiall evill flesh and blood he continually thinketh that he is a great sinner he is afraid of God but the love of Christ pierceth through and expelleth that feare as the day swalloweth up the night 159. But the sinnes of the ungodly man rest in the sleep of death and bud forth in the pit and bring forth fruit in hell 160. The Christendome that is in Babel striveth about knowledge how men ought to serve God and glorifie him also how to know God and what he is in his essence and will and they preach peremptorily that whosoever is not one and the same in every particular with them for knowledge and Opinions is no Christian but a Heretick 161. Now I would faine see how any can bring all their Sects so to agree in that one which might be called a true Christian Church when all of them are scorners every party of them reviling the other and proclaiming it to be false 162. But a Christian is of no Sect he can dwel in the midst of Sects and also appeare in their services and yet adhere and be addicted to no Sect He hath but one knowledge only that is Christ is him He seeketh but one way which is the Desire alwayes willingly to doe and teach that which is right and he putteth all his knowing and willing into the life of Christ. 163. He sigheth and wisheth continually that the will of God might be done in him and that his Kingdome might be manifested in him He daily and hourely killeth sinne in the flesh For the seede of the woman viz. the inward man in Christ continually breaketh the Head of the Serpent viz. of the Devill which is in vanity 164. His Faith is a Desire to God and goodnesse which he wrappeth up into a sure hope and therefore ventureth it upon the words of the promise and liveth and dyeth therein though as to the true man hee never dyeth 165. For Christ telleth us saying whosoever believeth in me shall never dye but hath pierced through from death to life and Rivers of living waters shall flow from him viz. good Doctrine and works 166. Therefore I say that whatsoever fighteth and contendeth about the Letter is all Babell The
God that love hath powred forth it selfe into all things and is the most inward and most outward ground in all things Inwardly in the vertue and power and outwardly in the figure forme or shape of every thing And that I said Its height is as high as God thou mayest understand this in thy selfe in that it bringeth thee to be as high as God himselfe is as may be seen by our beloved Lord Christ in our humanity which humanity love hath brought into the highest throne into the power of the Deity But that I also said Its Greatnesse is greater then GOD that is also true for love entreth into that where God dwelleth not as when our beloved Lord Christ was in hell hell was not God but love was there and destroyed death Also when thou art in anguish or trouble God is not the anguish or trouble but his love is there and bringeth thee out of anguish into God when God hideth himselfe in thee love is there and maketh him manifest in thee Also that I sayd whosoever findeth it findeth nothing and all things that is also true for he findeth a supernaturall super-sensuall abysse having no ground where there is no place to dwel in he findeth also nothing that is like it and therefore it may be compared to nothing for it is deeper then any thing and is a as nothing to all things for it is not comprehensible and because it is nothing it is free from all things and it is that onely Good which a man cannot expresse or utter what it is But that I lastly sayd He that findeth it findeth all things is also true it hath been the beginning of all things and it ruleth all things If thou fiâ—dest it thou comest into that ground from whence all things are proceeded and wherein they subsist and thou art in it a King over all the workes of God The Scholar 28. Loving Master pray tell me where dwelleth it in man The Master Where man dwelleth not there it hath its seat in man The Scholar 29. Where is that in a mans selfe where man dwelleth not The Master It is in the soul that is resigned to the ground where the soule dyeth to its own will and willeth no more of it selfe but onely what God wil and there it dwelleth for so much of the soule as its own will is dead to it selfe in so much place love hath taken up therein for where it s own will sate before there now is nothing and where nothing is there the love of God is working alone The Scholar 30 But how may I comprehend it without the dying of my will The Master If thou wilt comprehend it it flyeth away from thee but if thou yeeldest thy self wholly up to it then thou art dead to thy selfe in thy will and love will then be the life of thy Nature it killeth thee not but quickneth thee according to its life then thou livest yet not to thy owne will but to its will for thy will becometh its will and then thou art dead to thy self but livest to God The Scholar 31. How is it that so few finde it when all would so faine have it The Master They all seeke it in something viz. in an Imaginary opinion in self-desire whereto almost all have a peculiar naturall Lust or Inclination though Love should proffer it selfe to them it would find no place in them because the Imaginarinesse that is in their own will hath set it selfe in the place thereof and so the Imaginarinesse of selfe-lust would have the love in it but love flyeth away for it dwelleth onely in Nothing and therefore they finde it not The Scholar 32. What is the Office of it in Nothing The Master It s office is to penetrate without intermission into something and if it finde a place in something which standeth still then its office is to take possession thereof and to rejoyce therein with its flaming fire of Love more then the Sun in this world and without intermission to kindle a fire in something and to consume the something and to over-enflame it selfe therewith The Scholer 33. O loving Master How shall I understand this The Master If it may but kindle a fire in thee thou shalt feele how it consumeth thy selfe which thou callest I and rejoyceth so exceedingly in thy fire that thou wouldst rather suffer thy selfe to be killed then to enter againe into thy something Its flame also is so great that it would not leave thee though it should cost thy Temporall Life it would goe with thee in its fire into Death and if thou wentest into Hell it would breake Hell in pieces for thy sake The Scholar 34 Loving Master I can no more endure any thing should divert mee how shall I finde the neerest way to it The Master Where the way is hardest there walke thou and take up what the world rejecteth and what the world doth that doe not thou walk contrary to the world in All things and then thou commest the neerest way to it The Scholar 35. If I should walke contrary to every thing I must needs be in meere misery and unquietnesse and I should also be accounted a foole The Master I doe not bid thee do harme to any but because the world loveth only deceit and vanity and walketh in false and wicked ways therefore if thou wilt act a cleane contrary part to the wayes thereof in all things walk only in the right way for the right way is contrary to all the wayes of the world But that thou â—aist thou shouldst be in meere anguish and trouble that indeed will be so according to the flesh and it will give thee occasion of continuall Repentance and in such Anxiety the Love must willingly kindle its fire That thou sayest also thou shouldst be accounted a â—illy foole is true for the way to the love of God is solly to the world but wisedome to the children of God when the world perceiveth this fire of love in the Children of God it faith they are turned fooles but to the children of God it is the greatest Treasure so great that no Life can expresse it nor Tongue so much as name what the fire of the inflaming love of God is it is whiter then the Sunne and sweeter then any thing it is far more nourishing then any meate or drinke and more pleasant then all the joy of this world whosoever getteth this is richer then any King on Earth more noble then any Emperour can be and more potent and strong then all Authority and Power The Scholar 36. Then the Scholar asked his Master further saying whether goeth the soule when the body dyeth be it either saved or damned The Master His Master answered It needed no going forth only the outward mortall life with the body doe separate themselves from the soule the soule hath Heaven and Hell in it selfe before as it is written The Kingdome
of God commeth not with outward observation neither shall they say Loe here or Loe there it is for behold the Kingdome of God is within you and whether of the two viz. either Heaven or Hell shall be manifested in it in that the soule standeth The Scholar 37. Doth it not enter into Heaven or Hell as a man entreth into a house or as a man goeth through a hole door or window into another world The Master No there is no such kind of entring for Heaven and Hell are present every where and it is but the turning in of the will either into Gods love or into his anger and this commeth to passe in this life according to that of Saint Paul Our conversation is in Heaven and Christ saith also My sheepe heare my voyce and I know them and they follow me and I give them the Eternall life and none shall plucke them out of my Hand The Scholar 38. How commeth this entring of the will into Heaven or Hell to passe The Master When the ground of the will yieldeth it selfe up to God then it sinketh down from it self beyond all ground place where GOD onely is manifest worketh and willeth and then it becommeth nothing to it selfe as to its own willing and so God worketh and willeth in it and God dwelleth in this refigned will whereby the soule is sanctified and so commeth into Divine Rest. Now when the body is dead the soule is throughly penetrated all over with the love of God and throughly inlightned with the light of God as the fire throughly enflameth a bright shining hot iron whereby it looseth its darknesse and this is the hand of Christ where the love of God throughly inhabiteth the soul all over and is a shining light and a new life in it and then it is in heaven and a Temple of the holy Ghost and is it self the very heaven of God in which he dwelleth But the ungodly soule will not in the time of this life enter into the Divine Resignation of its will but goeth on continually in its own lust and falshood in the will of the Devill it receiveth into it selfe nothing but wickednesse lyes pride covetousnesse envie and anger and yeeldeth îts will into them and so this vanity also becometh manifest and working in the soule and throughly penetrateth it all over as fire doth a burning hot Iron and this soule cannot come to Divine rest for Gods anger is manifested in it Now when the body parteth from this soule eternall griefe and despaire beginneth for it perceiveth and findeth that it is become a meere tormentive abomination and is ashamed to strive to enter with its false will into God nay it cannot for it is captivated in the wrath and is it selfe meere wrath and hath shut it selfe up therewith by its false desire which it hath raised up in it self And since the light of God shineth not in it and that his love toucheth it not it is a great darknesse and an aking anguishing source of fire and carrieth hell in it selfe and cannot see the light of God Thus it dwelleth in it selfe in hell and needeth no entring into it for wherein soever it is it is in Hell and though it should cast it selfe many hundred thousand miles from its present place yet there it is in the same property source and darknesse it was in The Scholar 39. How commeth it then that a holy soule in this lifes time doth not perfectly perceive that light and great joy nor a wicked soule feel hell when both of them are in man and one of them of necessity worketh in him The Master The Kingdome of Heaven in the Saints is working and sensible in their faith they feele the love of God in their faith by which the will yeeldeth it selfe up into God But the naturall life is compassed with flesh and blood and in the contrariety of Gods anger is compassed with the vain lust of this world which coÌ„tinually doth throughly penetrate the outward mortall life where the world on one side the Devill on the other and on a third the curse of the anger of God in flesh and bloud throughly penetrateth and â—iâ—teth the life whereby the soule is often in anguish when hell thus assaulteth it and would manifest it selfe in the soule But the soule sinketh down into the hope of Divine grace and standeth like a faire Rose in the midst of Thornes till the Kingdome of this world falleth off from it in the death of the body and then the soule becommeth first truly manifest in the love of God having nothing more to hinder it but the soule during the time of this life must walk with Christ in this world and then Christ delivereth it out of its own hell by throughly penetrating it with his love and standeth by it in hell and changeth its hell into heaven But that thou sayest Why doe not the wicked feel hell in the time of this life I answer he feeleth it indeed in his false or wicked conscience but he understandeth it not for hee hath earthly vanity yet with which he is enamoured and in which he taketh delight and pleasure also the outward life hath yet the light of the outward nature and so the pain cannot be revealed but when the body dieth the soule cannot enjoy such temporall pleasure any longer and the light of this outward world is also extinguished to it and then it standeth in eternall hunger and thirst after such vanity as it was in love withall here in this â—â—e yet it can reach nothing but that false will which it * imprinted in it selfe which it had too much of in this life and yet was not contented but then it hath as little of it which maketh it to bee in everlasting hunger and thirst after vanity wickednesse and vile lewdnesse it would fain doe more evill still but it hath not wherein or wherewith to perform it and therefore it performeth it onein it selfe And this hellish hunger and thirst cannot be fully manifested in it till the body dyeth wherewith the soule hath played the wanton in voluptuousnesse and which hath ministred to the Soule what it lusted after The Scholar 40. Heaven and hell being in us in strife in this lifes time and God being also thus neere us where doe the Angels and Devils dwell The Master Where thou dost not dwell as to thy selfe and thy own will there the Angels dwell with thee and every where all over but where thou dwellest as to thy selfe and thy owne will there the Devils dwell with thee and every where all over The Scholar 41. I understand not this The Master Where the will of God willeth in any thing there God is manifested and in that manifestation the Angels also dwell but where God in any thing willeth not with the will of the thing there God is not manifested to it but dwelleth in himselfe without the co-operating of the thing in that
graven Images keep him back and lead him astray from the Kingdome of God so that many times when he would fain repent and turn to God these pawes and Talons of the Devill keep him off and keep him back perswading the poore soule that this Monster is holy and so the soule entreth again into the lusts thereof and so sticketh fast in the anger of God and at length goeth into the Abysse or bottom lesse pit when the grace and drawing of the Father ceaseth 11. We tell this man our way that we have gone and which we have tried that as soon as he shall discover these beasts he should that very houre and moment take a resolution and bring himselfe into a will to depart from the bestiall will and by true repentance turn to God and goodnesse and being he cannot doe it by his own power let him take the promise of Christ into him selfe when he sayd seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you No sonne asketh bread of his father and he giveth him a stone or an egge and he giveth him a Scorpion And if you that are evill can give good gifts to your children how much more shall my heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to them that aske him for it 12. Let him imprint this promise in his heart for it is poyson and death to the Devill and all hereditary innate and imprinted beasts and let him immediatly that very hour come with these words of promise imprinted in his mind and prayers into the presence of God and let him first confider with himselfe all these abominable beasts which are in himselfe and let him think no otherwise of himselfe but that he is that silthy keeper of swine who hath spent all his Fathers portion of goods that he bestowed upon him and his Birth-right upon those Swine of the world viz. those evill beasts in himselfe and also that now he standeth in the presence of God as a miserable naked forlorne ragged Keeper of Swine that hath spent and cast away his Fathers Inheritance in whoredome with these worldly beasts or graven Images and hath no more right to the grace of God neither is in the least measure worthy of it much lesse â—o be called a Christian or the child of GOD. Let him also despaire of all the good workes that ever he did for they proceeded but from an hypocriticall seeming or out-side holinesse for which the Man that is inwardly a Devill would be accounted an Angell for without Faith it is impossible to please God as the Scripture saith 13 But let him not despaire of the Divine grace that is in him but of himselfe onely and of his own power and strength and let him with all the power and strength he hath bow down himselfe in his soule in the presence of God And though his own heart be utterly against it and say to him Doe it not stay a while it will not be convenient to day Or if it say Thy sinnes are too too great it cannot be that thou