Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

" Many will say, what were a God whose body, sub- " stance and virtue consisted of Fire, Air, Water and " Earth ? But see, thou unbelieving man, I will shew " thee the true essence of the Godhead. Inasmuch as " this whole substance is not God, thou art not God's " Image ; wheresoever there be a strange God, thou hast " no part in Him. For thou art created out of God, and " livest in Him, and He ever gives thee, out of Himself, " power, blessing, food and drink ; thy knowledge also is " all from Him, and, when thou diest, thou wilt be buried

Hv THE THREE PRINCIPLES

" in Him. . . . See ; that is the true and only God, out of " whom thou art created, and in whom thou livest. " When thou lookest upon the deep, and upon the stars, " and the earth, thou seest thy God, and in Him thou art " and livest, and this same God governs thee also, and " from the same God hast thou [received] thy senses, and " thou art a creature in Him and from Him ; otherwise " wert thou nothing. Now thou wilt say that what I " write is heathenish. But hear and see and mark the " difference, how it all is ; for what I write is not " heathenish, but philosophical. I am no heathen ; but " I have the deep and true knowledge of the one great " God who is the All " (pars. 3, 4, 9, 10).

" Therefore we cannot say that God's being is some- " thing afar, that possesses or occupies any particular spot " or place ; for the Abyss of nature and creature is God " Himself " (Divine Contemplation, iii. 21).

But, decidedly as Boehme declares himself in these words on the side of Pantheism, he is yet very far from accepting it as all-sufficient. "Since it is the truth, I " must affirm that God is all. But what shall I do with " such a statement ? for it is no religion. Such a " religion did the devil accept, and wanted to be manifest " in all things and mighty in all " (Apol. II, contra Tylcken, 140). By declaring Pantheism insufficient, and describing it as the devil's religion, our philosopher means doubtless that Pantheism must take account of all that is in the world, and look not only upon good, but also upon evil, as God's Self -manifestation ; and that therefore the pantheistic god is not only God, but, as first originator of evil, also the devil. While ordinary Pantheism makes light of the fact of evil, and explains it away as merely negative, as the unavoidable shadow to the light, and so on, Jacob Boehme, on the contrary, deeply filled with the consciousness of this same fact of evil, considers it in all its magnitude, and earnestly strives to find an answer to the question, Whencj^is evil ? A question over which all pantheistic and theistic

INTRODUCTION

theories alike come to grief. For Pantheism, considering the universe as God Himself, cannot admit evil as such; and Theism is unable adequately to explain it even by falling back upon the doctrine of free-will, since it allows that free-will is divinely created, and therefore ultimately, though indirectly, God must be regarded as the originator of evil.

There is another solution of these difficulties ; but it lies very deep and becomes only possible by looking upon the human soul not — according to Pantheism — as a mode of the divine substance; nor, according to Theism, as the work of the Creator; but rather as absolutely self-existent. In other words, it is to be considered that good and evil, God and the devil, heaven and hell are opposed possibilities within the soul, in relation to which the soul possesses perfect liberty of choice, and full independence from any external influence and from any predetermined inherent condition; for even this is the deep meaning of the word free-will.