contentious disputing Babel of the light of the Gospel and art now the well-fatted Sodom 9. And know for certaine that the Lord for a farewell hath now sent thee two Angells one hath the Truth in him and bids Loth with his daughters to goe out from Sodom and the other hath the Severe judgement and hath now at last sifted thee and turned thy inward Signature outward and set it before the Lord and thy Murtherous * Thy Cain-like crying for ruine upon others The pregnant brand of hypocriticall Cain or the seeming holy Antichrist in Babel Cry is come up before the Most High and it is exceeding great He hath sent his Angel to destroy thee and to overturne the Cities 10. Thy Signature wherewith thou art outwardly marked is the great covetousnesse and envie together with thy evill ammunition-money and thy great Wrathfullnesse of thy Oppression of the poore and miserable in that thy covetousnesse hath scrued it selfe aloft desiring to devoure all into it selfe whence thy great enhancement of all mens * Whence the scarcity and deernesse of Commodities doe arise Also the neglect of the poore and miserable desperately forlorn in body and soule a crying sinne Necessaries is risen 11. But thou saist now it is good and prosperous the Sunne is risen upon me and shineth on my purse so that I can fill it as I please it is a good and fine time for me it shall now be good I shall surely enjoy it and arise in high authority and be respected 12. But heare now what at present the sound of the Trumpet declareth it saith Goe out from Sodom the Anger of the Lord is enkindled the Sunne is risen in Love and Anger this wee will not hide from you the Angel of truth hath now already taken Loths daughters together with the father and his wife by the hand and bids them goe out it is time this thou shalt soon see by wofull experience 13. For the Angel of Anger hath also taken thee into judgement and therefore thou art so wrathfull covetous murtherous and wicked doe but behold thy selfe whether we speake Truth thou gettest to thy selfe much to spend in thy Signature yet thou haste a store-house or provision in the Abysse he that can see let him see in whom there is but the least inckling of the Trumpets sound let him goe out of Sodom there is no longer any tarrying c. Mysterium Magnum Chap. 43. 67. BY this Figure this present world may behold it self for as certaine and as true the Preaching of Loth was true and the punishment followed thereupon so certainly shall the punishment also of the sixt Seales-time which seale is even now at hand and hath already opened it selfe suddenly follow 68. But that the warning hereof came so long agoe declareth and sheweth that the time of the sixt Seale in its Manifestation is the most wonderfull of all the six Seales till the Seventh Seale which is yet more wonderfull for it is the end of this world and the last judgement 70. The hardned * Ensnared or apprehended surprized crew is already judged for the sifting sword hath apprehended them they run as people raving as enraged and out of their wits in pride covetousnesse and envy and contemne what the Angels Trumpet soundeth 71. This is the cry which the Angels Trumpet soundeth Goe out from Babel goe out from Babel goe out from Babel shee stands apprehended and captivated in the Flaming sword Amen Mysterium Magnum Chap. 45. 12. TO thee O! Germany it is now shewn and also to those Nations from whom thou art borne with the Name of Christ that thou hast for a long time walked under the Mantle of Christ with an heathenish heart and boasted of the adoption but onely lived in the iniquity of the flesh that thy judgement is at hand 13. For the Angel of the judgement calleth aloud in the sound of the Trumpet to the residue of Abrahams children in Christ goe out from Sodom Abraham in Christ is departed from you yee have no more of Christ than an empty breath and a disputing verball lip-labour a mockery whereby one brother doth contemne scorne and mocke another for Christs knowledge sake and onely killeth Christ in his members The Citie Jerusalem and Babylon wherein thou hast gloried and proudly perked up thy selfe in thy devout hypocrisie shall goe to ruine Amen 14. Lo a Starre shineth from the East and North which shall blindfold thee and breake downe thy walled Towers and strong Holds in Jerusalem and Babylon for thou art called no more Jerusalem but Babel and the children which fit in the shadow of the night and which lie imprisoned in Babel shall be delivered and come forth and enter into the Citie of God which he hath set open to all Nations and Tongues of the Earth that his glory may be knowne a light for all Nations or People 313. The Conclusion to the second Apologie to Baltasar Tilken vers 313. I Entreat you all that reade and heare this not to shut up or harden your hearts looke upon the Time and consider it seriously doe but behold in what Time we and our Fathers have lived namely in meere brawling contention and strife What is the world viz. Man bettered and amended by contention by the letter-learned disputations and controversies about God Christ and the way of Worship Nothing at all it is become more prophane lewd disdainfull and scornfull 314. He is growne onely worse and worse in his life with the Manifestation of the Gospel and by reason of the contentions and