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 Five and Twentieth Question. (Book 25)

What the Hand of God, and the Bosom of Abraham are. (Book 25)

1. THis is indeed sufficiently explained already; for it is the All-Substantial or All-Being, every-where-presence of God; but in its own Principle; as the Rich Man, who was in Hell, could not prevail with Abra∣ham to send Lazarus to him with a Drop of Cold Water, to cool his Tongue in the Flames, Abraham said there was a great Cliff or Gulf between them, that is a whole Principle.

2. The Bosom of Abraham is thus to be understood; Abraham was the Father of the Faithful, and God gave him the Pro∣mise, that in his Seed all People of the Earth should be Blessed; this was to be understood in the Messiah Christ, who would become Man in the Faithful; and as in Abraham's Seed he became Man, so he would also be∣come Man in the Children of the Faith∣ful, and bless them.

3. And this is now the Holy Christian Congregation generated in Christ, that is the Bosom of Abraham, & we are in Christ all one Body, and to Abraham was the Pro∣mise Given, he was the Patriarch, or Arch-Father; and we are all become generated in that Promise, understand, in the New∣birth in Christ, and are in that Bosom, which taketh us into it.

4. When we through earnest Repen∣tance, enter into Abrahams Promise, then we go into the Bosom of Abraham, viz. into Our Promise, and in the Bosom of Faith Christ becometh generated or born in Us, and that is the Fulfilling.

5. Thus we are in Humility with La∣zarus in the Bosom of Abraham; for Christ is Abraham, and to Abraham was Christ Promised, now he hath him, and we with him, and thus we come into his Bosom, and are his Children in the Pro∣mise, and CHRIST is the Fulfilling.

6. Thus we sit in the fulfilling in the Bosom of Abraham, and are Abraham's Seed according to the Spirit. Here ye blind Jews, open your Eyes, what did Abraham in the Circumcision signifie? no∣thing else, but that Sin should in the Blood and Death of Christ, who shed his Blood

for the Children of the Faith of Abraham, be drowned, and in that Blood as in a Hea∣venly Tincture become Regenerate a∣gain.

7. Abraham and his Children drowned Sin in their Blood in the Faith on Christ, who in their Blood was to become Man, and now it is fulfilled, and therefore hath God set the Seal of Faith in the Substance, and now we are and should be born a new or Regenerate in the Real Blood of Christ.

8. Christs Blood taketh away the Turba from us, and we rise again in his Blood, as a New Man out of the Old, and bear or carry Christ's Image, Christ's Flesh and Blood in us in Our Image, if we are the Children of Abraham and Not Ishmaels.

9. For to Isaac belong the Goods of the Image of the Body of Christ; the Circum∣cision is Ishmaels, for he converseth about Works, but the Goods are Isaac's, and Ish∣mael shall at Last dwell in Isaac's Tents; but the Kingdom belongeth to Sem.

18. † 1.1 Not out of Merit by works have we Isaac's Goods, but out of Grace, out of Gods Love, we cannot attain it with the work, but in the Faith, * 1.2 in the Will and Deed, in the Entering in.

11. But he that enter∣eth into † 1.3 a Dominion, which is not his own by the right of Nature, he entereth into it by the Grace and Favour of the Giver or Do∣nor; why is the Servant in the House An∣gry and Discontented at it that the Lord is so Good and Gracious, and giveth a stranger the Dominion?

12. We were Strangers, and the Work was in the Family, but the Lord hath gi∣ven us the Promise in Paradise, he would bestow upon us again his Kingdom out of Grace; he left Cains Offering, but to Abel he gave the Kingdom of Grace, for Abel sought it in the Spirit, and Cain in the Work.

13. Thus understand how God's King∣dom is Magical, for, the first Will attain∣eth it, and the Will in the Substance or Work NOT, for it remaineth in the Sub∣stance or Work; but he that goeth free, findeth the Eternity, and the Kingdom of Grace therein, and the Promise with the Substance or Work together; and then the Work dwelleth in the Will, and is the Wills Houshold Servant;

14. Thus ye understand, if ye be see∣ing,

the whole Old Testament, this is the Only Ground, but comprised briefly; and if we come to write upon Moses, you shall find it wholly: and thus we have shewen you the right and true Ground of the Bo∣som of Abraham, and of the true Chri∣stian Religion.

15. Whosoever teacheth otherwise is of Babel, beware of him, he hath not Christs Spirit, but he is Ishmael, and seek∣eth or gropeth in his own conceit.

16. O thou VVorthy and Pretious Christendom, be yet seeing, else it will no more shine so clearly to thee, go yet to Lazarus into Abrahams Bosom.

Notes

• † 1.1

  Rom. 11. 6.
• * 1.2

  Phil. 2. 13.
• † 1.3

  Herrschafft.