The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 108 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 10 (part 15)
"The Spirit of Christ in His children is not bound to a certain form, so that He could say nothing but what is found in the writings of the apostles; but as the Spirit was free in the apostles, and as they did not all use the same expressions, but were all teaching in one spirit and foundation, each one as he was influenced by the Spirit to speak, likewise the Spirit of Christ still speaks out of His children, and needs no previously prepared formula of the literal Word, but itself reminds the spirit of man of that which is contained within the letter." ( Mysterium , xxviii.
52).
"You need not be surprised that reason is manifesting itself in many different forms, in one in a way different from that of the other, and that the children of God do not all speak the same language and words.
Each one speaks out of the wisdom of the mother, whose number is without beginning and without end.
Their aim is the heart of God, wherein they all meet.
This, then, is the test by which you must know whether the spirit speaks out of God or out of the devil." ( Threefold Life , v.
73.) 213:1 " Esau ," gross, sensual nature.
( Mysterium Magnum , iv.) 214:1 Evidently all these Bible allegories represent cosmic processes which have actually taken place in the history of the world.
They are, so to say, the genealogy of Humanity, in which at the fulness of the times the Divinity became manifest.
214:2 The "heathen," then, seem to be those prehistoric races that were cultivating magic arts.
215:1 "The mysteries of nature were not so deeply hidden to those (prehistorical) peoples as they are to us, because they were not so deeply hidden (immersed) in materiality and sin.
Therefore they knew the relationship between the paradisiacal (ethereal) forms of nature and their corporeal visible embodiments.
They knew the qualities and the true nature, not only of animals, but likewise of plants and minerals.
Man himself was the heart of all beings, and he created them.
He could therefore give to each its appropriate name, as if he were in these things himself, and (felt and) experienced their conditions himself." ( Three Principles , xxi.
8.) 217:1 Thus it appears that a person's true Christianity does not depend on his or her being learned in regard to theology, nor in subscribing to a certain creed or belief, nor in going through certain ceremonies, but in their being penetrated by that principle of love and wisdom which constitutes the Christ.
"It is very deplorable to see the world revile and storm, blaspheme and denounce, whenever the gifts of God manifest themselves in mankind in different ways, and if they have not all the same quality of knowledge.
What can a man take if it is not generated within him?
This (the quality of his understanding) is not a matter of his choice, but as his heaven (his mental constitution) is, so will God become revealed to him." ( Letters , i.
14.) "We ought not to persecute each other on account of the difference of the gifts given to us, but rather rejoice in love towards each other, seeing that the wisdom of God is so inexhaustible, and we should think thereby of the future, and what would become of us if all knowledge were to become manifest only from one and within one single soul." ( Grace , xiii.
Eckhart's signature doctrine that the Father eternally begets the Son in the ground of the soul; the human interior as the actual site of the divine generative act, distinct from inner_light's static indwelling.
The Spirit of Christ speaks out of His children, suggesting an internal generative act.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The text explicitly describes the relationship between ethereal forms of nature and their corporeal visible embodiments.
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
[auto] The Spirit is described as actively speaking out of children and influencing them, portraying the divine as dynamic and present rather than abstract.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The passage states that man was the heart of all beings and experienced their conditions himself, mirroring the cosmos.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The passage describes being penetrated by the principle of love and wisdom which constitutes the Christ.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
[auto] The passage emphasizes that all saints and children of God teach from 'one spirit' and meet in the 'heart of God', indicating a fundamental divine unity.