{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_16306/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_16306","id":"gutenberg_16306","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16306","summary":null,"tags":["B\u00f6hme, Jakob, 1575-1624","Category: Biographies","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Mysticism -- Germany -- History -- 17th century","Mystics -- Germany -- Biography"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1895 Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier edition by David\nPrice, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk\n\n\n\n\n\nJacob Behmen\nan Appreciation\nby Alexander Whyte\n\n\nauthor of 'Characters and Characteristics of William Law' etc.\n\nOliphant Anderson & Ferrier\n30 St. Mary Street, Edinburgh, and\n24 Old Bailey, London\n1895\n\nThis lecture was delivered at the opening of my Classes for the study of\nthe pre-Reformation, Reformation, and post-Reformation Mystics during\nSession 1894-5.  A Lecture on WILLIAM LAW was delivered at the opening of\na former Session as an Introduction to the whole subject of Mysticism.\n\nA. W.\n\nST. GEORGE'S FREE CHURCH,\n5_th November_ 1894.\n\n\n\n\nJacob Behmen\n\n\nJacob Behmen, the greatest of the mystics, and the father of German\nphilosophy, was all his life nothing better than a working shoemaker.  He\nwas born at Old Seidenberg, a village near Goerlitz in Silesia, in the\nyear 1575, and he died at Goerlitz in the year 1624.  Jacob Behmen has no\nbiography.  Jacob Behmen's books are his best biography.  While working\nwith his hands, Jacob Behmen's whole life was spent in the deepest and\nthe most original thought; in piercing visions of GOD and of nature; in\nprayer, in praise, and in love to GOD and man.  Of Jacob Behmen it may be\nsaid with the utmost truth and soberness that he lived and moved and had\nhis being in GOD.  Jacob Behmen has no biography because his whole life\nwas hid with CHRIST in GOD.\n\n* * * * *\n\nWhile we have nothing that can properly be called a biography of Jacob\nBehmen, we have ample amends made to us in those priceless morsels of\nautobiography that lie scattered so plentifully up and down all his\nbooks.  And nothing could be more charming than just those incidental and\nunstudied utterances of Behmen about himself.  Into the very depths of a\npassage of the profoundest speculation Behmen will all of a sudden throw\na few verses of the most childlike and heart-winning confidences about\nhis own mental history and his own spiritual experience.  And thus it is\nthat, without at all intending it, Behmen has left behind him a complete\nhistory of his great mind and his holy heart in those outbursts of\ndiffidence, deprecation, explanation, and self-defence, of which his\nphilosophical and theological, as well as his apologetic and\nexperimental, books are all so full.  It were an immense service done to\nour best literature if some of Behmen's students would go through all\nBehmen's books, so as to make a complete collection and composition of\nthe best of those autobiographic passages.  Such a book, if it were well\ndone, would at once take rank with _The Confessions_ of ST. AUGUSTINE,\n_The Divine Comedy_ of DANTE, and the _Grace Abounding_ of JOHN BUNYAN.\nIt would then be seen by all, what few, till then, will believe, that\nJacob Behmen's mind and heart and spiritual experience all combine to\ngive him a foremost place among the most classical masters in that great\nfield.\n\nIn the nineteenth chapter of the _Aurora_ there occurs a very important\npassage of this autobiographic nature.  In that famous passage Behmen\ntells his readers that when his eyes first began to be opened, the sight\nof this world completely overwhelmed him.  ASAPH'S experiences, so\npowerfully set before us in the seventy-third Psalm, will best convey, to\nthose who do not know Behmen, what Behmen also passed through before he\ndrew near to GOD.  Like that so thoughtful Psalmist, Behmen's steps had\nwell-nigh slipped when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, and when he\nsaw how waters of a full cup were so often wrung out to the people of\nGOD.  The mystery of life, the sin and misery of life, cast Behmen into a\ndeep and inconsolable melancholy.  No Scripture could comfort him.  His\nthoughts of GOD were such that he will not allow himself, even after they\nare long past, to put them down on paper.  In this terrible trouble he\nlifted up his heart to GOD, little knowing, as yet, what GOD was, or what\nhis own heart was.  Only, he wrapped up his whole heart, and mind, and\nwill, and desire in the love and the mercy of GOD: determined not to give\nover till GOD had heard him and had helped him.  'And then, when I had\nwholly hazarded my life upon what I was doing, my whole spirit seemed to\nme suddenly to break through the gates of hell, and to be taken up into\nthe arms and the heart of GOD.  I can compare it to nothing else but the\nresurrection at the last day.  For then, with all reverence I say it,\nwith the eyes of my spirit I saw GOD.  I saw both what GOD is, and I saw\nhow GOD is what He is.  And with that there came a mighty and an\nincontrollable impulse to set it down, so as to preserve what I had seen.\nSome men will mock me, and will tell me to stick to my proper trade, and\nnot trouble my mind with philosophy and theology.  Let these high matters\nalone.  Leave them to those who have both the time and the talent for\nthem, they will say.  So I have often said to myself, but the truth of\nGOD did burn in my bones till I took pen and ink and began to set down\nwhat I had seen.  All this time do not mistake me for a saint or an\nangel.  My heart also is full of all evil.  In malice, and in hatred, and\nin lack of brotherly love, after all I have seen and experienced, I am\nlike all other men.  I am surely the fullest of all men of all manner of\ninfirmity and malignity.'  Behmen protests in every book of his that what\nhe has written he has received immediately from GOD.  'Let it never be\nimagined that I am any greater or any better than other men.  When the\nSpirit of GOD is taken away from me I cannot even read so as to\nunderstand what I have myself written.  I have every day to wrestle with\nthe devil and with my own heart, no man in all the world more.  Oh no!\nthou must not for one moment think of me as if I had by my own power or\nholiness climbed up into heaven or descended into the abyss.  Oh no! hear\nme.  I am as thou art.  I have no more light than thou hast.  Let no man\nthink of me what I am not.  But what I am all men may be who will truly\nbelieve, and will truly wrestle for truth and goodness under JESUS\nCHRIST.  I marvel every day that GOD should reveal both the Divine Nature\nand Temporal and Eternal Nature for the first time to such a simple and\nunlearned man as I am.  But what am I to resist what GOD will do?  What\nam I to say but, Behold the son of thine handmaiden!  I have often\nbesought Him to take these too high and too deep matters away from off\nme, and to commit them to men of more learning and of a better style of\nspeech.  But He always put my prayer away from Him and continued to\nkindle His fire in my bones.  And with all my striving to quench GOD'S\nspirit of revelation, I found that I had only by that gathered the more\nstones for the house that He had ordained me to build for Him and for His\nchildren in this world.'\n\nJacob Behmen's first book, his _Aurora_, was not a book at all, but a\nbundle of loose leaves.  Nothing was further from Behmen's mind, when he\ntook up his pen of an evening, than to make a book.  He took up his pen\nafter his day's work was over in order to preserve for his own memory and\nuse in after days the revelations that had been made to him, and the\nexperiences and exercises through which GOD had passed him.  And,\nbesides, Jacob Behmen could not have written a book even if he had tried\nit.  He was a total stranger to the world of books; and then, over and\nabove that, he had been taken up into a world of things into which no\nbook ever written as yet had dared to enter.  Again, and again, and\nagain, till it came to fill his whole life, Behmen would be sitting over\nhis work, or walking abroad under the stars, or worshipping in his pew in\nthe parish church, when, like the captive prophet by the river of Chebar,\nhe would be caught up by the hair of the head and carried away into the\nvisions of GOD to behold the glory of GOD.  