from all creatures, and plunge itself into that where no creature is or
can be, presently it would be penetrated with the splendour of the Divine
glory, and would taste a sweetness no tongue can express. Then thou
wouldst love thy cross more than all the glory and all the goods of this
world.' The author had begun a series of reflections and meditations on
the Ten Commandments for devotional use on Tuesday, but got no further
than the Fifth. Behmen is so deep and so original in his purely
philosophical, theological, and speculative books, that in many places we
can only stand back and wonder at the man. But in his _Holy Week_ Behmen
kneels down beside us. Not but that his characteristic depth is present
in his prayers also; but we all know something of the nature, the manner,
and the blessedness of prayer, and thus it is that we are so much more at
home with Behmen, the prodigal son, than we are with Behmen, the
theosophical theologian. When Behmen begins to teach us to pray, and
when the lesson comes to us out of his own closet, then we are able to
see in a nearer light something of the originality, the greatness, the
strength, and the true and genuine piety of the philosopher and the
theologian. When Behmen's philosophy and theology become penitence,
prayer, and praise, then by their fruits we know how good his philosophy
and his theology must be, away down in their deepest and most hidden
nature. I agree with Walton that those prayers are full of unction and
instruction, and that some of them are of the 'highest magnetical power';
and that, as rendered into modern phraseology, they are most beautiful
devotional compositions, and very models of all that a divinely
illuminated mind would address to GOD and CHRIST. For myself,
immediately after the Psalms of David I put Jacob Behmen's _Holy Week_
and the prayers scattered up and down through his _True Repentance_, and
beside Behmen I put Bishop Andrewes' _Private Devotions_. I have
discovered no helps to my own devotional life for a moment to set beside
Behmen and Andrewes.