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THE CONFESSIONS OF
JACOB BOEHME
THE
CONFESSIONS OF
JACOB BOEHME
COMPILED AND EDITED BY
W. SCOTT PALMER
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
EVELYN UNDERHILL
First Published in igso
NOTE BY THE EDITOR
ONE
which
day
must I
last winter, in a
confess to have been
moment
W. S. P.
Im Wasser lebt der Fisch, die Pflanze in der Erden,
Der Vogel in der Luft, die Sonn' am Firmament,
Der Salamander muss im Feu'r erhalten werden,
Und Gottes Herz ist Jakob Boehmes Element.
Angelus of Silesia.
INTRODUCTION
I
INTRODUCTION xv
maiden !
" It is to this faculty that we
must probably attribute his love of al-
II
INTRODUCTION xxv
INTRODUCTION xxix
INTRODUCTION xxxv
EVELYN UNDERHILL
THE CONFESSIONS OF
JACOB BOEHME
CHAPTER I
ART there
has not wrote
any time to
this,
consider
neither
how
was
to
set it punctually down, according to the
right understanding of letters, but all
trust in him.
down on paper.
What the total sequel is, which may
follow upon and after this, I do not fully
hope of perfection.
I marvel that God should reveal himself
thus fully to such a simple man, and that
CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME 13
ME N that
have always been of the opinion
heaven is many hundred, nay,
many thousand, miles distant from the
face of the earth, and that God dwells
only in that heaven.
Some have undertaken to measure this
height and distance, and have produced
many strange and monstrous devices.
Indeed, before my knowledge and reve-
lation of God, I held that only to be the
true heaven which, in a round circumference,
very azure of a light blue colour, extends
itself above the stars ; supposing that God
had therein his peculiar Being, and did
rule only in the power of his Holy Spirit
in this world.
power.
Then the knowledge of the outward
man is gone, and he walks up and down,
afflicted and anxious, as a woman with
child who is in her travail, and would
willingly bring forth, but cannot and is
full of throes.
Thus it goes also with the animal body
when it has once tasted of the sweetness
of God. Then it continually hungers and
thirsts after it ; but the Devil in the power
of God's wrath opposes exceedingly, and
so a man in such a course must continu-
ally be anxious ; and there is nothing but
fighting and warring for him.
thee.
There is fire even in a stone : if you
do not upon it the fire remains
strike
concealed but, if you strike it, then the
;
THE Simple
out of nothing
says,
;
God made all
but he knows not
things
where.
For here is the first sprouting or
vegetation of this twig, which springs in its
4
50 CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME
have no similitude for it in this world ; I
CHAPTER VIII
MY beloved Reader,
that everything has
I tell
its
thee
impulse in
this,
CHAPTER IX
THOU Sophister, I know thou wilt
CHAPTER X
THE life is
law of God and
written in
also the
our hearts ;
way
it
to
lies
light.
WHEN
Whom
Christ asked
do the people say that the
his disciples,
divine substantiality.
Were we not in the beginning made out
of God's substantiality ? Why should we
not also abide therein ?
fundamental.
The Wisdom of God suffers not itself
property in him.
For the Spirit of God is often subject
to the spirits of men, if they will that which
is good or well ; and it furthers what man
wills, that his good work be not hindered,
but that everywhere, above all, God's
willing and desire be done.
What is there now that is stranofe to us
or in us, that we cannot see God ? This
world and the Devil are the cause that we
;
that.
be kept back.
Thence it sprouts forth, and a tree grows
out of it in God's kingdom, despite all the
raging and raving of the Devil and his
followers and dependents.
And the more the noble tree is cherished,
the more swiftly and strongly it grows ; it
WE is
cannot say that the outward world
God, or the speaking Word ; or
that the outward man is God. That is
high.
My will-spirit, which now is in Christ's
CHAPTER XV
WILL now speak to those who feel
I indeed in themselves a desire to
repent,and yet cannot come to acknow-
ledge and bewail their committed sins
the flesh saying continually to the soul,
Stay awhile, it is well enough, or. It is
of this world.
The troubled soul is apt to perplex and
torment itself because it cannot open by-
morning.
It hath fared no otherwise with the
greatest saints of God. They were forced
to wrestle long and earnestly for the noble
garland. With which indeed no man will
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