Jakob Böhme

“ The noble Sophia answereth the Soul very comfortably, and saith,
MY noble Bridegroom, be of good Comfort. I have betrothed thee to me in my highest Love, and contracted myself with thee in my Faithfulness. I will be with thee and in thee always to the End of the World. I will come to thee and make my Abode with thee, in thy inner Chamber. Thou shalt drink of my Fountain; for now I am thine, and thou art Mine; the Enemy shall not separate us. Work thou in thy fiery Property, and I will put my Rays of Love into thy Working. And so we will plant and manure the Vineyard of Jesus Christ. ”

“ Self-Will seeks only what serves to its Self-hood; and the resigned Will is not at all careful, but brings its Desire only into its eternal Mother, that it Might be one with her: It will be a Nothing, that the Mother might be alone all in it. Self-Will says to the resigned Will, Thou art foolish, in that thou givest thyself to Death, and yet Mightest well live gloriously in me; but the resigned Will says, Thou art my Abomination, Pain, and Enmity, and bringest me out of Eternity into a Time only into perplexity and misery ”

“ In this sense of the word "reason," they would agree with him who wrote "Your Heart is the best and greatest gift of God to you; it is the highest, greatest, strongest, and noblest Power of your Nature; it forms your whole Life, be it what it will; all Evil and all Good comes from it; your Heart alone has the key of Life and Death; it does all that it will; Reason is but its plaything; and whether in Time or Eternity, can only be a mere Beholder of the wonders of happiness, or forms of misery, which the right or wrong working of the Heart is entered into." ”

“ I have no Refuge in any Thing, but only in thy Holy Wounds and Death! Into thee I sink down in the Anguish of my Conscience; do 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 myself before thee, that knoweth my Heart and Reins, and settest my Sins before mine Eyes? I am guilty of them, and yield myself unto thy Judgement; accomplish thy Judgement upon me, through the Death of my Redeemer Jesus Christ. ”

“ God must become Man, Man must become God; Heaven must become one Thing with the Earth, the Earth must be turned to Heaven: If you will make Heaven out of the Earth, then give the Earth the Heaven's Food, that the Earth may obtain the Will of Heaven, that the Will of the wrathful Mercury may give itself in unto the Will of the heavenly Mercury. ”

“ All things that love and entertain thee, because thy Will loves and entertains them. All things that please and feed thee, because thy Will feeds and cherishes them. All creatures in flesh and blood; in a word, all visibles and sensibles, by which either the imaginative or sensitive appetite in men are delighted and refreshed. These the Will of thy mind, or thy supreme part, must leave and forsake, and must even account them all its enemies. This is the leaving of what loves thee. And the loving of what hates thee is the embracing the reproach of the World. ”

“ The Death dies away in the Love, and becomes in the Love the Life of the divine Kingdom of Joy; for it is not a Dying, but a free surrendering of its Power, Might, and Will, a Transmutation; the Virgin's Blood changes the Human, dead as to God, into an heavenly [Blood] , the Life of the young Man dies, and the Life of the Deity remains fixed and steadfast, for it stands in its Property in the Nothing. ”

“ Whatever has its Beginning out of the Lubet of the Liberty stands with the Root in an heavenly Property, and with the Body in an earthly, but the Eternal stands in Time, and manifests itself with Time. ”

“ It is even the bursting forth of the ardent Desire in Nature. It is, as I may term it, the magical Fire-breath, whereby the Powers either of Light or Darkness are dismayed. In short, it is the pregnant Echo of the Sound of Eternity everywhere speaking, working, and opening itself in Love or Anger, in each Thing according to its Will and Desire: In some it is the horrible Flagrat to Death; and in others it is the pleasant triumphant Flagrat to Life. ”

“ Drive him out of me, that he may not overcome me; for no one living can stand in thy Sight, if thou withdraw thy Hand from him.
O come, thou Breaker-through the Anger of God, destroy its Power, and help my poor Soul to fight and overcome it. O bring me into Victory, and uphold me in thee; break in Pieces its Seat in my Vanity, that is kindled in my Soul and Flesh. O mortify the Desire of my Vanity in Flesh and Blood, which the Devil hath now kindled by his false Desire, by hellish Anguish and Desperation. ”

“ For all do Work and Desire in Man, God's Love and Anger: He stands while he is in this Tabernacle in the Gate either to go out or in: Both eternal Principles are stirring in him; to which the Soul's Will gives itself, of that it is received, and thereto it is chosen; he is drawn of both, and if the Will of the Soul remains in Self-hood, then he is in the Hand of God's Anger. ”