shouldest attain the grace of GOD and so he commeth into such anguish that hee cannot pray to God and receiveth no comfort nor strength in his heart but is as if his soule were quite blind and dead to God and goodnesse yet he must be resolnte considering the promise of GOD is a certain infallible truth and with a submissive heart sigh to the grace of God and in his great unworthinesse wholly resign himselfe thereto 14 And though he doe esteem himselfe unworthy as a stranger and alien to whom the inheritance of Christ doth not any more belong hee having lost his right yet he should stedfastly rest upon that which Christ sayd knowing that what hee saith is certainly true that hee came to seek and to save that which was lost viz. the poore sinner that is blind and dead to GOD He must firmly imprint this promise in himselfe and take to himselfe such a strong purpose and resolution that he will not goe forth from the promised grace of GOD in CHRIST though Body and Soule should bee broken to peeces and though hee should get no comfort in his heart all the dayes of his life or the least assurance of the remission of his sinnes considering that the promises of God are more sâ—re and firm then all comfort whatsoever 15. Also let him purpose to himselfe and shut up his will so firmely in this Resolution that he will no more enter into the former beastiall Images and vices againe though all his swine and beasts in him should lament to the death the losse of their food and pasture and hee himselfe should be a foole in the account of all the world for so doing yet hee would be constant in his purpose in cleaving to the promised Grace of God and if he must come to bee a child of Death he would desire to be so in the Death of Christ to die and live to him at his pleasure and let him order and direct his purpose in continually praying and fighing to God and commit all his endeavours and doings in the workes of his hands unto God and cease from the Imagination or thought of Pride covetousnesse or Envie let him but deliver up these three Beasts and the rest will soone become weake faint and readie to die for Christ will soone get a forme in the words of his Promise which that man imprinteth in himselfe and cloatheth himselfe withall and so come to life and begin to worke in him whereby his Prayers will bee more powerfull and he be more and more strengthned and confirmed in the Spirit of Grace 16. And as the seed in the Mothers wombe undergoeth the casualties of Nature and many outward accidents in growing to be a child till it getteth life in the Mothers wombe so here the more a man goeth forth from himselfe out of these Images through much opposition the more hee entreth into God till at length Christ cometh to be living in the incorporated Grace which comes to be so in the great earnestnesse of his purpose upon which there presently followeth the desponsation espousing or contract with Virgin Sophia viz the worthie humanity of Christ where the two Lovers viz the soule and the humanity of Christ embrace one another with joy and together with most inward desire penetrate into the most sweet love of God and presently the marriage of the Lamb is readie where Virgin Sophia viz the worthie humanity of Christ is espoused or united to the soul now what is done at it and what joy is celebrated Christ intimateth saying there is greater joy in the Heaven which is in man and in the Angels in the presence of God for one sinner that repenteth then for nintie nine righteous that need no Repentance 17. But we have no pen nor words that can write or expresse what that exceeding sweet Grace of God in the humanitie of Christ is and what they enjoy that come
very fooles and laughing stockes to the world and must must be forced to starve 18 If a man should not give his children liberty to learn the fashions and dealings of the world they would be nothing but derided and despised also if a man should not be somwhat like in his carriage and take some state and bravery upon him he should not be regarded and except he use some device to get by he cannot maintaine that for with truth and love and righteousnesse saith hee I am sure to get nothing but shall dye a Beggar I must do as others do and then I may be able to live amongst them Why should I onely bee the foole of all the world If I do commit sin God is gracious and mercifull hath not Christ slain finne and death upon the crosse and taken away the power of the Devill I shall once repent well enough and be saved 19 This is the Rule that the world goeth by this is the course both of superiour and inferiour of the shepheard and of the sheep Christs passion and suffering must be the cloak for their knavery every one would bee accounted a Christian and weare the Mantle of Christ when the poore soule playeth the whore with the Devill if with the mouth they can but confesse themselves to be Christians and cover their knavery with the purple mantle of Christ then all is well and so we are brave Christians with our lips under the mantle of Christ and yet we lodge the whore of Antichrist in our hearts 20 O yee false Shepheards of Christ you that climb up into the sheep-fold by the doore of Robbers why doe you tickle or comfort the knave of wickednesse with the sufferings and death of Christ Doe you think that Christ was such a one For none should weare his mantle but such as are like him Search the center or ground of Nature and shew the people the Abysse that is in their hearts shew them the snares of the Devill which we lye intangled in that they may no more look after the cursed course of the world but that they may learn to fight against flesh and bloud and also against the Devill and an hypocriticall life that they may goe forth from the pride of the Devill and enter into righteousnesse love and humility 21 The passion of Christ will benefit none unlesse they turn from their evil false and wicked purposes and repent and enter into the Covenant of God to such a one the sufferings of Christ are very powerfull and profitable The hypocrites they seemingly carry themselves so that they may have the Name of Christ put upon them but they thereby abuse the Name of God and must give a strict account of that 22 O yee Antichristian Shepheards of the new Order you that with with false hypocrisie for the favour of men or for your own Idols sake the belly cast the garment of Christs sufferings over the hypocrites and deceivers who are but seeming Christians how will you answer it when Christ shall require an account of his sheep from you you having wittingly and wilfully for favour money riches honour and reputation covered Wolves in whom the Devill dwelleth with the purple mantle of Christ why doe you not breake the Nut shell and looke upon the kernell and heart that lieth within it and tell the superior as well as the inferior of his abominations and wickednesse If you be the Shepheards of Christ why doe you not as Christ did who told every one the truth to his face he did both bruise and heale not for favour or respect to the person of any but according to the will of his Father the shepheards of Christ ought to doe so too 23 O beloved Reason thou walkest very wisely in the way of this world as farre as concerneth the outward body but what becometh of the poore soule this outward body is not its home it is not its eternall native countrey What will it avail thee to take thy pleasure here a very little while and suffer eternall losse Or what profit will it be to suffer they children to follow their own will in bravery luxury and insolence or what ill they please for a little while in this world and for thee to take delight in their despising of the poore and needy when after this life thou shalt lose them for ever Thou supposest thou lovest them and doest them good when thou hast so brought them up that the word commendeth their cunning fetches deceit and gallantry and it likes thee well but the Devill taketh that to himselfe and thou art the murtherer of thy own children and art their greatest enemy for children look upon their parents at every turn and when they see their idle unhappy waggery and roguish trickes doe please them then the children play their trickes the more and grow stouter hardened bold and brazen-faced in their villany These will cry out at the last judgement day against their parents for not with-holding and restraining them from vanity and their wicked course by nurturing them correcting them and bringing them up in vertue and in the feare of God 24 If thou lovest thy life and thy children then lose thy life and thy children as to the iniquity of this world that they neither walk nor be therein and then thou shalt find them and thy life again in heaven as Christ saith Whosoever loveth his life shall lose it but whosoever loseth his life his goods his credit for my sake he shall find them again in the kingdome of heaven Also when the world despiseth persecuteth and hateth you for my sake then rejoyce your reward is great in the kingdom of heaven Also what wil it profit a man to enjoy temporall pleasure and honor here in this life that endureth but for a moment and lose his soule that endureth to eternity 25 Loving children in Christ let every one consider in what soyle he groweth here we must not stay a fitter season for the bettering of our life but to day to day when the voyce of God soundeth let every one enter into himself and search and try himself let none regard the broad way of the world if he doe he will goe into the Abysse to the Devils for the way to the kingdome of heaven is a very strait and narrow way whosoever will walk therein must not carry till the Devil quite grateth or stoppeth up the doore he must not regard the course of this world he must onely enter into himselfe and seek or search himselfe the time will come that he shal think that himselfe onely is left alone but God hath alwayes his seven thousand with Elias besides himselfe whom he knoweth not of 26 For a sincere earnest Christian doth not altogether know himselfe he seeth nothing but his vices and faults in which the Devill fighteth against him they are alwayes in his sight but he knoweth not his own holinesse in this world for Christ hideth it under
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
weake to give me what thou hast promised me and freely bestow upon mee in my Saviour Jesus Christ viz. his flesh for food and his bloud for drinke to refresh my poore hungry soule that it may be quickened and strengthened in the Word which became man by which it may long and hunger after thee aright O thou deepest love in the most sweete Name JESUS give thy selfe into the desire of my soule for therefore thou hast moved thy selfe and according to thy great sweetnesse manifested thy selfe in the humane nature and called us to thee us that hunger and thirst after thee and hast promised us that thou wilt refâ—esh us I now open the lips of my soul to thee O thou sweet Truth and though I am not worthy to desire it of thy holines yet I come to thee through thy bitter passion death thou having sprinkled my uncleanesse with thy bloud and sanctified me in thy Humanity and made an open gatefor me through thy death to thy sweete love in thy bloud through thy five holy wounds from which thou did'st shed thy bloud I bring the desire of my soule into thy love O Jesus Christ thou Sonne of God and man I pray thee receive into thy selfe thy purchased inheritance which thy Father hath given thee I crie within me that I may enter thorough thy holy bloud and death into thee Open thy selfe in mee that the Spirit of my soule may reach thee and receive thee into it Lay hold on my thirst in me with thy thirst bring thy thirst after us men which thou haddest upon the Crosse into my thirst and give mee thy bloud to drinke in my thirst that my death in me which holdeth me captive may be drowned in the bloud of thy love and that my extinguished Image which as to the Kingdome of Heaven dis appeared in my father Adam through sinne may b made alive through thy powerfull bloud and cloath my soule with it âgaine as with the new body which dwelleth in heaven in which Image thy holy power and word which became man dwelleth which is the Temple of thy holy Spirit which dwelleth in us as thou hast promised us saying we will come to you and dwell in you O thou great Love of Jesus Christ I can doe no more but sinke my desire into thee thy word which became man is truth since thou hast bidden me come now I come Be it unto me according to thy Word and Will Amen A Warning to the Reader BEloved Reader of love to thee I will not conceale from thee what is here earnestly signified to me If thou lovest the vanity of the flesh still and arâ— not in an earnest purpose on the way to the new birth intending to become a new man then leave the above written words in these Prayers unnamed or else they will turne to a judgement of God in thee Thou must not take the holy names in vaine thou art faithfully warned they belong to the thristy soule if the soule be in earnest it shall finde by experience what words they are A Direction How the soule must meete its beloved when it s beloved knocketh in the Centre in the shut chamber of the soule BEloved soule thou must be earnest without intermission thou shalt certainely obtaine the love of a Kisse from the noble Sophia in the holy Name JESUS for shee standeth however before the doore of the soule knocking warning the sinner of his wicked way Now if he once thus desireth her love she is ready for him and kisseth him with the beames of her sweete love from whence the heart receiveth joy but she doth not presently lay her selfe into the Marriage bed with the soule that is shee doth not presently awaken the extinguished heavenly image in her selfe which disappeared in Adam there is danger to man in it for if Adam and Lucifer fell it may then easily so come to passe with man he being yet so strongly bound in vanity The bond of thy Promise must be faithfull before she will crowne thee thou must be tempted first and tried she taketh the beames of her love from thee againe to see whether thou wilt prove faithfull also she letteth thee stand and answereth thee not so much as with one looke of her love for before she will crowne thee thou must be judged that thou mightest tast the bitter potion which thou hast filled for thy selfe in thine abominations thou must come before the gates of hell first and there shew forth thy victory for her in her love in that strength wherewith she beheld thee in opposition to the devills aspect Christ was tempted in the wildernesse and if thou wilt put on him thou must go through his whole progresse from his Incarnation to his Assention and though thou art not able nor needest to doe that which he hath done yet thou must enter wholly into his processe and therein die continually from the vanity of the soule for the virgin Sophîa espouseth not her selfe to the soule except in this property which springeth up in the soule through the death of Christ as a new plant standing in heaven the earthly body cannot comprehend her in this life for it must first die from vanity but the heavenly Image which disappear'd in Adam viz. the true seede of the woman wherein God became man and into which he brought his living seede the heavenly substantiality is capable of the Pearle after the manner it came to passe in Mary in the limit of the Covenant Therefore take heede what thou dost when thou hast made thy promâ—se keepe it and then shee will crowne thee rather then thou wouldst be crowned but thou must be sure when the Tempter commeth to thee with the pleasure beauty and glory of the world that then thy minde reject it and say I must be a servant and not a master in the Vineyard of Christ I am but a servant of God in and over all that I have and I must doe with it as his Word teacheth me my heart must sit downe with the simple and lowly in the dust and be humble alwayes What state and condition soever thou art in humility must be in the front or else thou wilt not obtain her marriage the free will of thy soule must stand as a champion for it the devill cannot prevaile against the soule with vanity and if the soule will not bite at the baite then hee commeth with the soules nworthinesse and catalogue of sinnes and then thou must fight hard and here the merits of Christ must be set in the front or else the creature cannot prevaile against the devill for in this it goeth so terribly with many that the outward reason thinketh that person to be distracted and poâ—ened with the devill the devill defendeth himselfe so horribly in many especially if he have had a great Fort of prey in him that he must be stoutly assaulted before
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
