German Theology

consumed by the fire of the life, so that it fades and perishes, just as a beautiful flower withers when it has no water.

4. Since there is a life in man that is eternal and incorruptible—which is the soul—and since it is also a fire that needs nourishment just as the physical original: "Elementary" life does, we must consider the nature and fuel of that life. We must understand what it is that continually feeds it so that it never goes out throughout eternity.

5. Thirdly, we find in the life of our souls a greater hunger for another, higher, and better life—namely original: "viz.", for the highest Good, which is called the Divine Life. The soul is not content with its own food, but it desires the highest and best Good with great longing and gasping, seeking it not just as a pleasant home, but as a food to satisfy its hunger.

6. So we now perceive through our profound and true knowledge that every life desires its own "Mother" (the source from which that life is generated) as food. For example, wood is the mother of fire; the fire desires it, and if it is separated from its mother, it goes out. In the same way, the earth is the mother of all trees and herbs, and they desire it. Water (along with the other elements) is the mother of the earth; without it, the earth would be dead or barren, and neither metals, trees, herbs, nor grass would grow from it.

7. We see especially that the physical original: "Elementary" life consists of a boiling or a kind of seething; when it stops boiling, it goes out. We also know that the constellations kindle the elements, and the stars are the fire of the elements, and the sun kindles the stars, so that there is a boiling and seething among them. But the physical life is finite and corruptible, while the life of the soul is eternal.

8. Now, since it is eternal, it must also come from the Eternal, as the beloved Moses wrote very rightly about it:

Then God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7

9. Yet we cannot say, even though man exists in a Threefold Life, that each life is separate or in a distinct form. Instead, we find that they are within one another, yet each life has its own activity within its own domain—that is, within its "Mother." For just as God the Father is everything (because all comes from Him, He is present everywhere, and He is the fullness of everything), yet the created thing does not contain Him. Also, the thing itself is not God, nor His Spirit, nor the true Divine Essence. Therefore, it cannot be said of any physical thing that it is God, or that God is more present here than in other places; yet He is truly present. He contains the thing, but the thing does not contain Him. He understands original: "comprehendeth" the thing, and the thing