ob
Bewman, I know in most things he speaks a Parable to thee yet, and so
his writings may well be lightly esteemed of by thee; but there is that
in his Writings which, if ever thy eye be opened, will appear to be a
sweet unfolding of the Mystery of God and of Christ, in divers
particulars, according to his Gift. And therefore beware of speaking
Evil of that which thou {221} know'st not."[32] We have also seen how
Boehme appealed to such noble Seekers as Charles and Durant Hotham,
John Sparrow, and John Ellistone.[33] One Quaker of some importance,
Francis Ellington, not only read the writings of Boehme, but regarded
"that Faithful Servant Jacob Behme" as "a Prophet of the Lord."[34] He
quotes from his German "Prophet" the words: "A Lilly blossometh to you
ye Northern Countries; if you destroy it not with sectarian contention
of the learned, then it will become a great Tree among you, but if you
shall rather contend than to know the true God, then the Ray passeth by
and hitteth only some; and then afterwards you shall be forced to draw
water for the thirst of your souls among strange nations." Ellington
regards Boehme as a genuine "prophet," and the "Lilly" that was to
blossom in the North seems to Ellington plainly to be George Fox and
his Quaker Society, which the learned have tried in vain to overthrow.
He cites many passages from the Teutonic Prophet of the Lord to show
the parallelism between the prophesied type of spiritual religion and
the Children of the Light who have exactly fulfilled it.[35]

It would be natural to expect that the young Quaker seeker, eager for
any light on his dark path, would read the _Forty Questions_ and _The
Three Principles of the Divine Essence_, or at least that he would hear
them discussed by the people among whom he moved in these intense and
eventful years. In any case there are ideas expressed and experiences
described in the _Journal_ which look strangely like memories,
conscious or subconscious, of ideas and experiences to be found in the
Boehme writings. The most striking single passage is one which
describes an experience which occurred to Fox in 1648. It is as
follows: "Now was I come up in Spirit through the flaming sword into
the paradise of God. All things were {222} new; and all the Creation
gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter. I
knew nothing but pureness and innocency and righteousness, being
renewed into the image of God by Jesus