very far from being an original; and in his style and method is so opposite to sacred Scripture, that his language must not be imputed to the same author by any person who has rightly considered both. But you tell me, "The words are his own, he says: the sense only was inspired." And if he says this, he is not to be believed any way: for, in the first place, his inspired writings will then be like no other; the prophets and apostles having SPOKEN (not thought only) as the Spirit gave them UTTERANCE: and the whole sacred Scripture is not called the sense, but the WORD OF GOD; because Christ and the Holy Ghost spake it by the prophets, whose usual introduction is, "Thus SAITH the Lord." Hence it is that the prophet David, speaking of his own inspiration, says, 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. "His word was in my tongue;" and again, in the xlvth Psalm, "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." Whence it is manifest, that the inspiration from the Spirit of God did, in fact, always extend to the tongue, and the expressions whether spoken or written and there are weighty reasons why it cannot be otherwise; but I have no room for them. soul of man subject to be driven by the influ- As for his explaining the book, let us take the following instance; whence will it follow that, if he was inspired, St. John, who wrote the Revelation, certainly was not. The Secondly. If Jacob says this, he forgets seven golden candlesticks, as Christ expoundhimself, and is in two stories; for, in his ed their meaning in vision to St. John, second book, concerning the three principles, did signify the seven churches of Asia; and chap. xxv. 51, he says, "We speak not our the seven stars, the angels (that is, the bishops own words, but we speak in our knowledge or chief rulers) of those churches. But and driving in the spirit that which is shown Jacob, taking the matter into his hands, exus of God." Again, chap. xxv. 100, he tells pounds them afresh, and says, chap. xx. 42, us of "the Spirit that driveth his pen :" and "The seven golden candlesticks are his his pen could not be driven to thought, but humanity, the seven stars are his deity:" only to utterance or expression. So that if which two expositions, as they can no way what you have observed be true, that the be reconciled with each other, we need only words are his own, he says, then he has con- compare, to detect the ignorance and imputradicted himself in terms, and that with re- dence of the impostor. From another pasgard to the first and great point of which he sage we shall have the same conclusion, ought to satisfy us, viz. the reality of his either against him, or against Moses and St. inspiration, which can receive but little Paul. Chap. xi. 40, he says, " Adam looked honor from such inconsistencies. But the upon the tree of knowledge, became infected worst is, that he hath not only contradicted by lust, and was undone : and, then, said the himself, but the Scriptures; and that in many heart of GOD, It is not good for him to be more instances than I can enumerate within alone." This throws the temptation of Adam the compass of a letter. You say, madam, he has not added to the book, but only explained it; whereas it appears to me (from some things which perhaps have not yet fallen in your way) that he contradicts it, and has added many things to it; for he has set up doctrines expressly condemned by it, and has denied several of its most positive assertions. In the piece above-mentioned, which is the sum of all his doctrines, he preaches up "the regiment (rule or dominion) of the stars and elements that driveth the body and soul of man," chap. xvii. 25. But to make the quite into another order, and makes it arise from other causes than what God hath revealed to us; for Adam gives this as the reason of his fall-"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave of the tree, and I did eat." Gen. iii. 12. To which St. Paul referring, assures us (1 Tim. ii. 14.) that "Adam" was not "deceived;" but that "the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression." This makes the woman to have been first in the order of the transgression, and also the immediate cause of Adam's falling after her example. But here Jacob puts in his negative. Adam, according to him, was deceived: and the woman was so | meaning himself and the Spirit of God, far from being first in the order of the trans- with his frequent boastings of high and unutgression, that the angelic man fell and was terable knowledge, meaning such stuff as I undone, before the woman was taken out of have just now repeated; the foul venom him so that unless Adam was deceived and of his tongue, in railing at the authority of not deceived, and unless he was both first and the church, and all Christian divines from last in the order of transgression, then it the days of the apostles down to his own, must be allowed that Jacob Behmen was not without excepting any that I can yet find, inspired, or that Moses and St. Paul were unless it be some of the primitive heretics, not; for their doctrines cannot stand togeth- who were just such saints as himself;-his er: and here we are to remember, as it was ridiculous and anti-scriptural interpretation observed above, that if this man was not in- of words; for when the Gospel hath given us spired, and yet affirms that he is, while he is the important sense and interpretation of the so often giving the lie to the Spirit of GOD, name Jesus, "For he shall SAVE his people he is not only a liar of the worst sort, but a from their sins," he goes to his deep language blasphemer. of nature, and declares with much pomp, that "Je is his humbling, and the syllable Sus presseth aloft through." Chap. xxii. 76. These and many other things I might expose at large but as I am assured from your own words, and am satisfied from the whole spirit of your writing, that you have humility enough to confess an error, when you are convinced of it, I will not weary your patience with any farther observations on the writings of Jacob Behmen; but shall here conclude them, with heartily recommending you and my own poor endeavors to the grace and blessing of Almighty God. You tell me, madam, he has given no new revelation. So he says, indeed, that he writes no new thing: but what is that account of a limbus, or matrix of