Jacob Boehme on the love of Sophia (Wisdom) 2

In The Dual Aspect of Wisdom, H. P. Blavatsky gives some hints about the nature of Sophia :

For, divine Wisdom being diffused throughout the infinite Universe, and our impersonal HIGHER SELF being an integral part of it, the atmic light of the latter can be centred only in that which though eternal is still individualized— i.e., the noëtic Principle, the manifested God within each rational being, or our Higher Manas at one with Buddhi. It is this collective light which is the “Wisdom that is from above,” and which whenever it descends on the personal Ego, is found “pure, peaceable, gentle.” Hence, Job’s assertion that “Wisdom is with the Ancient,” or Buddhi-Manas. For the Divine Spiritual “I” is alone eternal, and the same throughout all births; whereas the “personalities” it informs in succession are evanescent, changing like the shadows of a kaleidoscopic series of forms in a magic lantern. It is the “Ancient,” because, whether it be called Sophia, Krishna, Buddhi-Manas or Christos, it is ever the “first-born” of Alaya-Mahat, the Universal Soul and the Intelligence of the Universe. ([Lucifer, Vol. VII, No. 37, September, 1890, pp. 1-9] Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol. 12, p. 313)

Jakob Böhme The  Gates  of  the  Paradisical  Garden  of  Roses, from his essay True Repentance, part of six texts grouped under the title The Way to Christ (1624)

The  Gates  of  the  Paradisical  Garden  of  Roses

 2- The Soul saith again to its noble Sophia, its Love, that is born again in it,

O my noble Pearl, and opened Flame of Light in my anxious fiery Life, how thou changest me into thy Joy!  O beautiful Love, I have broken my Faith with thee in my Father Adam, and with my fiery Strength have turned myself to the Pleasure and Vanity of the outward World.  I have fallen in Love with a Stranger, and would have been constrained to walk in the Valley of Darkness in this strange Love, if thou hadst not come into the House of my Misery, in thy great Faithfulness, by thy piercing through and destroying God's Anger, Hell, and dark Death, and restoring thy Meekness and Love to my fiery Life.

O sweet Love!  Thou hast brought the Water of Eternal Life out of the Fountain of God, with thee into me, and refreshed me in my great Thirst.  I behold in thee the Mercy of God, which was hidden from me before by the strange Love.  In thee I can rejoice; Thou changest my Anguish of Fire into great Joy in me.  O amiable Love, give me thy Pearl, that I may continue in this Joy forever.

Upon this then noble Sophia answereth the Soul again, and saith,

MY dear Love and faithful Treasure, thou highly rejoicest me in thy Beginning.  I have indeed broken into thee through the deep Gates of God, through God's Anger, through Hell and Death, into the House of thy Misery, and have graciously bestowed my Love upon thee, and delivered thee from the Chains and Bonds wherewith thou wert fast bound.  I have kept my Faith with thee, though thou hast not kept thine with me; but thou desireth now an exceeding great Thing of me, which I cannot willingly trust in thy Hands.  Thou wouldest have my Pearl as thy proper own.  Remember, I pray, O my beloved Bridegroom, that thou didst carelessly lose it before in Adam; and thou thyself standest yet in great Danger, and walkest in two dangerous Kingdoms; for in thy original Fire thou walkest in that Country wherein God calleth himself a strong jealous God, and a consuming Fire.  The other Kingdom which thou walkest in, is the outward World, wherein thou dwellest in the vain corrupt Flesh and Blood, and where the Pleasures of the World and Assaults of the Devil beset thee every Hour.  Thou mayest perhaps in thy great Joy bring Earthliness again into my Beauty, and thereby darken my Pearl; or thou mayest possibly grow proud, as Lucifer did, when he had the Pearl in his Possession, and so turn thyself away from the Harmony of God, as he did, and then I must be deprived of my Love forever afterwards.

