The Epistles of Jacob Behmen

in Christ Jesus; therefore, I would not (at the request of Mr. D. and also of yourself) omit a member-like and mutual obligation to visit and salute you with a short Epistle original: "Epistle"; a formal letter, and so to recreate, enliven original: "quicken", and refresh myself somewhat with you in the same fountain of the life of Jesus Christ. For it is pure joy to me to perceive that our Paradisiacal Coral original: "Paradisicall Corall"; in the author's mystical language, "coral" often symbolizes the growth of the new, spiritual life within the believer flourishes and brings forth fruit in my fellow-members, to our eternal recreation and delight.

☛ 3. And hereupon, Sir, I will declare to you, out of my small gifts and knowledge: What a Christian is, and why he is called a Christian; namely, that he alone is a Christian who has become capable of this high title within himself. He has resigned himself—with his inward ground, mind, and will—to the free grace in Christ Jesus. In the will of his soul, he has become like a young child that only longs for its mother's breasts, sincerely pants after the mother, and sucks the breasts of the mother from which it lives.

4. Even so, that man alone is a Christian whose soul and mind enter again into the first Mother, from whom the life of man has its origin; namely original: "Viz." (Videlicet), into the Eternal Word. This Word has manifested itself with the true milk of salvation in our humanity (which is blind regarding God) and sucks this milk of the Mother into his hungry soul. From this, the new spiritual man arises, and thereby the fiery [dark and dry] soul—proceeding from the Father’s property In the author's theology, this refers to the soul's raw, energetic origin in God the Father's "fire," which must be softened by the "light" of the Son—reaches and obtains the place of God's love. In that place, the Father begets his beloved Son, and there alone the Temple of the Holy Spirit, which dwells in us, is found. There also the spiritual mouth [or believing desire] of the soul, which eats Christ's flesh and drinks his blood, is understood, or experienced and essentially enjoyed.

☛ 5. For he alone is a Christian in whom Christ dwells, lives, and has his being; in whom Christ, regarding the internal ground of his soul, has arisen and been made alive in the heavenly Essence original: "Essence"; the spiritual substance of the "New Man" which disappeared and departed in Adam. Indeed, I say, he alone is a Christian who has put on Christ's Victory (that is to say, Christ's Incarnation, humanity, sufferings, death, and resurrection, against the anger of God, and also Hell, the Devil, Death, and Sin) in his eternal ground. There the Seed of the Woman A biblical reference to Genesis 3:15, interpreted as Christ, namely Christ in his conquest, also conquers in him, and daily tramples upon the serpent’s head in the wicked carnal will, and kills the sinful lusts of the flesh.

6. For in Christ alone we are received as children of God and heirs with Christ. This does not happen through an outward, accidental, or strange appearance of some specific claiming of grace, I say, nor through a—