And then, when he came to\nhimself, there would arise within him a 'fiery instigation' to set down\nfor a 'memorial' what he had again seen and heard.  'The gate of the\nDivine Mystery was sometimes so opened to me that in one quarter of an\nhour I saw and knew more than if I had been many years together at a\nuniversity.  At which I did exceedingly admire, and, though it passed my\nunderstanding how it happened, I thereupon turned my heart to GOD to\npraise Him for it.  For I saw and knew the Being of all Beings; the Byss\nand the Abyss; as, also, the Generation of the Son and the Procession of\nthe Spirit.  I saw the descent and original of this world also, and of\nall its creatures.  I saw in their order and outcome the Divine world,\nthe angelical world, paradise, and then this fallen and dark world of our\nown.  I saw the beginning of the good and the evil, and the true origin\nand existence of each of them.  All of which did not only cause me great\nwonder but also a great joy and a great fear.  And then it came with\ncommanding power into my mind that I must set down the same in pen and\nink for a memorial to myself; albeit, I could hardly contain or express\nwhat I had seen.  For twelve years this went on in me.  Sometimes the\ntruth would hit me like a sudden smiting storm of rain; and then there\nwould be the clear sunshine after the rain.  All which was to teach me\nthat GOD will manifest Himself in the soul of man after what manner and\nwhat measure it pleases Him and as it seems good in His sight.'\n\nNo human being knew all this time what Jacob Behmen was passing through,\nand he never intended that any human being should know.  But, with all\nhis humility, and all his love of obscurity, he could not remain hidden.\nJust how it came about we are not fully told; but, long before his book\nwas finished, a nobleman in the neighbourhood, who was deeply interested\nin the philosophy and the theology of that day, somehow got hold of\nBehmen's papers and had them copied out and spread abroad, to Behmen's\ngreat surprise and great distress.  Copy after copy was stealthily made\nof Behmen's manuscript, till, most unfortunately for both of them, a copy\ncame into the hands of Behmen's parish minister.  But for that accident,\nso to call it, we would never have heard the name of GREGORY RICHTER,\nFirst Minister of Goerlitz, nor could we have believed that any minister\nof JESUS CHRIST could have gone so absolutely mad with ignorance and envy\nand anger and ill-will.  The libel is still preserved that Behmen's\nminister drew out against the author of _Aurora_, and the only thing it\nproves to us is this, that its author must have been a dull-headed,\ncoarse-hearted, foul-mouthed man.  Richter's persecution of poor Behmen\ncaused Behmen lifelong trouble; but, at the same time, it served to\nadvertise his genius to his generation, and to manifest to all men the\nmeekness, the humility, the docility, and the love of peace of the\npersecuted man.  'Pastor-Primarius Richter,' says a bishop of his own\ncommunion, 'was a man full of hierarchical arrogance and pride.  He had\nonly the most outward apprehension of the dogmatics of his day, and he\nwas totally incapable of understanding Jacob Behmen.'  But it is not for\nthe limitations of his understanding that Pastor Richter stands before us\nso laden with blame.  The school is a small one still that, after two\ncenturies of study and prayer and a holy life, can pretend to understand\nthe whole of the _Aurora_.  WILLIAM LAW, a man of the best understanding,\nand of the humblest heart, tells us that his first reading of Behmen put\nhim into a 'perfect sweat' of astonishment and awe.  No wonder, then,\nthat a man of Gregory Richter's narrow mind and hard heart was thrown\ninto such a sweat of prejudice and anger and ill-will.\n\nI do not propose to take you down into the deep places where Jacob Behmen\ndwells and works.  And that for a very good reason.  For I have found no\nfirm footing in those deep places for my own feet.  I wade in and in to\nthe utmost of my ability, and still there rise up above me, and stretch\nout around me, and sink down beneath me, vast reaches of revelation and\nspeculation, attainment and experience, before which I can only wonder\nand worship.  See Jacob Behmen working with his hands in his solitary\nstall, when he is suddenly caught up into heaven till he beholds in\nenraptured vision The Most High Himself.  And then, after that, see him\nswept down to hell, down to sin, and down into the bottomless pit of the\nhuman heart.  Jacob Behmen, almost more than any other man whatsoever, is\ncarried up till he moves like a holy angel or a glorified saint among\nthings unseen and eternal.  Jacob Behmen is of the race of the seers, and\nhe stands out a very prince among them.  He is full of eyes, and all his\neyes are full of light.  It does not stagger me to hear his disciples\ncalling him, as HEGEL does, 'a man of a mighty mind,' or, as LAW does,\n'the illuminated Behmen,' and 'the blessed Behmen.'  'In speculative\npower,' says dry DR. KURTZ, 'and in poetic wealth, exhibited with epic\nand dramatic effect, Behmen's system surpasses everything of the kind\never written.'  Some of his disciples have the hardihood to affirm indeed\nthat even ISAAC NEWTON ploughed with Behmen's heifer, but had not the\nboldness to acknowledge the debt.  I entirely accept it when his\ndisciples assert it of their master that he had a privilege and a\npassport permitted him such as no mortal man has had the like since\nJOHN'S eyes closed upon his completed Apocalypse.  After repeated and\nprolonged reading of Behmen's amazing books, nothing that has been said\nby his most ecstatic disciples about their adored master either\nastonishes or offends me.  Dante himself does not beat such a soaring\nwing as Behmen's; and all the trumpets that sound in _Paradise Lost_ do\nnot swell my heart and chase its blood like Jacob Behmen's broken\nsyllables about the Fall.  I would not wonder to have it pointed out to\nme in the world to come that all that Gichtel, and St. Martin, and Hegel,\nand Law, and Walton, and Martensen, and Hartmann have said about Jacob\nBehmen and his visions of GOD and Nature and Man were all but literally\ntrue.  No doubt,--nay, the thing is certain,--that if you open Jacob\nBehmen anywhere as Gregory Richter opened the _Aurora_; if a new idea is\na pain and a provocation to you; if you have any prejudice in your heart\nfor any reason against Behmen; if you dislike the sound of his name\nbecause some one you dislike has discovered him and praised him, or\nbecause you do not yourself already know him and love him, then, no\ndoubt, you will find plenty in Behmen at which to stumble, and which will\namply justify you in anything you wish to say against him.  But if you\nare a true student and a good man; if you are an open-minded and a humble-\nminded man; if you are prepared to sit at any man's feet who will engage\nto lead you a single step out of your ignorance and your evil; if you\nopen Behmen with a predisposition to believe in him, and with the\nexpectation and the determination to get good out of him,--then, in the\nmeasure of all that; in the measure of your capacity of mind and your\nhospitality of heart; in the measure of your humility, seriousness,\npatience, teachableness, hunger for truth, hunger for righteousness,--in\nthat measure you will find Jacob Behmen to be what MAURICE tells us he\nfound him to be, 'a generative thinker.'  Out of much you cannot\nunderstand,--wherever the blame for that may lie,--out of much slag and\nmuch dross, I am mistaken if you will not lay up some of your finest\ngold; and out of much straw and chaff some of the finest of the wheat.\nThe Divine Nature, human nature, time, space, matter, life, love, sin,\ndeath, holiness, heaven, hell,--Behmen's reader must have lived and moved\nall his days among such things as these: he must be at home, as far as\nthe mind of man can be at home, among such things as these, and then he\nwill begin to understand Behmen, and will still strive better and better\nto understand him; and, where he does not as yet understand him, he will\nset that down to his own inattention, incapacity, want of due\npreparation, and want of the proper ripeness for such a study.\n\nAt the same time let all intending students of Jacob Behmen take warning\nthat they will have to learn an absolutely new and an unheard-of language\nif they would speak with Behmen and have Behmen speak with them.  