Wesley Corpus

A Specimen of the Divinity and Philosophy of Jacob Behmen Source: The Works of John Wesley, Volume 9 (Zondervan) Author: John Wesley --- IN the late edition of his Works before the second volume, we have the following advertisement: “As he and Mr. Law were raised up by God, and highly qualified as instructers of mankind in divine wisdom, sc all who are followers of Christ in simplicity of heart, and seek only the salvation of their souls, will find in their writings everything relating to their essential happiness. And all the efforts of human wisdom to depreciate them, can be but like sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” Mr. Law’s writings are entirely out of the present question: We are only concerned with those of Jacob Behmen; a speci men of which I beg to lay before those who really seek the salvation of their souls:-- “AN ExPLANATION oR THE LoRD’s PRAYER. “ Unser water tim himmel : “Our Father in heaven : “41. Un is God’s eternal will to nature; ser comprehends in it the four forms of nature. “42. Va is the matrix upon the cross; ter is Mercury in the centre of nature. And they are the two mothers in the eternal will. The one severs itself into fire, the other into the light of meekness and into water. For va is the mother of the light which affords substantiality, and ter is the mother of the fire's tincture. “43. Im is the heart: For the syllable im goes forth from the heart, and soundeth through the lips. “44. Him means the creation of the soul; mel is the angelical soul itself: Which the heart on the cross in the centre between the two mothers has comprehended, and with the word him framed it to a creature, viz., into mel: For him is the habitation of mel. “Dein nahme werde geheiliget: “Thy name be hallowed: “45. When we say dein, we understand how the poor soul swims in the water of this world. “46. In the syllable nah it inclines inward; and in the syllable me it comprehends the heavenly substantiality. “47. When we say wer, the whole creature goes along in the will: For wer has the whole centre; and with the syllable de, it lays itself down in obedience to the meekness, and will not kindle the wer in the fire. “48.