a name given to those mystics who adopted the explication of
the mysteries of nature and grace, as given by Jacob Behmen. This writer
was born in the year 1575, at Old Siedenburg, near Gorlitz, in Upper
Lusatia. He was a shoemaker by trade, and is described as having been
thoughtful and religious from his youth up, taking peculiar pleasure in
frequenting the public worship. At length, seriously considering within
himself that speech of our Saviour, “Your heavenly Father will give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him,” he was thereby awakened to desire
that promised Comforter; and, continuing in that earnestness, he was at
last, to use his own expression, “surrounded with a divine light for
seven days, and stood in the highest contemplation and kingdom of joys!”
After this, about the year 1600, he was again surrounded with a divine
light and replenished with the heavenly knowledge; insomuch as, going
abroad into the fields, and viewing the herbs and grass, by his inward
light, he saw into their essences, uses, and properties, which were
discovered to him by their lineaments, figures, and signatures. In the
year 1610, he had a third special illumination, wherein still farther
mysteries were revealed to him; but it was not till the year 1612 that
Behmen committed these revelations to writing. His first treatise is
entitled, “Aurora,” which was seized by the senate of Gorlitz before it
was completed. His next production is called, “The Three Principles,” by
which he means the dark world, or hell; the light world, or heaven; and
the external, or visible world, which we inhabit. In this work he more
fully illustrates the subjects treated of in the former, and supplies
what is wanting in that work, showing, 1. How all things came from a
working will of the holy, triune, incomprehensible God, manifesting
himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through an outward,
perceptible, working, triune power of fire, light, and spirit, in the
kingdom of heaven. 2. How and what angels and men were in their
creation; that they are in and from God, his real offspring; that their
life begun in and from this divine fire, which is the Father of Light,
generating a birth of light in their souls; from both which proceeds the
Holy Spirit, or breath of divine love, in the triune creature, as it
does in the triune Creator. 3. How some angels, and all men, are fallen
from God, and their first state of a divine triune life in him; what
they are in their fallen state, and the difference between the fall of
angels and that of man. 4. How the earth, stars, and elements were
created in consequence of the fall of angels. 5. Whence there is good
and evil in all this temporal world; and what is meant by the curse that
dwells in it. 6. Of the kingdom of Christ, how it is set in opposition
to the kingdom of hell. 7. How man, through faith in Christ, is able to
overcome the kingdom of hell, and thereby obtain eternal salvation. 8.
How and why sin and misery shall only reign for a time, until God shall,
in a supernatural way, make fallen man rise to the glory of angels, and
this material system shake off its curse, and enter into an everlasting
union with that heaven from whence it fell.
The next year, Behmen produced his “Three-fold Life of Man,” according
to the three principles above mentioned. In this work he treats more
largely of the state of man in this world: that he has, 1. That immortal
spark of life, which is common to angels and devils. 2. That divine life
of the light and Spirit of God, which makes the essential difference
between an angel and a devil; and, 3. The life of this external and
visible world. The first and last are common to all men; but the second
only to a true Christian, or child of God. Behmen wrote several other
treatises; but these are the basis of all his other writings. His
conceptions are often clothed under allegorical symbols; and, in his
later works, he frequently adopted chemical and Latin phrases, which he
borrowed from conversation with learned men. But as to the matter
contained in his writings, he disclaims having borrowed it either from
men or books. He died in the year 1624; and his last words were, “Now I
go hence into paradise!” Behmen’s principles were adopted by Mr. Law,
who clothed them in a more modern dress, and in a style less obscure.
The essential obscurity of the subjects indeed he could not remedy. If
they were understood by the author himself, he is probably the only one
who ever made that attainment.
the mysteries of nature and grace, as given by Jacob Behmen. This writer
was born in the year 1575, at Old Siedenburg, near Gorlitz, in Upper
Lusatia. He was a shoemaker by trade, and is described as having been
thoughtful and religious from his youth up, taking peculiar pleasure in
frequenting the public worship. At length, seriously considering within
himself that speech of our Saviour, “Your heavenly Father will give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him,” he was thereby awakened to desire
that promised Comforter; and, continuing in that earnestness, he was at
last, to use his own expression, “surrounded with a divine light for
seven days, and stood in the highest contemplation and kingdom of joys!”
After this, about the year 1600, he was again surrounded with a divine
light and replenished with the heavenly knowledge; insomuch as, going
abroad into the fields, and viewing the herbs and grass, by his inward
light, he saw into their essences, uses, and properties, which were
discovered to him by their lineaments, figures, and signatures. In the
year 1610, he had a third special illumination, wherein still farther
mysteries were revealed to him; but it was not till the year 1612 that
Behmen committed these revelations to writing. His first treatise is
entitled, “Aurora,” which was seized by the senate of Gorlitz before it
was completed. His next production is called, “The Three Principles,” by
which he means the dark world, or hell; the light world, or heaven; and
the external, or visible world, which we inhabit. In this work he more
fully illustrates the subjects treated of in the former, and supplies
what is wanting in that work, showing, 1. How all things came from a
working will of the holy, triune, incomprehensible God, manifesting
himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through an outward,
perceptible, working, triune power of fire, light, and spirit, in the
kingdom of heaven. 2. How and what angels and men were in their
creation; that they are in and from God, his real offspring; that their
life begun in and from this divine fire, which is the Father of Light,
generating a birth of light in their souls; from both which proceeds the
Holy Spirit, or breath of divine love, in the triune creature, as it
does in the triune Creator. 3. How some angels, and all men, are fallen
from God, and their first state of a divine triune life in him; what
they are in their fallen state, and the difference between the fall of
angels and that of man. 4. How the earth, stars, and elements were
created in consequence of the fall of angels. 5. Whence there is good
and evil in all this temporal world; and what is meant by the curse that
dwells in it. 6. Of the kingdom of Christ, how it is set in opposition
to the kingdom of hell. 7. How man, through faith in Christ, is able to
overcome the kingdom of hell, and thereby obtain eternal salvation. 8.
How and why sin and misery shall only reign for a time, until God shall,
in a supernatural way, make fallen man rise to the glory of angels, and
this material system shake off its curse, and enter into an everlasting
union with that heaven from whence it fell.
The next year, Behmen produced his “Three-fold Life of Man,” according
to the three principles above mentioned. In this work he treats more
largely of the state of man in this world: that he has, 1. That immortal
spark of life, which is common to angels and devils. 2. That divine life
of the light and Spirit of God, which makes the essential difference
between an angel and a devil; and, 3. The life of this external and
visible world. The first and last are common to all men; but the second
only to a true Christian, or child of God. Behmen wrote several other
treatises; but these are the basis of all his other writings. His
conceptions are often clothed under allegorical symbols; and, in his
later works, he frequently adopted chemical and Latin phrases, which he
borrowed from conversation with learned men. But as to the matter
contained in his writings, he disclaims having borrowed it either from
men or books. He died in the year 1624; and his last words were, “Now I
go hence into paradise!” Behmen’s principles were adopted by Mr. Law,
who clothed them in a more modern dress, and in a style less obscure.
The essential obscurity of the subjects indeed he could not remedy. If
they were understood by the author himself, he is probably the only one
who ever made that attainment.