different opinions of men one brother hath despised persecuted and hated another what fruits have you now of the Gospel which you should have or manifest Must not the exceeding precious Name of God be a cloake for the cunning mischiefe of men 315. Be not the Moderne Titular Christians so also Turkes Jewes and Heathens all alike in life and conversation What doth the Name of Christ availe you when as you live as Heathens Thinke yee that it is enough that you know that Christ dyed for sinne that you need onely flatter and comfort your selves with Christs death and hugge and embrace the false Man that is onely proud and a contender 316. Cannot yee learne what will suddenly follow hereupon viz. this that being you are all alike in life and will you shall also be accounted alike before God And seeing that men doe seeke onely contentions wrangling disputes and fightings it must come to such a confusion in the Controversie that one People devoure another 317. For God withdraweth his hand from the Nations seeing that they will not suffer his Spirit to reprove them and the Anger hath taken hold of its sword and desire and driveth mightily in the minds of men that one People doe destroy ruine and devoure another What our Fathers have brewed with revilings and scoffings that shall their children drinke out with swords and fightings 318. This God doth therefore
Mercurius Teutonicus OR A CHRISTIAN INFORMATION concerning the last Times BEING Divers Propheticall Passages of the Fall of Babel and the New Building in Zion Gathered out of the Mysticall Writings of that famous Germane Author JACOB BEHMEN aliàs Teutonicus Phylosophus Despise not Prophecyings Prove all things hold fast that which is good 1 Thes 5.20 21. LONDON Printed by M. Simmons for H. Blunden at the Castle in Corn-hill 1649. To the Lover of Peace and Truth COURTEOUS READER THou hast here divers Predictions or Propheticall Passages taken out of the Letters and Writings of J. B. of high and worthy Consideration in these distractive and destructive times wherein Satan is let loose and rageth both in his children of hypocrisie and iniquity by these thou maist truly finde out the Fundamentall rise the effectuall Progresse and event of these Modern Cain-like Contentions and unnaturall Warres and rightly informe thy selfe of those eminent and imminent Calamities and Tribulations which are in the Christian world I cannot but suppose that the newes of an happy period to them would be acceptable and joyfull but what further effect they are still like to have without a Cordiall and speedy amendment and turning from our Cain-like hypocrisie and fury I leave for them to finde and feele by wofull experience that will not beleeve it What this Author was called by the Learned Teutonicus Phylosophus and what ground he had to write as well Prophetically as Philosophically and Theosophically his Writings do testifie Time it selfe the infallible Teller of Truth will demonstrate The Antichrist the Whore of Babylon the Beast the False Prophet in their Mystery of iniquitie and perverse practises are abundantly described in his Writings which the Sectarian Babel that sets up the Abomination of Desolation to her own ruine will not regard and he hath not onely discovered in a great measure the tricks and feats of Babel for he is none of Gods workmen that will pull downe unlesse he knows how to set up the Building in a better forme and frame but also hath shewne the way to come out of her and the true practice of Christianitie and faithfully set downe the assured way to divine wisdome and knowledge whereby a man shall come to know himselfe which is the most precious and necessary thing of all and so free his minde from those mentall Idolls of hypocrisie and opinion which doe perplex amaze and amuse the world in a giddy Labyrinth and Abysse of darknesse He doth not in his Writings make an heap of Complaints against this Sect and that Opinion accusing one party or excusing another to foment discord and dis-affection as many girding tart Pamphlets and Preachers have done and doe by attaching taunting and reviling others onely as firebrands of schisme heresie and division not considering that their own Cain-like fuming and raging blinde and unchristian imprecating have fomented enkindled and encreased the wrath of God both upon their selves and others but Christianly adviseth all to abandon all such filthy Contention and to seeke the good one of another in love forbearance and selfe-deniall without which it will be yet worse and worse in the world I need not write of the Authentick Realitie of what this Author hath foretold for it doth and will more and more shew it selfe Albeit many are and will be sottishly and pharisaically blinde choosing rather to goe quicke into the bottomlesse pit then to forsake the Whore Let the Reader seriously and diligently Consider what he saith and follow the practice of that which is the onely way to amend and reforme all privately and publiquely viz. Selfe-deniall in unfeigned love to all not as Babel the Whore of perdition and hypocrisie teacheth that Sophistically distinguisheth and thereby destroyeth the true love and simplicity of the Gospel and practice of Christianity and is become the well-falled Sodom fitted to destroy it selfe which no Secular Arme or wise