Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th CenturiesJones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Religion
Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries
Jones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew)
Mysticism; Reformers
Wisdom shall be born in the inward parts of
thy soul." Three days later, "the same Figure in greater Glory did
appear, with a crown upon her head, full of majesty, saying, Behold me
as thy Mother and know thou art to enter into covenant, to obey the
New-Creation laws that shall be revealed unto thee."[61] In her
account of the following extraordinary experience there are many marks
of Boehme's influence: "I retained no strength, my Sun of Reason and
the Moon of my outward sense were folded up and withdrew. I knew
nothing by myself, as {229} to those working properties from Nature and
Creature, and the wheel of the Motion standing still, another
[influence] moved from a central Fire, so that I felt myself transmuted
into one pure flame. Then came that Word to me, 'This is no other than
the Gate to my Eternal Deep.'"[62]
Pordage's main contribution to the exposition of "Behmenism" was a book
published in 1683 and entitled, _Theologia Mystica, or the Mystic
Divinitie of the Eternal Invisibles_. It is the work of a confused
mind, and its spiritual penetration, as also its mastery of the English
language, are of a low order. The marks of Boehme's influence appear
everywhere in the book, though Pordage is quite incapable of
comprehending the more profound and robust features of Boehme's
philosophy. What he relates professes to be what he himself has _seen_
in visions, or what he has heard from celestial visitants. It has, he
says, been his privilege to taste much of that Tree of Life which grows
in the midst of the Paradise of God; to smell the difference between
heaven and hell; to have seen through the veil of nature into the
spiritual glory of eternity, to have felt "the distillations of
heavenly dew and secret touches of the Holy Ghost." Unlike his
Teutonic master, he taught (and it was also the view of Jane Leade)
that in the end Divine Love transmutes evil into good and even hell
into Paradise. One passage in his book, written in his best style,
will be sufficient to illustrate his glowing optimism: "Love is of a
transmuting and transforming Nature. The great effect of Love is to
turn all things into its own Nature, which is all goodness, sweetness,
and perfection. This is that Divine Power which turns Water into Wine,
Sorrow and Hellish Anguish into exulting and triumphing Joy; Curse into
Blessing; where it meets with a barren heathy Desart it transmutes it
into a Paradise of delights; yea, it changeth evil to good and all
imperfection into perfection. It restores that which is fallen and
degenerated to its primary Beauty, Excellence and Perfection. It is
{230} the Divine Stone, the White Stone with a Name written on it,
which none knows but him that hath it . . . the Divine Elixir whose
transforming power and efficacy nothing can withstand."[63]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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