CHAPTER XXXIII

POST-REFORMATION MYSTICISM

The great age of mysticism had passed before the Reformation turned the mind of the Church to the definition of doctrine and to the cleansing of the body ecclesiastical. During the days of division and change a few choice spirits kept alive the essential elements of mystical thought. Such were Paracelsus, 1493-1541; Andreas Osiander, 1498-1522; and Caspar Schwenkfeld, 1490-1561, who was the first true mystic among the Protestants. Sebastian Franck, 15001545, passed on the tradition to Valentine Weigel, 15331588, from whom JACOB BOEHME, 1575-1624, received the mystic flame.

BOEHME, of whom ANGELUS SILESIUS said, "God's Heart is Jacob Boehme's Element", may be called the last of the great European mystics, or the first of the modern mystics and the father of modern philosophy. "He would teach us that there is nothing nearer to each one of us than heaven, paradise and hell, and that we may, if we will, be now in heaven.

His mysticism consists of a threefold system of thought, As a philosophy it is a pursuit of the Divine Wisdom, of which BOEHME wrote in The Aurora, or Morning Glow, 1612. As an explanation of the world, an 'astrology' as the philosopher calls it, his mysticism is unfolded in The Three Principles of the Divine Essence, 1619, in The Threefold Life of Man, 1620; The Humanity of Christ, 1620; and in The Signature of all Things, 1621. As a system of theology, or exposition of the life of God in the life of

man, BOEHME's views are described in The Gracious Choice, a Book of Predestination and Election of God, 1623; in The Great Mystery, 1623; and in The Two Testaments of Christ, 1624.

The whole outward visible world with all its being is a signature, or figure of the inward spiritual world: whatever is internally, and however its operation is, so likewise it has its character externally; like as the spirit of each creature sets forth and manifests the internal form of its birth by its body, so does the Eternal Being also.

.. if my will is a nothing, then he (i.e. God) is in me what he pleases, and then I know not myself any more, but him; and if he will that I shall be something, then let him effect it; but if he wills it not, then I am dead in him, and he lives in me as he pleases, and so then if I be a nothing, then I am at the end, in the essence out of which my father Adam was created; for out of nothing God has created all things (Signature of all Things, chap. ix.1, 61).

BOEHME wrote other books, some controversial, some expository, some devotional, but all subsidiary to the mystic's purpose of discovering in man "what was before nature and creature." He saw the visible world as a manifestation of the inner spiritual world, a copy of eternity wherewith eternity has made itself visible.

The spiritual quiescence upon which BOEHME insisted became a leading principle in the teaching of JOHANN ARNDT, 1555-1621, whose book entitled The True Christianity, 1605, exercised far-reaching influence, and still holds its place as a classic of German Christianity. Impressed by its message and moulded by its spirit PHILIP JACOB SPENER, 1635-1705, became the founder of Pietism, a semi-mystical movement in the Lutheran Church, which brought a mes

sage of love and godliness that fell like rain from heaven upon a country blighted by the drought of dogmatic dissensions. SPENER founded a College for Piety in 1670, and five years later issued his Pia Desideria, or Earnest Desires for a Reform of the True Evangelical Church. This work was critical of the laxity of the age to which it offered a programme of reforms whereby holiness would be cultivated; it was instrumental in starting a new effort towards the attainment of the Christian ideal. SPENER laid special emphasis upon the study of the Scriptures, the universal priesthood of all believers, Christian charity and service, the avoidance of religious controversy, the need of piety as well as of learning in candidates for the ministry, and the necessity of preaching with simplicity and directness.

Since our entire Christianity consists in the inner or new man, and its soul is faith, and the effects of faith are the fruits of life, I regard it as of the greatest importance that sermons should be wholly directed to this end. On the one hand they should exhibit God's rich benefits, as they affect the inner man, in such a way that faith is advanced and the inner man forwarded in it. On the other hand they should not merely incite to external acts of virtue and restrain from external acts of vice, as the moral philosophy of the heathen does, but should lay the foundation in the heart.

SPENER'S pupil and successor in the leadership of the movement, AUGUST HERMANN FRANCKE, 1663-1727, tried to take theology back to the teaching of Scripture. To accomplish this he wrote The Guide to the Reading of the Sacred Scriptures, 1693, Studies in Interpretation, 1717, and A Commentary on the Aim of the Books of the Old and New Testaments, 1724.

PAUL GERHARDT, 1607-1676, was the poet of Pietism.

He was "next to Luther the most gifted and popular hymn writer of the Lutheran Church," his writing was as attractive, simple and pleasing as his thinking. He surpassed LUTHER in poetic fertility. "His one hundred and twentythree hymns are among the noblest pearls in the treasury of sacred poetry. More than thirty of them are still in

use ·

He was carried by a living faith and an evangelical joyfulness of mind above the narrowness of formal orthodoxy. He makes us forget that "he was an uncompromising Lutheran zealot, an irreconcilable foe of Calvinistic heresies." He rejoiced in the government and the grace of God, but more than all else the death and resurrection of Christ moved him to praise. He adapted part of the hymn of BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX into his wonderful apostrophe:

O Sacred Head, now wounded,

but very many of his hymns breathe the same passionate vows of fidelity to his Saviour.

Jesus, Thy boundless love to me

No thought can reach, no tongue declare:

O knit my thankful heart to Thee,

And reign without a rival there:

Thine wholly, Thine alone I am;

Lord, with Thy love my heart inflame.

Under the influence of the scholarly JOHN ALBERT BENGEL, 1687-1752, Pietism underwent a change, for he carried into it the interests of Biblical criticism. His edition of the New Testament in Greek was based on his fresh criticism of ancient MSS. It was followed in 1742 by the celebrated Gnomon, or Index to the New Testament which has proved a mine of priceless gems of exposition. The Gnomon gave a vital stimulus to the study of the New Testament; as more matter for thought is often contained

in a line than can be found in whole pages of less gifted expositors.

The pietistic mysticism which dominated the religious thought of Germany was altogether foreign to the Christianity of Spain. LOUIS OF GRENADA, 1504-1588, is usually counted among the mystics, but his work is characterised by didactic and practical aims rather than by those which distinguish the true mystic. His Guide for Sinners became a great converting agent. His best known book is the Guide for Preachers, which with his Tractate on Prayer and Meditation was placed on the Index. Even after revision and reprinting, these works left him under the suspicion of being guilty of 'illuminism.' But the public gave welcome to his writings in which "the sweetness of his nature so flows over in his words that didacticism becomes persuasive even when he argues against our strongest prepossessions

There be some that would know for this end only, that they might know-and it is foolish curiosity. There be some that would know, that they might be known and it is foolish vanity; and there be some that would know that they might sell their knowledge for money or for honours-and it is filthy lucre. There be also some that desire to know, that they might edify and it is charity. And there are some that would know, that they may be edified-and it is wisdom. All these ends may move the desire, and, in choice of these, a man is often deceived, when he considereth not which ought especially to move; and this error is very dangerous.

Mysticism found a distinguished exponent in the apostle of Andalusia, JUAN DE AVILA, 1502-1569, who maintained "that only those visions which minister to our spiritual necessities, and make us more humble, are genuine." His