No.  I will keep my Pearl in Myself, and dwell in the Heaven in thee, in thy extinguished, but now in me, revived, Humanity, and reserve my Pearl for Paradise, until thou puttest away this Earthliness from thee, and then I will give it to thee to possess.  But I will readily present to thee my pleasant Countenance, and the sweet Rays of the Pearl, during the Time of this Earthly Life.  I will dwell with the Pearl itself in the inner Choir, and be thy faithful loving Bride.  I cannot espouse myself with thy earthly Flesh, for I am a heavenly Queen, and my Kingdom is not of this World. Yet I will not cast thy outward Life away, but refresh it often with my Rays of Love; for thy outward Humanity shall return again.  But I cannot admit to my Embraces the Beast of Vanity, neither did God create it in Adam with a Purpose to have it so gross and earthly.  But in Adam thy Desire, through the Power of its strong Lust, formed this beastial Grossness, from and with all the Essences of the awakened Vanity of the earthly Property, wherein Heat and Cold, Pain and Enmity, Division and Corruption subsist.

Now, my dear Love and Bridegroom, do but yield thyself up into my Will; I will not forsake thee in this earthly Life in thy Danger.  Though the Anger of God should pass upon thee, so that thou shouldst grow affrighted and disheartened, or shouldst think that I had deserted thee, yet I will be with thee and preserve thee, for thou thyself knowest not what thine Office is.  Thou must in this Life's Time work and bear Fruit.  Thou art the Root of this Pearl-Tree; Branches must be produced out of thee, which must all be brought forth in Anguish.   But I come forth together with thy Branches in their Sap, and produce Fruit upon thy Boughs, and thou knowest it not; for the Most High hath so ordered, that I should dwell with and in thee.

Wrap thyself up therefore in Patience, and take Heed of the Pleasure of the Flesh.  Break the Will and Desire thereof; bridle it as an unruly Horse; and then I will often visit thee in the fiery Essence, and give thee my Kiss of Love.  I will bring a Garland for thee out of Paradise with me, as a Token of my Affection, and put it upon thee, and thou shalt rejoice in it.  But I give thee not my Pearl for a Possession during this Life's Time.  Thou must continue in Resignation, and hearken what the Lord playeth on his Instrument in thy Harmony in thee.  Moreover, thou must give Sound and Essence to thy Tune, out of my Strength and Virtue, for thou art now a Messenger of his Word, and must set forth his Praise and Glory.   For this Cause it is that I have contracted myself a-new with thee, and set my triumphal Garland upon thee; which I have gotten in the Battle against the Devil and Death.  But the Crown of Pearl wherewith I crowned thee, I have laid aside for thee.  Thou must wear that no more till thou art become pure in my Sight.

 3- The Soul saith further to the noble Sophia,

O thou fair and sweet Consort, what shall I say before thee?  Let me be wholly committed unto thee; I cannot preserve myself.  If thou wilt not give me thy Pearl, I submit to thy Will; but give me thy Rays of Love, and carry me safely through my Pilgrimage.  Do thou awaken and bring forth what thou wilt in me; I will from henceforth be thy own.  I will or desire nothing for myself, but what thou thyself wilt through me.  I had fooled away thy sweet Love, and broken my Faith with thee, whereby I was fallen into the Anger of God.  But seeing that of Love thou didst come to me into the Anguish of Hell, and hast delivered me from Torment, and received me again for thy Consort, I will now therefore break my Will for thy Love's Sake, and be obedient unto thee, and wait for thy Love.  I am satisfied now that I know thou art with me in all my Troubles, and wilt not forsake me.

O Gracious Love, I turn my fiery Countenance to thee.  O fair Crown, take me quickly into thee, and bring me forth from Unquietness.   I will be thine forever, and never depart from thee more.