Reason meerly humane and politick can hinder Let not some unusuall termes or phrases cause thee to distaste taunt or quip at them but what thou dost not understand leave uncensured for every man is best interpreter of his own words and meaning albeit when they are sent into this selvish opinion'd world they often meet with such Criticks as put a false and strange glosse upon them perverting them turning that which belongs properly to themselves upon others doe not count them whimsicall phantasticall enthusiasticall fopperies but seriously consider and marke whether his Predictions prove true or false and so judge and what thou hast here by peecemeals thou maist more at large and fully finde in his Writings some whereof are printed already in English viz. The 40 Questions of the soule wherein is a Catalogue of his Bookes the way to Christ and the Three Principles Also the Threefold Life which is now preparing for the Presse and his Mysterium Magnum a Commentary upon the first Book of Moses called Genesis are desired expected and intended next to be published Mercurius Teutonicus OR A Christian Information concerning the last Times In his Letter to Mr. Paul Keym concerning the last times he writeth thus of Babel and Zion as followeth 21. WHat concerneth Babel how it hath growne and how it shall againe be destroyed is sufficiently manifest the Destroyer is already on foot he hath begun a good while since however men will not see it 22. Men cry a Murther Confusion to their enemies Mordiò and yet there is no strange Enemy but it is the Turba onely which hath grown up in the midst of Babel in her wickednesses and unrighteousnesses that hath found the limit and destroyeth onely that which for a long Time hath been b Selfish uselesse naught which men at all times ought to have cast away whereas men should have honoured and loved God and their Neighbour as themselves there they have set up in Gods stead the Abominable Covetousnesse Deceit and wicked craft under an hypocriticall shew and loved falshood in the place of God and have made of the Mystery an abominable reproachfull c Blasphemous reviling Wherein men in a blinde Cain-like envy have cry'd downe one another for hereticks and Gods sworne enemies because they adore not their mentall and verball Idoll Babel where men with sweet speeches and blind folded eyes have led us captive even in very Deceit to the glory of the great Whore so that she hath fatted her Adulterous Brat and domineered over our body and soule goods and Estate 23. This Bastard is now at odds with himselfe about the great Prey and d Plunder spoyl and doth it selfe discover its own wickednesse and great shame so that we may plainly see what kinde of good ever was in her for the great wickednesse which she hath committed doth plague her and no strange e No forreign or outward enemy but her own wickednesse and hypocrisie which hath enkindled the wrath of God in her and given her over to a perverted mad
many of you in former times for you encrease and provide for your selves and not for Christs office but yee are grown very thin in Germany where there were a thousand there are scarce now an hundred will you not yet desist from your humane wit and inventions then God will cast you out so that where there are now an hundred there shall not be ten yea not so many Arise awake from your sleep least you be hurled downe in perdition into the Abysse 41. Yee say that we mock you but it is serious there is one that mocketh you him wee know he sheweth us this he shall soon awake be not so secure thinke upon it advisedly for no man taketh any thing to himselfe except it be given him This is not spoken in vaine 42. Oh thou lovely and worthy Christendome marke I pray doe not say if our Teacher will not lead us aright let him looke to that ah no it concerneth you it hazardeth body and soule The worthy Christendome is brought out of all Apostolicall Orders and vertues into humane institutions and injunctions And in Christs Kingdome there is a stately Kingdome set up in hypocrisie both in Baptisme and the Lords Supper 43. They have added Ceremonies oh but had they held the right faith and understanding and shewn men the way of God in the Regeneration or new-birth had they but shewn them the cleare o The love of God countenance of God they would have departed from their sinnes and entred into a divine life 44. But thy wit oh thou whore hath blind-folded all if God had not opened my eyes how should I know thee I should yet also adore thee but the world shall seek thee and at last finde thee Even then Europe shall be a Crowne and Asia the Husband and Africa the Countrey and a plaine Shepheard shall governe us if thou understoodst this thou wouldst enter into thy selfe but thou shalt be blinde till thou art payd as thou hast filled grievance so shalt thou drinke out paine for thou hast made it too great and art a wilde Tree and shalt be broken downe there is no remedy thy own Anger doth hurle thee downe for thou art weighed and art found to be too light saith the Spirit of the great Wonders The Magia of Teutonicus concerning the Great Wonders being a deep and propheticall Discourse concerning these present and last Times Shewing the rise of all blinde hypocriticall Crntentions and the issue of them 45. A Thing that groweth from a beginning