give me thy Rayes of fier bring thy desire into me and kindle me and then I will bring the Rayes of my love from my meekenesse into thy fiery Essence and kisse thee for ever O my Bridegroome how well am I now I am in wedlock with thee O kisse me with thy desire in thy strength power then I will shew thee all my beauty and will rejoyce and delight my selfe with thy sweet love and shining brightnesse in thy fiery life All the holy Angels doe rejoyce with us to see us now married together againe My deare Love I now intreate thee to abide in my faith and doe not turne thy face away from me any more worke thou thy wonders in my love for which God hath raised thee up II. The Soule sayth againe to its Noble Sophia its Love that is borne againe in the Soule O My Noble Pearle and opened flame of my light in my anxious fiery life O how thou changest me into thy joy O beautifull Love I have broken my faith with thee in my father Adam and with my fiery strength have turned my selfe to the pleasure and vanity of the outward world and have fallen in love with a stranger and had been constrained to walke in the valley of darkenesse in this strange love if thou hadst not come to me into the house of my misery in thy great faithfullnesse by thy piercing through and destroying Gods Anger Hell and darke Death and restored thy meekenesse and love to my fiery life O Sweete Love thou hast brought the water of eternall life out of the fountaine of God with thee to me and refreshed me in my great thirst I behold in thee the mercy of God which was hidden from me before by the strange Love in thee I can rejoyce thou changest my anguish of fire to be great joy to me O amiable Love give me thy Pearle that I may continue in this joy for ever Upon this the Noble Sophia answereth the Soule againe and sayth MY Deare Love and faithfull treasure thou highly rejoycest me in thy beginning I have indeed broken into thee through the deepe gates of God through Gods anger through hell and death into the house of thy misery and have graciously bestowed my love upon thee and delivered thee from the chaines and bondes wherein thou wert fast bound I have kept my faith with thee But thou desirest now an exceeding great thing of me which I will not willingly venture with thee Thou wouldest have my pearle as thy proper owne remember I pray O my beloved Bridegroome that thou didst carelesly loose it before in Adam and besides thou standest yet in great danger and walkest in two dangerous Kingdomes viz. in the originall fire thou walkest in that Countrey wherein God calleth himselfe a strong Zealous God and a consuming fire The other Kingdome thou walkest in is the Outward world the Aire wherein thou dwellest in the vaine corrupt flesh and bloud where the pleasure of the world and the assaults of the devill passe over thee every houre thou mayest perhaps in thy great joy bring earthlynesse againe into my beauty and darken my Pearl thou mayest also perhaps grow proud as Lucifer did when he had the pearle in his possession and so mayest turne thy selfe away from the Harmony of God and then I must afterwards be deprived of my Love for ever I will keepe my Pearle in my selfe and dwell in the Heaven in thee in thy extinguished but now in me revived Humanity and reserve my Pearle for Paradise untill thou puttest away this earthlynesse from thee and then I will give it thee to possesse But I will readily afford and present my countenance to thee and the sweete Rayes of the Pearle during the time of this earthly life I will dwell with the Pearle in the inner Quire and be thy faithfull loving Bride I will not espouse my selfe with thy earthly flesh for I am a heavenly Queene my Kingdome is not of this world yet I will not cast thy outward life away but visite it often with my Rayes of love for thy outward humanity shall returne againe but I will not have the beast of vanity neither did God create it in Adam with a purpose to have it so grosse and earthly but in Adam thy desire through lust formed this beastiall grossenesse from and with all the Essences of the awakened vanity of the earthly property wherein heate and cold paine enmity and dissolution consisteth Now my Deare Love Bridegroome yeeld but thy selfe up into my will I will not forsake thee in this earthly life in thy danger though the Anger of God should passe upon thee so that thou shouldest grow affrighted and disheartened or shouldest thinke that I had forsaken thee yet I will be with thee and preserve thee for thou thy selfe knowest not what thine office is Thou must in this time worke and beare fruite thou art the Roote of this Tree branches must be produced out of thee which must all be brought forth in anguish but I come forth together with thy branches in their sappe and bring forth fruite upon thy boughes and thou knowest it not for the Most High hath so ordered that I should dwell with and in thee Involve thy selfe therefore into patience and take heede of the pleasure of the flesh breake the will and desire thereof bridle it as an unruly horse then I will often visit thee in thy fiery Essence give thee my Kisse of love and bring a Garland for thee out of Paradise with me for a token of my love and put it upon thee in which thou shalt rejoyce But I give thee not my Pearle for a possession during this time thou must continue in Resignation and hearken what the Lord playeth in thy Harmony in thee Moreover thou must give sound and essence to thy tune out of my strength and vertue for thou art now a messenger of his mouth and must set forth his praise and glory For this cause I have now contracted my selfe a-new with thee and set my Triumphant Garland upon thee which I have gotten in the battell against the Devill and Death but the Crowne of Pearle wherewith I crowned thee I have layd that aside for thee thou must weare it no more till thou art become pure in my fight III The Soule sayth further to the Noble Sophia O Thou faire and sweet Consort what shall I say before thee let me be onely commended unto thee I cannot preserve my selfe If thou wilt not now give me thy Pearle I leave it to thy will give me but thy Rayes of love and carry me through this Pilgrimage Awake thou and bring forth what thou wilt in me I will from henceforth be thy owne I will or desire nothing for my selfe but what thou thy selfe wilt through me I had fooled away thy sweete love and not keept my faith with thee whereby I was fallen into eternall punishment but seeing of Love thou art
come to me înto the anguish of Hell and hast delivered me from torment and received me againe for thy Consort I will now therefore breake my will for thy loves sake and be obedient unto thee waite for thy love I am satisfied now that I know thou art with me in all my troubles and wilt not forsake me O Gracious Love I turne my fiery countenance to thee O faire Crowne fetch me quickly into thee bring me forth froÌ„ unquietnesse I will be thine for ever and never depart from thee The Noble Sophia answereth the Soule very comfortably sayth MY Noble Bridegroome be of good comfort I have bethrothed thee to me in my highest Love and contracted me with thee in my faithfulnesse I will be with thee and in thee alwayes to the end of the world I will come to thee and make my dwelling in thee in thy Inner Quier thou shalt drinke of my Fountaine for now I am thine and thou art mine the Enemy shall not seperate us worke thou in thy fiery property and I will put my Rayes of love into thy working we will plant manure the Vineyard of Jesus Christ afford thou the Essence of fire I will afford the Essence of light and the increase be thou the fire I will be the water we will performe that in this world for which God hath ordained us we will serve him in his Temple which we our selves are Amen To the Reader BEloved Reader count not this an uncertaine fiction it is the true Ground and it comprehendeth in it all the Holy Scripture for the Booke of the Life of Jesus Christ is plainely set forth therein as it hath beene certainely knowne by the Author himselfe for it hath beene his way that he hath gone he giveth thee the best Jewell that he hath God grant his blessing with it An heavy sentence and judgement is gone forth against the Mocker of this Be thou therefore warned that thou maist avoid the Danger and receive the Blessing A Morning Prayer Commending our selves to God when we rise before we suffer any other thing to enter into us BLesse me O God the Father Son and holy Ghost thou onely true God I thanke thee through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour for thy protection and all other benefits I now commend my selfe both body and soule and all that thou hast set me to doe in my employment into thy protection be thou the beginning of my conceptions of my seekings and endeavours in all my doings worke thou so in me that I may begin all things to the glory of thy Name and accomplish them in thy Love for the good and service of my Neighbour send thy good Angell along with me to turne the venomous Rayes of the Devill and corrupt nature away from me preserve me from the desire of all evill men make all my enemies favourable to me and bring my minde into thy Vineyard that I may labour in my Office and employment and worke as thy obedient servant therein and blesse me and all that I am to goe about and doe with the blessing of thy love and mercy continue thy grace and love in Jesus Christ upon me and give me a mind cheerefully to follow thy wonders let thy holy Spirit guide me in my beginning and so on to my last end and be my willing and working and accomplishing in me Amen An Evening Prayer I Lift my heart to thee O God thou fountaine of eternall life and give thee thanks through Jesus Christ thy beloved Sonne our Lord Saviour for that thou hast stood by me and preserved me this Day in my condition and employment from all mischiefe that might have befallen me I commend now to thy disposing my condition and employment and the worke of my hands and humbly flie with my soule to thee worke thou so in my soule that neither that wicked enemy nor any other influence and desire may come or sticke fast in my soule let my minde onely delight in thee in thy Temple and let thy good Angel stay with me that I may rest safely in thy power and strength Amen Revel 21. 6. I am Α and Ω the Beginning and the End I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountaine of the water of Life freely He that overcommeth shall inherit All and I will be his God and hee shall be my Sonne The End of the First Booke THE SECOND BOOK TREATING OF True Resignation How Man must daily die in his owne will in Selfe and how he must bring his desire into God what he should ask and desire of God also how he must spring up out of the dying of the sinfull man with a new mind and will through the Spirit of Christ. ALSO What the old and new Man is and what either of them is in Life Will and Doings Written in the German Language Anno 1622 By JACOB BEHMEN Alias Teutonicus Philosophus LONDON Printed by M. S. for H. Blunden at the Castle in Corn-hill 1647. Matth. 16. 24. Mark 8. 34. Luke 9. 23. John 12. 26. Christ saith Hee that wil follow ME let him deny HIMSELFE and take up his Crosse and follow ME. Matth. 9. 27. Mark 10. 28. Luke 18. 28. Peter saith to Christ Behold we have FORSAKEN ALL and followed THEE OF TRUE RESIGNATION CHAP. I. WE have a cleare example in Lucifer and also in Adam the first man of what Selfe doth when it getteth the light of nature to be its owne and may walke with the Understanding in its owne dominion we see it also in men learned in Arts and Sciences that when they get the light of this outward world or nature into the possession of their reason nothing cometh of it but pride of themselves And yet all the world so vehemently desireth and seeketh after this light as the best treasure and it is indeed the best treasure this world affords if it be rightly used Secondly But while Selfe viz. Reason is ensnared and fast bound in a close and strong prison viz in the Anger of God and in earthlynesse it is very dangerous for a man to make use of the light of knowledge in selfe as if it were in the possession of Selfe Thirdly For the Wrath of the eternall and temporary Nature will soone take pleasure in it and then selfe and a mans owne reason will rise up in pride and breake it selfe off from the true reâ—igned humility towards God and will no more eate of the fruite of paradise but of the property of selfe viz. of that dominion of life wherein good and evill are mixt as Lucifer and Adam did who both entred with the desire of selfe into the Originall againe out of which the creatures were brought forth and entred into the condition of the creatures Lucifer into the Center and wrathfull Nature into the Matrix of the fire and Adam into the earthly Nature into the Matrix of the outward world
maketh himselfe merry with his desire in his seven formes of life of the Center of nature nor what abominable errour he setteth up 13 From this understanding false Babell is brought forth in the Christian Church on earth where men rule and teach by the conclusions of reason and have set the childe which is drunke in its owne pride and selfecovetousnesse as a faire Virgine upon the Throne 14 But the Devill is entred into its seven formes of life of the Center viz. into its owne selfe conceited reason continually bringeth his desire into this trimmed Virgin which the starres receive Hee is her Beast on which shee rideth well adorned in her owne forces of life as may be seene in the Revelations Thus it hath taken into possession the outward glance of divine holinesse viz. the light of Reason and supposeth it selfe to be the faire childe in the house but the Devill hath his lodging within it 15 And thus it is with all these that have beene once enlightened by God and after goe forth againe from true resignation and weane themselves from the true milke of their Mother viz. true humility The way which a true Christian must follow 16 REason will object and say Is it not right for a man to attaine the light of God and also the light of the outward nature and reason that he may be able to order his life wisely as the Scripture sayth 17 Yes it is very right nothing can be more profitable to a man neither can any better thing happen to him nay it is a treasure above all earthly treasures for a man to have the light of God and of time for it is the eye of time and of eternity 18 But marke how thou oughtest to use it the light of God first manifesteth it selfe in the soule it shineth forth as light from a candle and kindleth the outward light of reason immediately yet it yeeldeth not it self wholly up to reason to be under the dominion of the outward man no the outward man beholdeth himselfe in this through shining lustre as he doth his likenesse in a looking-glasse he presently learneth to know himselfe which is good and profitable for him 19 And when he doth so Reason which is the creaturely selfe cannot doe better then to behold it selfe in the selfe of the creature nor to enter with the will of the desire into the Center in seeking it selfe if it doe it breaketh it selfe off from the substance of God which riseth together with the light of God of which the soule ought to eate and refresh it selfe therewith and eateth of the outward substance and light and thereby draweth the venome into it selfe againe 20 The will of the creature ought to sinke wholly into it selfe with all its reason and desire accounting it selfe an unworthy childe that is no whit worthy of this so high a grace nor should it arrogate any knowledge or understanding to it selfe or desire and begge of God to have any understanding in its creaturely selfe but sincerely and simply sinke it selfe into the grace and love of God in Christ Jesus and desire to be as it were dead to it selfe and its owne reason in the divine life and wholly resigne it selfe to the life of God in love that he may doe how and what he will with it as with his owne instrument 21 It s owne reason ought not to enter upon any speculation in divine or in the ground or foundation of humane matters nor to will and desire any thing but the grace of God in Christ and as a child continually longeth after the breasts of the Mother so must its hunger continually enter into the love of God and not suffer it selfe to be broken off from this hunger by any meanes when the outward reason triumpheth in the light saying I have the true child but then the will of the desire must bow it selfe downe to the earth and bring it selfe into the deepest humility and simple ignorance and say thou art foolish and hast nothing but the grace of God thou must wrap thy selfe up into that with great humility and become nothing at all in thy selfe and neither know nor love thy selfe all that thou hast or is in thee must esteeme it selfe as nothing but a meere Instrument of God and then must bring the desire onely into Gods mercy and goe forth from all thy owne knowing and willing and esteeme it as nothing at all nor must thou ever entertaine any will to enter into it againe 22 As soone as this is done the naturall with entreth into weakenesse and then the Devill is not able to fift it thus any more with his evil desire for the places of his rest become very weake and drie and then the holy Spirit proceeding from God taketh possession of the formes of life and maketh his dominion prevaile viz. He kindleth the formes of life with his flames of love and then the high skill and knowledge of the Center of all Things ariseth according to the inward and outward Constellation of the creature in a very subtile drying fire with great delight and desire to sinck downe into that light and esteeme it selfe nothing and thinketh it self to be unworthy of it 23. And thus it s own desire pierceth into that nothing viz. into that wherein God createth and doth what hee will therein and the Spirit of God springeth forth through the desire of the resigned Humility And so the humane self immediately followeth the Spirit of God in trembling and joy of Humility and so it may behold what is in time and eternity for all is present before it 24. When the Spirit of God riseth up as a fire and the flame of Love then the spirit of the soule descendeth and saith Lord glory be to thy Name not to me Thou art able to take vertue power strength wisdom knowledge doe as thou wilt I can doe nothing I know nothing I will goe no whither but whither thou leadest me as thy instrument doe thou in me and with me what thou wilt 25. In such an humble and totall Resignation the spark of Divine power falleth into the center of the forms of life as a spark into Tinder and kindleth it viz. the fire of the soule which Adam made to be a dark coale in himselfe so that it glimmereth And when the light of Divine power hath kindled it selfe therein the creature must goe on as an instrument of Gods Spirit and speak what the Spirit of God telleth it and then it is no more in its own proper possession but it is the instrument of God 26. But the will of the Soule must without ceasing in this fiery-driving sink into nothing viz. into the deepest humility in the sight of God For no sooner doth the will of the soule in the least measure goe on in its own speculation or searching but Lucifer layeth hold of it in the center of the formes of life and sifteth
