Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
1TO THE READER THE books of this author, that are already published, declare sufficiently the high worth of his deep writings: But of all the benefits that do accrue thereby it is one inestimable excellency of them that they help the minds of all sorts of people, that will take pains to read and consider them, in the understanding of the holy Scriptures: and that satisfactorily and convincingly, without need of any reference to the vast commentaries of authors, either in the learned or modern tongues. And they will help men to be able to discern the truth in the various expositions and opinions of all parties; also to still the differences, debates, controversies, disputes and contests; that all may be satisfied in a loving, friendly way, and so agree in one and the same truth together. And among many differences in opinion that spring up there is one weighty and remarkable arisen, since the Light within, and Christ within, hath been pressed more than ordinary; one sort being judged to deny a Christ without, and the other, a Christ within; whereas it might be con sidered [1 Cor. i. 13.] that Christ is not divided, though he be everywhere in all places, and in all things, and yet but once manifested in the likeness of sinful flesh [Rom. viii. 3.]; suffering, dying, rising from the dead, ascending into glory. Yet he that is not partaker of the same Christ within, or is not made conformable in his soul and spirit to him in his suffering, death and resurrection, in this life, in some measure, shall never be partaker with him in his glory in the life to come. But if we suffer with him [ Rom. viii.17], we shall also be glorified with him at his appearing. Paul's desire to know nothing
2but Christ [1 Cor. ii. 2.], and him crucified, among the Corinthians, was not to know them to crucify Christ, but the virtue and power of Christ crucified in them. And if the same Christ that suffered at Jerusalem were not in every one, the wickedest man in the world could not crucify to himself the Lord of Glory [Heb. vi. 6.]. And what Christ did in the flesh once, always had and hath its powerful effect in the spirit of every soul that is united to him within itself, and not otherwise. Therefore we should learn to understand how it is Christ that was the Lamb [Rev. xiii. 8.] slain from the beginning of the world; and then also in Abel when he was slain by Cain; also in his own body when Jesus himself was nailed on the cross and gave up the ghost, and still suffers and is slain [Eph. v. 30.] in his members; and how he will say at the Judgment, when all shall appear, from Adam to the last man that is born of woman, whatsoever is [Matt xxv. 40, 45] done to the least of those that believe in him, it is done to Christ himself in them; and not that he will take it as done to him, only as his words are commonly expounded, but it is really done to him. His flesh is meat indeed, and his blood [John vi. 55.] is drink indeed, and they that did not eat and drink it, though it were within them (otherwise they could not do so) had no part in him. And this he said when [he] himself was conversant with his disciples before his suffering and death. Therefore there cannot be a Christ within, and a Christ without, but one and the same Christ, within and without, then, now, and always, from eternity to eternity. There is another great difference: concerning Perfection, and the attaining to it in this life; one sort condemning the other, for speaking that which they understand to be spoken in the Scripture. But they do not endeavour to reconcile the meaning of those texts which seem so
3extremely to differ. For Perfection: Be ye perfect, as your [Matt. v. 48.] heavenly Father is perfect. Job was a perfect and upright man. If any man sin not in word he is a perfect man. And there is mention made of the perfect law of liberty [James i. 25.] Also, he that is born of God sinneth not, neither can he, because the seed of God remaineth in him. As many as be perfect, let them be thus minded, [Phil. iii. 15] viz. to press for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. On the other side: There is none righteous, no, not one; there is not a man that sinneth not; in many things we offend all. And the Apostle John, who no doubt was then born of God, saith: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us—if we say, not if he or they say, or whosoever saith. And while he was in the instant of high revelations, he fell down before the Angel to worship him, thinking it had been God; but the Angel said to him, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellowservant. And these great differences cannot be reconciled by the distinction of a time or condition of men unconverted, before they have attained perfection, before they are righteous, or before they are sanctified. But they may be decided by the understanding, what it is that sinneth in man, and what it is in man that is perfect and cannot sin. For as the soul in this life entereth into the one or the other through obedience to it, that soul is either righteous and perfect, or wicked and im perfect, as the Scriptures testify: And every one that shall be presented perfect, is to be presented perfect in Christ Jesus, so that our perfection consisteth in him, not in self. And so the gifts of God are perfect, or else we could not be saved by faith, for that is not of ourselves, but is the gift of God.