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 Eighth Form of Fire.

292. Seeing thus there is ONE Substance in TWO Forms, one that taketh on an un∣searchable Beginning in it self, and holdeth it Eternally, and another that is the Eter∣nal Model, which compriseth, and with its

Body is included in a limit; therefore we are to consider of the Turba, which break∣eth the included comprised Life, again, and setteth the Model of the comprised Wonders in the Beginning, and presenteth such things to the Beginning as were not from Eternity, but came to be in the com∣prised Time.

293. Beloved Friend, to you and such as you are, who seek the Beginning, is this thing shewn, for your Mind is our Myste∣ry, seek it in U S, not in ME, I, the out∣ward Man have it not, but the Inward in the Virgin, in which God dwelleth, THAT hath it; and that calleth it self twofold.

294. My outward Man is not worthy of the Mystery, but God hath so ordained it, that he might manifest or reveal it to you by means, that you might know him by Means, and not say, it is from my own wit and understanding.

295. And seeing you are a learned Per∣son, you should know, that God loveth al∣so the silly and despised of this World, if he seek God, as indeed I have done, and that the right and true finding or inventi∣on, sticketh not in Art, but in Gods Spi∣rit and Will.

296. For this hand is simple, and ac∣compted

foolish in the esteem of the World, as you know, and yet there lyeth such a hidden secret or Arcanum therein, as is unsearchable to Reason.

297. Therefore have a care, pour Oyl into the Wounds that desire or require healing, and consider well what Christ saith, * 1.1 How hard it is for a man to enter into the Kingdom of God, who is captivated with cares of the Belly, in Might or Potency and Honour.

298. You will not find this Plant in the High∣ness and Exaltation of the world, for you cannot, you are a Mystery to them: The Spirit it self seeketh the Beginning; look to it, flatter none; for the Beginning is Paradisical, that the impure come not into the pure, and at last the Serpent beguile Eve again.

299. Let there be no fair gloss in you, but speak roundly or sincerely with your Mouth, with Yea and Nay; also fear not, for that which is Eternal, remaineth stand∣ing, and it is only the filth and vanity, that causeth, that the Turba together insinua∣teth

it self as a breaker or corrupter; have a care of that, for the Old Serpent is sut∣tle, that ye may be pure in the Beginning and in the End.

300. For, this work, suffereth not much Glossing upon, it hath a clear ground, also it belongeth not to the Turba, but in and to the Beginning of the Clarity, or bright Transfiguration or Glory: Therefore take heed of those who are born, or become of a wolfish disposition, whose Spirit is a sut∣tle Serpent; this we speak out of Good will towards you.

301. Every thing that beginneth it self, is sought of the Beginning, for the Beginning seeketh through the Deep, and willeth to find the ground: If now the Beginning do find the ground, that there be a limit in a Thing, then the Beginning, slips into the limit, and leaveth or forsaketh the first, and seeketh further so long, till it findeth the Abyss, and there it must stand in it self, and can go no further, for there is nothing more.

302. But if the first be forsaken of the Begin∣ning, then it is fallen home to the Turba, which breaketh it, and maketh it again,

what it was in the Beginning.

303. And then if the Thing be broken, then the Turba standeth naked without a Body, and it self also seeketh it self, and findeth it self, but without Substance, and then it entereth into it self, and seeketh it self even in the Abyss, and then the first Eye becometh found, out of which it be∣came generated.

304. But being it is bare and raw without Substance, therefore it is put back or home to the Fire, for it putteth it self therein, and is in the Fire a Desiring, viz. to seek its Body again, and so the Fire of the Ori∣ginal becometh awakened.

305. And hereby apprehend we the last Judgement in the Fire, and the Resurrecti∣on of the Flesh, for the Turba in the Fire, is desirous of the Body which it hath had, but was broken in the limit; and its desi∣ring, was the Bodies Life, viz. the Soul.