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
light in all its members Now if any boast himself to be the child of God and yet suffereth the body to burn in sins he is not yet capable of being a child but lieth captive in the fetters of the Devill in great darknesse and if he doe not find in himselfe an earnest will burning in him of well-doing in love then his pretence is but an invention of Reason proceeding from Selfe which cannot see God unlesse it be born anew and shew forth in its power and vertue that it is his child For there is no fire but hath light in it and if the divine fire be in the mind it will shine forth and the mind will doe that which God will have done 40. But perhaps thou wilt say I have a will indeed to doe so I would willingly doe it but I am so hindred that I cannot 41. Yes thou vile man God draweth thee to be his child but thou wilt not the soft cushion in evill is dearer to thee then so thou preferrest the joy of wickednesse before the joy of God thou wholly stick'st fast in Selfe still and livest according to the law of Sin and that hindereth thee thou art unwilling to dye from the pleasure of the flesh and therefore thou art not in the filiation and yet God draweth thee to it but thou thy selfe wilt not 41. O how fine a thing would Adam think it to be if he might be taken into heaven with this will of the voluptuous flesh to have the child of wickednesse that is full of deceit set upon the Throne of God Lucifer also would fain have had it so but he was spewed out 42. It is a troublesome thing to mortifie the evill will none are willing to have it so we would all willingly be the children of God if we might be so with this garment but it cannot be This world passeth away and the outward life must dye what good can the childhood in the mortall body doe me 43. If we would inherit the filiation we must also put on the new man which can inherit the filiation which is like the deity God wil have no sinner in heaven but such as are born anew and become children which have put on heaven 44. Therefore it is not so easie a matter to become the children of God as men imagine Indeed it is not a burdensome thing to him that hath put on the filiation whose light shineth for it is joy to him But to turn the mind and destroy Selfe there is a strong continual earnestnesse requisite and such a purpose that if the body and soule should part asunder by it yet the will should persevere constantly and not enter again into Selfe 45. A man must wrastle so long till the dark center that is shut up so close break open and the spark in the center kindle and from thence immediatly the Noble Lilly-branch sprouteth as from the divine grain of Mustard seed as Christ saith A man must pray earnestly with great humility and for a while become a foole in his own reason and see himselfe as voyd of understanding therin untill Christ be formed in this new incarnation 46. And then when Christ is born Herod is ready to kill the child which he seeketh to doe outwardly by persecutions and inwardly by temptations to try whether this Lilly-branch will be strong enough to destroy the kingdome of the Devil which is made manifest in the flesh 47. Then this destroyer of the Serpent is brought into the wildernesse after he is baptized with the holy Spirit and tempted and tried whether he will continue in Resignation in the will of God he must stand so fast that if need require hee would leave all earthly things and even the outward life to be a child of God 48. No temporall honour must be preferred before the filiation but he must with his will leave and forsake it all and not account it his owne but esteem himselfe as a servant in it onely in obedience to his Master hee must leave all worldly propriety Wee doe not mean that hee may not have or possesse any thing but his heart must forsake it and not bring his will into it nor count it his own if he set his heart upon it he hath no power to serve them that stand in need with it 49. Selfe onely serveth that which is temporary but Resignation hath rule over all that is under it Selfe must doe what the Devill will have it to doe in fleshly voluptuousnesse and pride of life but Resignation tteadeth it under with the feet of the mind Selfe despiseth that which is lowly and simple but Resignation sitteth down with the lowly in the dust it saith I will be simple in my selfe and understand nothing lest my understanding should exalt it selfe and sin I will lye down in the Courts of my God at his feet that I may serve my Lord in that which he commandeth me I will know nothing my selfe that the commandment of my Lord may lead and guide mee and that I may only doe what God doth through me and will have done by me I will sleep in my selfe untill the Lord awaken mee with his Spirit and if he will not then will I cry out eternally in him in silence and wait his commands 50. Beloved brethren men boast much now-a-dayes of faith but where is that faith The modern faith is but the History Where is that child which beleeveth that Jesus is borne If that child were in Being and did beleeve that Jesus is born it would also draw neere to the sweet child Jesus and receive him and â—urse him 51. Alas the Faith now a dayes is but Historicall and a meere knowledge of the story that the Jewes killed him that hee left this world that he is not King on earth in the animall man but that men may doe what they list and need not dye from sinne and their evill lusts All this the wicked child Selfe rejoyceth in that it may fatten the Devil by living deliciously 52 This sheweth plainly that true faith was never weaker and feebler since Christs time then it is now when neverthelesse the world cryeth a loud and saith we have found the true saith and contend about a child so that there was never worse contention since men were on earth 53. If thou beest Zion and hast that new-born Child which was lost and is found again then let it be seen in power and vertue and let us openly see the sweet Child JESUS brought forth by thee and that we may see that thou art his Nurse if not then the children in Christ will say thou hast found nothing but the History viz. the Cradle of the Child 54. Where hast thou the sweet child Jesus thou that art exalted with the History and with thy false and seeming faith O how will the Child Jesus visit thee once in the Fathers property in thy own Turba which thou hast fatted It
themselves under the Trees of the Garden of Eden heat and cold also seized on them 69. And here the Heaven in Man trembled for horror as the earth did quake in wrath when this anger was destroyed on the Crosse with the sweet love of God there the anger trembled before the sweet love of God 70. And for this vanities sake which was thus awakened in Man God cursed the earth lest the holy Element should spring forth any more through the outward fruit and bring forth Paradisicall fruit for there was no creature could then have enjoyed it neither was the earthly Man worthy of it any more 71. God would not cast the pretious Pearles before Beasts an ungodly man in his body being but a meere grosse beastiall creature and though it be of a noble Essence yet it is wholly poysoned and loathsome in the sight of God 72. Now when God saw that his faire Image was spoyled he opened himselfe before them and had pitty on them and promised himselfe to them for an everlasting possession and that with his great love in the received humanity he would destroy the power of the Serpentine property viz. of vanity in the wrath of God with love And this was the breaking of the head of the Serpent which he would perform viz. he would destroy the dark Death and subdue the anger with his great love 73. And this covenant of his incarnation which was to come he put into the light of life to which Covenant the Jewish sacrifices pointed as to a mark to which God had promised himselfe with his love For the Faith of the Jewes entred into the Sacrifices and offerings and Gods imagination entred into the covenant 74. And the offering was a figure of the Restitution of that which Adam had lost and so God did expiate his anger in the humane property through the offering in the limit of the covenant 75. In which covenant the most holy sweet Name JESUS proceeding out of the holy Name and great power JEHOVAH had incorporated it selfe so that he would again move and manifest himselfe in the substance of the heavenly world which disappeared in Adam and kindle the holy divine life therein again 76. This mark or limit of the covenant was propagated from Adam and his children from Man to Man and did goe through from one upon all as sinne also and the awaked vanity did go through from one upon all 77. And it stood in the promise of the covenant at the end in the root of David in the virgin Mary who was in the inward Kingdome of the hidden humanity viz of the essentiality that disappeared as to the Kingdome of God the daughter of Gods covenant but in the outward according to the naturall humanity she was begotten by her true bodily father Joachim and her true mother Anna out of the Essences and substance of their soules and bodies like all other children of Adam a true daughter of Eve 78 In this Mary from the Virgin in the promised limit of the Covenant of which all the Prophets have prophesied the eternal speaking Word which hath created all things hath in the fulnesse of time moved it self in the name of JESUS according to its highest and deepest love and humility and hath brought living divine and heavenly substantiality into the humanity of the heavenly part which was disappeared in Adam from which he dyed in Paradise into the seed of Mary viz. into the Tincture of love viz. into that property wherin Adam should have propagated himselfe in a Magical and heavenly manner viz. into the true seed of the woman of heavenly substantiality which disappeared in Paradise 79. And when the Divine Light in the heavenly Essence was extinguished the Word of God viz. the divine power of the divine understanding did bring in heavenly and living Substantiality and awakened the disappeared Substantiality in the seed of Mary and brought it to life 80. And so now Gods Substance wherein God dwelleth and worketh and the disappeared Substance of man are become one person For the holy Divine Substantiality did anoynt the disappeared therefore that person is called CHRISTUS the anointed of God 81. And this is the dry Rod of Aaron that blossomed and bare Almonds and the true high Priest and it is that humanity of which Christ spake saying that he was come from heaven and was in heaven and that no man could ascend into heaven but the Son of man which is come from heaven and is in heaven John 3. 13. 82. Now when he saith He is come from heaven it is meant of the heavenly Substance the heavenly Corporality for the power and vertue of God needeth no comming any whither for it is every where altogether unmeasurable and undivided But Substance needeth comming the power or vertue needeth to move it selfe and manifest it selfe in Substance 83. And that substance entred into the Humane substance and received it and not that part onely of hevenaly substantiality which disappeared in Adam but the whole humane Essence in soule and flesh according to all the three Worlds 84. But the awakened and impressed vanity which the Devill by his imagination brought into the flesh by which the flesh did commit sinne he hath not received that nor taken that upon him he hath indeed received the awakened formes of life as they were gone forth from their equall agreement each of them into their own desire 85. For herein lay our infirmity and the death which he was to drown with his heavenly holy blood Herein he took upon himselfe all our sins and infirmities also Death and Hell in the wrath of God and destroyed the Devill in the humane properties 86. The wrath of God was the Hell into which the Spirit of Christ went when he had shed that heavenly bloud into our outward humane bloud and tinctured it with the love and changed that hell of the humane property into heaven and reduced the humane properties into equall agreement into the heavenly Harmony CHAP. IV. How we are born a-new and how we also fall into Gods anger again 87. NOw here we may rightly understand what our New-birth and Regeneration is and how we may be and continue to be the Temple of God though in this lifes time according to the outward humanity we are sinful mortall men 88. Christ in the humane essence hath broken up and opened the gates of our inward heavenly humanity which was shut up in Adam so that nothing remaineth wanting but that the soule bring its will out from the vanity of the corrupted flesh and bring it into this open gate in the Spirit of Christ. 89 Great and strong earnestnesse is required here and not onely a learning and knowing but a hunger and great thirst after the Spirit of Christ For to know onely is no faith but an hunger and thirst after that which I desire so that I imagine it to my self and lay hold on it with the
those children that come to him are his reward which he hath merited and deserved 128. For thus he sayd Father the men were thine and thou hast given them to me as my reward and I will give them eternall life But the life of Christ will be given to none unlesse they come to him in his Spirit into his humanity suffering and merit and in his merit be born a true child of the merit 129 We must be born of his Merit put on the merit of Christ in his passion and death not outwardly with verbal flattery with bare comforting of our selves and still remain aliens and strange children of a strange Essence No the strange Essence inheriteth not the childship but the innate essence inheriteth it 130. This innate essence is not of this world but in heaven of which St. Paul speaketh saying Our conversation is in heaven the filiall essence walketh in Heaven and Heaven is in man 131. But if heaven in man be not open and a man stand without heaven flattering himselfe and say I am still without but Christ will receive me in by his grace is not his merit mine Such a one is in vanity and sinne with the outward man and with the soule in Hell viz. in the anger of God 132. Therefore learn to understand rightly what Christ hath taught us and done for us he is our heaven he must get a forme in us or else we shall not be in heaven Thus then the soules inward man with the holy body of Christ viz. in the New-birth is in heaven and the outward mortall man is in the world of which Christ spake saying My sheep are in my hand and none shall plucke them away the Father which gave them to me is greater then all CHAP. VI. Of the right and of the wrong going to Church receiving the Sacraments and Absolution 133. BEloved brethren we will tell you faithfully not with flattering lips to please the Antichrist but from our Pearle from a Christian essence and knowledge not from the husk and History but from a filiall Spirit from Christs knowledge as a Branch growing on the Vine Christ from the measure of that knowledge which is opened in us according to the counsell of God 134. Men tye us now-a-dayes to the History to the Materiall Churches of stone which were indeed good in their kind if men did also bring the Temple of Christ into them And men teach that their absolution is a forgiving of sinnes c. That the Supper of the Lord taketh away sinne Also that the Spirit of God is infused into men by the Ministery All this hath a proper meaning if it were truly expounded and if men did not cleave meerly to the Husk 135. Many a man goeth to Church twenty of thirty yeares heareth Sermons receiveth the Sacraments and some heare Absolution read or declared and yet is as much a Beast of the Devill and vanity at the last as at the first A Beast goeth into the Church and to the Supper and a Beast commeth out from thence again 136. How will he eat that hath no mouth How will he heare that hath no hearing Can any man eat that Food which is so shut up that he cannot get it How will he drink that can come by no water 137. What good doth it to me to goe to the material Churches of stone and there fill my eares with empty breath Or to goe to the Supper and feed nothing but the earthly mouth which is mortall and corruptible cannot I feed and satisfie it with a peece of bread at home What good doth it to the soule which is an immortall life to have the beastiall man observe the form of Christs Institution if it cannot obtain the Jewell of the Institution For St. Paul saith of the Supper You receive it to judgement because yee discerne not the Lords body 138. The covenant stands firm and is stirred in the use of the Institution Christ proffereth his Spirit to us in his Word viz. in his preached Word and his Body and Bloud in the Sacrament and his absolution in a brotherly reconciliation one to another 139. But what good doth it to a Beast to stand and listen and yet hath no hearing to receive the inward living Word nor any vessell wherein to lay the Word that it may bring forth fruit of whom Christ saith the Devill plucketh the Word out of their hearts least they beleeve and be saved But how can he doe so Yes being the word findeth no place in the hearing to stick fast in 140. And thus it is with Absolution what good doth it me for one to say I pronounce or declare to thee the absolution of thy sinnes when the soule is wholly shut up in sinne Whosoever saith thus to a sinner so shut up erreth and he that receiveth it without the voyce of God within himselfe deceiveth himselfe None can forgive sins but God onely 141. The mouth of the Preacher hath not forgivenesse of sinnes in his own power but it is the Spirit of Christ in the voice of the Priests mouth that hath the power if he be also a Christian. 142. What good did it do to those that heard Christ himselfe teaching on earth when he sayd Come unto me all yee that are weary and are heavy laden I will give you rest What good did it to those that heard it and yet laboured not nor were heavy laden What became of the refreshment or rest then being they had dead eares and heard onely the outward Christ and not the word of the Divine power surely they were not refreshed and so much good the bestiall man hath also of his absolution and so much good also the Sacraments doe him 143. The covenant now is open in the Sacraments and in the office of teaching also the covenant is stirred the soule doth enjoy it but in that property the mouth of the Soule is of 144. That is the outward Beast receiveth bread and wine which it may have as well at home And the fiery soule receiveth the Testament according to its property viz. in the anger of God it receiveth the substance of the eternall world but according to the property of the dark-world as the mouth is so is the food also which belongeth to the mouth he receiveth it to his own judgement or condemnation And after that manner the wicked shall behold Christ at the last judgement as a severe Judge but the Saints shall behold him as a loving Immanuel 145. Gods anger standeth open in his Testaments towards the wicked but towards the Saints the heavenly loving kindnesse and in it the power of Christ in the holy name JESUS standeth open What good doth the holy thing doe to the wicked that cannot enjoy it And what then is it that can take away his sinnes when his sinne is but stirred and made manifest by it 146. The Sacraments doe not take away sinne neither are sinnes forgiven
