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

...of Jacob Boehme original: "Jacob Behmen" in particular. Yet, after all, one should not be sectarianly original: "sectarianly"; here meaning biased toward a specific religious group or "sect" attached to him or them only. This means we should not blindly and implicitly adopt everything they say without distinction, nor should we absolutely reject original: "re-" (reject) what is true and good in any others who might happen to go by this or that denomination. See 1 Corinthians 3:21–23. For the time has not yet come when any particular denomination can, with truth, claim the exclusive privilege of being the only infallible Church of Christ. Consequently, not everyone in any specific group is a child of God; likewise, it may well be that there are no groups without some of God's children, to a greater or lesser degree. The same seems to be the case at present with individuals.

Certainly there is not one person who is absolute and infallible in every point, though some have been—and may now be—possessed of more of the truth than others. We can therefore "call no man Master upon earth, seeing there is but one Master only, who is Christ" (Matthew 23:8, 10). Thus, then, he wishes to remain inclined during the present inevitable mixture found in churches as well as in individuals, "allowing both the weeds original: "tares" and the wheat to grow together until the harvest" (Matthew 13:30).

The translator further wishes to observe that he thinks it is a very great fault (of which too many are guilty) to decry and condemn Jacob Boehme and all mystic authors indiscriminately, being glad to expose any real or supposed abuses of them, and also to discourage original: "dehort" people from reading them as if they were necessarily harmful. However, it is also, in his humble opinion, a great mistake and an act of indiscretion to recommend them with equal lack of discrimination and to put them into the hands of all persons who are not properly disposed term: "disposed"; in this context, having the right spiritual maturity or mindset to understand the text. In this latter case, it is frankly original: "ingenuously" admitted that they may, in various ways, prove very hurtful. Yet this is not because they are necessarily or naturally so, but only because of the accidental or external original: "adventitious" lack of preparation or the wrong mindset of the reader, who does not purely seek that which the authors properly and only recommend and teach. And so, they may well be compared to a very fine-edged razor, or to any other sharp instrument, which may be called either exceedingly good or very bad, according to the good or bad [use of it...] The text cuts off here at the bottom of the page; the catchword "U" indicates the next word is "Use".