The noble Sophia answereth the Soul very comfortably, and saith,

MY noble Bridegroom, be of good Comfort.  I have betrothed thee to me in my highest Love, and contracted myself with thee in my Faithfulness.   I will be with thee and in thee always to the End of the World.  I will come to thee and make my Abode with thee, in thy inner Chamber.  Thou shalt drink of my Fountain; for now I am thine, and thou art Mine; the Enemy shall not separate us. Work thou in thy fiery Property, and I will put my Rays of Love into thy Working.  And so we will plant and manure the Vineyard of Jesus Christ.  Afford thou the Essence of Fire, and I will afford the Essence of Light, and the Increase.  Be thou the Fire, and I will be the Water, and thus we will perform that in this World for which God hath appointed us, and serve him in his Temple, which we ourselves are.  

Part 1 

Jacob Boehme on the love of Sophia (Wisdom) 1

Sophia (σοφία, Greek for "wisdom") is a central idea in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, Platonism, Gnosticism, Orthodox Christianity, Esoteric Christianity, as well as Christian mysticism. Sophiology is a philosophical concept regarding wisdom, as well as a theological concept regarding the wisdom of the biblical God. Sophia is honored as a goddess of wisdom by Gnostics, as well as by some Neopagan, New Age, and feminist-inspired Goddess spirituality groups. In Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity, Sophia, or rather Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), is an expression of understanding for the second person of the Holy Trinity, (as in the dedication of the church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul) as well as in the Old Testament, as seen in the Book of Proverbs 9:1, but not an angel or goddess.

Blavatsky has written about Sophia in her gnostic commentaries, such as her Notes on the Pisits Sophia and is part of her mystical explanation of the Sacred Four, or Arba-Il, of which a brief outline as follows :

India	Babylon	Ophite	Christian
1 - Brahma	Anu	Sige	Father
2 -Vishnu	Bel	Ennoia	Son
3 - Siva	Hoa	Bythos	Holy Ghost
4 - Nari	Mylitta	Sophia	Mary

 Anna Kingsford gives a good theosophical description of Sophia : She is not matter ; but is the potential essence of Matter. She is not Space ; but is the within of space, its fourth and original dimension, that from which all proceed, the containing element of Deity, and of which space is the manifestation. As original Substance, the substance of all others substances, She underlies that whereof all things are made ; and, like life and mind, is interior, mystical, spiritual, and discernible only when manifested in operation. In the Unmanifest, She is the Great Deep, or Ocean, of Infinitude, the Principium or Archë, the heavenly Sophia, or Wisdom, Who encircles and embraces all things ; of Whom are dimension and form and appearance ; Whose veil is the astral fluid, and Who is, Herself, the substance of all souls. (The Perfect Way, Lecture 1, Part 1, 34)

The Gnostic Sophia reappears in a different form in Christian Mysticism, and one of the more compelling portrayals is from Christian Theosophist Jakob Böhme in a text called The  Gates  of  the  Paradisical  Garden  of  Roses, from his essay True Repentance, part of six texts grouped under the title The Way to Christ (1624), which forms a good introduction to his writings.

The  Gates  of  the  Paradisical  Garden  of  Roses

 This is understood by none but the Children of Christ, who have known it by Experience.

WHEN Christ the Corner-stone stirreth himself in the extinguished Image of Man, in his hearty Conversion and Repentance, then Virgin Sophia appeareth in the Stirring of the Spirit of Christ in the extinguished Image, in her Virgin's Attire before the Soul; at which the Soul is so amazed and astonished in its Uncleanness, that all its Sins immediately awake in it, and it trembleth before her; for then the Judgement passeth upon the Sins of the Soul, so that it even goeth back in its Unworthiness, being ashamed in the Presence of its fair Love, and entereth into itself, feeling and acknowledging itself utterly unworthy to receive such a Jewel.  This is understood by those who are of our Tribe, and have tasted of this Heavenly Gift, and by none else.  But the noble Sophia draweth near in the Essence of the Soul, and kisseth it in friendly Manner, and tinctureth its dark Fire with her Rays of Love, and shineth through it with her bright and powerful Influence.  Penetrated with the strong Sense and Feeling of which, the Soul skippeth in its Body for great Joy, and in the Strength of this Virgin Love exulteth, and praiseth the great God for his blessed Gift of Grace.

