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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.
158. Or do we alone say this? Doth not Christ say, When the unclean spirit goeth out from a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding none; and then he returneth again into his house, and when he cometh there, he findeth it swept and trimmed; and then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits, which are worse than himself, and entereth in, and dwelleth there, and so the last [condition] of that man is worse than the first? Do you understand this [similitude]? You have driven out Satan, and have cleansed your heart, and have well swept your house of sin, and trimmed it; and now, when you are secure and careless, then cometh the devil with all the seven forms of nature, and slippeth in, and thrusteth the old worldly lusts into thy heart again, out of which all wickedness and blasphemies are generated; for he dwelleth in those seven spirits, and tickleth thy heart therewith, and deceiveth thee seven times more, and so thou yieldest to him, and fallest from one sin into another; and then he bindeth the poor soul fast to the sin, and letteth it not run after abstinence or amendment, but bringeth it into fleshly lusts; and when the soul beginneth to stir [or struggle], he saith, To-morrow, to-morrow: so long till he get the venison. 59. Therefore it is said, We must stand still and watch; for the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: He
2cometh at all hours before the door of thy heart, to see whether he can get in or no: for it is his beloved lodging: He hath no rest in hell, but in the soul of man he hath joy and pleasure: he can therein open his malicious wonders, wherewith he may sport himself after this time also, wherein he taketh his pleasure; for hell and the anger of God desireth that. 60. Again, you see how the great whore of Babel hath set herself up in this her play of forgiving [sins]: She boasteth of the keys of Absolution, that she can forgive sins, and boasteth of the Apostolical Keys, and maketh sale of sins for money, and usurpeth that from Christ's words, Whose sins ye remit, &c. 61. Now I would fain know, how the sins of the repentant sinner, who casteth himself into God's will, and who goeth forth from this world's reason into God's mercy, can have his sins retained? And much more would I fain know, how one sinful man can fetch another out of hell into the kingdom of heaven, when he cannot get in himself, and goeth about only to make the devil proud with his covetousness, in that he selleth the forgiveness of sins for money? Whereas all sins are drowned only in Christ's New Body, in Christ's flesh and blood: And Isaiah saith, in the person of Christ, / tread the wine-press alone: and I alone blot out your sins, and none besides me. But if it were true, which Antichrist boasteth of, then one devil must
3drive away another; and then, what would become of the New Regeneration in Christ's flesh and blood, whereby our souls are brought into God? 62. If it could possibly have been that God might have taken away Adam's sin in such a manner, God had not [needed to] become man, and so have brought us into God again: He might rather have forgiven Adam his sin, as a prince pardoneth a murderer, and granteth him his life: No, you yourself must go out from sin, and enter into the will of God; for God doth not stand by as a king, and forgive sins with words: It must be power: You must go out from the fire into the light; for God is no image for us to stand before, and give good words to, but he is a spirit, and penetrateth through the heart and reins, that is, soul and spirit: He is the fire of love, and his centre of nature is the fire of anger; and if you were in hell among all the devils, yet then you are in God, for the anger is also his, it is his abyss; and therefore when you go out from that, you go into the love of God, into the liberty that is without source [or pain] . 63. There is no other forgiveness [to be] understood, but that thou goest out from [the will of] this world, and of thy flesh also, from the devil's will, into God's will; and then God's will receiveth thee, and so thou art freed from all sins, for they remain in the fire, and thy will [remaineth] in the tincture of God, which the Majesty enlighteneth:
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.
158. Or do we alone say this? Doth not Christ say, When the unclean spirit goeth out from a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding none; and then he returneth again into his house, and when he cometh there, he findeth it swept and trimmed; and then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits, which are worse than himself, and entereth in, and dwelleth there, and so the last [condition] of that man is worse than the first? Do you understand this [similitude]? You have driven out Satan, and have cleansed your heart, and have well swept your house of sin, and trimmed it; and now, when you are secure and careless, then cometh the devil with all the seven forms of nature, and slippeth in, and thrusteth the old worldly lusts into thy heart again, out of which all wickedness and blasphemies are generated; for he dwelleth in those seven spirits, and tickleth thy heart therewith, and deceiveth thee seven times more, and so thou yieldest to him, and fallest from one sin into another; and then he bindeth the poor soul fast to the sin, and letteth it not run after abstinence or amendment, but bringeth it into fleshly lusts; and when the soul beginneth to stir [or struggle], he saith, To-morrow, to-morrow: so long till he get the venison. 59. Therefore it is said, We must stand still and watch; for the devil goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour: He
2cometh at all hours before the door of thy heart, to see whether he can get in or no: for it is his beloved lodging: He hath no rest in hell, but in the soul of man he hath joy and pleasure: he can therein open his malicious wonders, wherewith he may sport himself after this time also, wherein he taketh his pleasure; for hell and the anger of God desireth that. 60. Again, you see how the great whore of Babel hath set herself up in this her play of forgiving [sins]: She boasteth of the keys of Absolution, that she can forgive sins, and boasteth of the Apostolical Keys, and maketh sale of sins for money, and usurpeth that from Christ's words, Whose sins ye remit, &c. 61. Now I would fain know, how the sins of the repentant sinner, who casteth himself into God's will, and who goeth forth from this world's reason into God's mercy, can have his sins retained? And much more would I fain know, how one sinful man can fetch another out of hell into the kingdom of heaven, when he cannot get in himself, and goeth about only to make the devil proud with his covetousness, in that he selleth the forgiveness of sins for money? Whereas all sins are drowned only in Christ's New Body, in Christ's flesh and blood: And Isaiah saith, in the person of Christ, / tread the wine-press alone: and I alone blot out your sins, and none besides me. But if it were true, which Antichrist boasteth of, then one devil must
3drive away another; and then, what would become of the New Regeneration in Christ's flesh and blood, whereby our souls are brought into God? 62. If it could possibly have been that God might have taken away Adam's sin in such a manner, God had not [needed to] become man, and so have brought us into God again: He might rather have forgiven Adam his sin, as a prince pardoneth a murderer, and granteth him his life: No, you yourself must go out from sin, and enter into the will of God; for God doth not stand by as a king, and forgive sins with words: It must be power: You must go out from the fire into the light; for God is no image for us to stand before, and give good words to, but he is a spirit, and penetrateth through the heart and reins, that is, soul and spirit: He is the fire of love, and his centre of nature is the fire of anger; and if you were in hell among all the devils, yet then you are in God, for the anger is also his, it is his abyss; and therefore when you go out from that, you go into the love of God, into the liberty that is without source [or pain] . 63. There is no other forgiveness [to be] understood, but that thou goest out from [the will of] this world, and of thy flesh also, from the devil's will, into God's will; and then God's will receiveth thee, and so thou art freed from all sins, for they remain in the fire, and thy will [remaineth] in the tincture of God, which the Majesty enlighteneth:
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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