Forty questions of the soul concerning its original, essence, substance, nature or quality and property, what it is from eternity to eternity : framed by a lover of the great mysteries, Doctor Balthasar Walter, and answered in the year 1620 / by Jacob Behme, called Teutonicus Philosophus ; Englished by John Sparrow ...

The Third Form.

28. Now a Desiring is sharp and drawing, and maketh the third Form; viz. a stirring in it self, and is the original of the Essences, that in the Eye and Will, Essences are.

39. And yet the Will cannot endure that it be drawn, for its own right proper∣ty is to be still, and hold or retain the Eye in the Circle in the Globe, and yet cannot defend it self from the drawing and the fil∣ling, for it hath nothing whereby it can de∣fend it self, but the Desiring.

40. And here originateth the Eternal Enmity and opposite Will. The Will, wil∣leth

not to be dark, and yet its desiring maketh it dark, it endureth the stirring rea∣dily, for it is its manifestation or revela∣tion, but the in drawing and darkning it doth not love; though indeed the Will becometh not drawen nor darkned, but the Desiring in the Will impregnateth it self.

41. But now being the Desiring sticketh in the darkness, therefore there is a great An∣guish, for it becometh stirred and drawn, and also darkned, and vexeth it self in it self, and desireth the Liberty, and draweth so eagerly after the Liberty, and willeth to draw it self into the Liberty, and yet maketh it self onely the more eager rough and hard, and is like a horrible sharpness, which is consuming; viz. of the Darkness;

42. For it graspeth the Liberty into it self, but is so sharp, that it appeareth in the Liberty as a flash of lightning, which consumeth the darkness, together with the eagerness: Therefore saith God, I am a consuming Fire.

43. Here understand, how all Matter standeth in the right Fires, Might; and how the † Floar shall once

be purged, for that is the original of the Fire, which hath ALL Might and Power, for it consumeth whatsoever the desire hath made, be it Stone or Earth: for it is the sharpness of the Eternal Liberty, and giveth or affordeth, Centrum Naturae the Center of Nature.

44. But that you may search yet deeper, know that the Fire in it self originally standeth in Three Forms, viz. First, In the Desiring; And then, secondly, in the Matter of that which is attracted, viz. in the Darkness, in which is Substantiality from the attracting: And Thirdly, In the An∣guish-source or Pain.

Notes

• Commonly cal∣led Qualities.
• Deut. 4. 24. and Chap. 9. 3. Heb. 12. 29.
• †

  Mat. 3. 12: