A description of the three principles of the divine essence viz., of the un-originall eternall birth of the Holy Trinity of God ... : of man, of what he was created and to what end, and how he fell from his first glory into the angry wrathfulnesse ... : what the anger of God, sinne, death the Devill, and hell are ... / written in the German language, anno 1619, by Jacob Beme.

The Holy Gate of the Divine Power.

1. NOw saith Reason, if Christ ascended thus with his body, which he b offered up on the Crosse, when was he Glorified in his body? Or how is his body now? is it now as his Disci∣ples saw him ascend into Heaven? My beloved Reason, my Earthly eyes see it not, but the spirituall [eyes] in Christ see it very well. The Scripture saith; He is c Glorified and Lord over all; but wee will open to you, the Gate of the Great Wonders, that you may see what wee see.

2. Behold, when God the Father had brought Israel into the Wil∣dernesse to Mount Sinai, and would give them Lawes, in which they should live: then he commanded Moses to come up the Mountaine to the Lord, and the rest of the Elders must stay a farre off, and the people below the Mountaine: and Moses went up the Mountaine a∣lone, to the Lord; and there appeared the brightnesse [or Glory] of the Lord, and on the seventh Day he called Moses, and spake with him concerning all the Lawes? And the countenance of Moses was d Glo∣rified from the Lord, so that he could stand before him, and speake with him. Thus also the Man-Christ in Ternario sancto [in the Holy Ternary] (when he was ascended into his Throne) was Glorified on the ninth Day in the Holy Trinity.

3. Understand it right: his soule in the Creature was not first Glo∣rified, but his whole Body, or Princely Throne: there went forth out of the Centre of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Ghost; as you see cleerly,

that those (who had put on the Spirit of Christ) were highly en∣lightened: for the Holy Ghost went forth from the Centre of the Tri∣nity into the whole holy Element, and did flow into the e Mercy of God: and as he Triumphed in the Body of Jesus Christ, so also in his Disciples, and in the Beleevers.

4. There were opened all the Doores of the Great Wonders, and the Apostles spake with the Languages of all Nations: and so it may be seene cleerly, that the Spirit of God had opened all the Centres of all Essences, and spake out of them all; for Christ was the Lord, and the Heart of all Essences, and therefore the Holy Ghost went out of all Essences, and filled the Essences of all Men, which turned their eares with a desire to it, and in that he pressed into all: and every one heard (out of his own Essences and Language,) the Spirit of God spake out of the Disciples: and the Holy Ghost was borne in the bo∣dies of all their hearers, which had but an earnest desire to it, and they were all filled: for the Spirit of God pierced through into their hearts, as he pressed forth out of the Centre of the Trinity into the whole body and Plincely Throne of Jesus Christ, and filled all outwardly in the Clarity [or Glory].

5. Thus all the holy soules were filled, so that their whole body in all Essences was made stirring from the exceeding pretious vertue [or power] which went forth in the Wonders in power and in f Deeds that were done there. And here is set before us the vertue [or power] of the Father in the Fire, in his severe Omnipotency on Mount Sinai, also the Still Loving vertue of the Sonne of God in the Love and Mer∣cy; for wee see that wee could not at all live in the Father (in the source of the Fire): and therefore Moses brake the Tables, and the people fell away from God.

6. But now when the Meeknesse was in the Father, then the Love held the Anger captive, and [the Love] went out of the source of the Father (and that was the Holy Ghost) in the Wonders: There stood the highly worthy heavenly Virgin (of the Wisdome of God) in her highest Ornament, with her Garland of Pearles: there stood Mary in Ternario Sancto, of which the Spirit (in the Antients) hath spoken wonderfully; And here Adam was brought into Paradise againe.

7. And now if wee will speake of the Glorification of Christ, and of his body, which he visibly (and in that forme in which he had con∣versed upon Earth) ascended withall; then wee must say, that as the Love of the Heart of God hath reconciled the Anger of the Father, and holdeth it as it were captive in it; so also the Holy Ternary hath comprehended the hard palpable body of Christ, viz. the g Kingdome of this world, as if it were wholly swallowed up, whereas it is not swallowed up, but the h source of this world, is destroyed in Death,

and the holy Ternary hath put on the body of Christ; not as a Gar∣ment, but virtually [or powerfully] in the Essences, and he is as it were swallowed up (to our apprehension and sight) and yet is really: and shall come againe at the Last Judgement-Day, and manifest him∣selfe in his own body which he had here, that all may see him, be they good or bad: and he shall also come in the same forme to keepe the Judgement of the Separation; for in his Divine Glorified forme, wee cannot behold him before wee be Glorified, especially the wicked. But thus all Generations shall see and know him, and the unbeleeving shall weep and wayle, that they went so out of their flesh and bloud into another source [or condition], when they should and might in their own Essences have put on God, and yet did put on the King∣dome of the fiercenesse of the Anger of God, with the Devils; and let the same into the Essences of their soules, and caused themselves to perish.

8. Therefore wee say, that in the soule of Christ, in its Essences, the cleere Deity (viz. the Light of God is comprehended, which hath quenched the Anger in the source of the soule: and thus that Light i clarifieth the soule, and (though the proceeding vertue) the Tincture is alwayes generated out of the soule, and the Fiat in the Essences maketh it comprehensible and palpable; and that is the Ter∣narius Sanctus, or the Holy Earth, that is, the holy flesh, for God en∣lighteneth in this body, all in all.

9. Thus his earthly body is swallowed up in God, though indeed he never had such an earthly body as wee have, for he was not of the Seede of a Man; but wee speake onely of the comprehensibility and visibility of it to our eyes, according to which he is our Brother: and he shall appeare at the Last Judgement-Day in our fleshly forme, in the power of God, as Lord over all, for all power in Heaven and in this world is subjected under him, and he is Judge over all, A Prince of Life, and Lord over Death.

10. And so the Kingdome of Heaven is his own body, and the whole Princely Throne of his Principle is Paradise, wherein the bles∣sed fruit in the vertue of God springeth up: for the Holy Ghost is the vertue [and power] of the fruit; as the Aire in this world is, so the Holy Ghost is the Aire and Spirit of the soule in Christ, and of all his children: for there is no other Aire in Heaven, in the body of Christ; and God the Father is All in All. Thus wee live and are (in Christ) all in the Father, & there is no soule that searcheth out to the depth; but wee live all in singlenesse of heart and in great humility and love one towards another, and rejoyce one with another, as children doe before their Parents: and to this end God created us.

11. Thus my deare k soule, seeke Christ and incline thy selfe to him, and so thou shalt receive the Holy Ghost, who will new regene∣rate

thy soule, and enlighten, drive, and leade thee; and he will re∣veale [and manifest] Christ to thee: Leave off all opinions and hu∣mane Inventions; for the Kingdome of God is neere thee; and thou art kept out from God onely by thy own unbeliefe, by thy evill works (viz.) by thy pride, covetousnesse, envy, anger, and falshood: for thou clothest thy selfe with them, & so thou art in the Devils cloaths, without God.

12. But if thou leavest them off, and passest with the desire of thy heart into the Mercy of God, then thou goest into Heaven, into God the Father, and thou walkest in the body of Christ in the pure Ele∣ment; and the Holy Ghost goeth forth out of thy soule, and leadeth thee into all truth: and the old corrupt Man doth but hang to thee, which thou shalt destroy in Death: and with thy Love in Christ, still, overcome, and captivate the Anger of the Father in thy soule: and thou shalt spring up with thy New Man through Death, and appeare in the same at the Last Judgement Day.

Notes

• b

  Sacrificed.
• c

  Clarified or Brightened.
• Exodus 24.
• d

  Became bright and did shine like the Sun.
• e

  Barmhertz∣igkeit; Mer∣cifulnesse.
• f

  Or, Miracles.
• g

  The ruling property.
• h

  Or, working property.
• i

  Glorifieth or brightneth.
• k

  Or, friend.