For\nBehmen's books are written neither in German nor in English of any age or\nidiom, but in the most original and uncouth Behmenese.  Like John Bunyan,\nbut never with John Bunyan's literary grace, Behmen will borrow, now a\nLatin word or phrase from his reading of learned authors, or, more often,\nfrom the conversations of his learned friends; and then he will take some\nastrological or alchemical expression of AGRIPPA, or PARACELSUS, or some\nsuch outlaw, and will, as with his awl and rosin-end, sew together a\nsentence, and hammer together a page of the most incongruous and unheard-\nof phraseology, till, as we read Behmen's earlier work especially, we\ncontinually exclaim, O for a chapter of John Bunyan's clear, and sweet,\nand classical English!  The _Aurora_ was written in a language, if\nwriting and a language it can be called, that had never been seen written\nor heard spoken before, or has since, on the face of the earth.  And as\nour students learn Greek in order to read Homer and Plato and Paul and\nJohn, and Latin in order to read Virgil and Tacitus, and Italian to read\nDante, and German to read Goethe, so William Law tells us that he learned\nBehmen's Behmenite High Dutch, and that too after he was an old man, in\norder that he might completely master the _Aurora_ and its kindred books.\nAnd as our schoolboys laugh and jeer at the outlandish sounds of Greek\nand Latin and German, till they have learned to read and love the great\nauthors who have written in those languages, so WESLEY, and SOUTHEY, and\neven HALLAM himself, jest and flout and call names at Jacob Behmen,\nbecause they have not taken the trouble to learn his language, to master\nhis mind, and to drink in his spirit.  At the same time, and after all\nthat has been said about Behmen's barbarous style, Bishop Martensen tells\nus how the readers of SCHELLING were surprised and enraptured by a wealth\nof new expressions and new turns of speech in their mother tongue.  But\nall these belonged to Behmen, or were fashioned on the model of his\nsymbolical language.  As it is, with all his astrology, and all his\nalchemy, and all his barbarities of form and expression, I for one will\nalways take sides with the author of _The Serious Call_, and _The Spirit\nof Prayer_, and _The Spirit of Love_, and _The Way to Divine Knowledge_,\nin the disputed matter of Jacob Behmen's sanity and sanctity; and I will\ncontinue to believe that if I had only had the scholarship, and the\nintellect, and the patience, and the enterprise, to have mastered,\nthrough all their intricacies, the Behmenite grammar and the Behmenite\nvocabulary, I also would have found in Behmen all that Freher and Pordage\nand Law and Walton found.  Even in the short way into this great man that\nI have gone, I have come upon such rare and rich mines of divine and\neternal truth that I can easily believe that they who have dug deeper\nhave come upon uncounted riches.  'Next to the Scriptures,' writes\nWilliam Law, 'my only book is the illuminated Behmen.  For the whole\nkingdom of grace and nature was opened in him.  In reading Behmen I am\nalways at home, and kept close to the kingdom of GOD that is within me.'\n'I am not young,' said CLAUDE DE ST. MARTIN, 'being now near my fiftieth\nyear, nevertheless I have begun to learn German, in order that I may read\nthis incomparable author in his own tongue.  I have written some not\nunacceptable books myself, but I am not worthy to unloose the shoestrings\nof this wonderful man.  I advise you to throw yourself into the depths of\nJacob Behmen.  There is such a profundity and exaltation of truth in\nthem, and such a simple and delicious nutriment.'\n\nThe Town Council of Goerlitz, hounded on by their Minister, sentenced\nBehmen to be banished, and interdicted him from ever writing any more.\nBut in sheer shame at what they had done they immediately recalled Behmen\nfrom banishment; only, they insisted that he should confine himself to\nhis shop, and leave all writing of books alone.  Behmen had no ambition\nto write any more, and, as a matter of fact, he kept silence even to\nhimself for seven whole years.  But as those years went on it came to be\nwith him, to use his own words, as with so much grain that has been\nburied in the earth, and which, in spite of storms and tempests, will,\nout of its own life, spring up, and that even when reason says it is now\nwinter, and that all hope and all power is gone.  And thus it was that,\nunder the same instigation which had produced the _Aurora_, Behmen at a\nrush wrote his very fine if very difficult book, _The Three Principles of\nthe Divine Essence_.  He calls _The Three Principles_ his A B C, and the\neasiest of all his books.  And William Law recommends all beginners in\nBehmen to read alone for some sufficient time the tenth and twelfth\nchapters of _The Three Principles_.  I shall let Behmen describe the\ncontents of his easiest book in his own words.  'In this second book,' he\nsays, 'there is declared what GOD is, what Nature is, what the creatures\nare, what the love and meekness of GOD are, what GOD'S will is, what the\nwrath of GOD is, and what joy and sorrow are.  As also, how all things\ntook their beginning: with the true difference between eternal and\ntransitory creatures.  Specially of man and his soul, what the soul is,\nand how it is an eternal creature.  Also what heaven is, wherein GOD and\nthe holy angels and holy men dwell, and hell wherein the devils dwell:\nand how all things were originally created and had their being.  In sum,\nwhat the Essence of all Essences is.  And thus I commit my reader to the\nsweet love of GOD.'  _The Three Principles_, according to CHRISTOPHER\nWALTON, was the first book of Behmen's that William Law ever held in his\nhand.  That, then, was the title-page, and those were the contents, that\nthrew that princely and saintly mind into such a sweat.  It was a great\nday for William Law, and through him it was, and will yet be acknowledged\nto have been, a great day for English theology when he chanced, at an old\nbookstall, upon _The Three Principles_, Englished by a Barrister of the\nInner Temple.  The picture of that bookstall that day is engraven in\nlines of light and love on the heart of every grateful reader of Jacob\nBehmen and of William Law's later and richer and riper writings.\n\nIn three months after he had finished _The Three Principles_, Behmen had\ncomposed a companion treatise, entitled _The Threefold Life of Man_.\nModest about himself as Behmen always was, he could not be wholly blind\nabout his own incomparable books.  And he but spoke the simple truth\nabout his third book when he said of it--as, indeed, he was constantly\nsaying about all his books--that it will serve every reader just\naccording to his constellation, his inclination, his disposition, his\ncomplexion, his profession, and his whole condition.  'You will be soon\nweary of all contentious books,' he wrote to CASPER LINDERN, 'if you\nentertain and get _The Threefold Life of Man_ into your mind and heart.'\n'The subject of regeneration,' says Christopher Walton, 'is the pith and\ndrift of all Behmen's writings, and the student may here be directed to\nbegin his course of study by mastering the first eight chapters of _The\nThreefold Life_, which appear to have been in great favour with Mr. Law.'\n\nBehmen's next book was a very extraordinary piece of work, and it had a\nvery extraordinary origin.  A certain BALTHAZAR WALTER, who seems to have\nbeen a second Paracelsus in his love of knowledge and in his lifelong\npursuit of knowledge, had, like Paracelsus, travelled east, and west, and\nnorth, and south in search of that ancient and occult wisdom of which so\nmany men in that day dreamed.  But Walter, like his predecessor\nParacelsus, had come home from his travels a humbler man, a wiser man,\nand a man more ready to learn and lay to heart the truth that some of his\nown countrymen could all the time have taught him.  On his return from\nthe east, Walter found the name of Jacob Behmen in everybody's mouth;\nand, on introducing himself to that little shop in Goerlitz out of which\nthe _Aurora_ and _The Threefold Life_ had come, Walter was wise enough to\nsee and bold enough to confess that he had found a teacher and a friend\nthere such as neither Egypt nor India had provided him with.  After many\nimmensely interested visits to Jacob Behmen's workshop, Walter was more\nthan satisfied that Behmen was all, and more than all, that his most\ndevoted admirers had said he was.  And, accordingly, Walter laid a plan\nso as to draw upon Behmen's profound and original mind for a solution of\nsome of the philosophical and theological problems that were agitating\nand dividing the learned men of that day.  With that view Walter made a\nround of the leading universities of Germany, conversed with the\nprofessors and students, collected a long list of the questions that were\nbeing debated in that day in those seats of learning, and sent the list\nto Behmen, asking him to give his mind to them and try to answer them.\n'Beloved sir,' wrote Behmen, after three months' meditation and prayer,\n'and my good friend: it is impossible for the mind and reason of man to\nanswer all the questions you have put to me.  All those things are known\nto GOD alone.  But, that no man may boast, He sometimes makes use of very\nmean men to make known His truth, that it may be seen and acknowledged to\ncome from His own hand alone.'  It is told that when Charles the First\nread the English translation of Behmen's answers to the _Forty\nQuestions_, he wrote to the publisher that if Jacob Behmen was no\nscholar, then the Holy Ghost was still with men; and, if he was a learned\nman, then his book was one of the best inventions that had ever been\nwritten.  The _Forty Questions_ ran through many editions both on the\nContinent and in England, and it was this book that gained for Jacob\nBehmen the denomination of the Teutonic Philosopher, a name by which he\nis distinguished among authors to this day.  The following are some of\nthe university questions that Balthazar Walter took down and sent to\nJacob Behmen for his answer: 'What is the soul of man in its innermost\nessence, and how is it created, soul by soul, in the image of GOD?  Is\nthe soul propagated from father to son like the body? or is it every time\nnew created and breathed in from GOD?  How comes original sin into each\nseveral soul?  How does the soul of the saint feed and grow upon the word\nof GOD?  Whence comes the deadly contrariety between the flesh and the\nspirit?  Whither goes the soul when it at death departs from the body?  In\nwhat does its rest, its awakening, and its glorification consist?  What\nkind of body shall the glorified body be?  The soul and spirit of CHRIST,\nwhat are they? and are they the same as ours?  What and where is\nParadise?'  Through a hundred and fourteen large quarto pages Behmen's\nastonishing answers to the forty questions run; after which he adds this:\n'Thus, my beloved friend, we have set down, according to our gifts, a\nround answer to your questions, and we exhort you as a brother not to\ndespise us.  For we are not born of art, but of simplicity.  We\nacknowledge all who love such knowledge as our brethren in CHRIST, with\nwhom we hope to rejoice eternally in the heavenly school.  For our best\nknowledge here is but in part, but when we shall attain to perfection,\nthen we shall see what GOD is, and what He can do.  Amen.'\n\n_A Treatise of the Incarnation of the Son of God_ comes next, and then we\nhave three smaller works written to clear up and to establish several\ndifficult and disputed matters in it and in some of his former works.  To\nwrite on the Incarnation of the Son of GOD would need, says Behmen, an\nangel's pen; but his defence is that his is better than any angel's pen,\nbecause it is the pen of a sinner's love.  The year 1621 saw one of\nBehmen's most original and most powerful books finished,--the _Signatura\nRerum_.  In this remarkable book Behmen teaches us that all things have\ntwo worlds in which they live,--an inward world and an outward.  All\ncreated things have an inner and an invisible essence, and an outer and a\nvisible form.  And the outward form is always more or less the key to the\ninward character.  This whole world that we see around us, and of which\nwe ourselves are the soul,--it is all a symbol, a 'signature,' of an\ninvisible world.   This deep principle runs through the whole of\ncreation.  The Creator went upon this principle in all His work; and the\nthoughtful mind can see that principle coming out in all His work,--in\nplants, and trees, and beasts.\n\n   As German Boehme never cared for plants\n   Until it happed, a-walking in the fields,\n   He noticed all at once that plants could speak,\n   Nay, turned with loosened tongue to talk with him.\n   That day the daisy had an eye indeed--\n   Colloquized with the cowslips on such themes!\n   We find them extant yet in Jacob's prose.\n\nBut, best of all, this principle comes out clearest in the speech,\nbehaviour, features, and face of a man.  Every day men are signing\nthemselves from within.  Every act they perform, every word they speak,\nevery wish they entertain,--it all comes out and is fixed for ever in\ntheir character, and even in their appearance.  'Therefore,' says Behmen\nin the beginning of his book, 'the greatest understanding lies in the\nsignature.  For by the external form of all creatures; by their voice and\naction, as well as by their instigation, inclination, and desire, their\nhidden spirit is made known.  For Nature has given to everything its own\nlanguage according to its innermost essence.  And this is the language of\nNature, in which everything continually speaks, manifests, and declares\nitself for what it is,--so much so, that all that is spoken or written\neven about GOD, however true, if the writer or speaker has not the Divine\nNature within himself, then all he says is dumb to me; he has not got the\nhammer in his hand that can strike my bell.'\n\n_The Way to Christ_ was Behmen's next book, and in the four precious\ntreatises that compose that book our author takes an altogether new\ndeparture.  In his _Aurora_, in _The Three Principles_, in the _Forty\nQuestions_, and in the _Signatura Rerum_, Jacob Behmen has been writing\nfor philosophers and theologians.  Or, if in all these works he has been\nwriting for a memorial to himself in the first place,--even then, it has\nbeen for himself on the philosophical and theological side of his own\nmind.  But in _The Way to Christ_ he writes for himself under that\ncharacter which, once taken up by Jacob Behmen, is never for one day laid\ndown.  Behmen's favourite Scripture, after our Lord's promise of the Holy\nSpirit to them that ask for Him, was the parable of the Prodigal Son.  In\nall his books Behmen is that son, covered with wounds and bruises and\nputrefying sores, but at last beginning to come to himself and to return\nto his Father.  _The Way to Christ_ is a production of the very greatest\ndepth and strength, but it is the depth and the strength of the heart and\nthe conscience rather than the depth and the strength of the\nunderstanding and the imagination.  This nobly evangelical book is made\nup of four tracts, entitled respectively, _Of True Repentance_, _Of True\nResignation_, _Of Regeneration_, and _Of the Supersensual Life_.  And a\ndeep vein of autobiographic life and interest runs through the four\ntracts and binds them into a quick unity.  'A soldier,' says Behmen, 'who\nhas been in the wars can best tell another soldier how to fight.'  And\nneither Augustine nor Luther nor Bunyan carries deeper wounds, or broader\nscars, nor tells a nobler story in any of their autobiographic and\nsoldierly books than Behmen does in his _Way to Christ_.  At the\ncommencement of _The True Repentance_ he promises us that he will write\nof a process or way on which he himself has gone.  'The author herewith\ngiveth thee the best jewel that he hath.'  And a true jewel it is, as the\npresent speaker will testify.  If _The True Repentance_ has a fault at\nall it is the fault of Rutherford's _Letters_.  For the taste of some of\nhis readers Behmen, like Rutherford, draws rather too much on the\nlanguage and the figures of the married life in setting forth the love of\nCHRIST to the espoused soul, and the love of the espoused soul to CHRIST.\nBut with that, and all its other drawbacks, _The True Repentance_ is such\na treatise that, once discovered by the proper reader, it will be the\nhappy discoverer's constant companion all his earthly and penitential\ndays.  As the English reader is carried on through the fourth tract, _The\nSupersensual Life_, he experiences a new and an increasing sense of ease\nand pleasure, combined with a mystic height and depth and inwardness all\nbut new to him even in Behmen's books.  The new height and depth and\ninwardness are all Jacob Behmen's own; but the freedom and the ease and\nthe movement and the melody are all William Law's.  