I will set down here a short Description how it is when the Bride thus embraceth the Bridegroom, for the Consideration of the Reader, who perhaps hath not yet been in this Wedding-Chamber.  It may be that he will be desirous to follow us, and to enter into the Inner Choir, where the Soul joineth Hands and danceth with Sophia, or the Divine Wisdom.

1-When that which is mentioned above cometh to pass, the Soul rejoiceth in its Body, and saith,

PRAISE, Thanksgiving, Strength, Honour, and Glory, be to thee, O great God, in thy Power and Sweetness, for that thou hast redeemed me from the Anguish of the fiery Driver.  O thou fair Love!  My Heart embraceth thee; where hast thou been so long?  I thought I was in Hell in the Anger of God.   O Gracious Love!  Abide with me, I beseech thee, and be my Joy and Comfort.  Lead me in the right Way.  I give myself up into thy Love.   I am dark before thee, do thou enlighten me.  O noble Love, give me thy sweet Pearl; put it I pray thee into me.

O great God in Christ Jesus, I praise and magnify thee now in thy Truth, in thy great Power and Glory, for that thou hast forgiven me my Sins, and filled me with thy Strength.  I shout for Joy before thee in my new Life, and extol thee in thy Firmament of Heaven, which none can open but thy Spirit in thy Mercy.  My Bones rejoice in thy Strength, and my Heart delighteth itself in thy Love.  Thanks be to thee forever, for that thou has delivered me out of Hell, and turned Death into Life in me.   O sweet Love!  Let me not depart from thee again.  Grant me thy Garland of Pearl, and abide in me.  O be my own proper Possession, that I may rejoice in thee forever.

Upon this, the Virgin Sophia saith to the Soul,

MY nobel Bridegroom, my Strength and Power, thou art a thousand Times welcome.  Why hast thou forgotten me so long, that I have been constrained in great Grief to stand without the Door and knock?   Have I not always called thee and entreated thee?  But thou hast turned away thy Countenance from Me, and thine Ears have declined my Intreaties.   Thou couldst not see my Light, for thou didst walk in the Valley of Darkness.  I was very near thee, and intreated thee continually, but thy Sinfulness held thee Captive in Death, so that thou knewest me not.  I came to thee in great Humility, and called thee, but thou wert rich in the Power of the Anger of God, and didst not regard my Humility and Lowliness.   Thou hast taken the Devil to be thy Paramour, who hath defiled thee thus, and built up his Fort of Prey in thee, and turned thee quite away from my Love and Faith into his hypocritical Kingdom of Falsehood; wherein thou hast committed much Sin and Wickedness, and torn thy Will off from my Love.  Thou hast broken the Bond of Wedlock, and set thy Love and Affection upon a Stranger, and suffered me thy Bride, whom God did give thee, to stand alone in the extinguished Substance, without the Power of thy fiery Strength.  I could not be joyful without thy fiery Strength, for thou art my Husband; my shining Brightness is made manifest by thee.  Thou canst manifest my hidden Wonders in thy fiery Life, and bring them into Majesty; and yet without me thou art but a dark House, wherein is nothing but Anguish, Misery, and horrible Torment.

O noble Bridegroom, stand still with thy Countenance towards Me, and give me thy Rays of Fire.  Bring thy Desire into me, and enkindle me thereby, and then I will bring the Rays of my Love, from my Meekness into thy fiery Essence, and be united with thee forever.