306. Therefore being the Fires are TWO, the Turba also must be apprehended in a Twofold Form or Kind, viz. in a corrupti∣ble Body, and in an incorruptible Body, viz. one in the fierce wrathful Fire, and one in the Light-Fire, wherein or where∣by

we understand God's Body, and in the fierce wrathful Fire, the Earthly Body, which the Turba corrupteth or breaketh, for it findeth its Limit.

307. Therefore now the Eternal Fire in God's Eye, is, to be understood, both the fierce wrathful; and also the Light-Love-Fire: And we give you to understand, that the Spirit without a Body, must re∣main in the fierce wrathful Fire, for it hath lost its Substantiality, the Turba hath swal∣lowed it up in the Fire.

308. But the Spirit with a Body, which the Turba is not able to devour, remaineth Eternally in the Substantiality in God's Body, wherein his Spirit standeth; viz. the Body in the Love of God, which is the hidden Man, in the Old Adamical, which there hath Christ's Flesh in the corruptible or fragile Body.

309. Thus we understand the Soul to be an awakened Life out of God's Eye, its Original is in the Fire, and the Fire is its Life; and so if it goeth not out from the Fire with its Will and Imagination into the Light, viz. through the fierce wrathful Death into the Second Principle into the Love-Fire, then it remaineth in its own Original Fire, and hath nothing but the

Turba for a Body, viz. the astringent fierce Wrath, a desiring in the Fire, a con∣suming and a hunger, and yet an Eternal Seeking, which is the Eternal Anguish.

310. But the Soul which with its desi∣rous will, entereth into it self, and in its reason, that is, in its desiring, sinketh down, and seeketh not it self, but God's Love, is in its Fire as it were dead, for its will which awakeneth the Fire, is dead to the Fire-Life, and is gone out from it self, into the Love-Fire; that Soul is fallen home to the Love-Fire, and hath also the Love-Fires Body, for it is entered thereunto, and is a great Wonder in God's Body, and it is no more it self, for it hath killed its will, and so its Turba also is as it were dead, and the Love-will filleth or satia∣teth the Fire of the Original, and there∣in it liveth Eternally.

311. But those Souls which have awak∣ned the Turba, they have lost the Image: For the Turba hath swallowed THAT into it self, and therefore those Souls get or ac∣quire in the Anger and in Hell, Beastial Images, according as the Turba is in them, as Lucifer got a Serpents Image, all ac∣cording as the Will or Mind hath here been figured or framed, so it standeth then naked and apparent.

312. For, the fierce wrathful Turba, seeketh continually the Image, and findeth it not, therefore it figureth or frameth the Image according to the Will; for the earth∣ly Desire sticketh in the Will, and such an Image standeth now in God's Wonders, in the Eye of the fierce wrathful Principle.

313. And here we understand the eighth Form to be the Turba, which seeketh the Image, and if it findeth the Limit, it break∣eth it, and goeth into it, and seeketh fur∣ther into it self, and findeth at last the Abomination of that, which the Soul had done here in this life.

314. And then we understand here, the Fire which at the End shall purge the Floar, and the earnest severe Judgement: And we understand how every Fire, will re∣ceive its Substance from the Turba, and what that is.

315. Where then the Fire, will swal∣low up the Earth, and draw the Elements with the Wonders in them into the Begin∣ning, where then the First will be again, and the Elements in One; And every thing will set forth its wonders there, eve∣ry thing in its own Fire, into which the Will is entered.

316. Let this be said to you ye Children

of Men, it concerneth you, for No Beast is come out of the Eternal Beginning, but out of the Model of the Eternal, and in its Spirit reacheth not the Eternal, as the Soul of Man doth.

317. Also the corrupt or perished Body, can∣not possess the Eternal, it is fallen home back to the Turba, but the New Man ge∣nerated or born in God, will possess the Eternal, for it is gone forth from the cor∣ruptible, and hath put on God in Christ, which hath God's Body in the Old Body.

318. The earthly source or fountain quality, the Turba taketh that along with it, the outward Body from the Earth, re∣maineth with the Earth, but the will tak∣eth its Substance doings or works along in∣to it self, for they stand in the New Body, and follow after it, therefore a Man should consider what he doth in this Life.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Mark 10. 24.