In his preparations\nfor a new edition of Behmen in English, William Law had re-translated and\nparaphrased _The Supersensual Life_, and the editor of the 1781 edition\nof Behmen's works has incorporated Law's beautiful rendering of that\ntract in room of JOHN SPARROW'S excellent but rather too antique\nrendering.  We are in John Sparrow's everlasting debt for the immense\nlabour he laid out on Behmen, as well as for his own deep piety and\npersonal worth.  But it was service enough and honour enough for Sparrow\nto have Englished Jacob Behmen at all for his fellow-countrymen, even if\nhe was not able to English him as William Law would have done.  But take\nBehmen and Law together, as they meet together in _The Supersensual\nLife_, and not A Kempis himself comes near them even in his own proper\nfield, or in his immense service in that field.  There is all the\nreality, inwardness, and spirituality of _The Imitation_ in _The\nSupersensual Life_, together with a sweep of imagination, and a grasp of\nunderstanding, as well as with both a sweetness and a bitterness of heart\nthat even A Kempis never comes near.  _The Supersensual Life_ of Jacob\nBehmen, in the English of William Law, is a superb piece of spiritual\nwork, and a treasure-house of masculine English.  (If Christopher Walton\nis right, we must read 'Lee' for 'Law' in this passage.  If Walton is\nright, then there was a master of English in those days we had not before\nbeen told of.)\n\n_A Treatise of the Four Complexions_, or _A Consolatory Instruction for a\nSad and Assaulted Heart_, was Behmen's next book.  The four complexions\nare the four temperaments--the choleric, the sanguine, the phlegmatic,\nand the melancholy.  Behmen's treatise has been well described by Walton\nas containing the philosophy of temptation; and by Martensen as\ndisplaying a most profound knowledge of the human heart.  Behmen sets\nabout his task as a _ductor dubitantium_ in a masterly manner.  He takes\nin hand the comfort and direction of sin-distressed souls in a\ncharacteristically deep, inward, and thorough-going way.  The book is\nfull of Behmen's observation of men.  It is the outcome of a close and\nlong-continued study of character and conduct.  Every page of _The Four\nComplexions_ gleams with a keen but tender and wistful insight into our\npoor human nature.  As his customers came and gave their orders in his\nshop; as his neighbours collected, and gossiped, and debated, and\nquarrelled around his shop window; as his minister fumed and raged\nagainst him in the pulpit; as the Council of Goerlitz sat and swayed,\npassed sentence upon him, retracted their sentence, and again gave way\nunder the pressure of their minister, and pronounced another\nsentence,--all this time Behmen was having poor human nature, to all its\njoints and marrow, and to all the thoughts and instincts of its heart,\nlaid naked and open before him, both in other men and in himself.  And\nthen, as always with Behmen, all this observation of men, all this\ndiscovery and self-discovery, ran up into philosophy, into theology, into\npersonal and evangelical religion.  In all that Behmen better and better\nsaw the original plan, constitution, and operation of human nature; its\naboriginal catastrophe; its weakness and openness to all evil; and its\nneed of constant care, protection, instruction, watchfulness, and Divine\nhelp.  Behmen writes on all the four temperaments with the profoundest\ninsight, and with the fullest sympathy; but over the last of the four he\nexclaims: 'O hear me! for I know well myself what melancholy is! I also\nhave lodged all my days in the melancholy inn!'  As I read that light and\nelastic book published the other day, _The Life and Letters of Erasmus_,\nI came on this sentence, 'Erasmus, like all men of real genius, had a\nlight and elastic nature.'  When I read that, I could not believe my\neyes.  I had been used to think of light and elastic natures as being the\nantipodes of natures of real genius.  And as I stopped my reading for a\nlittle, a procession of men of real and indisputable genius passed before\nme, who had all lodged with Behmen in the melancholy inn.  Till I\nremembered that far deeper and far truer saying, that 'simply to say man\nat all is to say melancholy.'  No: with all respect, the real fact is\nsurely as near as possible the exact opposite.  A light, elastic, Erasmus-\nlike nature, is the exception among men of real genius.  At any rate,\nJacob Behmen was the exact opposite of Erasmus, and of all such light and\nelastic men.  Melancholy was Jacob Behmen's special temperament and\npeculiar complexion.  He had long studied, and watched, and wrestled\nwith, and prayed over that complexion at home.  And thus it is, no doubt,\nthat he is so full, and so clear, and so sure-footed, and so impressive,\nand so full of fellow-feeling in his treatment of this special\ncomplexion.  Behmen's greatest disciple has assimilated his master's\nteaching in this matter of complexion also, and has given it out again in\nhis own clear, plain, powerful, classical manner, especially in his\ntreatise on _Christian Regeneration_.  Let all preachers and pastors who\nwould master the _rationale_ of temptation, and who would ground their\ndirections and their comforts to their people in the nature of things, as\nwell as in the word of GOD, make Jacob Behmen and William Law and\nPrebendary Clark their constant study.  'I write for no other purpose,'\nsays Behmen, 'than that men may learn how to know themselves.  Seek the\nnoble knowledge of thyself.  Seek it and you will find a heavenly\ntreasure which will not be eaten by moths, and which no thief shall ever\ntake away.'\n\nI shall not attempt to enter on the thorny thicket of Jacob Behmen's\npolemical and apologetical works.  I shall not even load your mind with\ntheir unhappy titles.  His five apologies occupy in bulk somewhere about\na tenth part of his five quarto volumes.  And full as his apologies and\ndefences are of autobiographic material, as well as of valuable\nexpansions and explanations of his other books, yet at their best they\nare all controversial and combative in their cast and complexion; and,\nnobly as Behmen has written on the subject of controversy, it was not\ngiven even to him, amid all the misunderstandings, misrepresentations,\ninjuries, and insults he suffered from, always to write what we are glad\nand proud and the better to read.\n\nAbout his next book Behmen thus writes: 'Upon the desire of some high\npersons with whom I did converse in the Christmas holidays, I have\nwritten a pretty large treatise upon Election, in which I have done my\nbest to determine that subject upon the deepest grounds.  And I hope that\nthe same may put an end to many contentions and controversies, especially\nof some points betwixt the Lutherans and Calvinists, for I have taken the\ntexts of Holy Scripture which speak of GOD'S will to harden sinners, and\nthen, again, of His unwillingness to harden, and have so tuned and\nharmonised them that the right understanding and meaning of the same may\nbe seen.'  'This author,' says John Sparrow, 'disputes not at all.  He\ndesires only to confer and offer his understanding of the Scriptures on\nboth sides, answering reason's objections, and manifesting the truth for\nthe conjoining, uniting, and reconciling of all parties in love.'  And\nthat he has not been wholly unsuccessful we may believe when we hear one\nof Behmen's ablest commentators writing of his _Election_ as 'a\nsuperlatively helpful book,' and again, as a 'profoundly instructive\ntreatise.'  The workman-like way in which Behmen sets about his treatment\nof the _Election of Grace, commonly called Predestination_, will be seen\nfrom the titles of some of his chapters.  Chap. i.  What the One Only GOD\nis.  Chap. ii.  Concerning GOD'S Eternal Speaking Word.  Chap. v.  Of the\nOrigin of Man; Chap. vi.  Of the Fall of Man.  Chap. viii.  Of the\nsayings of Scripture, and how they oppose one another.  Chap. ix.\nClearing the Right Understanding of such Scriptures.  Chap. xiii.  A\nConclusion upon all those Questions.  And then, true to his constant\nmanner, as if wholly dissatisfied with the result of all his labour in\nthings and in places too deep both for writer and reader, he gave all the\nnext day after he had finished his _Election_ to an _Appendix on\nRepentance_, in order to making his own and his reader's calling and\nelection sure.  