(3) For as all men were lost in Adam and all men that with work will witness their will of salvation are saved or shall be by virtue of the Passion of only Christ: not in the same manner, but as it were in the same manner, a soul that is perfectly disposed to this work, and oned thus to God in spirit as the proof of this work witnesseth, doth that in it is to make all men as perfect in this work as itself is. For right as if a limb of our body feeleth sore, all the tother limbs be pained and diseased therefore, or if a limb fare well, all the remnant be gladded therewith—right so is it ghostly of all the limbs of Holy Church. For Christ is our head, and we be the limbs if we be in charity: and whoso will be a perfect disciple of our Lord’s, him behoveth strain up his spirit in this work ghostly, for the salvation of all his brethren and sisters in nature, as our Lord did His body on the Cross. And how? Not only for His friends and His kin and His homely lovers, but generally for all mankind, without any special beholding more to one than to another. For all that will leave sin and ask mercy shall be saved through the virtue of His Passion. And as it is said of meekness and charity, so it is to be understood of all other virtues. For all they be truly comprehended in this little pressing of love, touched before.

(48) In his notes on the theology of Jakob Böhme, Dr. Franz Hartmann thus sums up the mystic symbolism of the crucifixion: "The cross represents terrestrial life, and the crown of thorns the sufferings of the soul within the elementary body, but also the victory of the spirit over the elements of darkness. The body is naked, to indicate that the candidate for immortality must divest himself of all desires for terrestrial things. The figure is nailed to the cross, which symbolizes the death and surrender of the self-will, and that it should not attempt to accomplish anything by its own power, but merely serve as an instrument wherein the Divine will is executed. Above the head are inscribed the letters: I. N. R. J. whose most important meaning is: In Nobis Regnat Jesus (Within ourselves reigns Jesus). But this signification of this inscription can be practically known only to those who have actually died relatively to the world of desires, and risen above the temptation for personal existence; or, to express it in other words, those who have become alive in Christ, and in whom thus the kingdom of Jesus (the holy love-will issuing from the heart of God) has been established." One of the most interesting interpretations of the crucifixion allegory is that which identifies the man Jesus with the personal consciousness of the individual. It is this personal consciousness that conceives of and dwells in the sense of separateness, and before the aspiring soul can be reunited with the ever-present and all-pervading Father this personality must be sacrificed that the Universal Consciousness may be liberated.

(38) And this is as clear as the Sun, that as the poor Soul in us hangs between two Kingdoms, which both keep it altogether imprisoned, so must Christ hang between two Malefactors; take this into great Consideration, and weigh it well, it is a most serious Matter, and we see the whole terrible earnest [Severity,] that when the Soul of Christ broke off from the earthly Body, when it passed into the Anger of the Father, viz. into Hell, then the Earth trembled, and the stony Rocks cleft in sunder, also the Sun lost its Light; and this we see clearly, and understand it from the Mouth of Christ.

(36) And now when this earnest Business was taken in Hand, that the Saviour of the World hung on the Cross, as a Curse, and wrestled with Earth and Hell, he said, / thirst. O that great Thirst! The fierce wrathful Kingdom was weary, as also the Kingdom of this World, they desired Strength; and the Kingdom of Heaven thirsted after our Souls; it was a Thirst of all the three Principles.

(2) By not enduring on the power that wills Curb for his good, that man who ne'er was born, Damning himself damned all his progeny; Whereby the human species down below Lay sick for many centuries in great error, Till to descend it pleased the Word of God To where the nature, which from its own Maker Estranged itself, he joined to him in person By the sole act of his eternal love. Now unto what is said direct thy sight; This nature when united to its Maker, Such as created, was sincere and good; But by itself alone was banished forth From Paradise, because it turned aside Out of the way of truth and of its life. Therefore the penalty the cross held out, If measured by the nature thus assumed, None ever yet with so great justice stung, And none was ever of so great injustice, Considering who the Person was that suffered, Within whom such a nature was contracted. From one act therefore issued things diverse; To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing; Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened.

