It would then be seen by all, what few, till then, will believe, that
Jacob Behmen's mind and heart and spiritual experience all combine to
give him a foremost place among the most classical masters in that great
field.

In the nineteenth chapter of the _Aurora_ there occurs a very important
passage of this autobiographic nature. In that famous passage Behmen
tells his readers that when his eyes first began to be opened, the sight
of this world completely overwhelmed him. ASAPH'S experiences, so
powerfully set before us in the seventy-third Psalm, will best convey, to
those who do not know Behmen, what Behmen also passed through before he
drew near to GOD. Like that so thoughtful Psalmist, Behmen's steps had
well-nigh slipped when he saw the prosperity of the wicked, and when he
saw how waters of a full cup were so often wrung out to the people of
GOD. The mystery of life, the sin and misery of life, cast Behmen into a
deep and inconsolable melancholy. No Scripture could comfort him. His
thoughts of GOD were such that he will not allow himself, even after they
are long past, to put them down on paper. In this terrible trouble he
lifted up his heart to GOD, little knowing, as yet, what GOD was, or what
his own heart was. Only, he wrapped up his whole heart, and mind, and
will, and desire in the love and the mercy of GOD: determined not to give
over till GOD had heard him and had helped him. 'And then, when I had
wholly hazarded my life upon what I was doing, my whole spirit seemed to
me suddenly to break through the gates of hell, and to be taken up into
the arms and the heart of GOD. I can compare it to nothing else but the
resurrection at the last day. For then, with all reverence I say it,
with the eyes of my spirit I saw GOD. I saw both what GOD is, and I saw
how GOD is what He is. And with that there came a mighty and an
incontrollable impulse to set it down, so as to preserve what I had seen.
Some men will mock me, and will tell me to stick to my proper trade, and