Wesley Corpus

It strikes at the root of all revealed religion, by making men think meanly of the Bible; a natural effect of thinking Behmen more highly illuminated than any or all of the Apostles. So Mr. S. frankly acknowledged, “While I admired him, I thought St. Paul and St. John very mean writers.” Indeed it quite spoils the taste for plain, simple religion, such as that of the Bible is; and gives a false taste, which can relish nothing so well, as high, obscure, unintelligible jargon. December 22, 1780. 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.