hath beginning and end and groweth no higher then to the Number of that thing whence it grew but whatsoever is or remaineth in one Number that is incorruptible for it is onely one and no more There is nothing in it that can breake or destroy it for nothing that is onely one or consists of unity hath enmity in it selfe but when two things are in one then forthwith ariseth contrariety and contention for unity fighteth not against it selfe but is drawne into it selfe and out of it selfe and remaines one and albeit it seeketh more in it selfe yet it findeth nothing and this can never be at odds with it selfe for it is one thing and whithersoever it goeth it walketh in one Will. But when there are two wills then there is division for the one will is often drawn to it selfe the other from it selfe and if this thing hath onely one body then the government in that body is divided and at variance and if it sets upon the other with enmity then it becomes the contrary will which forceth against the other and therein dwelleth the third Number and this same third Number is an Essence commixt of both the first and doth oppose both and will be a singular thing of its own and yet it hath also two wills in it from the first two whereupon one will to the right and the other to the left 46. Thus this thing ariseth from two unto many and each hath a selfe-will and if it be now in one body then it is at odds with it selfe for it hath many wills and needeth a Judge to determine and keepe the wills in awe but if the wills grow obstinate and strong and will not submit to the Judge but make a proud insurrection then of one Government two are made for that which is broken out by its own violence judgeth it selfe according to its will and is an enemy to the other because it is or remains not in its will and thus there is a Contention whereby the one doth desire to suppresse the other and to exalt it selfe in its own Beeing and if this cannot suppresse and quell the other though it sets it selfe might and maine against it then each grows in it selfe till it attains its highest Number and are in continuall strife one against the other and when it is so come about that it is growne unto the highest Number that it can goe no further then it returns into it selfe and beholdeth it selfe wherefore it can grow no more then it spieth the end of the Number and directs its will to the end of the Number and will destroy the limit and in this same will which it sets upon the end of the Number endeavouring to destroy the same the Prophet is borne and comes forth and he is its own Prophet and he prophecieth of the errours in the will whence it is and why it can proceed no further and of Destruction for he is borne in the Highest Number in the Crowne at the end of the limit and he speaketh of the Turba in his Kingdome and how it shall end and sheweth what the Causes are that it cannot exceed its own Number and then he prophecieth of a new Kingdome that shall be brought forth out of the Destruction for he is the Mouth of that same Kingdome and sheweth the contrary Will how that the Kingdome grew up in one will and from its own selfish desire it is gone out of it selfe into many Wills and he discovereth the Kingdomes pride its covetousnesse and envie in that the Kingdome had onely one Roote whence it grew then he manifests the evill twiggs which are growne out of the Roote which are the Errour Confusion Seduction and Turba of the Kingdome which suppresse the old Tree and withdraw its own sap vertue and strength from it so that it is forced to wither 47. And then he sheweth the falshood of the twiggs which have taken the strength from the Tree and doe now presse it downe they say that they are a new Tree and a good Kingdome and they vaunt and glory as if they were new guests endued with great wisdome and honesty and yet they are growne from the old Tree and are its children and thus they devoure their own Father Now the Prophet saith that they are Wolves and not Children and they come onely to murther and to devoure and to set up themselves in the place of the old Tree and thus they exercise their pride
consuming fire if his wrath be stirred up according to this same property he desireth to consume and devoure all that moveth and enkindleth it selfe therein And from this property God bad Israel fight and smite the Heathens for his Anger was set on fire in them and was as wood cast into the fire which the fire desireth to consume 10. Therefore the wrath of God bad one Nation slay another that it might out of his wrath be taken away otherwise the fire of his Anger would have enkindled it selfe as hapned to the five Kingdomes of Sodom and Gomorra Thus the Wrath of God did satiate it selfe in the life of the wicked which it devoured into it selfe in that they slew one another 11. As it yet now adayes so comes to passe that oftentimes men cry unto God for to give them successe and victory against their enemies that they might murther them but God giveth them not victory therein but the sword of his Anger which they awaken with their prayers and will were they true Men and children of God they would need no warre for the holy Spirit wageth not warre but he onely loveth and giveth peace but according to the property of Anger he consumeth all ungodlinesse and is yet