Freher's Process in the Philosophical Work · 2 of 4

Part 2

19. In the relation of St. Luke, concerning what the child Jesus did with his parents, in the twelfth year of his age, a representation is seen of the inward and outward world, and of their different wills. For the inward will in Jesus broke first the natural will of his parents, when he remained in the temple, without their knowing and consent, nay said also, like as rebuking them, "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" And then again, the will of this outward world in his parents, broke the inward will in Jesus, for he went down with them to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. This showeth to the Artist, that in his work he shall soon find such a two-fold will also. The will of the inward world, will not in the beginning presently condescend and be subject to his will. But if he ceaseth not to seek after it, as Mary did, and wrestleth with it all the night like Jacob, with a full resignation of his own will, which is the will of this outward world, this divine Will, will at length condescend to him, and go down with him; for it is as it were broken or conquered by his will, according to what was said to Jacob: thou has wrestled with God and Man and hast prevailed.

20. Here the Artist, or magus is to know, that he is not to bring that will or tendency to the perfection, into his Matter from without, but that it lieth therein already before. He must only first in himself be capable of the Divine Will, and then with his renewed, or tinctured will, which here is his magical faith, he must handle his subject matter; that so thereby the will towards perfection, which lieth in the matter indeed, but still and unmoveable, may be stirred up and brought into conjunction with his human tinctured will, and so also with the Divine Will. And that further this Divine Will may press forward or outwards, meet with and bless that outward will, which presseth backwards or inwards from the corruption into God's Love and mercy.

21. Highly is this point unto the Artist recommended, not only for to consider and understand, but also to make it his continual practice. Because herein the Philosophical Baptism, as to the greatest or chiefest deal consisteth, and this practice is the very first beginning thereof. This only can make him able to baptize truly and rightly, for he is to baptize his matter, not only with the water of the outward, but also with that of the inward world. Of which baptism more must be said now by and by.

22. The poor fallen humanity, considered so barely as it was in and to itself, viz., as broken, spoiled, poisoned, was not cast immediately into the fiery furnace, and melted down by the Wrath of God; but, as mentioned above, a conjunction was first made between the Earthly and Heavenly humanity. Neither came the great fiery trial upon it, immediately after this conjunction; but a long and wonderful process was held, before it came to that great earnest. First, the humanity was to be baptized with water in the Jordan, and with water from above the firmament. Further it was led into the wilderness, for to be tempted by the Devil, which devil (N.B.) was not put into the humanity, but permitted to stand over against it, and to offer unto it all that the first Adam was tempted with. And all this time of forty days, no outward food was given to this new baptized humanity, but it was to live upon its own life's Mercurius, viz., the Eternal Word proceeding from the mouth of God, according to the answer the Lord Jesus gave unto the Devil. After this he came forth in public, preached, and did great wonders and miracles in all the seven Properties of Nature. And though at length even his human body was really glorified upon the Holy Mount, and seen so by three of his disciples, yet by all this, the full perfection was not yet wrought out, but the very greatest, sharpest and most severe trial was still behind, etc. Answerably to all this process, the Philosophical Work also must be carried on, and the Artist will see a continual parallelism; but at length he will find also, that all this, though it was shown him in never so glorious an appearance, is still short of perfection, and all but as it were preliminary, which now further distinctly shall appear.

23. By the Philosophical Baptism, if it be truly performed, in the dead Mercury, which lieth in impotence, and hungers only after its own Property, being of itself not capable, either of desiring after, or of admitting into it any other, the hunger after the divine or heavenly substantiality is stirred and raised up again. And by this hunger, that heavenly substantiality is drawn in, with its own peculiar will, desire, or natural inclination, which is nothing else but a readiness, or tendency to become manifest with its life in the death. And herein is the first beginning of a new body, or rather of a seed, from which a new body is to come forth in its due time.