And it may safely be said that, than that day's work,\nthan those four quarto pages, not Augustine, not Luther, not Bunyan, not\nBaxter, not Shepard has ever written anything of more evangelical depth,\nand strength, and passion, and pathos.  It is truly a splendid day's\nwork!  But it might not have been possible even for Behmen to perform\nthat day's work had he not for months beforehand been dealing day and\nnight with the deepest and the most heart-searching things both of GOD\nand man.  What a man was Jacob Behmen, and chosen to what a service!  At\nwork all that day in his solitary stall, and then all the night after\nover his rush-light writing for a memorial to himself and to us his\nincomparable _Compendium of Repentance_.\n\nIn a letter addressed to one of the nobility in Silesia, and dated\nFebruary 19, 1623, Behmen says: 'When you have leisure to study I shall\nsend you something still more deep, for I have written this whole autumn\nand winter without ceasing.'  And if he had written nothing else but his\ngreat book entitled _Mysterium Magnum_ that autumn and winter, he must\nhave written night and day and done nothing else.  Even in size the\n_Mysterium_ is an immense piece of work.  In the English edition it\noccupies the whole of the third quarto volume of 507 pages; and then for\nits matter it is a still more amazing production.  To say that the\n_Mysterium Magnum_ is a mystical and allegorical commentary upon the Book\nof Genesis is to say nothing.  Philo himself is a tyro and a timid\ninterpreter beside Jacob Behmen.  'Which things are an allegory,' says\nthe Apostle, after a passing reference to Sarah and Hagar and Isaac and\nIshmael; but if you would see actually every syllable of Genesis\nallegorised, spiritualised, interpreted of CHRIST, and of the New\nTestament, from the first verse of its first chapter to the last verse of\nits last chapter, like the nobleman of Silesia, when you have leisure,\nread Behmen's deep _Mysterium Magnum_.  I would recommend the\nenterprising and unconquerable student to make leisure so as to master\nBehmen's Preface to the _Mysterium Magnum_ at the very least.  And if he\ndoes that, and is not drawn on from that to be a student of Behmen for\nthe rest of his days, then, whatever else his proper field in life may\nbe, it is not mystical or philosophical theology.  It is a long step both\nin time and in thought from Behmen to SCHOPENHAUER; but, speaking of one\nof Schelling's books, Schopenhauer says that it is all taken from Jacob\nBehmen's _Mysterium Magnum_; every thought and almost every word of\nSchelling's work leads Schopenhauer to think of Behmen.  'When I read\nBehmen's book,' says Schopenhauer, 'I cannot withhold either admiration\nor emotion.'   At his far too early death Behmen left four treatises\nbehind him in an unfinished condition.  The _Theoscopia_, or _Divine\nVision_, is but a fragment; but, even so, the study of that fragment\nleads us to believe that, had Behmen lived to the ordinary limit of human\nlife, and had his mind continued to grow as it was now fast growing in\nclearness, in concentration, and in simplicity, Behmen would have left to\nus not a few books as classical in their form as all his books are\nclassical in their substance; in their originality, in their truth, in\ntheir depth, and in their strength.  As it is, the unfinished, the\nscarcely-begun, _Theoscopia_ only serves to show the student of what a\ntreasure he has been bereft by Behmen's too early death.  As I read and\nre-read the _Theoscopia_ I felt the full truth and force of Hegel's\ngenerous words, that German philosophy began with Behmen.  This is both\nGerman and Christian philosophy, I said to myself as I revelled in the\n_Theoscopia_.  Let the serious student listen to the titles of some of\nthe chapters of the _Theoscopia_, and then let him say what he would not\nhave given to have got such a book from such a pen in its completed\nshape:  'What GOD is, and how we men shall know the Divine Substance by\nthe Divine Revelation.  Why it sometimes seems as if there were no GOD,\nand as if all things went in the world by chance.  Why GOD, who is Love\nitself, permits an evil will contrary to His own.  The reason and the\nprofit, why evil should be found along with good.  Of the mind of man,\nand how it is the image of GOD, and how it can still be filled with God.\nWhy this Temporal Universe is created; to what it is profitable; and how\nGod is so near unto all things': and so on.  'But no amount of\nquotation,' says Mrs. Penney, that very able student of Behmen, lately\ndeceased, 'can give an adequate glimpse of the light which streams from\nthe _Theoscopia_ when long and patiently studied.'\n\nAnother unfinished fragment that Behmen's readers seek for and treasure\nup like very sand of gold is his _Holy Week_.  This little work, its\nauthor tells us, was undertaken upon the entreaty and desire of some\nloving and good friends of his for the daily exercise of true religion in\ntheir hearts and in the little church of their families.  The following\nis Behmen's method of prayer for Monday, which is the only day's prayer\nhe got finished before his death:  'A short prayer when we awake early\nand before we rise.  A prayer and thanksgiving after we are risen.  A\nprayer while we wash and dress.  A prayer when we begin to work at our\ncalling.  A prayer at noon.  A prayer toward evening.  A prayer when we\nundress.  A prayer of thanks for the bitter passion and dying of JESUS\nCHRIST.'  What does the man mean? many of his contemporaries who came\nupon his _Holy Week_ would say, What does the madman mean?  Would he have\nus pray all day?  Would he have us pray and do nothing else?  Yes; it\nwould almost seem so.  For in his _Supersensual Life_ the Master says to\nthe disciple who has asked, 'How shall I be able to live aright amid all\nthe anxiety and tribulation of this world?': 'If thou dost once every\nhour throw thyself by faith beyond all creatures into the abysmal mercy\nof GOD, into the sufferings of CHRIST, and into the fellowship of His\nintercession, then thou shalt receive power from above to rule over the\nworld, and death, and the devil, and hell itself.'  And again, 'O thou of\nlittle courage, if thy will could but break itself off every half-hour\nfrom all creatures, and plunge itself into that where no creature is or\ncan be, presently it would be penetrated with the splendour of the Divine\nglory, and would taste a sweetness no tongue can express.  Then thou\nwouldst love thy cross more than all the glory and all the goods of this\nworld.'  The author had begun a series of reflections and meditations on\nthe Ten Commandments for devotional use on Tuesday, but got no further\nthan the Fifth.  Behmen is so deep and so original in his purely\nphilosophical, theological, and speculative books, that in many places we\ncan only stand back and wonder at the man.  But in his _Holy Week_ Behmen\nkneels down beside us.  Not but that his characteristic depth is present\nin his prayers also; but we all know something of the nature, the manner,\nand the blessedness of prayer, and thus it is that we are so much more at\nhome with Behmen, the prodigal son, than we are with Behmen, the\ntheosophical theologian.  When Behmen begins to teach us to pray, and\nwhen the lesson comes to us out of his own closet, then we are able to\nsee in a nearer light something of the originality, the greatness, the\nstrength, and the true and genuine piety of the philosopher and the\ntheologian.  When Behmen's philosophy and theology become penitence,\nprayer, and praise, then by their fruits we know how good his philosophy\nand his theology must be, away down in their deepest and most hidden\nnature.  I agree with Walton that those prayers are full of unction and\ninstruction, and that some of them are of the 'highest magnetical power';\nand that, as rendered into modern phraseology, they are most beautiful\ndevotional compositions, and very models of all that a divinely\nilluminated mind would address to GOD and CHRIST.  For myself,\nimmediately after the Psalms of David I put Jacob Behmen's _Holy Week_\nand the prayers scattered up and down through his _True Repentance_, and\nbeside Behmen I put Bishop Andrewes' _Private Devotions_.  I have\ndiscovered no helps to my own devotional life for a moment to set beside\nBehmen and Andrewes.\n\n_A Treatise on Baptism and the Lord's Supper_; _A Key to the Principal\nPoints and Expressions in the Author's Writings_; and then a most\nvaluable volume of letters--_Epistolae Theosophicae_--complete the\nextraordinarily rich bibliography of the illuminated and blessed Jacob\nBehmen.