High and Deep Grounds of the Threefold Life of Man

Of the Threefold Life, Chapter 1.

...bright delight, and yet the burning ember remains. However, you must understand it as though no pain were felt in the ember, but rather as if it were only a cause for the appearance of life—just as one cannot compare any ordinary fire with the Divine. For the Divine Nature, from which the Divine Fire of Life burns, is original: inficiret infused with the love of God, so that the light of God creates another Principle: Principium. In Böhme's system, a "principle" is a fundamental state of existence or reality. within itself, in which no "nature" is felt, for it is the end of nature.

19. Therefore, the soul cannot grasp or overpower the light of God within its own original: Essentien essences, for the soul is a fire within the eternal nature and does not reach the "end of nature." For the soul remains in nature, as a created original: Creatur being out of the eternal nature. And though there is no physical graspability there, it is a spirit in a sevenfold form. Yet in the German: urkund. The original source or foundation of being. original source, not seven but only four are recognized, which hold the eternal bond; these are the torment: Quall. Böhme uses this term to mean both "source" (Quelle) and "torment" (Qual), describing the agonizing friction of the elements before they are transformed into light. in the anxiety German: Angst. Böhme uses this word to describe a state of "constriction" or "tightness" where the forces of nature are locked together before breaking through into light., in which the eternal stands, and out of which all the other forms are born, wherein God and the Kingdom of Heaven stand. And in those four forms—the anxiety and the woe—if they stand naked and alone, we recognize the hellish fire and the eternal wrath of God.

20. And although we do not know the original source of the Divine Being, we do know the eternal birth, which has never had any beginning. Since it then had no beginning, it is the same today as it has ever been from eternity. Therefore, we may certainly lay hold of that which we see today and recognize in the light of God; and for this reason, no one should consider us ignorant, for it is God who gives us this to recognize.