The Forty Questions of the Soul

13. And yet it doth not by this reach to the kindling or burning, for that soul itself hath not yet committed 1 sin; but it is a spirit in the source, quite void of self-desire, and wonders; it is like the flame of brimstone, like the 2 Igiies Fatui, and cannot reach God, but remaineth between heaven and hell in the Mystery, until the Judgment of God, which shall at last gather in its harvest, and put everything in its own place.

14. Although 3 Mr Sophister may herein have other 4 philosophy; but we care not for his art, we have eyes and he hath art; we speak what we see.

15. Thus we give you to understand, that no soul is born into this world without sin, how honest soever the parents be; for it is 5 conceived in the earthly seed, and bringeth the turba of the body with it, which also hath surrounded the soul.

16. Therefore God made a covenant with [the] children in the Old Testament, in the Circumcision, and bound them in that covenant to have their blood shed, and so drown the turba of the soul therewith.

17. And in the New Testament there is the Baptism; wherein the Holy Ghost washeth away the turba of the water of the soul with the water of life, that it may 6 draw near to God and be his child.

18. But if any will say, that those who have not Baptism (as Jews and Turks, and other people[s] who have not the knowledge thereof among them, nor the Candlestick) are all rejected of God (although in their doctrine, life, and deeds, they do earnestly strive to enter into the love of God), they speak fantastically, and without knowledge, like Babel.

1 actual.

2 wandering false lights, that lead people astray in the night. WoAudeOKqc;.

3 Or one that is learned in the letter, or carnal reason.

4 meaning, or opinion.

5 ausgebrutet, engendered, or hatched.

6 stand, or appear before God.

19. Blessedness lieth not only in the outward word, but in power: Who shall cast out him that entereth into God?

20. Is not this Babel, which hath confounded the whole world, so that people have divided themselves in opinions, and yet in the will they go but one way? What caused this, but only the Antichrist, when he l drew the kingdom of God into his own jurisdiction, and made a mere fable of the New Birth, which the very children will be ashamed of, when it shall be day.

21. We can say, with good ground, that Antichrist's teaching is but 2 beating of the air, * a slight of the serpent which continually beguileth Eve.

22. Thus we know, that no soul cometh into the world without sin, every one bringeth the 3 turba with it; for if it were without sin, then it must also dwell in a body wholly pure, having no evil will in it, and in which is no earthly 4 desire.

23. Now body and soul are thus 5 bound together, until the turba findeth the

6 limit of the body, and then it seeketh the works of the body, as is above mentioned.

1 took God's government upon himself.

2 a mere flourish, or juggling, or casting a mist before the eyes.

3 disharmony.

4 seeking, or strife of the four elements.

5 Or knit.

6 Or end.

* "a slight" (eijie Falschheit), "a falsehood."

THE FIFTEENTH QUESTION
How cometh Sin into the Soul, seeing it is the Work and Creature of God?

1. AS it is mentioned before, so it is, the turba with the earthly 1 desire came together into this world, and so the soul is strongly drawn by two, viz. by the 2 Word of the Lord, which mediated or interposed itself, which out of love is become man; this draweth the soul continually into the kingdom of God, and plainly sheweth the soul the turba; so that the soul seeth in nature what falsehood and sin are, and if it suffereth itself to be drawn, then it becometh born again, and so becometh God's image.

2. Secondly, the turba also mightily draweth the soul with its band, and continually bringeth the earthly desire into it, especially in the youth, when the earthly tree sticketh full of green sprouting essences and poison; then the turba doth so mightily insinuate itself, that many a soul is not freed to eternity.