24. What this Philosophical Baptism is, and the absolute necessity thereof, may thus be shortly represented: Every hunger is a desire after such a thing as is agreeable and conformable to that hunger: for after that which is disagreeing and contrary, or destructive to it, no hunger in anything can be. The dead corrupted Mercury then hath a hunger indeed, but only (according to its condition in the Curse), after death, wrath and poison, etc. If now to this hunger such a dead and wrathful thing is given, as it hungers after, the death therein must needs increase, and its wrathfulness cannot but be strengthened thereby. But if to this hunger the life is presented, or a loving, heavenly property is offered, the death is not at all able to receive it. Unto this death therefore, the death and Wrath of God must be given, but in this death and Wrath the heavenly substantiality. And this is the Philosophical Baptism, for this is that Earthly and Heavenly water, in the first of which is death, and in the second life: both which must be together; for the reason is now plain, why neither by this nor by that alone, this baptism can be performed. But when it is thus rightly done, this baptism, viz., that which is heavenly swalloweth up into death that which is earthly and wrathful, and exalts its own new life therein; though not immediately, like as it was also not done in Christ immediately after his baptism.

25. This Philosophical Baptism is nothing else but a conjunction, to be made between the fiery and watery Mercury. The fiery must be baptized with the watery. And this is what Behmen means by saying obscurely: "Have a care only for this, that thou baptisest the mercury with his own baptism." For this watery Mercury is his own, viz., it is that, which before the Fall and Curse he enjoyed and rejoiced in, as his most precious treasure; whereby his fiery poisonous Wrath, was kept under, and prevented from being manifest. But when these two were separated from each other, a breach was made, which cannot be healed again, but by a renewed conjunction between them. Like as it is in animals and in fallen Man also the same thing, only in different in degrees. The conjunction of male and female, which is absolutely required, to the multiplication of every kind of living creatures (which hath in vegetables also something answering thereunto), may be a good illustration thereof.

26. And therefore it is that by Behmen this very same, which here now is called the Philosophical Baptism, is called also and compared to a matrimony or espousal, when he plainly says, not only that to the Earthly wrathful Mercury, a fair loving virgin of his own kind must be given in marriage; but also that this same giving is the Philosophical Baptism. And again says he, "The woman's (not the man's) seed shall bruise the serpent's head." The man hath in his tincture the fire-spirit, and the woman in hers the water-spirit. This latter must baptize, soften , appease and overcome that former, and so transmute its strong fiery hunger after Wrath, into a tender Love-desire; and herein lieth the baptism of Nature. In this steadfast Love-desire, these two are at last turned into one, so that they are not more male and female, fire and water in contrariety, but a masculine virgin with both tinctures in union. But before this be wholly effected, and as long as they are in the way or process thereunto, Behmen calleth them in all this discourse, the young man and the virgin, or also the Bridegroom and the Bride.

27. Immediately after the baptism of Christ, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil. And a serious consideration of the whole process in this threefold temptation, is highly unto the Artist recommended; for in his Philosophical Work the same must be done also, in a total answerableness to the three particulars therein, relating to the three first properties. All which is largely by Behmen declared, and much insisted upon, but would be too long for to relate particularly. Yet the sum and substance thereof is this:-

28. The human Soul, or the whole humanity as an image of the eternal speaking Word, was now tried, after God had re-introduced into it a spark of his Eternal Love, whether it would enter again into its primeval state and place and be an instrument of God, to be played upon by his holy Spirit, in his Love; or whether it would rather continue in its own will, and suffer the Devil to play upon its instrument in the Wrath and Anger of God. And so in the Philosophical Work also, the earthly poisonous Mercury, after he is now joined again to the heavenly, is tried, whether he will go out from his own natural wrathful property, and suffer himself to be turned into his first, pure and crystalline condition, wherein he stood before the curse: or whether he will rather continue in his own awakened and now predominant quality.