O my Bridegroom, how well am I, now that I am in Union with thee!  O kiss me with thy Desire in thy Strength and Power, and then I will shew thee all my Beauty, and will rejoice and solace Myself with thy sweet Love and shining Brightness in thy fiery Life.  All the holy Angels rejoice with us, to see us united again.  My dear Love, I now entreat thee to abide in my Faith, and do not turn thy Face away from me any more.  Work thou thy Wonders in my Love, for which Purpose God hath created thee and brought thee into Being.

Part 2 

Jacob Boehme on Spiritual Regeneration

But since thou desirest me to tell thee how to forsake thy own perverse creaturely Will so that the Creatures in thee might die, and how yet thou mightest live along with them in the World, I must assure thee that there is but one Way to do it, which is narrow and straight, and will be very hard and irksome to thee at the Beginning, but afterwards thou wilt walk in it cheerfully.

Thou must seriously consider, that in the Course of this worldly Life thou walkest in the Anger of God and in the Foundation of Hell; and that this is not thy true Native Country; but that a True Christian should, and must live in Christ, and in his Walking truly follow him; and that he cannot be a True Christian, unless the Spirit and Power of Christ so live in him, that he becometh wholly Subject to it. Now seeing the Kingdom of Christ is not of this World, but in Heaven, therefore thou must always be in a continual Ascension towards Heaven, if thou wilt follow Christ; though thy Body must dwell among the Creatures and use them.

The narrow Way to which perpetual Ascension into Heaven and Imitation of Christ is this: thou must despair of all thy own Power and Strength, for in and by thy own Power thou canst not reach the Gates of God; and firmly purpose and resolve wholly to give thyself up to the Mercy of God, and to sink down with thy whole Mind and Reason into the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ, always desiring to persevere in the same, and to die from all thy Creatures therein. Also thou must resolve to watch and guard thy Mind, Thoughts and Inclinations that they admit no Evil into them, neither must thou suffer thyself to be held fast by temporal Honour or Profit. 

Thou must resolve likewise to put away from thee all Unrighteousness, and whatsoever else may hinder the Freedom of thy Motion and Progress. Thy Will must be wholly pure, and fixed in a firm Resolution never to return to its old Idols any more, but that thou wilt leave them the very Instant they are known to thee, and separate thy Mind from them, and enter into the sincere Way of Truth and Righteousness, according to the plain and full Doctrine of Christ. And as thou dost thus purpose to forsake the Enemies of thine own inward Nature, so also must thou forgive all thy outward Enemies, and resolve to meet them with thy Love; so that there may be left no Creature, Person, or Thing at all able to take hold of thy Will and captivate it; but that it may be sincere, and purged from all Creatures.

Nay further; if it should be required, thou must be willing and ready to forsake all thy temporal Honour and Profit for Christ's sake, and regard nothing that is Earthly so as to set thy Heart and Affections upon it; but esteem thyself in whatsoever State, Degree, and Condition thou art, as to worldly Rank or Riches, to be but a Servant of God and of thy Fellow-Christians; or as a Steward in the Office wherein thy Lord hath placed thee. All Arrogance and Self-Exaltation must be humbled, brought low, and so annihilated that nothing of thine own or of any other Creature may stay in thy Will to bring thy Thoughts or Imagination to be set upon it.

Thou must also firmly impress it on thy Mind, that thou shalt certainly partake of the promised Grace in the Merit of Jesus Christ, viz. of his outflowing Love, which indeed is already in thee, and which will deliver thee from thy Creatures, and enlighten thy Will, and kindle it with the Flame of Love, whereby thou shalt have Victory over the Devil. Not as if thou couldst will or do anything in thine own Strength, but only enter into the Suffering and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and take them to thyself, and with them assault and break in Pieces the Kingdom of the Devil in thee, and mortify thy Creatures. Thou must resolve to enter into this Way this very Hour, and never to depart from it, but willingly to submit thyself to God in all thy Endeavours and Doings, that he may do with thee what he pleaseth.

