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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.
146. And therefore Ishmael came not to the inheritance of his father's goods, for he had not yet put on Christ in the flesh and spirit. But Isaac had put him on in the Covenant, viz. in the incorporated Word, and had Christ now in the Covenant from God's gift, as a natural right in himself; not from his own power and ability, but from the power of the Giver, even from the power of the Covenant. 47. But now Ishmael must put on the Covenant from Christ, and not from the inherited adoption or childship, as Christ, who had it from God in a childlike [or filial] right. And now Ishmael must do this for the obtaining of it, viz. he must behold himself in the fountain of the seeing and living, as his mother Hagar did, and return again with the lost son to the Father; and fall down before Abraham's feet, that is, his heir, Isaac, in Christ; and pray that he would receive him into his house (which is Christ's humanity, viz. the spiritual world), as a servant and day-labourer; for he has had no more any right to his inheritance; he has been begotten and born only as a step-brother [or son in law] of a strange mother, viz. of the kingdom of nature.
248. And for their sake Christ came, that he might have mercy on them, for he himself also said, when he was in the flesh, He came not to seek the righteous, but the poor sinner, his brother in Ishmael and Adam, not his line in Isaac; for the whole has no need of the Physician, but the sick, wounded, poor sinner (Luke v. 31, 32). 49. And we will not herein conclude so blindly concerning Predestination, and Election of Grace, as Babel does, which teaches that God has ordained a certain number and company to damnation, and the rest to salvation. 50. If this were so, then nature must needs be limited, confined, and determined, when it should beget and bring forth a child of God, and nothing would be in the free condition or liberty; yea, God must then confine and shut up his unchangeable [one, infinite] will into a beginning and limit, and nothing at all could be free in the human property, but whatsoever anyone did, that must unavoidably so come to pass, let him rob, steal, murder, or blaspheme God, and live as he pleased, it must so be. If this were true, then the Ten Commandments, and all doctrines, teachings and laws were to no purpose, and none need repent, unless God compelled him thereunto. 51. 1 say, whosoever teaches so, he uses and takes the name of God in vain, and horribly profanes the holy name of God, which is free, from eternity, and offers itself to all poor sinners, and bids them all come unto him (Matt. xi. 28).
352. The Covenant was indeed established [set forth] in Isaac, viz. the divine might and dominion; but it was given to no man in the line of the Covenant, but only and alone to the Man, Christ, so that none came, out of a peculiar right, to God, but all in the grace of the One; and God did declare his mercy and compassion in Christ unto all, and without him there was no door of grace to the Jews, viz. Abraham's seed, and also to the Gentiles; all are only children received out of grace, and new born in him; and none, either of the Jews or Gentiles, without the life of Christ [are received to mercy] ; all men who have pressed [or earnestly come] into God, viz. to his grace, those he has all received in the grace which he offers in Christ. 53. Therefore Christ also prayed for his enemies, which knew him not, but crucified him, that God would forgive them in him, and receive them to favour; in which access all nations who knew not Christ in the flesh, but fly to God's grace, have an open gate, and are taken into God's mercy. 54. For, besides [or without] Christ no man comes to the childlike inheritance; to him alone the goods do belong, viz. the hierarchy of men; as he himself also said, Father, the men were thine, but thou hast given them me, and I give unto them the life eternal (John xvii. 6). And therefore it belongs unto him, because he is God's Son, born of his essence, from eternity.
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.
146. And therefore Ishmael came not to the inheritance of his father's goods, for he had not yet put on Christ in the flesh and spirit. But Isaac had put him on in the Covenant, viz. in the incorporated Word, and had Christ now in the Covenant from God's gift, as a natural right in himself; not from his own power and ability, but from the power of the Giver, even from the power of the Covenant. 47. But now Ishmael must put on the Covenant from Christ, and not from the inherited adoption or childship, as Christ, who had it from God in a childlike [or filial] right. And now Ishmael must do this for the obtaining of it, viz. he must behold himself in the fountain of the seeing and living, as his mother Hagar did, and return again with the lost son to the Father; and fall down before Abraham's feet, that is, his heir, Isaac, in Christ; and pray that he would receive him into his house (which is Christ's humanity, viz. the spiritual world), as a servant and day-labourer; for he has had no more any right to his inheritance; he has been begotten and born only as a step-brother [or son in law] of a strange mother, viz. of the kingdom of nature.
248. And for their sake Christ came, that he might have mercy on them, for he himself also said, when he was in the flesh, He came not to seek the righteous, but the poor sinner, his brother in Ishmael and Adam, not his line in Isaac; for the whole has no need of the Physician, but the sick, wounded, poor sinner (Luke v. 31, 32). 49. And we will not herein conclude so blindly concerning Predestination, and Election of Grace, as Babel does, which teaches that God has ordained a certain number and company to damnation, and the rest to salvation. 50. If this were so, then nature must needs be limited, confined, and determined, when it should beget and bring forth a child of God, and nothing would be in the free condition or liberty; yea, God must then confine and shut up his unchangeable [one, infinite] will into a beginning and limit, and nothing at all could be free in the human property, but whatsoever anyone did, that must unavoidably so come to pass, let him rob, steal, murder, or blaspheme God, and live as he pleased, it must so be. If this were true, then the Ten Commandments, and all doctrines, teachings and laws were to no purpose, and none need repent, unless God compelled him thereunto. 51. 1 say, whosoever teaches so, he uses and takes the name of God in vain, and horribly profanes the holy name of God, which is free, from eternity, and offers itself to all poor sinners, and bids them all come unto him (Matt. xi. 28).
352. The Covenant was indeed established [set forth] in Isaac, viz. the divine might and dominion; but it was given to no man in the line of the Covenant, but only and alone to the Man, Christ, so that none came, out of a peculiar right, to God, but all in the grace of the One; and God did declare his mercy and compassion in Christ unto all, and without him there was no door of grace to the Jews, viz. Abraham's seed, and also to the Gentiles; all are only children received out of grace, and new born in him; and none, either of the Jews or Gentiles, without the life of Christ [are received to mercy] ; all men who have pressed [or earnestly come] into God, viz. to his grace, those he has all received in the grace which he offers in Christ. 53. Therefore Christ also prayed for his enemies, which knew him not, but crucified him, that God would forgive them in him, and receive them to favour; in which access all nations who knew not Christ in the flesh, but fly to God's grace, have an open gate, and are taken into God's mercy. 54. For, besides [or without] Christ no man comes to the childlike inheritance; to him alone the goods do belong, viz. the hierarchy of men; as he himself also said, Father, the men were thine, but thou hast given them me, and I give unto them the life eternal (John xvii. 6). And therefore it belongs unto him, because he is God's Son, born of his essence, from eternity.
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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