29. In our Lord Jesus Christ, the human will rejected all the devil's presentations and offerings, resigned itself, and entered wholly into the first mother's womb, according to his words to Nicodemus, etc. And so in the Philosophical Work, if it goes well and right the Artist will see, that when the tempter comes on, the young man, or Mercury gives himself up wholly into the first Mother, and that this will swallow him up as into nothing. At which the Artist will be amazed and terrified, thinking that all is lost and undone, for he sees nothing, and hath lost all the appearance of heaven. But he must have patience, that which is impossible in his sight, is not so in the powers of Nature.

30. The wilderness wherein the temptation is done, is, in this Philosophical Work, the outward, earthly, dry, desolate and barren body. Wherein the Mercury or young man, is not able to stand against the devil, except he lay hold on his virgin, and be by her supported. He is therefore to unite with her, to cast his will and desire into her love, and to eat of her bread, not of his own natural quality, like as Christ our Lord, all the forty days of his temptation, did eat only of the eternal speaking Word, and would not eat of that bread, which he could have made out of the stones. All which is nothing else but that the Mercury must admit and receive into its own poisonous quality, the Heavenly Tincture, and suffer the serpent's head, the fiery wrathful property, to be bruised thereby in himself. Which if doth not, the Devil will prevail, and detain him captive in that state, wherein he is when separated from his Virgin. But if he doth the Devil must withdraw, and the Virgin takes his seed from him into her womb.

31. What the Devil is in this work, the Artist, says Behmen, will easily know, but he calls him not by any plain or distinct name: doubtless it is such another wrathful dark and poisonous matter, as may be fitly compared to the devil, and may be able to do in this process, the devil's office, because of the qualities alike in both. For this will appear afterwards, as to my thinking, plainly enough, and here also it may be seen in part, from that instruction and warning, he gives to the Artist, viz., He shall have a care, to suffer not. Thus, says he, he shall have a care, to suffer not, that his tempting devil be too furious, or too wrathful, but proportionable, etc. And again, on the other hand, that he be not too weak or impotent, for else the Mercury should not be assaulted by him sufficiently, and might as a hungry wolf, swallow up his baptism, return to his own wrathful property, and continue still that same poisonous thing, which he was before.

32. At the end of forty days, when the Devil had ended all the temptation, he must depart from the Lord Christ, and the angels came and ministered unto him. This also the Artist is especially well to observe, for he himself stood here in the trial also, and may now perceive infallibly, whether or no, he be fit for, and accounted worthy of this work. If at the end of forty days, in answerableness to the process of Christ, the angels do not appear, he may surely think of himself, that he is not yet fit and worthy; and of his fiery masculine Mercury, that this doth not yet stand in a due internal union with the watery feminine, but that it is still that same, in its own wrathful quality, which it was before, and that the tempting devil hath prevailed. But if he seeth the sign of the Angels, he may rejoice and be sure, that the Bridegroom is in his Bride, and she in him, and that his work can prosper. What this sign of the angels is, the author doth not tell us expressly; it must be some new delightful appearance, by its own character so intelligible to the Artist, as that was intelligible to him, when before he saw nothing, and had lost the appearance of heaven.

33. Immediately after this temptation, and overcoming of the devil, the Lord Christ began his public office, not only by preaching, reproving and instructing the people, but also, by working many great miraculous, amazing things, through all the Properties of Nature. For instance: in Saturn, he raised up the dead; in Luna, he transmuted water into wine, and fed with five loaves of bread five thousand men; in Jupiter, he made out of the simple and ignorant fishermen, the most wise and understanding apostles. In Mercury, he made the deaf hearing, the dumb speaking, and healed the lepers. In Mars he expelled devils from the possessed. In Venus, he loved his brethren and sisters, as to the humanity, and gave freely his life for them into death. Only six of the properties are here enumerated, and the seventh which is Sol, standing in the midst and uniting three and three, is here not mentioned, because this belongeth to the full perfection, which then only was attained unto, when he was risen from the dead, ascended up to heaven, and had poured out the holy Tincturing Spirit, on the day of Pentecost. But that there is a good ground for Behmen's referring distinctly to the seven Properties of Nature, all the miraculous deeds of Christ, could be made out from him sufficiently, were it needful and not too large.