(6) From that time the astringent birth stood as it were in an anxious death, till after the third day, when the love of God pressed through the heaven of the partition, and kindled the light of the sun.

(15) And because we clearly understand and apprehend it in the Spirit, therefore we are indebted to show the Light to those that apprehend it not, and lie thus captivated in Reason, and continually search into the Circumstances, why it happened so [in the Passion of Christ.] For Reason says; If it must needs be so, that Christ must enter into Death, and destroy Death, and spring up through Death, and so draw us to him, what is the Cause then, that he must be so despised, and scourged, and crowned with a Crown of Thorns, and at last be crucified between Heaven and Earth? Could he not die some other Death, and so spring through Death with his heavenly Body?

(3) It was my cross that the world did not accept, my apparent exaltation, my third baptism in a revealed image. When they had fled from the fire of the seven authorities, and the sun of the powers of the rulers set, darkness overtook them. And the world became poor. After they bound him with many restraints, they nailed him to the cross, and they fastened him with four nails of brass. The veil of his temple he tore with his hands. There was a trembling that overcame the chaos of the earth, for the souls that were in the sleep below were released, and they arose. They walked about boldly, having shed jealousy of ignorance and unlearnedness beside the dead tombs; having put on the new human; having come to know that perfect blessed one of the eternal and incomprehensible father and the infinite light, which is I. When I came to my own and united them with myself, there was no need for many words, for our thought was with their thought. Therefore they knew what I was saying, for we took counsel about the destruction of the rulers. And therefore I did the will of the father, who is I.

(110) In this hour the mass was drawn together; for when the Heart of God did hide itself in the Salitter, then it cast a glance again on the whole space or body, and thought how it might be remedied again, whereby another angelical kingdom might be in the deep of this world.

(42) Therefore the Body of Christ is inferior to the Deity; and in these our human Essences he suffered Death, and his Deity of the holy Man in the pure Element entered together also into Death, and bereaved Death of its Power, and separated the natural Soul (which Christ commended to his Father, when he died on the Cross) from the Kingdom of this World, also from Death, from the Devil, and from Hell, in the strong divine Might [or Power,] and opened a Gate for us all, who come to him and Or by. incline ourselves (with Mind and Thoughts) to him; then the Father draws our Soul (which is in him) into the pure Love of Christ; where then it puts its Imagination again through Christ P forward into the holy Trinity, and is fed again from the Verbum Domini [the Word of the Lord,] where then it is an Angel again, quite separated from the Kingdom of the Devil, and of this World, in the Death of Christ.

(72) And so thou must not think that the Soul of Christ was then gone a great Way from his Body. For all the Three Principles were on the Cross, why also not in the Grave? At that very Moment when Christ laid off the Kingdom of this World, the Soul of Christ pressed into Death, and into the Anger of God, and in that very Moment the Anger was reconciled in the Love, in the Light, and became Paradise; and the Devils were captivated in the Anger in themselves, together with all the wicked Souls; and so instantly the Life sprung up through Death, and Death was destroyed, and made a Scorn; yet to the Wicked (which remain in the Anger) it is Death, but in Christ it is a Life.