time whereof the light shall first spring up in the hearts of men when they shall be in great distresse and want and quite forsaken And then they shall seeke the Lord and hee will bee found 4. My Writings are not for those whose bellies be full but for the hungry stomach they belong to the Children of the hidden Mystery because in them many pretious Pearles lye lockt up and some are manifest 5. I have made my Writings neither for the simple nor the wise but for my selfe and for those to whom God shall give the understanding of them 6. That Bud or Branch is in Gods power or hand therefore I my selfe acknowledge it not to be a worke of my Reason but to be the revelation of God and therefore nothing ought to be ascribed to me at all in it neither ought any to regard my Person as if it were some wondrous thing for he shall find nothing but a very mean simple man for my knowledge is hidden in God 7. And though I know much and that a great manifestation is given me yet I know also well that I shall be as one that is dumb to all those that are not born of God and therefore I intreat you to manage my writings wisely 8. Also to conceale my name till at length the darke night shall come as is signified to mee and then the Pearle shall bee found For so long as my beloved is full and satisfied she slumbreth and lyeth in the sleep of this world 9. But when the LORD shall awaken her with his storme and that shee shall bee in anxiety shee will then in her trouble cry to the LORD and awake from sleep then shall my Writing stand forth and the Pearle will be sought in them 10. I desire and also intreat that none goe about to have them printed without my consent for that shall first be after the tempest 11. But let them bee made knowne to the hearts of the wise onely whom thou knowest that they love GOD To others it will not hee profitable at present For many seeke after them for nothing but evill will and pride and out of false wisdome or subtile cunning that they may appeare to be some body therefore I intreat you to mannage them wisely 12. Many will receive them with joy but having an evill Root yet thinke to bee honest and to amend their lives but suffer the Devill to deceive them still and then afterwards come to be despisers and scorners of these manifestations This I tell you for good will not from a conceit opinion or supposition but even from my present and certain knowledge 13. There is somewhat very high and deep begun in a new Booke but there is strong opposition made against mee by the Prince of wrath which hath so hindered mee till now but I hope it will be written shortly for it is an hearb which the Devill will not relish yet the will of God must stand 14. I hope your selfe shall come to me and then we will rejoyce together The grace of Iesus Christ be our salutation and refreshing Dated June 7. 1620. Jacob Behmen THE FOURTH BOOK A Dialogue between a Scholar and his Master Concerning The Super-sensuall life Shewing how the Soule may attain to Divine Hearing and Vision and what its Childship in the Natural and Supernaturall life is and how it passeth out of Nature into God and out of God into Nature and Self again also what its salvation perdition is Written in the German Language Anno 1624 By JACOB BEHMEN Alias Teutonious Philosophus LONDON Printed by M. S. for H. Blunden at the Castle in Corn-hill 1648. 1 Cor. 2. 7 8 9 10. We speak the hidden mysticall wisdome of God which God ordained before the world to our glory which none of the Rulers of this world knew c. But as it is written Esay 64. 4. That which no eye hath seene nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man that which God hath prepared for them that love him but God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit For the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God c. OF The super-sensuall life or the life which is above sense In a Dialogue between a Scholer and his Master The Scholar 1. THe Scholler said to his Master How may I come to the super-sensuall life that I may see God and heare him speake The Master His Mastâ—r said when thou canst throw thy selfe but for a moment into that where no creature dwelleth then â—â—ou hearest what God speaketh The Scholar 2. Is that neer at hand or far off The Master It is in thee and if thou canst for a while cease from all thy Thinking and willing thou shalt heare unspeakable words of God The Schoalr 3. How can I heare when I stand still from thinking and willing The Master When thou standest still from the thinking and willing of Selfe then the Eternall hearing seeing and speaking will be revealed in thee and so God heareth and seeth through thee thine owne hearing willing and seeing hindreth thee that thou dost not see nor heare God The Scholar 4. Wherewith shall I heare and see God being hee is above Nature and creature The Master When thou art quiet or filent then thou art that which God was before Nature and Creature and whereof he made thy nature creature then thou hearest and seest with that wherewith God saw and heard in thee before thy own willing seeing and hearing began The Scholar 5. What hindreth or keepeth mee backe that I cannot come to that The Master Thy owne willing hearing and seeing and because thou strivest against that out of which thou art come thou breakest thy selfe off with thy own willing from Gods willing and with thy own seeing thou seest in thy own willing only and thy willing stoppeth thy hearing with thy owne thinking of earthly naturall things and bringeth thee into a ground and overshadoweth thee with that which thou willest so that thou canst not come to that which is super-naturall and super-sensuall The Scholar 6. Being I am in Nature how may I come through Nature into the super-sensual ground without destroying of Nature The Master Three things are requisite here ' the first is thou must resigne thy will to God and sinke thy selfe downe to the ground in his mercy The second is thou must hate thy owne will and not doe that whereto thy owne will driveth thee The third is thou must submit thy selfe under the Crosse that thou maist be able to beare the temptations of Nature and Creature and if thou dost thus God will speake into Thee and bring thy resigned will into himself into the supernatural ground and then thou shalt heare what the Lord speaketh in thee The Scholar 7. I must forsake the world and my life too if I should do thus The Master If thou forsakest the world thou commest into that whereof the world is
made and if thou losest thy life and commest to have thy own power faint then thy life is in that for whose sake thou forsakest it viz. in God from whence it came into the body The Scholar 8. God hath created man in and for the naturall life to rule over all creatures on Earth and to be a Lord over all things in this world and therefore it is reason he should possesse it for his owne The Master If thou rulest over all creatures outwardly only then thy will and ruling is in a Beastiall kinde and is but * an imaginary transitory ruling and thou bringest also thy Desire into a Beastiall Essence whereby thou becommest infected and captivated and gettest also a Beastiall condition but if thou hast left the imaginary condition then thou art in the super-imaginarinesse and rulest over all Creatures in that ground out of which they are created and nothing on Earth can hurt thee for thou art like All-things and nothing is unlike to thee The Scholar 9. O loving Master pray teach me how I may come the shortest way to be like All-things The Master With all my heart doe but thinke on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he said unlesse ye turne and become as children ye shall not see the Kingdome of God now if thou wilt be like All-things thou must forsake All-things and turne thy Desire away from them and not desire them nor extend to possesse that for thy owne which is something For as soone as thou takest something into thy Desire and receivest it into thee for thy own then that something is the same with thy selfe and it worketh with thee in thy will and then thou art bound to protect it and to take care for it as for thy owne Being But if thou receive nothing into thy Desire then thou art free from All-things and rulest over All things at once for thou hast received Nothing for thy own and art Nothing to all things all things are also Nothing to thee thou art as a Child which understandest not what a thing is and though thou dost understand it yet thou understandest it without touching thy perception in that manner which God ruleth and seeth all things in and yet nothing comprehendeth Him Thou didst also desire that I would teach thee how thou mightst attaine it therefore consider the words of Christ who said without me you can do nothing In thy owne power thou canst not come to such rest that no creature should touch thee unlesse thou givest thy selfe wholly up to the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ and resignest thy will and desire wholly to him and willest nothing without him then with thy body thou art in the World in the properties and with thy Reason under the Crosse of our Lord CHRIST but with thy will thou walkest in Heaven and art at the End from whence all creatures are proceeded and to which they go againe and then thou maist behold all things outwardly with Reason and inwardly with the Minde and rule in all things and over all things with Christ to whom all power is given both in Heaven and on Earth The Scholar 10. O Master the creatures that live in me with-hold me that I cannot wholly yeeld and give up my selfe as I willingly would The Master If thy will goeth forth from the Creatures then the creatures are forsaken in thee they are in the world and thy body onely is with the creatures but spiritually thou walkest with God and if thy will leaveth the creatures then the creatures are dead in it and live only in the body in the world and if thy will doe not bring it selfe into them they cannot touch the soule for St. Paul saith Our conversation is in Heaven also you are the Temple of the holy Ghost who dwelleth in you so then the Holy Ghost dwelleth in the will and the creatures dwell in the body The Scholar 11. If the Holy Ghost dwell in the will of the mind how may I keepe my selfe so that hee do not depart from mee The Master Marke the words of our Lord Jesus Christ If you abide in my words then my words abide in you If thou dost abide with thy will in the words of Christ then his word and Spirit abideth in thee but if thy will goeth into the Creatures then thou hast broken off thy selfe from him and then thou canst not any other way keepe thy selfe but by abiding continually in resigned humility and entring into continuall Repentance so that thou art alwayes grieved that creatures live in thee if thou dost thus thou standest in a daily dying from the creatures and in a daily ascending into Heaven in thy will The Scholar 12. O loving Master pray teach mee how I may come into such a continuall Repentance The Master When thou leavest that which loveth thee and lovest that which hateth thee then thou maist abide continually in Repentance The Scholar 13. What is that which I must thus leave The Master Thy creatures in flesh and bloud and all other things that love thee love thee because thy will entertaineth them the will must leave them and account them enemies and the Crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ with the reproach of the world hateth thee which thou must learne to love and take for a daily exercîse of thy Repentance and then thou shalt have continuall cause to hate thy selfe in the creature and to seeke the eternall rest wherein thy will may rest as Christ said in me you have rest but in the world you have Anxiety The Scholar 14. How may I recover in such a Temptation as this The Master If every hour thou dost once throw thy self beyond all Creatures above all sensuall Reason into the meerest mercy of God into the sufferings of our Lord and yieldest thy selfe thereinto then thou shalt receive power to rule over Sinne Death and the Devill over Hell the World and then thou mayst subsist in all Temptations The Scholar 15. Poore man that I am what would become of me if I should attâ—ine with my minde to that where no Creature is The Master His Master said to him very kindly loving Scholar If it were that thy will could breake off it selfe for one houre from all creatures and throw it selfe into that where no creature is it would be over-cloathed with the highest splendor of Gods glory and would tast in it selfe the most sweete love of our Lord Jesus which no man can express and it would finde in it selfe the unspeakable words of our Lord concerning his great mercy It would feele in it selfe that the Crosse of our Lord CHRIST would be very pleasing to it and it would love that more then the Honour and goods of the world The Scholar 16. But what would become of the Body since it must live in the Creature The Master The body would be put into the imitation of our Lord Christ who said his Kingdome was