“ Now the Hunger of the Desire comprehends its own Essence, and devours it, and makes it to Nothing; this is the Darkness, which is the Hunger's Essence, which the fiery Hunger devours through the Property of the Light, or free Lubet: As we see, that as soon as the Light shines it deprives the Darkness of its Power, therefore God is a Lord over all Beings, for he is the eternal Power and Light: A Similitude whereof we see in the Sun, that it is Lord of the Darkness and of all Essences, and rules whatever grows, lives, and moves in this World. ”

“ In this Anguish and Distress thou wilt necessarily hunger and cry after deliverance; and by such Hunger and Prayer thou wilt attract Grace to thee both from within and from without. For thou must grow from above and from beneath to be the Image of God again. Just as a young plant is agitated by the wind, and must stand its ground in heat and cold, drawing strength and virtue to it from above and from beneath by that agitation, and must endure many a tempest, and undergo much danger before it can come to be a tree and bring forth much fruit. ”

“ O kiss me with thy Desire in thy Strength and Power, and then I will shew thee all my Beauty, and will rejoice and solace Myself with thy sweet Love and shining Brightness in thy fiery Life. All the holy Angels rejoice with us, to see us united again. My dear Love, I now entreat thee to abide in my Faith, and do not turn thy Face away from me any more. Work thou thy Wonders in my Love, for which Purpose God hath created thee and brought thee into Being. ”

“ Wilt thou introduce the poisonful Mercury (which has only a Death's Will in itself) into the Temptation, as the false Magus does? Will you send one Devil to another, and make an Angel of him? In Deed and in Truth I must needs laugh at such Folly: If thou wilt keep a corrupt black Devil, how dost thou think to turn the Earth by the Devil to Heaven? Is not God the Creator of all Beings? Thou must eat of God's Bread, if thou wilt transmute thy Body out of the earthly Property into the heavenly. ”

“ For God's speaking Word stood still now in the human Property, and the new-born Essentiality which was dead in Adam, and was again quickened in Christ, cried with the same, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? For the Anger of God was by the Soul's Property entered into the Image of the divine Essentiality, and had devoured the Image of God. ”

“ The holy Man is unto God a sweet Savour unto Life, and the wicked a sweet Savour unto Death. All whatever does live and move must enter into the Glory of God; one Works in his Love, the other in his Anger: All is gene-rated and created in the infinite Being to the Manifestation of the infinite great God; out of all the Properties of Evil and Good, Creatures were brought forth by the Will of the speaking Word ”

“ O merciful God in Christ Jesus, I beseech thee out of thy deep Love towards us poor Men, which thou hast manifested in me in the hidden Man, call us all in thee, to thee. O stir thyself in us yet once again in this last Trouble; thy Anger being kindled in us, do thou resist it, lest it swallow us up wholly both Soul and Body. ”

“ Pure delight, with no trace of doubt or fear, hope or regret, is the sign of the presence of Love or Light. So again Behmen says: "The Fire in the Light is a fire of Love, but the Fire in the Darkness is a fire of Anguish, and is painful, irksome, and full of contrariety." The end to which all things tend is the final separation of light from darkness; the "last day" means this; but the present world is a perpetual mixture of light and darkness, good and evil, joy and anguish. So, the Cross of Jesus is at once the highest embodiment of Love and Hate. ”

“ God is outside of Nature and yet in a sense inside also, because there is a divine life or virtue in Nature which, longing to re-unite itself with its source, is a cause of anguish while divided, and of joy when united. So, in the outer world, the seed buried in earth contains a power kindred to the virtue of the sun. It is this which breaks forth from the seed, forces itself up through the dark, imprisoning, and yet nourishing and necessary earth, and at last, if it can win its way through obstacles, cheerfully expands in the light of the sun and feeds upon his warmth. ”

“ But the noble Sophia draweth near in the Essence of the Soul, and kisseth it in friendly Manner, and tinctureth its dark Fire with her Rays of Love, and shineth through it with her bright and powerful Influence. Penetrated with the strong Sense and Feeling of which, the Soul skippeth in its Body for great Joy, and in the Strength of this Virgin Love exulteth, and praiseth the great God for his blessed Gift of Grace. ”

“ All is confusion if thou hast no more than the dim Light of Nature, or unsanctified and unregenerated Reason to guide thee by, and if only the Eye of Time be opened in thee, which cannot pierce beyond its own limit. Wherefore seek the Fountain of Light, waiting in the deep ground of thy soul for the rising there of the Sun of Righteousness, whereby the Light of Nature in thee, with the properties thereof, will be made to shine seven times brighter than ordinary. ”

“ When the Spirit of the Flesh says, Stay a while, it is not convenient yet; then the Soul must say, Now is the Time for me to go back again into my native Country, out of which my Father, Adam, hath brought me. No Creature shall keep me back, and though thou earthly Body shouldest thereby decay and perish, yet I will now enter with my Will and whole Desire, into the Rose-Garden of my Redeemer, Jesus Christ; through his Suffering and Death into him, and in the Death of Christ subdue thee, thou earthly Body, that hast swallowed up my Pearl from me, which God gave to my Father, Adam in Paradise. ”