(53) Christ hath also said: “No man cometh unto Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw him.”58 Now mark: by the Father, I understand the Perfect, Simple Good, which is All and above All, and without which and besides which there is no true Substance, nor true Good, and without which no good work ever was or will be done. And in that it is All, it must be in All and above All. And it cannot be any one of those things which the creatures, as creatures, can comprehend or understand. For whatever the creature, as creature (that is, in her creature kind), can conceive of and understand, is something, this or that, and therefore is some sort of creature. And now if the Simple Perfect Good were somewhat, this or that, which the creature understandeth, it would not be the All, nor the Only One, and therefore not Perfect. Therefore also it cannot be named, seeing that it is none of all the things which the creature as creature can comprehend, know, conceive, or name. Now behold, when this Perfect Good, which is unnameable, floweth into a Person able to bring forth, and bringeth forth the Only-begotten Son in that Person, and itself in Him, we call it the Father. Now mark how the Father draweth men unto Christ. When somewhat of this Perfect Good is discovered and revealed within the soul of man, as it were in a glance or flash, the soul conceiveth a longing to approach unto the Perfect Goodness, and unite herself with the Father. And the stronger this yearning groweth, the more is revealed unto her; and the more is revealed unto her, the more is she drawn toward the Father, and her desire quickened. Thus is the soul drawn and quickened into a union with the Eternal Goodness. And this is the drawing of the Father, and thus the soul is taught of Him who draweth her unto Himself, that she cannot enter into a union with Him except she come unto Him by the life of Christ. Behold, now she putteth on that life of which I have spoken afore. Now see the meaning of these two sayings of Christ’s. The one, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me”; that is, through My life, as hath been set forth. The other saying, “No man cometh unto Me, except the Father draw him”; that is, he doth not take My life upon him and come after Me, except he be moved and drawn of My Father; that is, of the Simple and Perfect Good, of which St.

(9) The third cause is the love that is aroused by contemplation of the attributes of God; His Power and wisdom, of which human power and wisdom are but the feeblest reflections. This love is akin to that we feel to the great and good men of the past, such as the Imam Malik and the Imam Shaf'i, though we never expect to receive any personal benefits from them, and is therefore a more disinterested kind of love. God said to the Prophet David, "That servant is dearest to Me who does not seek Me from fear of punishment or hope of reward, but to pay the debt due to My Deity." And in the Psalms it is written, "Who is a greater transgressor than he who worships Me from fear of hell or hope of heaven? If I had created neither, should I not then have deserved to be worshipped?"

(43) Now it was the Love that became Man, and had put on our human Soul; and the Soul was enlightened from the Love, and stood with its Root in the Anger, as in the strong Might of the Father; and now the new Man in the Love commended the Soul to the Father into his Might, and yielded up the earthly Life, [which proceeded] from the Constellations and Elements, viz. the Kingdom of this World; and so the Soul now stood no more in the Kingdom of this World, in the Source of Life, but it stood in Death; for the Kingdom of this World, the Blower up [of Life] the Air, was gone.

(37) From this cause arose that hidden anguish of Christ, of which none can tell or knoweth ought save Himself alone, and therefore is it called a mystery. Moreover, this is an attribute of God, which He will have, and is well pleased to see in a man; and it is indeed God’s own, for it belongeth not unto the man, he cannot make sin to be so hateful to himself. And where God findeth this grief for sin, He loveth and esteemeth it more than ought else; because it is, of all things, the bitterest and saddest that man can endure. All that is here written touching this divine attribute, which God will have man to possess, that it may be brought into exercise in a living soul, is taught us by that true Light, which also teacheth the man in whom this Godlike sorrow worketh, not to take it unto himself, any more than if he were not there. For such a man feeleth in himself that he hath not made it to spring up in his heart, and that it is none of his, but belongeth to God alone.

(7) And now if we will speak of the Glorification of Christ, and of his Body, which he visibly (and in that Form in which he had conversed upon Earth) ascended with, then we must say, that as the Love of the Heart of God has reconciled the Anger of the Father, and holds it as it were captive in it, so also the Holy Ternary has comprehended the hard palpable Body of Christ, viz. the Kingdom of this World, as if it was wholly swallowed up, whereas it is not swallowed up, but the Source of this World is destroyed in Death, and the Holy Ternary has put on the Body of Christ, not as a Garment, but virtually [or powerfully] in the Essences; and he is as it were swallowed up (to our Apprehension and Sight) and yet is really, and shall come again at the last Judgment-Day, and manifest himself in his own Body which he had here, that all may see him, be they good or bad; and he shall also come in the same Form to keep the Judgment of the Separation, for in his divine glorified Form we cannot behold him, before we be glorified, especially the Wicked. But thus all Generations shall see him and know him, and the Unbelieving shall weep and wail, that they went so out of their Flesh and Blood into another Source [or Condition,] when they should and might in their own Essences have put on God, and yet put on the Kingdom of the Fierceness of the Anger of God with the Devils, and let the same into the Essences of their Souls, and caused themselves to perish.

