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 Fifteenth Question. (Book 15)

How Sin cometh into the Soul, being it is God's Work and Creature. (Book 15)

1. IT is in such a manner as is above menti∣oned; The Turba together with the earthly seeking, came along with it into this world: and so the Soul becometh ve∣hemently drawn by two parties; first by the Word of the Lord, which is passed into the middle, which there of Love is become Man or incarnate, that draweth the Soul continually into God's Kingdom, and set∣teth the Turba before the eys of the Soul, so that the Soul seeth in Nature what is false or wicked and sin; and if it suffereth it self to be drawn, then it becometh regenerated in the Word, so that it is God's Image.

2. And secondly, the Turba also draweth the Soul mightily with its bands, and bring∣eth the Soul continually back into the earthly seeking or longing, especially in youth, when the earthly Tree sticketh full of green sprouting driving Essences and Poyson, and then the Turba thus flyeth

strongly or mightily in, so that many a soul in eternity cannot become freed and loos∣ed from it.

3. A thing which is from two beginnings, which stand in equal ballance or weight, doth by putting in more weight on the one part sink down, be it either by evil or good.

4. Sin maketh not it self, but the will maketh it, it cometh from the Imaginati∣on into the Spirit, and then the Spirit goeth into a thing, and becometh infected from the thing, and so the Turba of that thing cometh into the Spirit, and destroyeth first the Image of God.

5. And then it goeth further, seeketh deeper, and so it findeth the Abysse, viz. the Soul; and seeketh in the Soul, and so it findeth the fierce wrathful Fire, by which it mixeth it self with the thing introduced into the Spirit: and so now sin is totally generated or born: and so now all is sin, which desireth to bring that which is out∣ward into the Will.

6. The will should simply or singly be in∣clined and exercised in Love & Meekness, as if it were a nothing, or dead; it should only desire God's Life, that God may

work, act or create in it, and whatsoever it doth besides, its will should be inclined or intended so, as to do it for God.

7. But if it put its will into the Thing or Substance, then it bringeth that thing or Substance into the Spirit, which possesseth its Heart, and so the Turba becometh ge∣nerated, and the Soul captivated with that Thing.

8. Thus we give you for an answer, that no Soul cometh pure and clean out of the Mothers body or womb, be it begotten by holy or unholy Parents.

9. For as the Abysse and Anger of God, as also the earthly world, do all cleave to and depend on God the Father, and yet can∣not apprehend or touch his Heart and Spi∣rit; so it is also with the Child in the Mo∣ther Body or Womb.

10. If it be begotten of godly pious Pa∣rents, then each Principle, standeth in its own part, by it self; when the Turba ta∣keth the earthly Body, then the Heaven ta∣keth the Spirit, and so the Majesty filleth the Spirit, and so the Soul is in God, and is free from pain.

11. But while the Soul sticketh in the Earthly Life, it is not free, and it is because, the Earthly Spirit continu∣ally bringeth its Abominations, with its Imagination, into it, and the Spi∣rit must continually stand in strife against the Earthly Life.