pre-existing matter, out of which the world was generated, born, and at length created? Chap. iv. What is that heavenly flesh, that quintessence of the stars, of which man's body was made, chap. x. 10, though God hath revealed to us, that he "formed man of the dust of the ground?" To which also St. Paul alluding, says, "The first man is of the earth, earthy." What, again, but a new revelation is that strange story, that Adam should have propagated an You seem to take it ill that I apprehended angelical host out of his own will, without pain, some danger for you; which indeed I did by awakening in himself the paradisiacal more than I do at present: yet I rejoice, centre? Chap. x. 12. What is this centre ? madam, that any occurrence or any instruHave Moses or the prophets spoken of it? ment, be it who or what it will, has taught And are we not told that God said to Adam you to despise the world, and stirred up in and Eve in their state of innocence, "Be you a thrist after the wisdom of God. In fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth?" this, go on and prosper: I heartily bid you Again, where did he learn that Adam had no God speed! and, if you desire to learn the entrails, stomach, or guts? Chap. x. 19. Yet knowledge of divine mysteries for your edifiin the perfect state of Adam, God bade him cation and comfort in this vale of misery, eat of the trees of the garden. Therefore, there are ways and means, though the well says Jacob, he must have taken it into his is deep, by which, through God's blessing on mouth, and not into the body. Surely, madam, your industry, much living water may be this is not to explain the book of God, but drawn out of it; and that without letting to deny it, and to reveal to us such wonder-down into it the vessel of J. Behmen. If ful stuff instead of it, as is not fit to be repeated or thought of. Yet these things, according to the author, are the root and ground of the depth; without allowing which he affirms we can know nothing at all. But if there are any depths here, I will be bold to say, they are the depths of Satan, without fearing any mischief from that profusion of threatenings and imprecations which this man hath bestowed, throughout his works, on all those who dare to gainsay his doctrines. I might here add something upon his Light of Nature; which, as he has described it at large, is the great mystery of Pagan enthusiasm, and the root of modern infidelity; —his abominable pride, where he says, we, any mysteries of the Scriptures are rightly explained by him (and it would be hard indeed, if, with all his pretences, he had not hit upon something,) the same have also been explained by more sober men, and in a far better manner. An English reader need not be at a loss for the interpretation of the Scripture, so long as the writings of Bishop Andrews, Hall, Brownrig, and Mr. Leslie, and many others, are current amongst us. These are some of the books I would humbly recommend to your reading. Andrews is a noble and profitable expositor: one of his sermons on the Passion is the greatest human composition extant on the subject: his discourses on Repentance and Humilia 86 LETTER ON JACOB BEHMEN'S WRITINGS. tion, on the necessity of receiving the Holy Spirit, with the Way to distinguish his genuine Fruits, are all admirable. His Devotions breathe a most exalted spirit of piety, while they contain a complete body of the Christian mysteries. There are some English editions; but the best is from a Greek and Latin copy found among his papers after his death, blotted and soiled with his tears. Bishop Brownrig has, among other excellent discourses, eight sermons on the Transfiguration, wherein the great mysteries of that part of our Saviour's history are unfolded with equal skilfulness and piety. Leslie, in his History of Sin and Heresy, will lay open to you the whole mystery of iniquity, traced from the fall of Lucifer out of heaven, down to the modern heresies and blasphemies: and, if you would see every false pretence to inspiration detected and exposed beyond a possibility of a reply, you may look into his pieces against the Quakers, with his preface on Antonietta Bourignon. His works are in two volumes in folio, easily to be met with. For the spiritual dispositions no author exceeds Kempis in his Imitation of Jesus Christ. Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers, is a book very useful and entertaining, necessary to give some notion of the primitive times, with that knowledge, spirit, and discipline, which are now departed from amongst us. There is one book more which I believe may be very acceptable; and, as you are already in possession of Bishop Hall, it is the last I shall mention; that is-Quesnel's Moral Reflections on the New Testament. He has a great talent in speaking to the heart, and applying the history of the Gospel! so as to advance us in the spirit and practice of the Christian life. I had almost forgotten Mr. Wogan, the last able expositor which this church has produced; whose four volumes on the Proper Lessons are in the hands of many pious people, and are greatly recommended by those who make the Bible their study.* After all that can be said, the Holy Ghost himself is the best interpreter of his own writings; and so boundless is the treasure therein contained, that the Scripture compared with itself will frequently open some things to the faithful inquirer, of which no commentator will inform us. But, nevertheless, our weakness is obliged to call in the help of our brethren on several occasions; and, though the Scripture be itself the word of life, yet it is profitably held forth to us by the hand of man, and placed on a candlestick, that they which are in the house may see the light, and partake of its influences. That this may ever be the fruit of all your reading, and that the light of God's revelation may clear up all your doubts, and guide your feet through the paths of sound and wholesome doctrine into the way of eternal peace, is the sincere wish and prayer of, Madam, Your most obliged, &c. &c. &c. If this letter had been of modern date, the writer of it would certainly have added the Commentary on the Psalms: and perhaps he might have added the Lectures on the Figurative Language of the Scripture; and certainly Mr. Waldo's Commentary on the Liturgy of the church of England. |