(24) Moreover there are yet other ways to the lovely life of Christ, besides those we have spoken of: to wit, that God and man should be wholly united, so that it can be said of a truth, that God and man are one. This cometh to Pass on this wise. Where the Truth always reigneth, so that true perfect God and true perfect man are at one, and man so giveth place to God, that God Himself is there and yet the man too, and this same unity worketh continually, and doeth and leaveth undone without any I, and Me, and Mine, and the like; behold, there is Christ, and nowhere else. Now, seeing that here there is true perfect manhood, so there is a perfect perceiving and feeling of pleasure and pain, liking and disliking, sweetness and bitterness, joy and sorrow, and all that can be perceived and felt within and without. And seeing that God is here made man, He is also able to perceive and feel love and hatred, evil and good and the like. As a man who is not God, feeleth and taketh note of all that giveth him pleasure and pain, and it pierceth him to the heart, especially what offendeth him; so is it also when God and man are one, and yet God is the man; there everything is perceived and felt that is contrary to God and man. And since there man becometh nought, and God alone is everything, so is it with that which is contrary to man, and a sorrow to him. And this must hold true of God so long as a bodily and substantial life endureth. Furthermore, mark ye, that the one Being in whom God and man are united, standeth free of himself and of all things, and whatever is in him is there for God’s sake and not for man’s, or the creature’s. For it is the property of God to be without this and that, and without Self and Me, and without equal or fellow; but it is the nature and property of the creature to seek itself and its own things, and this and that, here and there; and in all that it doeth and leaveth undone its desire is to its own advantage and profit. Now where a creature or a man forsaketh and cometh out of himself and his own things, there God entereth in with His own, that is, with Himself.

(39) When he now had undergone all the Reproach and Sufferings, he said on the Cross, It is finished; while he yet lived in the earthly Body, he said it was finished; understand all that should have remained upon us eternally, and should have sprung up in us, with all the Ignominy in which he stood before Hell and the Kingdom of Heaven, he had all that laid upon him; concerning which Isaiah says, Surely, he bore our Infirmities, and took upon him our Transgressions; yet we held him as one smitten of God, tormented, and afflicted, but he took upon him our Diseases, and all our Miseries were laid upon him, and through his Wounds we are healed; we all went astray like Sheep, every one has looked upon his own Way; and yet we could not help ourselves, but we went as miserable half-slain Sheep, and we must let the Devil (in the Anger of God) do with us what he will; for we bear on us a monstrous Garment, and stand in great Ignominy before Heaven and Hell.

(20) Now, since the life of Christ is every way most bitter to nature and the Self and the Me (for in the true life of Christ, the Self and the Me and nature must be forsaken and lost, and die altogether), therefore, in each of us, nature hath a horror of it, and thinketh it evil and unjust and a folly, and graspeth after such a life as shall be most comfortable and pleasant to herself, and saith, and believeth also in her blindness, that such a life is the best possible. Now, nothing is so comfortable and pleasant to nature, as a free, careless way of life, therefore she clingeth to that, and taketh enjoyment in herself and her own powers, and looketh only to her own peace and comfort and the like. And this happeneth most of all, where there are high natural gifts of reason, for that soareth upwards in its own light and by its own power, till at last it cometh to think itself the true Eternal Light, and giveth itself out as such, and is thus deceived in itself, and deceiveth other people along with it, who know no better, and also are thereunto inclined.

(22) And now when the Time came that the Word became Man, then the dear Life came into the Soul again. But when the Strife came, that the fourth Form should be broken, then the outward Body of Christ and we all in the fourth Form were environed with Death, and then all the Forms in Nature stirred, and were all predominant together, whereupon the Person of Christ (in the Garden) did sweat Blood out of his Body, when he cried, Father, if it be possible, take this Cup from me: Thus the outward Man cried out; and the inward said, yet not my Will (understand [my] outward Will) but thy Will be done.