_A Treatise on Baptism and the Lord's Supper_; _A Key to the Principal
Points and Expressions in the Author's Writings_; and then a most
valuable volume of letters--_Epistolae Theosophicae_--complete the
extraordinarily rich bibliography of the illuminated and blessed Jacob
Behmen.

Though there is a great deal of needless and wearisome repetition in
Jacob Behmen's writings, at the same time there is scarcely a single
subject in the whole range of theology on which he does not throw a new,
an intense, and a brilliant light. In his absolutely original and
magnificent doctrine of GOD, while all the time loyally true to it,
Behmen has confessedly transcended the theology of both the Latin and the
Reformed Churches; and, absolutely unlettered man though he is, has taken
his stand at the very head of the great Greek theologians. The Reformers
concentrated their criticism upon the anthropology and soteriology of the
Church of Rome, and especially upon the discipline and worship connected
therewith. They saw no need for recasting any of the more fundamental
positions of pure theology. And while Jacob Behmen, broadly speaking,
accepts as his own confession of faith all that Luther and Calvin and
their colleagues taught on sin and salvation, on the corruption and guilt
of sinners, and on the redeeming work of our LORD, he rises far above the
greatest and best of his teachers in his doctrine of the GODHEAD. Not
only does he rise far higher in that doctrine than either Rome or Geneva,
he rises far higher and sounds far deeper than either Antioch, or
Alexandria, or Nicomedia, or Nice. On this profound point Bishop
Martensen has an excellent appreciation of Behmen. After what I have
taken upon me to say about Behmen, the learned Bishop's authoritative
passage must be quoted:--'If we compare Behmen's doctrine of the
Trinity,' says the learned and evangelical Bishop, 'with that which is