\n\nThough there is a great deal of needless and wearisome repetition in\nJacob Behmen's writings, at the same time there is scarcely a single\nsubject in the whole range of theology on which he does not throw a new,\nan intense, and a brilliant light.  In his absolutely original and\nmagnificent doctrine of GOD, while all the time loyally true to it,\nBehmen has confessedly transcended the theology of both the Latin and the\nReformed Churches; and, absolutely unlettered man though he is, has taken\nhis stand at the very head of the great Greek theologians.  The Reformers\nconcentrated their criticism upon the anthropology and soteriology of the\nChurch of Rome, and especially upon the discipline and worship connected\ntherewith.  They saw no need for recasting any of the more fundamental\npositions of pure theology.  And while Jacob Behmen, broadly speaking,\naccepts as his own confession of faith all that Luther and Calvin and\ntheir colleagues taught on sin and salvation, on the corruption and guilt\nof sinners, and on the redeeming work of our LORD, he rises far above the\ngreatest and best of his teachers in his doctrine of the GODHEAD.  Not\nonly does he rise far higher in that doctrine than either Rome or Geneva,\nhe rises far higher and sounds far deeper than either Antioch, or\nAlexandria, or Nicomedia, or Nice.  On this profound point Bishop\nMartensen has an excellent appreciation of Behmen.  After what I have\ntaken upon me to say about Behmen, the learned Bishop's authoritative\npassage must be quoted:--'If we compare Behmen's doctrine of the\nTrinity,' says the learned and evangelical Bishop, 'with that which is\ncontained in the otherwise so admirable Athanasian Creed, the latter but\ndisplays to us a most abstruse metaphysic; a GOD for mere thought, and in\nwhom there is nothing sympathetic for the heart of man.  Behmen, on the\ncontrary, reveals to us the LIVING GOD, the GOD of Goodness, the Eternal\nLove, of which there is absolutely no hint whatever in the hard\nAthanasian symbol.  By this attitude of his to the affections of the\nhuman heart, Behmen's doctrine of the Trinity is in close coherence with\nthe Reformation, and with its evangelical churches. . . . Behmen is\nanxious to state a conception of GOD that will fill the hiatus between\nthe theological and anthropological sides of the dogmatical development\nwhich was bequeathed by the Reformation; he seeks to unite the\ntheological and the anthropological. . . . From careful study of Behmen's\ntheology,' continues Bishop Martensen, 'one gains a prevailing impression\nthat Behmen's GOD is, in His inmost Being, most kindred to man, even as\nman in his inmost being is still kindred to GOD.  And, besides, we\nrecognise in Behmen throughout the pulse-beat of a believing man, who is\nin all his books supremely anxious about his own salvation and that of\nhis fellow-men.'  Now, it is just this super-confessional element in\nBehmen, both on his speculative and on his practical side, taken along\nwith the immediate and intensely practical bearing of all his\nspeculations, it is just this that is Behmen's true and genuine\ndistinction, his shining and unshared glory.  And it is out of that\nsupreme, solitary, and wholly untrodden field of Behmen's\nsuper-confessional theology that all that is essential, characteristic,\ndistinctive, and fruitful in Behmen really and originally springs.  The\ndistinctions he takes within, and around, and immediately beneath the\nGodhead, are of themselves full of the noblest light.  The Divine Nature,\nEternal Nature, Temporal Nature, Human Nature, when evolved out of one\nanother, and when related to one another, as Behmen sees them evolved and\nrelated, are categories of the clearest, surest, most necessary, and most\nintensely instructive kind.  And if the height and the depth, the\nmassiveness, the stupendousness, and the grandeur, as well as the\nsweetness, and the beauty, and the warmth, and the fruitfulness of a\ndoctrine of GOD is any argument or evidence of its truth, then Behmen's\nmagnificent doctrine of the GODHEAD is surely proved to demonstration and\ndelight.  GOD is the Essence of all Essences to Behmen.  GOD is the\ndeepest Ground, the living and the life-giving Root of all existence.  At\nthe same time, the Divine Nature is so Divine; It is so high and so deep;\nIt is so unlike all that is not Itself; It is so beyond and above all\nlanguage, and all thought, and all imagination of man or angel, that\nuniverse after universe have had to come into existence, and have had to\nbe filled, each successive universe after its own kind, with all the\nfulness of GOD, before that universe of which we form a part, and to\nwhich our utmost imagination is confined, could have come into existence,\nand into recognition of itself.  Behmen's Eternal Nature must never be\ntaken for the Eternal GOD.  The Divine Nature, the Eternal Godhead,\nexists in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost; and then, after\nthe Eternal Generation of the Son, and the Eternal Procession of the Holy\nGhost, there comes up in order of existence Eternal Nature.  Eternal\nNature is not the Divine Nature, but it is as near to the Divine Nature\nin its qualities and in its powers as any created thing can ever by any\npossibility be.  Now, if we are still to follow Behmen, we must not let\nourselves indolently think of the production of Eternal Nature as a\ndivine act done and completed in any past either of time or of eternity.\nThere is neither past nor future where we are now walking with Behmen.\nThere is only an everlasting present where he is now leading us.  For, as\nGOD the Father generates the Son eternally and continually; and as the\nHoly Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son eternally and\ncontinually, so GOD the Word eternally and continually says, 'Let this\nBeginning of all things be, and let it continue to be.'  And, as He\nspeaks, His Word awakens the ever-dawning morning of the ever new-created\nday.  And He beholds Eternal Nature continually rising up before Him, and\nHe pronounces it very good.  The Creator so transcends the creation, and,\nespecially, that late and remote creation of which we are a part, that,\nas the Creator's first step out of Himself, and as a step towards our\ncreation, is His creation, generation, or other production of a nature or\nuniverse that shall be capable of receiving immediately into itself all\nthat of the Creator that He has purposed to reveal and to communicate to\ncreatures,--a nature or universe which shall at the same time be itself\nthe beginning of creation, and the source, spring, and quarry out of\nwhich all that shall afterwards come can be constructed.  Eternal Nature\nis thus the great storehouse and workshop in which all the created\nessences, elements, principles, and potentialities of all possible worlds\nare laid up.  Here is the great treasury and laboratory into which the\nFilial Word enters, when by Him GOD creates, sustains, and perfects the\nworlds, universe after universe.  Here, says Behmen, is the great and\nuniversal treasury of that heavenly clay of which all things, even to\nangels and men, are made; and here is the eternal turning-wheel with\nwhich they are all framed and fashioned.  Eternal Nature is an invisible\nessence, and it is the essential ground out of which all the visible and\ninvisible worlds are made.  For the things which are seen were not made\nof things which do appear.  In that radiant original universe also all\nthe thoughts of GOD which were to usward from everlasting, all the Divine\nideas, patterns, and plans of things, are laid open, displayed, copied\nout and sealed up for future worlds to see carried out.  'Through this\nKingdom of Heaven, or Eternal Nature,' says William Law, in his _Appeal\nto all that Doubt_, 'is the invisible GOD eternally breaking forth and\nmanifesting Himself in a boundless height and depth of blissful wonders,\nopening and displaying Himself to all His heavenly creatures in an\ninfinite variety and an endless multiplicity of His powers, beauties,\njoys, and glories.  So that all the inhabitants of heaven are for ever\nknowing, seeing, hearing, feeling, and variously enjoying all that is\ngreat, amiable, infinite, and gracious in the Divine Nature.'  And again,\nin his _Way to Divine Knowledge_: 'Out of this transcendent Eternal\nNature, which is as universal and immense as the Godhead itself, do all\nthe highest beings, cherubims and seraphims, all the hosts of angels, and\nall intelligent spirits, receive their birth, existence, substance, and\nform.  