not of this World it would begin to dye from without and from within from without from the vanity and evill deeds of the world it would be an utter enemie to all Pride and Insolence from within it would dye from all evill Lusts and Envy and would get a minde and will wholly new which would be continually directed to God and Goodness The Scholar 17. But the World would hate and despise it for doing so seeing it must contradict the World and lâ—ve and do otherwise then the World doth The Master It would not take that as any harm done to it but would rejoyce that it is become worthy to be like to the Image of our Lord Christ and be willing to bear that Crosse after our Lord meerely that the Lord might bestow the Influence of his sweete love upon it The Scholar 18. What would become of it when the anger of God from within and the wicked world from without should assault it as happened to our Lord Christ The Master Be that unto it as unto our Lord Christ when he was reproached reviled and crucified by the World and the Priests hee commended his soule into the hands of his Father and so departed from the anguish of this world into the Eternall joy So also it would get forth from the reproach and anguish of all the world and penetrate into it selfe into the great love of God and be sustained and refreshed by the most sweete Name JESUS and see and find in it selfe a new world springing forth through the anger of God then a man should wrap his soul up therein and account all things alike and whether the body be in Hell or on Earth yet his minde is in the greatest love of God The Scholar 19. But how would his body be maintained in the world and how would he maintaine those that are his if he should incur the displeasure of all the world The Master He getteth greater favour then the world is able to bestow for hee hath God and all his Angels for his friends they protect him in all dangers and necessities Also God is his blessing in every thing and though sometime it seem as if God would not bless him it is but for a Tryall to him and the drawing of Gods love that he might the more pray to God and commit all his wayes to him The Scholar 20. But he loseth all his good friends and there will be none to help him in his necessity The Master Yes he getteth the hearts of all his good friends into his possession and loseth none but his enemies who before loved his vanity and wickednesse The Scholar 21. How is it that hee getteth his good friends into his possession The Master He getteth the soules of all those that belong to our Lord Jesus to be his brethren and the members of his own life for the children of God are but one in Christ which one is Christ in all therefore hee getteth them all to be his fellow members in the body of Christ for they have the heavenly goods common and live in one and the same love of God as the branches of a Tree spring from one and the same sap Also he cannot want outward natural friends neither as our Lord Christ did not want such For though the high Priests and Potentates of the would would not love him which belonged not to him nor were his members and brethren yet those loved him that were capable of his words so likewise those that love truth and righteousnesse would love that man and associate themselves to him as Nicodemus did to Christ who came to him by night and in his heart loved Jesus for the truths sake yet outwardly feared the world and thus he shall have many friends that are not known to him The Scholar 22. But it is very grievous to be despised of all the world The Master That which now seemes hard and heavy to thee thou wilt afterwards love it most of all The Scholar 23. How can it be that I should love that which hateth me The Master Though thou lovest the earthly wisdome now yet when thou art over-cloathed with the heavenly wisdome thou wilt see that all the wisdome of the world is but folly and that the world hateth but thy enemy viz. the mortall life and when thou thy selfe comest to hate the will thereof then thou also wilt begin to love that despising of the mortall life The Scholar 24. But how may these two stand together viz. that a man should both love and hate himselfe The Master In loving thy self thou lovest not thy self as thy own but as given from the love of God thou lovest the Divine ground in thee by which thou lovest the Dîvine wisdom Gods works of wonder and thy brethren But in hating thy selfe thou hatest onely that which is thy own wherein evill sticketh close to thee and this thou doest that thou mayest wholly destroy in thee that which thou callest thine when thou sayest I or my selfe doe this or that this thou wouldest wholly destroy in thee that thou mayst become a ground wholly divine Love hareth Self or that which we call I because it is a deadly thing and they two cannot well stand together for love possesseth heaven â—c dwelleth in it self but that which I call I possesseth the world and worldly things and also dwelleth in it selfe and as heaven ruleth the world and as eternity ruleth time so love ruleth over the naturall life The Scholar 25. Loving Master pray tell me wherefore must love and trouble friend and foe be together would not love alone be better The Master If love dwelt not in trouble it could have nothing to love but its substance which it loveth viz. the poore soule being in trouble and pain it hath cause to loue its own substance and to deliver it from pain that it selfe also might be beloved again neither could it be known what love is if it had not something which it might love The Scholar 26. What is the vertue power height and greatnesse of love The Master It s vertue is that nothing whence all things proceed and its power is in and through all things its height is as high as God and its greatnes is greater then God whosoever findeth it findeth nothing all things The Scholar 27. Loving Master pray tell me how I may understand this The Master That I said its vertue is that nothing thou mayst understand thus when thou art gone forth wholly from the creature and art become Nothing to all that is Nature and Creature then thou art in that eternall One which is God himselfe and then thou shalt perceive and feele the highest vertue of Love But that I said its power is in and through all things thou perceivest and findest that in thy own Soul Body when this great love is kindled in thee it will burn more then any fire can doe Thou seest also in all the works of
but all of one kind all are but ONE in Christ as a Tree and its branches are one and yet severall creatures but God All in All. Indeed there will be spirituall knowledge of what every one hath been and what he hath done but no possessing or desire of possessing such things any more The Scholar 49. Shall they all have that eternal joy and glorification alike The Master The Scripture saith Such as the people is such is their God Also it sayth With the holy thou art holy and with the perverse thou art perverse And Saint Paul saith In the resurrection they shall excell one another as the Sun Moon and Stars therefore know they the blessed shall indeed enjoy Divine working but their vertue and illumination shall be very different all according as they have been endued in this life time with power and vertue in their painfull working For the painfull working of the creature in this life time is the opening and begetting of Divine power by which Gods power is made moveable and working Now those that have wrought with Christ in this life time and not in the lust of the flesh shall have great power and excellent glorification in them and upon them but others who have only expected and relyed upon an imputed satisfaction and in the meane while have served their Belly-God and yet at last have turned and obtained grace those I say shall not have so great power and illumination so that there will be as great a difference between them as is between the Sunne Moon and Starres and as is between the flowers of the field in their beauty power and vertue The Scholar 50. How shall the world be judged and by whom The Master With the Divine stirring or Motion by the Person and Spirit of Christ Christ by the word of God which became Man shall separate from himselfe all that belongeth not to Christ and he shall wholly manifest his kingdome in that place where this world is For the separating motion worketh all over through all at once The Scholar 51. Whither shall the Devils and all the damned be thrown when the place of this world is the kingdome of Christ and when ît shall be glorified Shall they be cast out of the place of this world or shall Christ have and manifest his Dominion without the place of this world The Master Hell shall remain in the place of this world every where but hidden to the kingdome of heaven as the Night is hidden in the Day the light shall shine for ever in the darknesse and the darknesse cannot comprehend it And thus the light is the kingdome of Christ and the darknesse is Hell wherein the Devils and the wicked dwell and so they shall be suppressed by the Kingdome of Christ and made a foot-stoole viz. a reproach The Scholar 52. How shall all people and Nations be brought to judgement The Master The eternall word of God out of which every spirituall creaturely life hath come will move it selfe at that houre according to Love and Anger in every life which is come out of the eternity and will draw every creature before the judgment of Christ to be sentenced by this motion of the Word the life will be manifested in all its works and every one shall see and feele its judgement and sentence in it selfe for the judgement shall immediatly in the departure of the body be manifested in the Soule The last judgement is but a return of the spirituall body and a separation of the world when the evill shall be separated from the good in the substance of the world and in the body and every thing enter into its eternall reservatory and is a manifestation of the mystery of God in every substance and life The Scholar 53. How will the sentence be pronounced The Master Here consider the words of Christ He will say unto those on his right hand Come yee blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world For I was hungry and yee gave mee meat I was thirsty and yee gave mee drink I was a stranger and yee tooke me in naked and yee cloathed me I was sick and in prison and yee visited me and came unto me Then shall they answer him sayîng LORD when saw we thee hungry thirsty a stranger naked sick and in prison and ministred unto Thee thus Then shall the King answer and say unto them In as much as yee have done it unto one of the least of these my Brethren yee have done it unto me And unto the wicked on his left hand he will say Depart from me yee cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels For I was hungry thirsty a stranger naked sick and in prison and yee have not ministred to me And they shall also answer him and say When have wee seen thee thus and have not ministred to thee And he will answer them Verily I say unto you Inasmuch as yee have not done it unto one of the least of these yee did it not to MEE And they shall depart into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternall The Scholar 54. Loving Master pray tell me why Christ saith What have you done to the least of these you have done it to me and what you bave not done to them neither have you done it to me And how doth a man this to Christ so as he doth it to himselfe The Master Christ dwelleth really and essentially in the faith of those that wholly yeeld up themselves to him and he giveth them his flesh for food and his bloud for drink and so possesseth the ground of their faith according to the inwardnesse of Man and therefore a Christian is called a branch of the vine Christ and a Christian because Christ dwelleth spiritually in him and whatsoever any shall doe to such a Christian in his bodily necessities that is done to Christ himselfe who dwelleth in him for such a Christian is not his own but is wholly resigned to Christ and is his peculiar possession and therefore it is done to Christ himselfe Therefore also whosoever shall withdraw their hand from such a needy Christian and will not serve him in his necessity they thrust Christ away from themselves and despise him in his members When a poore person that belongeth to Christ asketh any thing of thee and thou deniest it him in his necessity then thou hast denied it to Christ himselfe And whatsoever hurt any shall doe to such a Christian they doe it to Christ himself When any mock reproach revile or reject or thrust away such a one they doe all that to Christ himselfe but he that receiveth him giveth him meat and drinke cloatheth him and assisteth him in his necessities he doth it to Christ himselfe and to the fellow members of his own Body nay thus he doth it to himseâ—fe if he be a Christian for we
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
cunning knowledge subtilty and getting a multitude of naturall things no righteousnesse nor vertue remained in it at all but whatsoever evill and wrong it committed the soule covered it cunningly and subtilly under the cloak of its power and authority Law and called it by the name of Right and Justice and accounted it good The Devil came to the soule Upon this the Devill drew neere to the soule and brought it on from one vice to another for hee had taken it captive in his Essence and did set joy and pleasure before it therein and said to the soule Behold now thou art powerfull mighty and noble endeavour to be greater richer and more powerfull still use thy knowledg wit and subtilty that every one may feare thee and stand in awe of thee and that thou maist be respected and get a great name in the world The soule did so The soule did as the Devill counselled it and yet knew not that it was the Devill but thought it was its owne knowledge wit and understanding and that it selfe did very well right all this while Jesus Christ met with the soule The soule going on in this course of life our deare and loving Lord Jesus Christ with the love and wrath of God who was come into this world to destroy the works of the Devill and to execute Judgement upon all ungodly workes at a Time hee met with the soule and spake by a strong power viz. by his Passion and Death into the soule and destroyed the works of the Devill in it and discovered the way to his Grace to the soule and did shine upon it with his Mercy calling it back to returne and repent and then hee would deliver it from that monstrous deformed shape vizard or Image which it had gotten and bring it into Paradise againe How Christ wrought in the soule Now when the sparke of the love of God or the Divine light was manifested in the soule it presently saw it selfe with its will and workes to bee in Hell in the wrath of God and found that it was a mishapen ugly Monster in the presence of God and the kingdom of Heaven at which it was so affrighted that the greatest anguish awaked in it for the judgment of God was manifested in it What Christ said Upon this the Lord Christ spake into it with the voyce of his grace and said Repent and forsake vanity and thou shalt attaine my grace What the soule dâ—â— Then the soule in its ugly mishapen image with the deâ—â—ed 〈◊〉 of vanity went before God and entreated for grace and the pardâ—â— of its sinnes and was strongly perswaded in iâ— selfe that the satisfaction and â—tonement of our Lord Jesus Christ did belong to it But the evill properties of the Seâ—pent formed in the Astrall Spirit would not suffer the will of the soule to come before God but brought their Lusts and Inclinations thereinto For those evill properties would not dye to their own Lusts nor leave or forsake the world for they were come out of the world and therefore they feared the shame of the world in case they should forsake their worldly honour and glory But the poore soul turned its countenance to God and desired grace from God viz. that God would bestow his love upon it The Devill came to it again But when the Devill saw that the soule thus prayed to God and would enter into Repentance he drew neere to the soule and thrust the inclinations of the Earthly properties into its prayers and disturbed the good thoughts and desires which pressed forward towards God and drew them back again to earthly things that they might have no accesse to God The soule sighed The will of the soule sighed after God but the Thoughts arising in the Mind that should penetrate into God were destroyed scattered and distracted so that they could not reach the power of God the poore soule was more affrighted at this that it could not bring its desires into God and began to pray more earnestly but the the Devill with his desire took hold of the Mercuriall-kindled-fiery wheele of life and awakened the evill properties so that evill or false inclinations arose and went into that thing wherein they had taken pleasure and delight before The poor soule would very fain goe forward to God with its will and therefore used all its endeavours but all its thoughts fled away from God into earthly things and would not goe to God The soule sighed and bewailed it selfe to God but it was as if it were quite clean forsaken and cast out from the presence of God it could not get so much as one looke of grace but was in meer anguish and also in great fear and terrour and supposed every moment that the wrath and severe judgement of God would be manifested in it and that the Devill would take hold of it and have it and so fell into such great heavinesse and sorrow that it became weary of all the joy and pleasure it took in temporal things though it were never so delighted with them before The Earthly naturall will desired those things still but the soule would willingly leave them altogether and desired to dye to all temporall Lust and Joy and longed only after its first native Country from whence it came originally but it found it selfe to be farre from thence also in great distresse and want and knew not what to doe yet resolved to enter into it selfe and still stir it selfe up to pray more earnestly The Devils opposition But the Devill opposed it and withheld it that it could not bring it selfe into any greater fervency or Repentance The Devil awaked the earthly lusts in its heart that the inclinations might stil keep their evill nature and set them at ods against the will and desire of the soule for they would not dye to their own will and light but would stil maintain their temporal pleasures and so kept the poore soule captive in their evill desires that it could not stirre though it sighed and longed never so much for the grace of God for whensoever the soule prayed or offered to presse forwards towards GOD then the iusts of the flesh swallowed up the rayes and ejaculations that went forth from the soule brought them away from God into earthly thoughts that the soule might not partake of divine strength and then the soule thought it selfe forsaken of God and knew not that God was so neere it and did thus draw it Also the Devill drew neere it and entred into the fiery Mercury or fiery wheele of its life and mingled his desires with the earthly lusts of the flesh and mocked the poore soule and sayd to it in the earthly thoughts Why dost thou pray Dost thou think that God knoweth thee or regardeth thee Consider but what thoughts thou hast in thee in his presence are they not altogether evill thou hast no faith or beliefe in God at all how then should he heare
