Memoirs of the life, death, burial, and wonderful writings, of Jacob Behmen

the current state of a divided Christendom: from this, he is positively certain that if our dear SAVIOR himself were to visit Christendom again in person, as he once did Judea, he would not be received by the majority unless he brought this distinguishing BADGE of everyone's divided profession along with him. And therefore, when that Angel shall make his appearance—whom John saw "flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people; saying with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters'" (Revelation 14:6, 7)—he will scarcely be received by any party without it. It is to be feared that an essential flaw will be found both in his commission and his message if this badge is not exactly what each of them wants it to be.

What is then to be done in this case? How are the "flooding waters of this STRIFE to be collected and brought back again into their right channel?" (Proverbs 17:14). Many well-intentioned peace-treatises original: Irenica — works intended to promote religious unity or peace. have been already written, and many methods of reconciliation devised; and yet after all, like the woman's internal bleeding in the Gospels, the matter has been made rather worse than better to this very day. Is not this, then, a difficulty that calls aloud for further divine help? "A knot worthy of a God to untie." original: Nodus Deo vindice dignus — a phrase from the Roman poet Horace, meaning a problem so complex that only divine intervention can solve it. Surely the God of love and peace will eventually interpose once more to reconcile these jarring parties. And whenever it is done, it will surely be done in his own consistently uniform way; by which "the foolishness of God must be found wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger than men." (1 Corinthians 1:25).

And if THIS will not work, the malady is then absolutely incurable. Because of this, I have no doubt that God, in his manifold wisdom, thought it proper previously to send the despised Jacob Boehme original: Jacob Behmen — a German mystic (1575–1624) whose complex spiritual writings are the subject of this book., along with many others, both his predecessors and successors, toward this end. And oh! I pray that this last gracious effort to heal this Babel A reference to the Tower of Babel, symbolizing the confusion of languages and the divided, "confused" state of the church. (where Satan’s masterpiece is a religious delusion in the guise of an "angel of light") may not prove to be a failure, as almost all the previous or introductory efforts have mostly done until now.