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1TO THE READER THE books of this author, that are already published, declare sufficiently the high worth of his deep writings: But of all the benefits that do accrue thereby it is one inestimable excellency of them that they help the minds of all sorts of people, that will take pains to read and consider them, in the understanding of the holy Scriptures: and that satisfactorily and convincingly, without need of any reference to the vast commentaries of authors, either in the learned or modern tongues. And they will help men to be able to discern the truth in the various expositions and opinions of all parties; also to still the differences, debates, controversies, disputes and contests; that all may be satisfied in a loving, friendly way, and so agree in one and the same truth together. And among many differences in opinion that spring up there is one weighty and remarkable arisen, since the Light within, and Christ within, hath been pressed more than ordinary; one sort being judged to deny a Christ without, and the other, a Christ within; whereas it might be con sidered [1 Cor. i. 13.] that Christ is not divided, though he be everywhere in all places, and in all things, and yet but once manifested in the likeness of sinful flesh [Rom. viii. 3.]; suffering, dying, rising from the dead, ascending into glory. Yet he that is not partaker of the same Christ within, or is not made conformable in his soul and spirit to him in his suffering, death and resurrection, in this life, in some measure, shall never be partaker with him in his glory in the life to come. But if we suffer with him [ Rom. viii.17], we shall also be glorified with him at his appearing. Paul's desire to know nothing
2but Christ [1 Cor. ii. 2.], and him crucified, among the Corinthians, was not to know them to crucify Christ, but the virtue and power of Christ crucified in them. And if the same Christ that suffered at Jerusalem were not in every one, the wickedest man in the world could not crucify to himself the Lord of Glory [Heb. vi. 6.]. And what Christ did in the flesh once, always had and hath its powerful effect in the spirit of every soul that is united to him within itself, and not otherwise. Therefore we should learn to understand how it is Christ that was the Lamb [Rev. xiii. 8.] slain from the beginning of the world; and then also in Abel when he was slain by Cain; also in his own body when Jesus himself was nailed on the cross and gave up the ghost, and still suffers and is slain [Eph. v. 30.] in his members; and how he will say at the Judgment, when all shall appear, from Adam to the last man that is born of woman, whatsoever is [Matt xxv. 40, 45] done to the least of those that believe in him, it is done to Christ himself in them; and not that he will take it as done to him, only as his words are commonly expounded, but it is really done to him. His flesh is meat indeed, and his blood [John vi. 55.] is drink indeed, and they that did not eat and drink it, though it were within them (otherwise they could not do so) had no part in him. And this he said when [he] himself was conversant with his disciples before his suffering and death. Therefore there cannot be a Christ within, and a Christ without, but one and the same Christ, within and without, then, now, and always, from eternity to eternity. There is another great difference: concerning Perfection, and the attaining to it in this life; one sort condemning the other, for speaking that which they understand to be spoken in the Scripture. But they do not endeavour to reconcile the meaning of those texts which seem so
3extremely to differ. For Perfection: Be ye perfect, as your [Matt. v. 48.] heavenly Father is perfect. Job was a perfect and upright man. If any man sin not in word he is a perfect man. And there is mention made of the perfect law of liberty [James i. 25.] Also, he that is born of God sinneth not, neither can he, because the seed of God remaineth in him. As many as be perfect, let them be thus minded, [Phil. iii. 15] viz. to press for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. On the other side: There is none righteous, no, not one; there is not a man that sinneth not; in many things we offend all. And the Apostle John, who no doubt was then born of God, saith: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us—if we say, not if he or they say, or whosoever saith. And while he was in the instant of high revelations, he fell down before the Angel to worship him, thinking it had been God; but the Angel said to him, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellowservant. And these great differences cannot be reconciled by the distinction of a time or condition of men unconverted, before they have attained perfection, before they are righteous, or before they are sanctified. But they may be decided by the understanding, what it is that sinneth in man, and what it is in man that is perfect and cannot sin. For as the soul in this life entereth into the one or the other through obedience to it, that soul is either righteous and perfect, or wicked and im perfect, as the Scriptures testify: And every one that shall be presented perfect, is to be presented perfect in Christ Jesus, so that our perfection consisteth in him, not in self. And so the gifts of God are perfect, or else we could not be saved by faith, for that is not of ourselves, but is the gift of God.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
No commentary for this page.