thee He heareth thee not leave off wherefore wilt thou thus needlesly torment and vex thy selfe thou hast time enough to repent at leasure wilt thou be mad Doe but look upon the world I pray thee a litle doth it not live in jollity mirth yet it will be saved well enough for all that Hath not Christ payd the Ransome and satisfied for all men Thou needest doe no more but perswade and comfort thy selfe that it is done for thee and then thou shalt be saved Thou canst not possibly in this world come to have any feeling of God therefore leave off and take care for thy body and look after temporall glory what dost thou suppose will become of thee if thou turn to be so melancholy and senslesse Thou wilt be the scorn of every body and they will laugh at thy folly and so thou wilt spend thy dayes in nothing but sorrow and heavinesse which is pleasing neither to God nor Nature Prethee look upon the beauty of the world for God hath created thee in the world to be a Lord over all creatures to rule them gather store of temporal goods before hand that thou mayst not stand in need of the world and when old age commeth or that thou growest neere thy end then prepare thy selfe for Repentance God will save thee and receive thee into the heavenly Mansions there is no need of such adoe in vexing bewailing and stirring up thy selfe as thou makest The condition of the soule In these and the like thoughts the soule was ensnared by the Devill and brought into the lusts of the flesh and earthly desires and so as it were bound with â—etters and great chaines and did not know what to doe it looked a little back into the world and the pleasures thereof but still felt in it selfe a hunger after Divine grace and would rather alwayes enter into repentance and come into favour with God for the hand of God had touched it and bruised it and therefore it could rest no where but alwayes fighed in it self after sorrow for the sins it had committed and would faine be rid of them but could not get true repentance much lesse the knowledge of sinne and yet had such a hunger and longing desire after repentance and sorrow for sin The soule being thus heavy and sad and finding no remedy nor rest bethought it selfe where to find a place to perform true repentance in and when it might be free from businesse cares and the hinderances of the world also by what meanes it might obtain the favour of God and therefore purposed to betake it self to some private solitary place and give over all worldly imployment and temporall things and thought in being bountifull and pitifull to the poore that God would have mercy upon it and sought out all kind of wayes to get rest and to get the love favour and grace of God again But all would not doe for all its worldly businesse followed it in the lusts of the flesh and it was ensnared in the net of the Devill now as well as before and could not get rest and though for some little while it was a little cheered with earthly things yet presently it fell to be as sad and heavie again for it felt the awakened wrath of God in it selfe and knew not how that came to passe nor what it ayled for many times great fear and temptations fell upon it which made it comfortlesse sick and â—aint with very fear so mightily did the first bruising it with the Ray or Influence of the stirring of grace work upon the soul yet it knew not that Christ was in its the wrath and severe Justice of God and sought with Satan that spirit of Error that was incorporated in soule and body and understood not that the hunger and desire to turn and repent came from Christ himselfe by which the soule was drawn in this manner neither did it know what hindered that it could not yet attain to Divine feeling it knew not that it selfe was a monster and did bear the Image of the Serpent in which the Devill had such power and accesse to the soule and in which Image he had confounded all its good desires thoughts motions and brought theÌ„ away from God and goodnesse concerning which Christ sayd the Devill snatcheth the word out of their hearts lest they should beleeve and be saved An enlightned and regenerate soul met the distressed soul. By the providence of God an enlightned and regenerate soule met this poore afflicted and distressed soule and sayd The enlightned soul sayd What aylest thou thou distressed soule that thou art so restlesse and troubled The distressed soule answered The Creator hath hid his countenance from me so that I cannot come to his rest and therefore I am thus troubled know not what I shall doe to get his loving kindnesse again for great Cliffes and Rockes lye in my way to his Grace that I cannot come to him though I long after him never so much yet I am kept back that I cannot partake of his power vertue and strength though I sigh and long and wait for him The enlightned soule sayd Thou bearest the monstrous shape of the Devill viz. the Serpent and art cloathed therewith in which the Devill hath an entrance into thee being his owne property and therein hee keepeth thy will from penetrating into God for if thy will might penetrate into God it would be anoynted with the highest power and strength of God in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and that unction would then break in peeces that monster which is in thee and thy first Image of Paradise would be manifested in thee again and then the Devil must lose his power in thee and thou wouldst become an Angel again And because the Devil doth envie thee this happinesse he holdeth thee captive in his desire in the lusts of the flesh from which if thou beest not delivered thou wilt be separated from God and canst never enter into our society The distressed soul terrified At this speech the poore distressed soule was so terrified and amazed that it could not speak one word more when it perceived it was in the shape and Image of the Serpent which separated the soule from God and that the Devill was so nigh it in that Image and did mingle evill thoughts in the will of the soule and had so much power over it thereby and that it was so neere damnation and stuck fast in the Abysse or bottomlesse pit of hell in the anger of God that it would have despaired of the grace of God but that the power vertue and strength of the first stirring of the grace of God that bruised the soule upheld it that it despaired not and so the soule wrastled in it self between hope and doubt whatsoever hope built up that doubt threw downe againe and so was in such continuall disquietnesse that at last the world and all the glory thereof was
loathsome to it neither would it enjoy the pleasures of this world any more and yet for all this could not come to rest The enlightned soule came againe At a time the enlightned soule came againe to this soule and finding it in so great trouble anguish and griese of mind said to it what dost thou wilt thou destroy thy selfe in thy anguish and sorrow why dost thou torment thy selfe in thy owne Power and will who art but a worme seeing thy torment increaseth thereby more and more yea if thou shouldst sink thy selfe downe to the bottome of the Sea or couldest flie to the uttermost coasts of the Morning or raise thy selfe up above the Starres yet thou wouldst not be released for the more thou greevest tormentest and troublest thy selfe the more painfull thy nature will be and yet thou canst not come to Rest for thy power is quite lost and as a drie withered stick burnt to a cole cannot grow green spring afresh by its own power nor get sap to flourish againe with other Trees and Plants so thou also canst not reach the place of God by thy owne power and strength and transform thy self into thy first Angelical Image againe which thou hadst for in respect of God thou art withered and drie like a withered drie Cole-wort or plant that hath lost its sap and strength and so art become a drie tormenting Hunger thy properties are like heate and cold continually striving one against the other and can never agree The distressed soule said What then shall I doe to bud forth againe and recover my first Life which I had wherein I was at Rest before I became an Image The enlightned soule said Thou shalt doe nothing at all but forsake thy owne will viz. that which thou callest I or thy selfe and thereby all thy evill properties will grow weake and faint and read eâ—to die and then thou wilt sinke downe again into that one thing from which thou art sprung Originally for now thou lyest captive in the Creatures and if thy wil forsaketh them the creatures with their evill inclinations will die in thee which for the present stay and hinder thee that thou canst not come to God but if thou doest thâ—s thy God will meete thee with his infinite love which he hath manifested in Christ Jesus in the Humanitie and that will impart sap life and vigour to thee that thou mayst bud spring and flourish againe and rejoyce in the living God as a branch growing upon his true vine and so thou wilt recover also the Image of God be delivered from the Image of the Serpent and then thou shalt come to be my brother and have fellowship with the Angels The poore soule said How can I forsake my will that the creatures which lodge therein may die seeing I must be in the world and also have need of it so long as I live The enlightned soule said Now thou hast temporall honour and worldly goods which thou possessest as thy owne to doe what thou wilt with them also the pleasure of the flesh and thou regardst not what thou doest therein or how thou gettest them and though thou seest the poore and needie who wanteth thy help and is thy brother yet thou helpest him not but layest heavie burdens upon him by requiring more of him then his necessities will beare and vexest him in forcing him to take paines and labour for thee and thou takest pleasure therein and besides thou art proud and infultest over him and art rough crabbed and sterne to him and exaltest thy selfe above him and makest small account of him in respect of thy selfe and then that poore vexed brother of thine cometh and figheth towards God that hee cannot take the benefit of his labour and paines but is forced by thee to live in Miserie and so with his sighings and groanings he raiseth up the wrath of God in thee which maketh thy flame and unquietnesse or thy unsatisfied desire greater and greater These are the creatures which thou art in love with and hast broken thy selfe off from God for their sakes and brought thy love into them or set thy love upon them and so they live in thy Love and thou nourishest and keepest them by thy continuall receiving them into thy Desire for they live in and by thy receiving of them into thy mind in that thou bringest the lust of thy life into them which are but uncleane filthie evill beasts which in thy receiving of them in thy lust have gotten an Image and formed themselves in thee and that Image is a Beast having foure evill inclinations First Pride Secondly Covetousnesse Thirdly Envie Fourthly Anger and in these foure properties the foundation of Hell consisteth which thou carriest in thee and about thee and it is imprinted and ingraven in thee and thou art quite taken captive therewith for these properties live in thy owne life and thereby thou art severed from God neither canst thou ever come to God unlesse thou so forsake these evill creatures that they may die in thee But since thou desirest I should tell thee how to forsake thy own perverse creaturly will that the creatures might die and that yet thou mighst live with them in the world I tell thee that there is but one way to doe it which is narrow and strait and it will be very troublesome and irkesome to thee at the first beginning to walke in it but afterwards thou wîlt walk in it cheerefully Thou must rightly consider that in the course of this worldly life thou walkest in the anger of God and in the foundation of Hell and that this is not thy true native Countrie and that a Christian should and must live in Christ and in his walking truly follow him and that hee cannot be a Christian unlesse the Spirit and power of Christ so live in him that hee becometh wholly subject to it now being the Kingdome of Christ is not of this world but in Heaven therefore thou must alwaies be in a continuall ascension towards Heaven if thou wilt follow Christ though thy bodie must dwell among the creatures and use them The narrow way to this perpetuall ascension into Heaven and the Imitation of Christ is this thou must despaire of all thy owne power and strength for in and by thy owne power thou canst not reach the gates of God and firmely purpose and resolve wholly to give thy selfe up to the mercie of God and also resolve to sinke downe with thy whole mind and reason into the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ alwaies desiring to persevere therein and to die from all thy creatures therein also thou must resolve to turne away thy mind and lusts from all receiving of evill into them and not suffer thy selfe to be held fast by temporall honour and profit and thou must resolve to put away from thee all unrighteousnesse and whatsoever else may hinder thee thy will must bee wholly pure and
if it would wholly yeeld it selfe to death and cease to be a creature any more and so did yeeld it selfe to death and desired nothing else but to dye and perish in the death of its Redeemer Jesus Christ who had suffered such torments and death for its sāke and in this perishing it began to sigh and pray in it selfe very inwardly to the mercy of God and to sink down into the meerest mercy of God Upon this there appeared unto it the amiable countenance of the love of God and penetrated through it as a great light by which it grew exceeding joyfull and began to pray aright and to thank the most high for this grace and to rejoyce exceedingly that it was delivered from the death and anguish of Hell and there it tasted of the sweetnesse of God and of his promised truth And in that very instant all evill spirits which had afflicted it before and kept it back from the grace love and inward presence of God were forced to depart from it and the wedding of the Lamb was kept and solemnized with the espousing or contracting of the Noble Sophia with the Soule and the Seal-ring of Christs victory was impressed or printed or set upon its substance or into its essence and it was received to be a child and heire of God again When this was done the soule became very joyfull and began to work in this power and to celebrate with praise the wonders of God thought henceforth to walk continually in this power strength and joy but it was assaulted from without or outwardly by the shame and reproach of the world and within by great temptation so that it began to doubt whether its ground were from God or no and whether it had really and truly partaken of the grace of God or no for the Accuser or Satan went to it and would lead it out of this way and make it doubtfull of its way and sayd to it inwardly The Accuser or Satan spake to the Soule saying It is not of God it is but thy Imagination Also the Divine Light retired in the soule and shone but in the inward ground as light in Embers or fire raked up in ashes so that Reason was solly to it selfe and thought it selfe forsaken and the soule knew not what had happened to it selfe nor whether it were true that it had tasted the Divine Light of Grace or not and yet it could not leave off strugling for the burning fire of love was sowne in it by which there arose in it a great hunger and thirst after the Divine sweetnesse and now at length began to pray aright and to humble it self in the presence of God and to examine and trie its evill inclinations in its thoughts and to put them away by which the will of reason was broken and the evill inbred innate or native inclinations were killed and destroyed more and more And this was very wofull to the nature of the bodie for it made it faint feeble and weake as if it had been very sick and yet it was no naturall sicknesse that it had but it was the Melancholy of the eatthly Nature of the bodie because its evill lusts were destroyed And when the earthly Reason found it self thus forsaken the poore soule saw that it was derided outwardly and despised by the world because it would now walke no more in the way of the wicked and ungodly and that it was inwardly assaulted by the Accuser Satan who also mocked it and continually set before it the beautie Riches and glorie of the world and esteemed the soule foolish that embraced them not which made the soule thinke thus with it selfe O Eternall God! what shall I now doe to come to Rest The Enlightned soule met it again While it was in this consideration the enlightned soule met with it againe and said What ailest thou my brother that thou art so heavie and sad The distressed soule said I have followed thy counsell and thereby attained a ray looke or glimps of the Divine sweetnesse but it is gone from me againe and I am now forsaken and outwardly have very great tryalls and afflictions in the world for all my good friends forsake me and scorne me and also inwardly I am assaulted with Anguish and doubt and I know not what to doe The enlightned soul sayd Now I like thee very well for now our beloved Lord Jesus Christ walketh in his pilgrimage on earth with thee and in thee as he did himselfe when he was in this world being alwayes reviled slandered and evill spoken of and had nothing of his own and now thou bearest his mark or Ensigne but doe not wonder at it nor think it strange for it must be so that thou must be tried refined and purified In this anguish and distresse thou shalt have often cause to pray and hunger after deliverance and in thy hunger and thirst thou attractest grace to thee from within and from without For thou must grow from above and from beneath to be the image of God again And as a young plant is stirred by the wind and must stand in heat and cold drawing strength and vertue to it from above and from beneath by that stirring and must endure many a tempest and undergoe much danger before it can come to be a tree and bring forth fruit for in that stirring the vertue of the Sunne commeth to move in it whereby the wild properties of that plant come to be penetrated and tinctured or qualified with the vertue of the Sun and grow thereby And now is the time wherein thou must behave thy selfe as a valiant Souldier in the Spirit of Christ and cooperate with it thy selfe For now the eternall Father by his fiery power begetteth his Sonne in thee who changeth the fire of the Father or the wrath into the flame of love so that out of fire and light viz. wrath and love there commeth to be one Essence Being or Substance which is the true Temple of God and now thou shalt bud forth out of the vine Christ in the vineyard of Jesus Christ and bring forth fruit in thy life and teaching of others and shew forth thy love in abundance as a good Tree For paradise must thus spring up again in thee through the wrath of God and Hell be changed into Heaven in thee Therefore be not troubled at the temptations of the Devill for he striveth for the kingdome which he had in thee and having lost it once he must be confounded and depart from thee therfore he coveres◠thee outwardly with the shame and disgrace of the world that his own shame may not be known and that thou mayst be hidden to the world for with thy New-birth or regeneration thou art in the divine harmony in heaven therefore be patient and wait upon the Lord and whatsoever shall befall thee take it from the hands of the Lord as intended by him for thy best good And so the enlightned