When thy Will is thus prepared and resolved, it hath then broken through its own Creatures, and is sincere in the Presence of God, and clothed with the merits of Jesus Christ. It may then freely go to the Father with the Prodigal Son, and fall down in his Presence and pour forth its Prayers; and putting forth all its Strength in this Divine Work, confess its Sins and Disobedience; and how far it hath departed from God. This must be done not with bare Words, but with all its Strength, which indeed amounteth only to a strong Purpose and Resolution; for the Soul of itself hath no Strength or Power to effect any good Work.

Now when thou art thus ready, and that thy Heavenly Father shall see thy coming and returning to him in such Repentance and Humility, he will inwardly speak to thee, and say in thee, Behold this is my Son which I had lost; he was dead and is alive again. And he will come and meet thee in thy Mind with the Grace and Love of Jesus Christ, and embrace thee with the Beams of his Love, and kiss thee with his Spirit and Strength; and then thou shalt receive Grace to pour out thy Confession before him, and to pray powerfully. This indeed is the right Place where thou must wrestle in the Light of his Countenance. And if thou standest resolutely here, and shrinkest not back, thou shalt see or feel great Wonders. For thou shalt find Christ in thee assaulting Hell, and crushing thy Beasts in Pieces, and that a great Tumult and Misery will arise in thee; also thy secret undiscovered Sins will then first awake, and labour to separate thee from God, and to keep thee back. 

Thus shalt thou truly find and feel how Death and Life fight one against the other, and shalt understand by what passeth within thyself, what Heaven and Hell are. At which Time be not moved, but stand firm and shrink not; for at length all thy Creatures will grow faint, weak, and ready to die; and then thy Will shall wax stronger, and be able to subdue and keep down the evil Inclinations. So shall thy Will and Mind ascend into Heaven every day, and thy Creatures gradually die away. Thou wilt get a Mind wholly new, and begin to be a new Creature, and getting rid of the Bestial deformity, recover the Divine Image. Thus shalt thou be delivered from thy present Anguish, and return to thy Original Rest. 

(Jacob Boehme, The Way to Christ (1623) Book 4, Part 3, The Way from Darkness to True Illumination)

Jacob Boehme on the Inner Christ

There is no doubt that, as some will have it, the legend of the descent of the Redeemer is the description of an astrological process; but this theory, far from disproving the incarnation of divine wisdom into a human form, confirms it; because that which takes place in the macrocosm produces corresponding effects in the microcosm. In man is the sun, the moon, the stars, and the whole of the zodiac. In the microcosm is represented every part of the macrocosm in its material a...nd spiritual aspect. When man sees the external sun rise in the outer world, the sun in him arises and gives joy to his heart. Any individual person, or also humanity as a whole, may become either a god or a devil incarnate.(Franz Hartmann, Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme, 226:2)

The Christ can never be born or revealed in any impure soul. A soul wherein regeneration is to take place must be an immaculate virgin, having no intercourse with any external god; but executing the will of God dwelling within herself. 229:1

"God lives also in man." (Threefold Life, xi. 106.) Each human being (if he is not godless) carries God and the Christ, the Holy Spirit, the virgin Mary, together with the angel Gabriel and all the rest of the angels and spirits within himself. It is, therefore, of little use to seek for all that in history. We can find it nowhere except within ourselves. 235:2

Whenever I speak of the man Christ, and of what a triune God and man He is, I make a distinction between the human creature, that came from us human beings, and the triune Divinity, the revealed word of the power and omnipotence. Not that they are separated from each other, but the Spirit of God is higher than the being to which that Spirit gives birth in its outbreathed word. I do not say that the sweet and beloved Christ is the man, but it is the holy sunshine in the flame of love in the man; for whenever I see a holy Christian man stand or walk I do not say, "Here stands or walks Christ;" but I say, "Here stands and walks a Christian man in whom shines the sun of Christ." (Jacob Boehme, Stief. 421.) 237:2

Jacob Boehme on Religious Tolerance

Some  timeless reflections by the great Christian theosophist, Jacob Boehme:

 

150. But the Holy Ghost teacheth in the holy Teachers, and the Spirit of Christ heareth through the Soul, which is the Divine House of the Divine Sound or Voice in the holy Hearer.

