86. Do but mark, and incline your heart, mind and thoughts unto Christ, that Christ may be born in you; and then you have Christ, the baptism, sacrament, and the Holy Ghost in all places; you have him in the hearing of the divine word.
87. The covenant and testaments [baptism and the Lord's supper] of Christ have indeed been long used, without faith, and therefore are but hidden seals: but if you be once born in
Christ, then they become opened seals in your heart, in your soul, all is yours; Christ is in the
Father; and you in Christ are also in the Father;
and the Holy Ghost goeth forth from the Father in Christ, and also in you: the word of life is always in you. What do you then seek after for salvation? When you hear teaching of God, then the spirit also teacheth from your heart, and there is one love, one Christ, one salvation in all places;
wheresoever you are, there is the gate of heaven;
it is not only in the churches of stone, where men glister in pride, but where there are penitent people together, in true sorrow, who, with earnest desire, long after God's mercy [Barmhertzigkeit], who willingly speak of love, and of the wonders of God [there is the gate of heaven].
88. Hear, O thou blind Babel! Should the
Holy Ghost work powerfully in your words, when you stand before the congregation, and despise your forefathers or predecessors for their blindness in their opened seal, whereas you yourself are a false malicious adder, and teachest nothing but sedition, contention, and scorn?
You do not pour the Holy Ghost into your hearers, as you boast, but you drive into them the spirit of contention: you teach scorn, and not love. What doth the layman know of those that were dead a thousand years ago? Are not they in the power of the judgment of God, and not in your power? You judge and condemn many that are in the angelical world; should then the Holy Ghost, in your false judging, be preached into the hearts of men [by you] ? You preach not the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of the devil, into their hearts, insomuch that they rely and depend upon your fables, and let go the highly precious word of Christ.
89. Look into the acts of the Apostles, when they were together very unanimously, with great desire of the kingdom of God, and spake of the works and wonders of God, and of his love toward men, how the earth moved under them, and the Holy Ghost also moved the earthly centre for great joy. But had they sat together to deride the
Pharisees, and scorned and made a play-game of them, the Holy Ghost would not have been so powerful among them.
90. Therefore open your eyes (ye children of God) and go into the temple of Christ; and hang no more to the temple of dissimulation, to the hypocrites and murderers. Yet I do not hereby prohibit the stone churches, but I teach [that] the temple of Christ [is] in all places: indeed, the greatest pomp is exercised in the churches.
91. But if you desire to go into the temple of Christ, you must bring a humble, contrite, and broken heart with you, which earnestly longeth after the kingdom of God; it must not consist in hypocrisy, where they shew themselves in a holy and devout posture, but the poor soul is left without the temple of Christ, in the seven spirits of darkness, where only the mouth is a Christian, and the heart is in doubt, or else in mere voluptuousness of the flesh.
92. O you blind sophisters ! What have I to do with you, that I must thus write of your wonders[ doings]? I have not sought your ways, but [I have sought] the Heart of God, that I might hide myself in Christ. I desired only, with the Virgin in the Revelation, (which standeth upon the moon), to fly into the wilderness from the dragon; and yet I myself must now shew the dragon. LORD ! thou doest whatsoever thou wilt, thy ways are mere wonders.
THE FOURTH CHAPTER
Of the Wellspring of Light
86. Do but mark, and incline your heart, mind and thoughts unto Christ, that Christ may be born in you; and then you have Christ, the baptism, sacrament, and the Holy Ghost in all places; you have him in the hearing of the divine word.
87. The covenant and testaments [baptism and the Lord's supper] of Christ have indeed been long used, without faith, and therefore are but hidden seals: but if you be once born in
Christ, then they become opened seals in your heart, in your soul, all is yours; Christ is in the
Father; and you in Christ are also in the Father;
and the Holy Ghost goes forth from the Father in Christ, and also in you: the word of life is always in you. What do you then seek after for salvation? When you hear teaching of God, then the spirit also teaches from your heart, and there is one love, one Christ, one salvation in all places;
wheresoever you are, there is the gate of heaven;
it is not only in the churches of stone, where men glister in pride, but where there are penitent people together, in true sorrow, who, with earnest desire, long after God's mercy [Barmhertzigkeit], who willingly speak of love, and of the wonders of God [there is the gate of heaven].
88. Hear, O you blind Babel! Should the
Holy Ghost work powerfully in your words, when you stand before the congregation, and despise your forefathers or predecessors for their blindness in their opened seal, whereas you yourself are a false malicious adder, and teachest nothing but sedition, contention, and scorn?
You do not pour the Holy Ghost into your hearers, as you boast, but you drive into them the spirit of contention: you teach scorn, and not love. What does the layman know of those that were dead a thousand years ago? Are not they in the power of the judgment of God, and not in your power? You judge and condemn many that are in the angelical world; should then the Holy Ghost, in your false judging, be preached into the hearts of men [by you] ? You preach not the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of the devil, into their hearts, insomuch that they rely and depend upon your fables, and let go the highly precious word of Christ.
89. Look into the acts of the Apostles, when they were together very unanimously, with great desire of the kingdom of God, and spake of the works and wonders of God, and of his love toward men, how the earth moved under them, and the Holy Ghost also moved the earthly centre for great joy. But had they sat together to deride the
Pharisees, and scorned and made a play-game of them, the Holy Ghost would not have been so powerful among them.
90. Therefore open your eyes (you children of God) and go into the temple of Christ; and hang no more to the temple of dissimulation, to the hypocrites and murderers. Yet I do not hereby prohibit the stone churches, but I teach [that] the temple of Christ [is] in all places: indeed, the greatest pomp is exercised in the churches.
91. But if you desire to go into the temple of Christ, you must bring a humble, contrite, and broken heart with you, which earnestly longs after the kingdom of God; it must not consist in hypocrisy, where they show themselves in a holy and devout posture, but the poor soul is left without the temple of Christ, in the seven spirits of darkness, where only the mouth is a Christian, and the heart is in doubt, or else in mere voluptuousness of the flesh.
92. O you blind sophisters ! What have I to do with you, that I must thus write of your wonders[ doings]? I have not sought your ways, but [I have sought] the Heart of God, that I might hide myself in Christ. I desired only, with the Virgin in the Revelation, (which stands upon the moon), to fly into the wilderness from the dragon; and yet I myself must now show the dragon. LORD ! you do whatsoever you will, your ways are mere wonders.
THE FOURTH CHAPTER
Of the Wellspring of Light
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