soule departed from it The distressed soules course This distressed soul began its course now under the patient suffering of Christ and entred into hope in Divine confidence and from day to day grew stronger and stronger and its evill inclinations dyed moâ—e and more in it so that it came to be set in a great dominion or kingdome of grace and the gates of the divine revelation and the kingdome of heaven were opened and manifested in it viz. in the soule And thus the soule in faith returned to its true rest and became a child of God again to which God help us all Amen The end THis foregoing Discourse concerning Illumination is called by the Authour A Dialogue between the enlightned and the unenlightned Soule as it is set down in the Catalogue of his works AN APPENDIX to a large treatise of ELECTION Which Treatise is dated February 9. 1623. This Appendix is A Compendium of Repentance OR A short Description of the Key which openeth the Divine Mysteries and leadeth to the knowledge of them Dated also February 9. 1623. Written in the German Language Anno 1624 By JACOB BEHMEN LONDON Printed by M. S. for H. Blunden at the Castle in Corne-hill 1648. To the Reader IN The Authors Treatise of Election the ground of all doubts in any Soule about Election is laid down which wil resolve them all that they may see their condition and find the way to attain the election if they have not yet atained it And in this short Treatise is the practise of every soule in repentance set down which will lead to the understanding of Divine mysteries in such a way as that the soule may get so much of the heavâ—ly divine treasure hidden in them as it shall perceive it standeth in need of To that end this labour is taken for thee by J. S. A Compendium of Repentance Whosoever will attain to divine vision in himself and speak with God in Christ let him follow this course and he shall attain in 1. LET him gather all his thoughts and reason together and all his mind into this one imagination take a strong purpose and resolution in himselfe to consider what he is being the Scripture calleth him the the Image of God the Temple of the holy Ghost who dwelleth in him and a member of Christ and offereth the flesh and bloud of Christ to him to be his meat and drink 2. He must consider himselfe in his life whether he be capable of so great grace and worthy of so high a Title as that of a Christian and begin to examine his whole life and think with himself what he hath done and how he hath spent all his time and examine whether he findeth himselfe to be in Christ whether he hath a godly will or holy desires in him or no or to what he is inclined or whether he find at any time in himselfe a will or desire heartily panting after God and goodnesse and so would fain bee saved 3 And if he find in himselfe a will never so weak deeply hidden which would fain turn to the grace of God if it could let him know that that will is the ingrafted incorporated and in-spoken word of God in Paradise after sinne was committed and that the God JEHOVAH viz. the Father doth draw him thereby still to Christ for in selfe we have no will at all to obedience 4. But that drawing of the Father viz. the ingrafted incorporated inspoken word draweth all eveu the most ungodly if he be not altogether a Thistle if hee will but stand stil froÌ„ his evil working for a moment 5 So that none have cause to doubt of the grace of God if at any time he once find in himselfe a desire or inclination to turn 6. And let that party not defer his turning one moment but as it is written To day when you shall heare the voyce of the Lord harden not your eares and hearts 7 For that desire or inclination once to turn is the voyce of God in man which the Devill covereth and shutteth up by the Species representations or Images which he bringeth into the mind whereby turning is delayed and put off from one day to another and from one yeare to another till at length the soule commeth to be a very Thistle and can reach grace no more 8 But let him that findeth a desire to turn take it into his heâ—rty confideration to examine his whole course of life and lay it to the ten commandements and to the love which is required by the Gospel which commandeth him to love his neighbour as himselfe and consider that he is a child of grace onely in Christs love and see how farre he is departed from it and what his daily practIce desire and inclination is and then that drawing of the Father will bring him into the righteousnesse of God and shew him the Images that are imprinted in his heart which he hath loved in stead of God and still accounteth them to be his best treasure 9 Which Images he shall find to be 1. Pride in liking and loving himselfe and desiring to be honored by all others also an image inclining him to get power and dominion in his pride that he might be honoured above all others 2. An Image of a Swine Covetousnesse which would have all to it selfe onely and if it had the whole world and heaven too yet it would have the dominion in hell also desiring more then this temporall life hath need of and hath no faith towards God in it but is a defiled Swine that desireth to swallow all things into it selfe 3. An Image of Envie stinging the hearts of all others envying and grudging that any other should have more temporall goods and honour then it selfe hath 4. An Image of anger which when envy as a poyson dwelleth in it will upon any very little or frivolous occasion storm fight wrangle and be furious and will revenge it selfe Also there will be found a multitude yea thousands of earthly beasts to be in him which he loveth and fostereth sor he loveth every thing that is in the world and hath set it in the stead of Christ and honoureth it more then he doth God Let him but observe the words of his mouth and see how his lips slander upbraid and speak evill of others secrerly and setteth them forth in the worst sense and giving others the worst character to their fellows associats and familiar friends and often back bite without any sure ground or cause rejoycing at his neighbours mishap or the evill that commeth upon him and wishing it to him All which are the pawes and ginnes slights or tricks of the Devill and the Image of the Serpent which man beareth in him 10. And let him compare all this with the word in the Law and in the Gospel and he shall find that hee is more a beast and a Devill then a man and shall clearly see how these here ditary imprinted ingraved or
meere gift of God given not for my sake onely but for your sakes also and for all theirs that shall get to read it 16. Let none gaze any longer after the time it is alreadie borne or begun whomsoever it hitteth him it hitteth hee that watcheth seeth it and he that sleepeth seeth it not the time is alreadie appeared and shall suddenly appeare more hee that watcheth he shall see it many have already felt it but a very great tribulation and calamity must passe over before it be wholly manifested The cause of which misery and calamity is the contention of the Learned who tread the cup of Christ under their feet and contend about a child with a contention then which there was never worse since men were that must be manifested therefore let no honest man defile himselfe with such contentions there is a fire from the Lord therein that shall consume them and himselfe reveale the Truth 17. You shall receive of Mr. Walter what he hath more especially a Table with an Exposition of it wherein the whole ground of all Mysteries is plainly laid down And so I commend you sir to the love of JESUS CHRIST Dated the 20. of April Anno 1624. Your Servant in the love of CHRIST JACOB BEHMEN AN EXPLICATION OF Some words in the writings of JACOB BEHMEN Turba Magna 1. THE Turba Magna the great Turba is the stirred and awakened wrath of the inward ground when the foundation of Hell is made manifest in the Spirit of this world from whence great plagues and diseases arise And it is also the awakened wrath of the outward nature as may bee seen in great tempests of Thunder and lightning when the fire is manifested or generated in water In briefe it is the effusion of the Anger of God by which Nature is disturbed Ternarius 2. By the word Ternarius the Ternary or number three in the Language of Nature we understand the Divine Birth or Propagation in the six formes or properties of Nature which are the six Seales of God Ternarius Sanctus 3. The Ternarius Sanctus or holy Ternary is the Inward heavenly working power in that Substance wherein the Trinity of God worketh and so I understand thereby an Essentiall power and the Number Three or Trinity in the seven formes or Properties wherein also the Angelicall world is comprehended Tria Principia The three Principles Primum Principium The first Principle 4. By the first Principle is meant the Eternall Darknesse which consisteth in the receivingnesse of the Properties whence feelingnesse ariseth and its ground extendeth as farre as to Fire in order of the seven Properties fire being the fourth property into which its ground reacheth by which ground we meane the Eternall Nature and the wrath of God according to which God is said to be a zealous Angry Jealous God and a consuming fire Secundum Principium The second Principle 5. By the second Principle is meant the Light and the Angelicall powrefull World in which the effluence of the Divine Power and Will doth manifest it selfe by the Magicall Fire in the Light with the flaming fire of love by this is meant the Kingdome of God according to which God is said to be a loving mercifull God and the Eternall goodnesse and Light Tertium Principium The third Principle 6. By the third Principle is meant the visible produced and created world with all its hosts which is an effluence out of the first and second Principle caused by the motion and breathing forth of the Divine Power and will in which the spirituall world as to Light and Darknesse is represented and come to be a creature Tincture 7. By the Word Tincture is meant the power and vertue of Fire and Light and the stirring up or putting forth like a bud of this vertue is called the holy and pure Element the vertue of the Sunne is the Tincture of all things that grow and live in the visibility of the world so also the colour is the Tincture of the ground Christ â—s the Tincture of the soule in briefe the Tincture is the life and the perfluent and informing vertue by which any thing doth subsist for without the Tincture that proceedeth from the Sunne Gold were no Gold and so also the Image of God in the soule without the true Tincture the Eternall Sun of Righteousnesse were not the Image of God CHRISTUS Christ. 8. By the Word Christ is meant the inward new man in the Spirit of Christ understood inwardly Satan 9. By the word Satan is meant the Spirit of errour in us and not alwayes a creaturely Devill but the property of such an erroneous Spirit The end COncerning the Authors life the Reader may finde some information in the Preface to his 40. Questions of the Soul in English And at the end of that Book a Catalogue of his other Writings * * Or Worke. * * Or put a a Larva or monstrous shape b b Or by c c Or modell d d Or obtaine a drawing * * Or a way to conversion a a Or in b b As its nutriment c c Or represent or set before himself d d De caâ—ed e e Or blowne out * * Or beings f f Or Step-child g g Barren or unprofitable h h I that which is called I or my self k k Or dying sparke ready to goe out l l Or I or I-hood or Inesse that which wee meane when we say 't is I. m m Or Bowe a a Or processes b b Or dumb c c Vertuous pious or godly life * * Or the Divine wisedome * * Or way ††Iericho a a Or disappeared ‖ ‖ Or Regeneration * * Or Divine wisedome d d In Paradise e e Having it manife sted in them f f The vineger or dreggs g g Processe or journey h h Or Time i i Bound end or full filling k k Or victorize l l Fortresse Castle or den m m Or â—nsigne n n pearlâ—ree or tree of faith o o His conscience is a sleepe still p p Triall or temtation q q Or Dawning ‖ ‖ Or eternal wisedome s s Or selfehood * * The Image * * Or aâ— guide ‖ ‖ The inward starres costellations in our bodies a a Or evill desires b b Gole or marke * * In virginali sapientiâ ‖ ‖ Or in thy sight c c Or sinck * * For. e e Or Valley f f Or journey g g Or vilenesse h h My enemies i i Or shame k k My enemies l l Or Day-breake * * Shineth through or coâ—â—ureth ‖ ‖ Or the divine wisedome * * Sporteth o o Or into p p Division corruption or breaking asunder ‖ ‖ Or processe or course that he hath taken * * Or calling ††Sensing * * Or Vomb which bringeth forth fire * * Or false o o The
creatures * * Or the creature * * Or false * * Or barren * * Into outward Reason * Or of hidden my steries * * Or false o o Or fruitlesse or barren * * Essences or substances o o The. earnest zeale p p Or prompteth it Note what true faith is * * Carv'd work * * Or durable * * Or childship * * Or false * * Or being * * or essence * * or Abysse o o Or Turba magna the Curse * * Mischief or hurt * * Or conceive o o Or perse vereth * * Or childship * * Renewed mind * * Or intarnation * * Or fleshly lust * * Or Lilly-twig * * Or property of anger o o Is the trouble that is upon the face of the earth light in his children * * Is the Divine * * Or genera teth * * or original * * light and darknesse a a generateth or begette h. b b Or property * * Or properties in the eternall nature * * Or into a a Or things b b a coneoction or a kind of seed which containeth aell the thing hath from whence it is c c or out-spoken or expressed d d Or creating word * * Or concordance * * Or consisteth * * Or Astrnm * * Or astrum * * harmony or concordance * * Or Constellation * * Stomach and guts * * or in * * Or Beget * See Limbus before * * Or propagation * * That which when we are dead is meat for worms * * stars or astra * * Or Stars * * Or shine forth * * Or Limit * * Viz. The wisdom of God * * Or beliefe See the 3 prinples cap. 16. from verse 47. to verse 51. * * Note Christ is the merit * * Or ab extra * * Nature or substance or seed * * The vertue power or Spirit of Christ. * * Or ground * * Or Ministery * * Or Ministery * * Or voyce * Forgivenes or remission of my sins Or Satisfaction * * Law or OrdinaÌ„ce * * Or branch bud or sprout b b Or we in him * * a Divine in holy orders * * Or Husk * * Or churlish * * Or greeting a a or coÌ„ference b b or diciple I. How men may come to the supersensual Life * * or an houre II. How men must and may rule over all creatures can bee like all things * * Imagelkie * * Imagelike III. How men may come to continuall repentance subsist in temptation * * Feedeth nourisheth or preserveth * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * * or by IV. How love and sorrow stand together in one and what Love is what its power vertue height and goodnesse is where it dwelleth in man also the neer est way to attain it * * Here is meant the manifestation of the Deity in the glorious eternall Light of the Divine Essâ—â—â—â— * * Love * * viz. in thy own will * * Or Brighter * * powerfull virtuall or strengthening * * V. whither the blessed and damned soules goe when they depart and how Heaven and Hell is in man * * Or evil Impressed VI. where the Angels Devils dwell in this worlds time how far Heaven and Hell are asunder and what and whence the Angels and soules are * * Or Revealed * * Or piece or slip or grift or sience VII What the body of man is and why the Soule is capable of receiving good and evill VIII Of the perishing of the world of mans body in and after the Resurrection where Heaven and Hel shal be of the last Iudgement and wherfore strife in the Creature must be * * false * * such a thing as hath all figures colours and vertues and yet transparent * * See the 40. questions of the soule 21. question 12. verse * * or receiving or using or enjoying * * or illustration * * Or sentence * * in or upon * served or helped * See the latter end of the answer following * * or the inward man * * Or serve him * * Or Image-like or graven Image * * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts. 19. 19. * * In the time from the fall to the resurrection a a The power that is in the fire or root of the Creature by which it is what it is by which the b b Smith Artificer or workman doth work * * or the Artificer in the fire * * like a â—andle extinguished * * Or Aerial Spirit or thereason of the outward man * * Or false na turall right * * Colewort o o or humane Natre * * or vizard * * Or goods * * Or journey * * or the love of God shed abroad in all our hearts * * Or imparâ— * * The Mysterium Magnum * * Mat. 23. 37. * * Or the Word or wisdome of God crying in the streets * * Or their Latine which they speake * * Jura * * from or by * * This foreâ—ing Book that the Author mentioneth is the â—â—ok of Repentance the Book of Resignation and â—e Book of Regeneration for no more of them â—ere printed in his life time * * Or the longer the better beloved ††Praxis * * viz. my writings