And they are one and united in one, GOD in them, and they in GOD,\naccording to the prayer of CHRIST for His disciples, that they, and He,\nand His Holy Father might be united in one.'  A little philosophy,\nespecially when the philosopher does not yet know the plague of his own\nheart, tends, indeed, to doubt and unbelief in the word of GOD and in the\nwork of CHRIST.  But the philosophy of Behmen and Law will deepen the\nmind and subdue the heart of the student till he is made a prodigal son,\na humble believer, and a profound philosopher, both in nature and in\ngrace, like his profound masters.\n\nBehmen's teaching on human nature, his doctrine of the heart of man, and\nof the image of GOD in the heart of man, has a greatness about it that\nmarks it off as being peculiarly Behmen's own doctrine.  He agrees with\nthe catechisms and the creeds in their teaching that the heart of man was\nat first like the heart of GOD in knowledge, righteousness, and true\nholiness.  But Behmen is above and beyond the catechisms in this also, in\nthe way that he sees the heart of man still opening in upon the Divine\nNature, as also upon Eternal and Temporal Nature, somewhat as the heart\nof GOD opens on all that He has made.  On every page of his, wherever you\nhappen to open him, Behmen is found teaching that GOD and CHRIST, heaven\nand hell, life and death, are in every several human heart.  Heaven and\nall that it contains is every day either being quenched and killed in\nevery human heart, or it is being anew generated, rekindled, and accepted\nthere; and in like manner hell.  'Yea,' he is bold to exclaim, 'GOD\nHimself is so near thee that the geniture of the Holy Trinity is\ncontinually being wrought in thy heart.  Yea, all the Three Persons are\ngenerated for thee in thy heart.'  And, again: 'GOD is in thy dark heart.\nKnock, and He shall come out within thee into the light.  The Holy Ghost\nholds the key of thy dark heart.  Ask, and He shall be given to thee\nwithin thee.  Do not let any sophister teach thee that thy GOD is far\naloft from thee as the stars are.  Only offer at this moment to GOD thine\nheart, and CHRIST, the Son of GOD, will be born and formed within thee.\nAnd then thou art His brother, His flesh, and His spirit.  Thou also art\na child of His Father.  GOD is in thee.  Power, might, majesty, heaven,\nparadise, elements, stars, the whole earth--all is thine.  Thou art in\nCHRIST over hell, and all that it contains.'  'Behmen's speculation,'\nMartensen is always reminding us, 'streams forth from the deepest\npractical inspiration.  His speculations are all saturated with a\nconstant reference to salvation.  His whole metaphysic is pervaded by\npractical applications.'  And conspicuously so, we may here point out, is\nhis metaphysic of GOD and of the heart of man.  The immanence of GOD, as\ntheologians and philosophers call it; the indwelling of GOD, as the\npsalmists and the apostles and the saints call it; the Divine Word\nlightening every man that comes into the world, as John has it,--of the\npractical and personal bearings of all that Behmen's every book is full.\nDost thou not see it and feel it? he continually calls to his readers.\nHeaven, be sure, is in every holy man, and hell in every bad man.  When\nthou dost work together with GOD then thou art in heaven, and thy soul\ndwells in GOD.  In like manner, also, thou art in hell and among the\ndevils when thou art in any envy, malice, anger, or ill-will.  Thou\nneedest not to ask where is heaven or where is hell.  Both are within\nthee, even in thy heart.  Now, then, when thou prayest, pray in that\nheaven that is within thee, and there the Holy Ghost shall meet with thee\nand will help thee, and thy soul shall be the whole of heaven within\nthee.  It is a fundamental doctrine of Behmen's that the fall would have\nbeen immediate and eternal death to Adam and Eve had not the Divine Word,\nthe Seed of the woman, entered their hearts, and kept a footing in their\nhearts, and in the hearts of all their children, against the fulness of\ntime when He would take our flesh and work out our redemption.  And thus\nit is that Behmen appeals to all his readers, that if they will only go\ndown deep enough into their own hearts--then, there, down there, deeper\nthan indwelling sin, deeper than original sin, deep down and seated in\nthe very substance and centre of their souls--they will come upon secret\nand unexpected seeds of the Divine Life.  Seeds, blades, buddings, and\nnew beginnings of the very life of GOD the Son, in their deepest souls.\nSecret and small, Behmen exclaims, as those seeds of Eden are, despise\nthem not; destroy them not, for a blessing for thee is in them.  Water\nthose secret seeds, sun them, dig about them, and they will grow up in\nyou also.  The Divine Life is in you, quench it not, for it is of GOD.\nNay, it is GOD Himself in you.  It depends upon yourself whether or no\nthat which is at this moment the smallest of all seeds is yet to become\nin you the greatest and the most fruitful of all trees.\n\n'Man never knows how anthropomorphic he is,' is a characteristic saying\nof a fellow-countryman of Behmen's.  And Behmen's super-confessional and\nalmost super-scriptural treatment of that frequent scriptural\nanthropomorphism,--'unavoidable and yet intolerable,'--the wrath of GOD,\nmust be left by me in Behmen's own bold pages.  Strong meat belongeth to\nthem that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their\nsenses exercised to discern both good and evil.  Behmen's philosophical,\ntheological, and experimental doctrine of sin also, with one example,\nmust be wholly passed by.  'If all trees were clerks,' he exclaims in one\nplace, 'and all their branches pens, and all the hills books, and all the\nwater ink, yet all would not sufficiently declare the evil that sin hath\ndone.  For sin has made this house of heavenly light to be a den of\ndarkness; this house of joy to be a house of mourning, lamentation, and\nwoe; this house of all refreshment to be full of hunger and thirst; this\nabode of love to be a prison of enmity and ill-will; this seat of\nmeekness to be the haunt of pride and rage and malice.  For laughter sin\nhas brought horror; for munificence, beggary; and for heaven, hell.  Oh,\nthou miserable man, turn convert.  For the Father stretches out both His\nhands to thee.  Do but turn to Him and He will receive and embrace thee\nin His love.'  It was the sin and misery of this world that first made\nJacob Behmen a philosopher, and it was the sinfulness of his own heart\nthat at last made him a saint.  Behmen's full doctrine and practice of\nprayer also; his fine and fruitful treatment of what he always calls 'the\nprocess of CHRIST'; and, intimately connected with that, his still super-\nconfessional treatment of imputation,--of all that, and much more like\nthat, I cannot now attempt to speak.  Nor yet of his superb teaching on\nlove.  'Throw out thy heart upon all men,' he now commands and now\nbeseeches us.  'Throw open and throw out thy heart.  For unless thou dost\nexercise thy heart, and the love of thy heart, upon every man in the\nworld, thy self-love, thy pride, thy contempt, thy envy, thy distaste,\nthy dislike will still have dominion over thee.  The Divine Nature will\nbe quenched and extinguished in thee, till nothing but self and hell is\nleft to thee.  In the name, and in the strength of GOD, love all men.\nLove thy neighbour as thyself, and do to thy neighbour as thou doest to\nthyself.  And do it now.  For now is the accepted time; and now is the\nday of salvation!'\n\nJacob Behmen died in his fiftieth year.  He was libelled and maligned,\nharassed and hunted to death by a world that was not worthy of such a\ngift of GOD.  A sudden and severe sickness came upon Behmen till he sank\nin death with his _Aurora_ and his _Holy Week_ and his _Divine Vision_\nall lying still unfinished at his bedside.  'Open the door and let in\nmore of that music,' the dying man said to his weeping son.  Behmen was\nalready hearing the harpers harping with their harps.  He was already\ntaking his part in the song they sing in heaven to Him who loved them,\nand washed them from their sins in His own blood.  'And now,' said the\nprodigal son, the blessed Behmen, 'I go to-day to be with my Redeemer and\nmy King in Paradise,' and so died.","title":"Jacob Behmen: An Appreciation","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":11920}