The Threefold Life of Man

When Boehme says, " God is called a consuming fire and a jealous God according to the first Principle," he very evidently means, according to. the first Principle as manifested, and by those who stand in it and are of its nature: that is, are of the false imagination. He says much that merits deep reflection as to the danger of awaking the fire in the Turba, that is, in the wrath. Instances of this we find in the imprecatory Psalms, in the command to slaughter the heathen inhabitants of Canaan; in Elisha cursing the children who mocked him, etc. The truly divine command is, " Overcome evil with good." But sometimes the spirit of patience gives way under great strain, and the wrath is appealed to to vindicate the right. But this could never be done by the true imagination, such as was the Lord's. He says of those who would awake the wrath, " You know not what manner of spirit you are of"; and He predicted, "They that take the sword shall perish with the sword." In the false imagination the sword is permitted; but there is always a " more excellent way" for such as have grace to find and take it. All that we can know about God we know of Him as manifested in His Son, as love and light and life. If we think we know Him as to the first Principle (that is, as apart from the Son) as manifested might and compelling force showing itself ostensibly such, this we only know in a false imagination. Yet in that imagination it is real, and can only seem not so, only be put into the hiddenness, after the true 2imagination has arisen. Regeneration.

There is much more that ought to be said, but space forbids. I must conclude this very imperfect Introduction by a few words of Boehme's teaching as to Regeneration.

Put briefly, that process of regeneration consists in finding out how to pass from the fire to the light, from the false imagination to the true. There is only one way, the way of death. We must cease to think and act according to the false imagination. By doing this we do actually put it into death, that is, into the hiddenness. The difficulty of doing this increases with every day lived in the false imagination, for every day confirms and strengthens the habit of the false. There is a difficulty, of course, in awaking to the fact that that which seems to us so real, so universally admitted and practised, is a false imagination; but the idea once seen is instantly grasped. As to knowledge, we may pass from death to life in a moment; but knowledge is not at once and immediately power. We have now to face the much longer and harder task of eradicating old habit, and — with the best will in the world — this is never done without long and very earnest effort; and it might be said that the difficulty increases as the square of the time we have remained in the habit.