The Confessions of Jacob Boehme
as the difference between hell and heaven. Fire — anguish, effort, and conflict — it cannot escape; this is the manifestation of that will which is life. But it can choose between the torment of its own separate dark fire — the self-centred craving which is the essence of sin — and self-abandonment to the divine fire of God's unresting will towards perfection. The one sets up a whirlpool within the eternal process : the other contributes its store of energy and love to that universal work which transmutes the dark elements into the light, and heals the apparent cleavage between " nature" and "spirit." "Our whole teaching," says Boehme, " is nothing else than how a man should kindle in himself God's light- world." That world is here and now ; and his one aim was to open the eyes of other men to this encompassing and all-penetrating reality. All lies in the direction of the will : " What we make of ourselves, that we are,"
xxxii CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME
For him, the universe was primarily a religious fact : its fiery energies, its impulse towards growth and change, were significant because they were aspects of the life of God. His cosmic vision was the direct outcome of spiritual experience ; he told it, because he wished to stimulate in all men the spiritual life, make them realize that " Heaven and Hell are present everywhere, and it is but the turning of the will either into God's love or into His wrath, that introduceth into them." When the restlessness of becoming, the anxious craving, which should lead both cosmic and human life to its bourne, is turned back on itself and becomes a fiery selfdevouring desire, a " wheel of anguish," the alchemic process goes wrong. Then is produced the condition which Boehme calls the turba ; and the turba is the essence of hell. But everyone who yields himself to the impulse of the Light stands by that very act in the heaven of God's
INTRODUCTION xxxiii
heart ; for " Heaven is nothing but a manifestation of the Eternal One, wherein all worketh and willeth in quiet love."
Hence at the end of this vast dynamic vision, this astonishing harmony of the scientific and the Christian universe, we find that the imperatives which govern man's entry into truth are moral : patience, courage, love, and surrender of the will. These evangelical virtues are the condition of our knowledge of reality ; for though " God dwells in all things, nothing comprehends Him unless it be one with Him." This is the doctrine of all the great mystics, and they have proved its truth in their own lives. Such an attunement of human to divine life is the real object of Christianity : and we must not forget that Boehme was before all else a practical Christian, for whom his religion was a vital process, not merely a creed. He complained that the orthodox of his day were content to believe that Christ had once died for them ; but xxxiv CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME
as the difference between hell and heaven. Fire — anguish, effort, and conflict — it cannot escape; this is the manifestation of that will which is life. But it can choose between the torment of its own separate dark fire — the self-centred craving which is the essence of sin — and self-abandonment to the divine fire of God's unresting will towards perfection. The one sets up a whirlpool within the eternal process : the other contributes its store of energy and love to that universal work which transmutes the dark elements into the light, and heals the apparent cleavage between " nature" and "spirit." "Our whole teaching," says Boehme, " is nothing else than how a man should kindle in himself God's light- world." That world is here and now ; and his one aim was to open the eyes of other men to this encompassing and all-penetrating reality. All lies in the direction of the will : " What we make of ourselves, that we are,"
xxxii CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME
For him, the universe was primarily a religious fact : its fiery energies, its impulse towards growth and change, were significant because they were aspects of the life of God. His cosmic vision was the direct outcome of spiritual experience ; he told it, because he wished to stimulate in all men the spiritual life, make them realize that " Heaven and Hell are present everywhere, and it is but the turning of the will either into God's love or into His wrath, that introducs into them." When the restlessness of becoming, the anxious craving, which should lead both cosmic and human life to its bourne, is turned back on itself and becomes a fiery selfdevouring desire, a " wheel of anguish," the alchemic process goes wrong. Then is produced the condition which Boehme calls the turba ; and the turba is the essence of hell. But everyone who yields himself to the impulse of the Light stands by that very act in the heaven of God's
INTRODUCTION xxxiii
heart ; for " Heaven is nothing but a manifestation of the Eternal One, wherein all works and wills in quiet love."
Hence at the end of this vast dynamic vision, this astonishing harmony of the scientific and the Christian universe, we find that the imperatives which govern man's entry into truth are moral : patience, courage, love, and surrender of the will. These evangelical virtues are the condition of our knowledge of reality ; for though " God dwells in all things, nothing comprehends Him unless it be one with Him." This is the doctrine of all the great mystics, and they have proved its truth in their own lives. Such an attunement of human to divine life is the real object of Christianity : and we must not forget that Boehme was before all else a practical Christian, for whom his religion was a vital process, not merely a creed. He complained that the orthodox of his day were content to believe that Christ had once died for them ; but xxxiv CONFESSIONS OF JACOB BOEHME
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