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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.
16. Not that they had put on Christ in the flesh before his manifestation, but indeed the same ens in their faith; and this same received or intaken ens of faith was the circumcision, which circumcised the heart and mind, and rent in twain the sinful veil; and pointed at the cutting off of the earthly introduced Serpent's ens in Adam, viz. of the earthly seed, and the earthly members to the bestial propagation; it showed that Christ (when the incorporated ens of faith should manifest itself in the humanity) should and would cut of f'this beast, and destroy the life of death and hell therein. 7. We must not look upon the circumcision only and barely as a sign or figure, for it is the seal of the Covenant, which stood as a seal imprinted on the ens of faith, for the spirit of the promised word to the new birth was in the seal, as among the Christians it is in the seal of Baptism. 8. And therefore God said, that soul that shall contemn this Covenant shall be rooted out from among his people, and commanded the natives and strangers to be circumcised, although they were not of the seed of Abraham, to signify that the Covenant passed upon all people who would but receive the ens of faith; even there the circumcision should be done. 9. For that was not the right circumcision which was done outwardly on the flesh, but it was the sign only of the circumcision; the true circumcision was effected in the ens of faith, in the Covenant,
2in the power of the Word and Holy Spirit, where the Word, in the spirit of Christ, does cut off the Serpent's ens from the right human ens of the heavenly part; viz. it cuts off the ens of the dark world, introduced and insinuated through Adam's evil desire, and the devil's in-flying poisonful desire. 10. The baptism of the Christians, and the circumcision of the Jews hold wholly one and the same right. Among the Jews the circumcision was effected or performed in the Word of power, the Holy Spirit baptised them with the holy fire's baptism, understand, it baptised their true man, corrupt [and withered] in Adam, the same was tinctured with this baptism, viz. in the ens of faith; for the ens of faith was the baptism of the Jews, where the Holy Spirit did inwardly baptise them unto Christ's humanity. 11. But now seeing this same word of faith (viz. the ens of faith) has put on the humanity, and quickened it in itself to life; this same spirit does now baptise with water, pointing at the humanity of Christ; for the water of eternal life, viz. the heavenly world's substance, was disappeared in Adam, and made alive again in Christ's heavenly ens, (being also the water of the heavenly powers) introduced into our (in him assumed) humanity; therefore the humanity of Christ was the first-born from the dead.
312. And with this same heavenly water, which God's word and power introduced into the humanity of Christ from heaven (understand from the holy spiritual world, viz. from the second Principle) the Holy Spirit of Christ does baptise the Christians in their baptism of water; which externally is also but a sign of the internal seal, in which seal the Holy Ghost baptises. 13. And therefore Christ has appointed the seal of the circumcision into a baptism of water; seeing the fire-baptism in the Covenant is become manifest in the water of life in the humanity; so that this firebaptism, viz. the flaming love-word, is made flesh. Therefore Christ said, We must now be born anew through the water and spirit, else we shall not see God (John iii.5). 14. For in the water wherein the flaming love-Word in the ens of the Covenant has manifested itself in our heavenly disappeared water (which is become incarnate) all the children of Christ must be new born, and take this water in their faith's desire; in which water the eternal flaming love-Word of God has incorporated itself. This same water baptises the inward man which disappeared in Adam to the new regeneration; and the earthly bestial half-serpentine-anddevilish man to mortification and death; 1 it circumcises the poor captive soul, and puts the Covenant and humanity of Christ upon it in the inward spiritual man, now disappeared or withered as to the kingdom of heaven. 1 Note how we are baptised into death.
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.
16. Not that they had put on Christ in the flesh before his manifestation, but indeed the same ens in their faith; and this same received or intaken ens of faith was the circumcision, which circumcised the heart and mind, and rent in twain the sinful veil; and pointed at the cutting off of the earthly introduced Serpent's ens in Adam, viz. of the earthly seed, and the earthly members to the bestial propagation; it showed that Christ (when the incorporated ens of faith should manifest itself in the humanity) should and would cut of f'this beast, and destroy the life of death and hell therein. 7. We must not look upon the circumcision only and barely as a sign or figure, for it is the seal of the Covenant, which stood as a seal imprinted on the ens of faith, for the spirit of the promised word to the new birth was in the seal, as among the Christians it is in the seal of Baptism. 8. And therefore God said, that soul that shall contemn this Covenant shall be rooted out from among his people, and commanded the natives and strangers to be circumcised, although they were not of the seed of Abraham, to signify that the Covenant passed upon all people who would but receive the ens of faith; even there the circumcision should be done. 9. For that was not the right circumcision which was done outwardly on the flesh, but it was the sign only of the circumcision; the true circumcision was effected in the ens of faith, in the Covenant,
2in the power of the Word and Holy Spirit, where the Word, in the spirit of Christ, does cut off the Serpent's ens from the right human ens of the heavenly part; viz. it cuts off the ens of the dark world, introduced and insinuated through Adam's evil desire, and the devil's in-flying poisonful desire. 10. The baptism of the Christians, and the circumcision of the Jews hold wholly one and the same right. Among the Jews the circumcision was effected or performed in the Word of power, the Holy Spirit baptised them with the holy fire's baptism, understand, it baptised their true man, corrupt [and withered] in Adam, the same was tinctured with this baptism, viz. in the ens of faith; for the ens of faith was the baptism of the Jews, where the Holy Spirit did inwardly baptise them unto Christ's humanity. 11. But now seeing this same word of faith (viz. the ens of faith) has put on the humanity, and quickened it in itself to life; this same spirit does now baptise with water, pointing at the humanity of Christ; for the water of eternal life, viz. the heavenly world's substance, was disappeared in Adam, and made alive again in Christ's heavenly ens, (being also the water of the heavenly powers) introduced into our (in him assumed) humanity; therefore the humanity of Christ was the first-born from the dead.
312. And with this same heavenly water, which God's word and power introduced into the humanity of Christ from heaven (understand from the holy spiritual world, viz. from the second Principle) the Holy Spirit of Christ does baptise the Christians in their baptism of water; which externally is also but a sign of the internal seal, in which seal the Holy Ghost baptises. 13. And therefore Christ has appointed the seal of the circumcision into a baptism of water; seeing the fire-baptism in the Covenant is become manifest in the water of life in the humanity; so that this firebaptism, viz. the flaming love-word, is made flesh. Therefore Christ said, We must now be born anew through the water and spirit, else we shall not see God (John iii.5). 14. For in the water wherein the flaming love-Word in the ens of the Covenant has manifested itself in our heavenly disappeared water (which is become incarnate) all the children of Christ must be new born, and take this water in their faith's desire; in which water the eternal flaming love-Word of God has incorporated itself. This same water baptises the inward man which disappeared in Adam to the new regeneration; and the earthly bestial half-serpentine-anddevilish man to mortification and death; 1 it circumcises the poor captive soul, and puts the Covenant and humanity of Christ upon it in the inward spiritual man, now disappeared or withered as to the kingdom of heaven. 1 Note how we are baptised into death.
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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