The Forty Questions of the Soul
"A brief Account of the Life and Conversation of Jacob Behme, afterwards by Learned Men in Germany called Teutonicus. Written in High-Dutch, by Abraham van Franckenberg, one very much acquainted with him.
"Jacob Behme was born in the year 1575, at Old Seidenburg, distant about two miles from Gerlitz, a city in Upper Lusatia, highly esteemed by learned men. His parents were Jacob, his father, and Ursula, his mother, both country people. In his youth he kept cattle, and at length by advice of friends was sent to school, where he learnt to read and write, together with the fear of God; afterwards was put to the handicraft trade of a shoemaker. When he became master of his trade, in the year 1594, he married a maid, one Catherine, the daughter of John Kunshman, a butcher of Gerlitz, with whom he lived quietly and well for thirty years together, and had four sons, that learned handicraft trades.
"Being from his youth inclined to the fear of God, and very diligent in frequenting to hear the preaching of sermons, he was at length stirred up by that saying and promise of our Saviour's, Luke xi. 13, Your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him for it, and because of the very many controversies in religion, about which he could not satisfy himself, he was moved, in simplicity of heart or spirit, inwardly, earnestly and incessantly to pray or ask, seek and knock, that he might know or apprehend the truth; whereby then, according to the divine drawing and will in the spirit or heart, he was wrapt into the holy Sabbath,* wherein he continued seven whole days, by his own confession, in highest joy. Afterwards, when he was come to himself, and having put off the folly of youth, he was driven by divine zeal, vehemently to reprove all scandalous, reproachful and blasphemous speeches, and withdraw from all unseemly matters and actings with earnestness, for love to virtue: By which way and life, being contrary to the course of the world, he became but their scorn and derision. During which time he maintained himself with the labour of his hands in the sweat of his brows, till the beginning of the sixth seculum or age, viz. Anno 1600, when he was a second time touched by the divine light, and by a sudden glimpse of a pewter vessel, he was introduced into the inward ground or centre of the hidden nature.
* Inward Sabbath of rest and satisfaction in his soul.
"He, not being yet sufficiently satisfied with this, went forth into the open fields, and there perceived the wonderful or wonderworks of the Creator in the signatures, shapes, figures and qualities or properties of all created things, very clearly and plainly laid open; whereupon, being filled with exceeding joy, kept silence, praising God, and so contentedly satisfied himself therewith for a while.
"But, according to God's holy counsel and determination, who manageth his works in secret, about ten years after, viz. in the year 1610, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, he was a third time stirred up and renewed by God. Whereupon, being so enlightened, with such great grace bestowed upon him, he could not put it out of his mind, nor strive against his God, therefore did, by small means, and without the help of any books, but only the Holy Scriptures, write secretly for himself these books following
Here follows a list of the works as printed at the end of the 1647 edition, and reproduced at the end of the present volume. Sparrow then continues:
"In these he hath left so noble and precious a talent and treasure, for the setting forth God's honour and glory, and for the promoting man's salvation, both for the present and for the future times, that since the times of the Apostles higher and deeper grounded Mysteries concerning the Deity have scarce been revealed.
"A brief Account of the Life and Conversation of Jacob Behme, afterwards by Learned Men in Germany called Teutonicus. Written in High-Dutch, by Abraham van Franckenberg, one very much acquainted with him.
"Jacob Behme was born in the year 1575, at Old Seidenburg, distant about two miles from Gerlitz, a city in Upper Lusatia, highly esteemed by learned men. His parents were Jacob, his father, and Ursula, his mother, both country people. In his youth he kept cattle, and at length by advice of friends was sent to school, where he learnt to read and write, together with the fear of God; afterwards was put to the handicraft trade of a shoemaker. When he became master of his trade, in the year 1594, he married a maid, one Catherine, the daughter of John Kunshman, a butcher of Gerlitz, with whom he lived quietly and well for thirty years together, and had four sons, that learned handicraft trades.
"Being from his youth inclined to the fear of God, and very diligent in frequenting to hear the preaching of sermons, he was at length stirred up by that saying and promise of our Saviour's, Luke xi. 13, Your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him for it, and because of the very many controversies in religion, about which he could not satisfy himself, he was moved, in simplicity of heart or spirit, inwardly, earnestly and incessantly to pray or ask, seek and knock, that he might know or apprehend the truth; whereby then, according to the divine drawing and will in the spirit or heart, he was wrapt into the holy Sabbath,* wherein he continued seven whole days, by his own confession, in highest joy. Afterwards, when he was come to himself, and having put off the folly of youth, he was driven by divine zeal, vehemently to reprove all scandalous, reproachful and blasphemous speeches, and withdraw from all unseemly matters and actings with earnestness, for love to virtue: By which way and life, being contrary to the course of the world, he became but their scorn and derision. During which time he maintained himself with the labour of his hands in the sweat of his brows, till the beginning of the sixth seculum or age, viz. Anno 1600, when he was a second time touched by the divine light, and by a sudden glimpse of a pewter vessel, he was introduced into the inward ground or centre of the hidden nature.
* Inward Sabbath of rest and satisfaction in his soul.
"He, not being yet sufficiently satisfied with this, went forth into the open fields, and there perceived the wonderful or wonderworks of the Creator in the signatures, shapes, figures and qualities or properties of all created things, very clearly and plainly laid open; whereupon, being filled with exceeding joy, kept silence, praising God, and so contentedly satisfied himself therewith for a while.
"But, according to God's holy counsel and determination, who manags his works in secret, about ten years after, viz. in the year 1610, by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, he was a third time stirred up and renewed by God. Whereupon, being so enlightened, with such great grace bestowed upon him, he could not put it out of his mind, nor strive against his God, therefore did, by small means, and without the help of any books, but only the Holy Scriptures, write secretly for himself these books following
Here follows a list of the works as printed at the end of the 1647 edition, and reproduced at the end of the present volume. Sparrow then continues:
"In these he has left so noble and precious a talent and treasure, for the setting forth God's honour and glory, and for the promoting man's salvation, both for the present and for the future times, that since the times of the Apostles higher and deeper grounded Mysteries concerning the Deity have scarce been revealed.
No commentary for this page.
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