The Complete Theosophical Works of Jakob Böhme

To the Reader.

—what is despised original: "veracht"; this word completes the sentence from the previous page., that has He chosen, so that He might put the wise to shame; and what is weak before the world, that has God chosen, that He might put to shame what is strong; and the ignoble before the world and the despised has God chosen, and that which is nothing, that He might bring to nothing what is something, so that no flesh may boast before Him.

These cited words of Paul, along with many others consistent with Holy Scripture, have now grown old through the passage of time; they have attained the reputation and belief that God spoke them, and they are also truly and rightly called the words of God, because they flowed from the Spirit of Christ that was in him, according to his own explanation: "We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit from God, that we may know what has been given to us by God, which we also speak not with words which human wisdom can teach, but with words which the Holy Spirit teaches, and judge spiritual matters spiritually" (1 Corinthians 2, verses 12–13); and further in the same book, Chapter 7, verse 40: "I also have the Spirit of God," etc. Thus, there should be no one in today’s Christendom (except for the free and impudent atheistsAthei; a Latinized plural for those who deny the existence of God or divine providence.) who would, with doubt—