Concerning the three principles of the divine essence / by Jacob Boehme, translated by John Sparrow, revised by C. J. B., with an introduction by Dr Paul Deussen, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Kiel.

Jakob Böhme

Date:: 1910

Credit: Concerning the three principles of the divine essence / by Jacob Boehme, translated by John Sparrow, revised by C. J. B., with an introduction by Dr Paul Deussen, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Kiel. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$from one and the same original, out of one mother, and are one thing. Thus we must speak after a creaturely manner, as if it took a beginning, that it mi^ht be brought to be understood. 5. For it cannot be said that fire, bitterness, or harshness, is in God, much less that air, water, or earth is in him ; only it is plain that all things have proceeded out of that [original]. Neither can it be said, that death, hell-fire, or sorrowfulness is in God, but it is known that these things have come out of that [original]. For God hath made no devil out of himself, but angels to live in joy, to their comfort and rejoicing; yet it is seen that devils came to be, and that they became God’s enemies. Therefore the source or fountain of the cause must be sought, viz. What is the jprima materia, or first matter of evil, and that in the originalness of God as well as in the creatures; for it is all but one only thing in originalness: All is out of God, made out of his ^essence, according to the Trinity, as he is one in ^ being or substance. essence and threefold in Persons. 6. Behold, there are especially three things in the originalness, out of which all things are, both spirit and life, motion and comprehensibility, viz. ^ Snljihur, ^ Mercurius, and ^ Sal. But you will say 2 wherein the that these are in nature, and not in God; which cousisteth. indeed is so, but nature hath its ground in God, of^g^g®„bXn\e. according to the first Principle of the Father, for * Salt, body, ^ siil’statiti- God calleth himself also an angry zealous God; aiity. which is not so to be understood, that God is angry$