“ Hath not Christ paid the ransom and satisfied for all men? Thou needest only persuade and comfort thyself that it is done for thee, and then thou shalt be saved. Thou canst not possibly in this world come to any feeling of God, therefore leave off, and take care for thy body, and look after temporal glory. What dost thou suppose will become of thee, if thou turn to be so stupid and melancholy? Thou wilt be the scorn of everybody, and they will laugh at thy folly; and so thou wilt pass thy days in mere sorrow and heaviness, which is pleasing neither to God nor Nature. ”

“ Where no evil Thoughts could touch him, neither Care nor Trouble, neither Heat nor Cold. Where no Night is known; where there is no Day or limited Time any more, but an everlasting Blessedness, wherein Soul and Body tremble for Joy. ”

“ On this one root of the whole matter Jacob Behmen insisted, expressing one truth in a thousand ways and through images, which to him are not images but the same process working in other spheres. His whole practical, moral teaching enforces the right direction of Desire. Mali mores sunt mali amores, said one who also truly saw; the profound Augustine. The hunger of the Soul must be turned to the source of eternal joy. All that is good and beautiful in nature or in the heart of man flows from that fountain. Desire is everything in Nature; does everything. ”

“ O God in Christ Jesus, thou who for poor Sinners' Sakes didst become Man to help them, to thee I complain; to thee I have yet a Spark of Refuge in my Soul. I have not regarded thy purchased Inheritance, which thou hast purchased for us poor Men, by thy bitter Death, but have made myself a Partaker of the Heritage of Vanity, in the Anger of my Father in the Curse of the Earth, and am ensnared in Sin, and half dead as to thy Kingdom. ”

“ For the right way, even the Path of Light, is contrary to all the ways of the World.
But whereas thou art afraid of creating to thyself hereby trouble and inquietude, that indeed will be so according to the flesh. In the world thou must have trouble, and thy flesh will not fail to be unquiet, and to give thee occasion of continual repentance. Nevertheless in this very anxiety of soul arising from the world or the flesh, the Love doth most willingly enkindle itself, and its cheering and conquering fire is but made to blaze forth with greater strength for the destruction of that evil. ”

“ It desireth in its Thirst to get the sweet Fountain which springeth from JEHOVAH into itself, to refresh God's Breath of Fire, which itself is, that so the sweet Love of JESUS may rise in its Breath of Fire, through the Fountain JESUS springing out of JEHOVAH; that CHRIST the Holy One may be manifested, and become Man in my disappeared Image of heavenly spiritual Corporality, and that my poor Soul may receive its beloved Bride again into its Arms, with whom it may rejoice forever. ”

“ The Soul, in the doctrine of Behmen, is a Being which has a will or desire, and is aided by a mirror of understanding or imagination. Will or Desire is of the very essence of the Soul, inseparable from its existence. He says: "Where Desire is there is also Essence or Being." The Soul is subject to the diverse attractions of the Centre of Divine Life and Light, and of the Spirit of the World. Enlightened by its understanding it has the free power to turn its will towards, and unite itself to, this or that. "Choose well, thy choice is brief and yet endless." ”

“ The other Kingdom which thou walkest in, is the outward World, wherein thou dwellest in the vain corrupt Flesh and Blood, and where the Pleasures of the World and Assaults of the Devil beset thee every Hour. Thou mayest perhaps in thy great Joy bring Earthliness again into my Beauty, and thereby darken my Pearl; or thou mayest possibly grow proud, as Lucifer did, when he had the Pearl in his Possession, and so turn thyself away from the Harmony of God, as he did, and then I must be deprived of my Love forever afterwards. ”

“ Behmen says, "The Essence of that Life eateth the Flesh of Christ and drinketh His Blood.... Now if the Soul eat of this sweet, holy and heavenly food, then it kindleth itself with the great Love in the name and power of Jesus, whence its fire of anguish becometh a great triumph of joy and glory." ”

“ First, then, in that I said, its virtue is Nothing, or that Nothing which is the beginning of All Things, thou must understand it thus; When thou art gone forth wholly from the Creature, and from that which is visible; and art become Nothing to all that is Nature and Creature, then thou art in that Eternal One, which is God himself; and then thou shalt perceive and feel within thee the highest virtue of Love. ”

“ Desire nothing at all of him, but only submit thyself to his judgment and condemnation, that he may kill thy evil inclinations. Sink down into him beyond the Limits of Nature and Creature, and submit thyself to him, that he may do with thee what he will, for thou art not worthy to speak to him. Accordingly the Soul took a resolution to sink down, and to forsake its own will ”