151. The holy Man hath his Church in himself, wherein he heareth and teacheth.  But Babel hath a Heap of Stones, into which she goeth with her seeming Holiness and real Hypocrisy.  There she loveth to be seen in fine Clothes, and maketh a very devout and godly Shew; the Church of Stone is her God, in which she putteth her Confidence.

152. But the holy Man hath his Church about him every where, even in himself; for he always standeth and walketh, sitteth and lyeth down in his Church.  He liveth in the true Christian Church; yea, in the Temple of Christ.   The Holy Ghost preacheth to him out of every Creature.  Whatsoever he looketh upon, he seeth a Preacher of God therein.
 

153. Here now the Scoffer will say that I despise the Church Of Stone, where the Congregation meeteth; but I say that I do not.  For I do but discover the hypocritical Whore of Babylon, which committeth Whoredom with the Church of Stone, and termeth herself a Christian, but is indeed a Strumpet.
 

154. A true Christian brings his holy Church with him into the Congregation.  For the Heart is the true Church, where a Man must practise the Service of God.  If I should go a thousand Times to Church, and to the Sacrament every Week, and hear Absolution declared to me every Day, and have not Christ in me, all would be false, an unprofitable Fiction and graven Image in Babel, and no forgiving of Sins.
 

155. A holy Man doth holy Works from the holy Strength of his Mind.  The Work is not the Atonement or Reconciliation, but it is the Building which the true Spirit buildeth in his Substance; it is his Habitation.  But the Fiction and Fancy is the Habitation of the false Christian, into which his Soul entereth with Dissimulation.  The outward Hearing reacheth but to the outward, and worketh in the outward only; but the inward Hearing goeth into the inward, and worketh in the inward.

Regeneration or the New Birth (1622), Chapter 6)

162. But a Christian is of no Sect: he can dwell in the Midst of Sects, and appear in their Services, without being attached or bound to any.   He hath but one Knowledge, and that is, Christ in him.  He seeketh but one Way, which is the Desire always to do and teach that which is right; and he putteth all his knowing and willing into the Life of Christ. 163. He sigheth and wisheth continually that the Will of God might be done in him, and that his Kingdom might be manifested in him.   He daily and hourly killeth Sin in the Flesh; for the Seed of the Woman, viz. the inward Man in Christ, continually breaketh the Head of the Serpent, that is, the Power of the Devil, which is in Vanity.

164. His Faith is a Desire after God and Goodness; which he wrappeth up in a sure Hope, trusting to the Words of the Promise, and liveth and dieth therein; though as to the true Man, he never dieth.

165. For Christ saith, Whosoever believeth in me, shall never die, but hath pierced through from Death to Life; and Rivers of living Water shall flow from him, viz. good Doctrine and Works.

166. Therefore I say, that whatsoever fighteth and contendeth about the Letter, is all Babel.  The Letters of the Word proceed from, and stand all in, one Root, which is the Spirit of God; as the various Flowers stand all in the Earth and grow about one another.  They fight not with each other about their Difference of Colour, Smell, and Taste, but suffer the Earth, the Sun, the Rain, the Wind, the Heat and Cold, to do with them as they please; and yet every one of them groweth in its own peculiar Essence and Property.

167. Even so it is with the Children of God; they have various Gifts and Degrees of Knowledge, yet all from one Spirit.  They all rejoice at the great Wonders of God, and give Thanks to the most High in his Wisdom.   Why then should they contend about him in whom they live and have their Being, and of whose Substance they themselves are?

(Regeneration or the New Birth (1622), Chapter 7)

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