commanding power into my mind that I must set down the same in pen and
ink for a memorial to myself; albeit, I could hardly contain or express
what I had seen. For twelve years this went on in me. Sometimes the
truth would hit me like a sudden smiting storm of rain; and then there
would be the clear sunshine after the rain. All which was to teach me
that GOD will manifest Himself in the soul of man after what manner and
what measure it pleases Him and as it seems good in His sight.'

No human being knew all this time what Jacob Behmen was passing through,
and he never intended that any human being should know. But, with all
his humility, and all his love of obscurity, he could not remain hidden.
Just how it came about we are not fully told; but, long before his book
was finished, a nobleman in the neighbourhood, who was deeply interested
in the philosophy and the theology of that day, somehow got hold of
Behmen's papers and had them copied out and spread abroad, to Behmen's
great surprise and great distress. Copy after copy was stealthily made
of Behmen's manuscript, till, most unfortunately for both of them, a copy
came into the hands of Behmen's parish minister. But for that accident,
so to call it, we would never have heard the name of GREGORY RICHTER,
First Minister of Goerlitz, nor could we have believed that any minister
of JESUS CHRIST could have gone so absolutely mad with ignorance and envy
and anger and ill-will. The libel is still preserved that Behmen's
minister drew out against the author of _Aurora_, and the only thing it
proves to us is this, that its author must have been a dull-headed,
coarse-hearted, foul-mouthed man. Richter's persecution of poor Behmen
caused Behmen lifelong trouble; but, at the same time, it served to
advertise his genius to his generation, and to manifest to all men the
meekness, the humility, the docility, and the love of peace of the
persecuted man. 'Pastor-Primarius Richter,' says a bishop of his own
communion, 'was a man full of hierarchical arrogance and pride. He had