Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence

Gate passedSeeker and aboveModern transcription — not a facsimileJacob Boehme (1575–1624)PUBLIC DOMAIN as published. Boehme d. 1624; the Sparrow translation is 1656. Per-part determination MADE 2026-08-29: the eight front-matter segments carrying the 2009 electronic edition own introductory apparatus were withheld (three excised in full, five redacted in part where a public-domain title block or Boehme text shared the page). The remaining 5,022 segments are public domain and are open at seeker tier.905 of 1000 segments carry a modern register · 343 pp

Jacob Boehme — the works in English, and one in Frencheditor’s preface to the volume

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.

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1and their tention must devour yourselves, you must consume yourselves. Therefore are you not mad ? Are ye not all brethren, and are ye not all in Christ ? If you did converse in love, what should you need to strive about your native country wherein you dwell ? 0 leave off, your cause is evil in the sight of God, and ye are all found to be in Babel. Be advised ; the day breaketh. How long will ye keep company with that adulterous whore ? Arise, your noble virgin is adorned in her orient garland of pearl ; she weareth a lily which is most delightsome ; be brotherly, and she will adorn you indeed ; 8 Note. 8we have seen her really, and in her name we write this. 83. There is no need of contention about the Cup of Jesus Christ, his body is really received in Ch. 25] CHRIST'S DEATH AND RESURRECTION 715 the Testament, by the faithful, as also his heavenly blood, and the Baptism is a bath [or laver] in the water of the. eternal life, hidden in the outward [Baptism with water], in the Word of the body of Christ. Therefore all contention [or disputation] is in vain ; be in brotherly love, and forsake the spirit of pride, and then ye are all in Christ.

284. These very deep and difficult matters are not profitable for you, you ought not to look after them ; we must only set them down, that you may see what the ground is, and what the error is. For we are not the cause of these writings, but you (in your high puffed-up lust) have stirred up the spirit, that you might find out the thoughts of your hearts ; let the resurrection of Christ be powerful [and effectual] to you, for his resurrection is your resurrection, and in him we shall grow and flourish, and live eternally ; only stick to him, and then you cannot perish in any distress, for if you have him, you have the Holy Trinity of God. 85. If you will pray to God, then call upon God (your heavenly Father) in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, [desiring] that he would forgive you your sins, for the sake of his sufferings and death, and give you what is good for you, and may further your salvation. Give up and yield all whatsoever is earthly to his pleasure and will ; for we know not what we should desire and pray for, but the Holy Spirit helpeth us in Christ Jesus, before his heavenly Father. Therefore there is no 716 THE THREE PRINCIPLES [Ch. 25 need of many words [or long prayers], but a believing soul, which with its whole earnest [resolved purpose] yieldeth itself up into the mercy of God, to live in his will, in the body of Jesus Christ, and continueth constant ; then he is sure and safe from the devil.

386. That phantasy about the intercession of the saints is unprofitable ; it is but a vexation, whereby you disquiet the saints in their rest. Doth not God himself call you continually ? And doth not your virgin wait for you with a longing desire 1 Do but come, and she is yours ; you need not send any foreign ambassadors ; it is not here, as at court. Christ would always fain increase his heaven in his joy. Why stand you so long in doubt because of your sins ? Is not the mercy of God greater than heaven and earth? What do you mean ? There is nothing nearer you than the mercy of God ; only in your sinful impenitent life you are with the devil, and not with Christ, say what you will ; though you sent a million of ambassadors to him, if yourself be wicked, you are but with the devil still ; and there is no remedy, but you must yourself rise with Christ, and be born anew, in the body of Jesus Christ (through the power of the Holy Ghost) in the Father, in your own soul. If thou makest a feast [or keepest 1 Or main- a solemnity], do it for the benefit and belief of the afflicted and needy, whereby God is praised in thy love, and that is well ; but if it be for the rich Ch. 25] CHRIST'S DEATH AND RESURRECTION 717 glutton, who only useth it out of pride and laziness, thou hast no benefit of that ; for God is not praised therewith, neither doth paradise grow therein.

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.

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Commentary

whole issue ·

Cross-estate[P-V]translated_asboehme:2:1:003

This English 'Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence' and boehme:11 are the same work in two languages — and the French is not just any translation. It is Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin's own: 'Des trois principes de l'essence divine', issued by the Périsse brothers of the rue Mercière. Saint-Martin learned German in his fifties expressly to read Boehme, and spent his last years translating him. The estate therefore holds, side by side, the text that formed the Unknown Philosopher and the form in which he gave it to France — the single most direct documentary link between the two founders of this corpus.

→ boehme:11