thereby onely blowne or stirred up c. 14. Thus we must understand how the children of the Saints have waged warre against the crew of wicked men and drove them out viz. in the Anger 's Property which managed its sword by them to blot out the Heathen and Generation of Haâ— for Abraham went out with his whole house and People against the Heathen who had carried away Loth his brothers Sonne captive and he smote the Heathen and delivered his brother This was done in the zeale of God which thus delivered his children through the might of his Anger for what conduceth to the wicked for destruction that conduceth to holy men for life and deliverance 15. But that those who will be called Christians who ought in and with Christ to be dead to the Anger and Wrath of God in Christs death doe wage warre they doe it not as Christians but as Heathens no Christian warreth for if he be a Christian then he is dead in and with Christs death to the foure Elements of Gods Anger in Selfe and borne a new man in Christs Spirit of Love who liveth in righteousnesse in love and patience and not to himselfe but to God in Christ 16. For a true Christian leadeth his conversation and will in Heaven in the life and spirit of Christ as St Paul saith Our conversation is in Heaven but when the Christians doe wage warre they doe it from the Heathenish property and not from Christs property for a Christian is not of this world his Kingdome is in heaven and he is dead in Christ to the world according to the new spirituall man in him the Heathen viz. the halfe devillish man who hath his Kingdome in this world who never hath room enough upon the Earth who liveth in the foure Elements of Gods Anger viz. in pride covetousnesse envy and wrath desireth in the Christians to warre fight and kill 17. St. Paul saith Give your members to be weapons of Righteousnesse for why doe men fight for the Kingdome of this world and yet Christ said his Kingdome was not of this world so also his childrens Kingdome in him is not of this world Now then if we give our body and soule for weapons of Gods Anger and seek onely thereby Selfe interests liberties and priviledges of Mammon and slay one another for the Kingdome of this world I thinke we are herein Christians indeed with the mouth but the heart and soule is an heathen and not borne out of Christs Spirit 18. When Abraham had smote the Heathen he desired nothing of the goods which he took but restored to the King of Sodom what the Heathen had taken from him and was onely zealous in the Lord he did not fight for Countrey and Kingdome but to deliver his brother This was a true zeale which the Lord drove in him he did not stand up and fight for Countrey or Citie and albeit he obtained it he desired it not but went againe unto his own place Mysterium Magnum Chap. 51. 44. OUr knowledge must be filled and abound with the Love of Christ that we love one another else knowledge is not at all available if I bring not my knowledge with the Desire into the Love of God wherewith he hath Loved us in Christ and Love my Neighbour in the Love of God in Christ with that Love wherewith God generally Loveth us and Loved us when we were his Enemies then I have not as yet the Love of God dwelling in me 45. But how will he Love his Brother who contemneth him for his knowledge sake whereas yet God Loved us when we knew nothing of his Love If a man hath not this Love of God in him wherewith God Loved us when we knew him not why doth he boast then of Gods Adoption If he be the childe of God then he hath the free Love of God wherewith God Loveth all things if he hath it not he is not then yet capable of the adoption Now then if any one contemneth and condemneth his brother which hath not as yet his knowledge how can he boast of the Love of God wherewith God Loved his Enemies in Christ wherewith Christ prayed for his Enemies Mysterium Magnum Chap. 44. 6. WHen God will punish a Land he first sends them Messengers and exhorts them to repentance and declares unto them his Grace soon after he sends them the Angel of Righteousnesse who tryeth them whether they be capable of the grace that is tendred to them and representeth unto them judgement with threats of their ruine also with denouncing of great warre and plagues that he will blot and root them out if they doe not Returne and Repent and sheweth them by his Messengers the light and way of Righteousnesse and suffers them to run on in the light that is tendred to them till they be weary and glutted and hold it onely for a common thing and an history and againe become a Sodom 7. And then he sends them both Angells together to wit the Angel of Righteousnesse and the Angel of truth and first threatneth them and exhorts them and setteth the judgement before them but when they are wholly a Sodom he leaveth off from the outward Figure and lets them fill up their measure and then it seems as if the Sunne was risen upon their Sodom and now it should be good but even then saith the Angel of truth in his children hasten and goe out the punishment and ruine is at hand 8. Thus wee declare unto thee Babel that God hath already long since sent thee Messengers and with the declaration of the Gospel hath tendred thee his grace and therewith also hath mightily threatned thee with the punishment of thy ruine but thou hast made a