Fri 4 June 1742: At noon I preached at Birstall once more. All the hearers were deeply attentive; whom I now confidently and cheerfully committed to ‘the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls’.
Hence I rode to Beeston. Here I met once more with the works of a celebrated author, of whom many great men cannot speak without rapture, and the strongest expressions of admiration. I mean Jacob Boehme. The book I now opened was his Mysterium Magnum, or the exposition of Genesis. Being conscious of my ignorance, I earnestly besought God to enlighten my understanding. I seriously considered what I read, and endeavoured to weigh it in the balance of the sanctuary. And what can I say concerning the part I read? I can and must say thus much (and that with as full evidence as I can say that two and two make four): it is most sublime nonsense; inimitable bombast; fustian not to be paralleled! All of a piece with his inspired interpretation of the word ‘tetragrammaton’, on which (mistaking it for the unutterable name itself, whereas it means only a word consisting of four letters) he comments with exquisite gravity and solemnity, telling you the meaning of every syllable of it.
CPAesthetics @Faces&Smiles and @77 Newmarket Road Norwich: Moving away from simply correcting the signs of ageing to the management of the entire ageing process
