As to where and how this knowledge of the highest heavenly good is to be found, recognised or learned, one must know that, like the earthly philosophers’ stone, which according to its description is found everywhere in one and in two, it must be sought and brought forth solely in one, yet in two, which is likewise everywhere. This is nothing other than God’s eternal Word and holy divine Scripture, the Old and New Testaments, in which alone the true heavenly foundation and cornerstone is to be sought and investigated. God the Father himself points to this Word at the transfiguration on Mount Tabor, saying in Mark 9 and Luke 9: “This is my beloved Son; him shall you hear.” Likewise Christ himself, God’s essential and eternal Word, points to himself when he says in John 14: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me”; and to holy divine Scripture, or the fundamental testimony of the divine Word. In Isaiah 8 he says: “To the law and to the testimony.” Christ himself, the cornerstone already mentioned, also partly requires and demands this in John 5 when he says: “Examine and search the Scriptures, for you think you have life in them, and they are what bear witness to me.” David had therefore acknowledged this long before in Psalm 119, saying: “Lord, I delight in your testimonies; they are my counsellors. Your Word, Lord, is a lamp to my feet and a light upon my path. I rejoice in the way of your testimonies more than in every kind of wealth.” Likewise: “I consider my ways and turn my feet towards your testimonies.”

Further, as to where and in what place in holy Scripture the first matter or being of this heavenly stone is grounded and established, it is thoroughly and clearly signified and set before our eyes in many places throughout. In particular, see the prophet Micah, chapter 5: “Whose going forth has been from the beginning and from eternity.” The heavenly cornerstone himself also testifies to this in John 8. When the Jews asked who he was, he answered: “First of all, he who speaks with you”; and further he says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” From these testimonies it follows beyond dispute that he has no beginning, but has possessed his first being from all eternity, and will remain eternally without any end. Although this knowledge is nowhere to be found except in God’s Word, the Old and New Testaments, and can be attained and brought forth from them, I nevertheless wish to point out to anyone pursuing it that great diligence must be applied here. For if someone erred at the beginning of this knowledge or made a false move in it, all his subsequent exertions would be expended in vain. Everyone should therefore examine himself well and properly learn the true golden art of discerning the Word. He should open his eyes well—understand the eyes of the mind and soul—and illuminate, behold and know it through the inward light which God originally kindled in our nature and heart. Anyone who wishes to attain it with the outward bodily eyes alone, in a merely literal fashion, without the inward eye and divine light, may easily see a Saul in place of a Paul and choose and draw from it a wrong path or misunderstanding instead of the right one. Just as, according to its description, this has happened to many thousands in the case of the earthly stone, so in the knowledge of this heavenly stone it happens daily—alas, may God have mercy—to the greatest and larger part of humanity. The blame for this ought nevertheless to be assigned solely to the eye that is false within the person, rather than to the Word or letter, which in both cases is well founded. Christ says in Luke 11: “The eye is the light of the body; but if your eye is, or becomes, evil, your body too is dark, and the light in you becomes darkness.” Likewise in chapter 17 he says: “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” From this it can clearly be seen that knowledge of the light must first be brought from within the human being outwards, and not from outside inwards, as holy Scripture testifies in many places.

The outward object, as it is commonly called, or the letter—which was written because of our weakness—is therefore to be regarded merely as a testimony to the inward light of grace planted and bestowed by God; Matthew 24. The Word heard orally is likewise to be regarded as a stimulus, assistance or furtherance towards it. For example, if a white and a black tablet were placed before you, and you were asked which of the two should be regarded as black and which as white, then unless knowledge of these two distinct colours were already within you, you would not know how to resolve the question put to you from the bare, silent objects or tablets by looking at them. Knowledge does not issue from the tablets, which are silent and dead and can never know anything of themselves, but proceeds and flows from the knowledge that is innate in you and exercised daily. The objects do indeed, as already stated, move the senses and induce them to perceive, but they by no means impart knowledge. This must come and be brought forth from within, from the knower and the judge who possesses knowledge of such colours.

Likewise, if someone asked you for a material, outward fire or light from a suitable flint in which fire or light lies hidden, you would have to bring that hidden, secret light out of the stone and make it manifest, rather than put it into the stone. You do this by means of the appropriate steel, which must necessarily be present to stir and awaken the fire hidden in the stone. Above all, however, this fire must also be caught in good tinder properly prepared for the purpose and diligently blown upon, if it is not to disappear or go out again. You will then obtain a proper inward light shining with fire; and as long as it burns and is maintained, you can work, act and go about with it as you please. So too, this heavenly, divine light lies hidden in the human being in the manner just described. As already said, it must come and be brought forth from within, rather than put into the human being from outside. Once it has first been bestowed by God through true faith, it can afterwards, through the means and assistance of the Word read, heard and preached, and then through the Holy Spirit whom Christ has obtained for us and promised to give, be rightly blown upon again, kindled and made to shine in our dark yet believing heart as in tinder. Thereafter God will work and act in this heart of ours, for he wishes to dwell in believing hearts and in a light to which no one can approach. Although no human being has ever seen or can see God with the outward bodily eyes, he may nevertheless be seen, revealed and known with the inward eyes of the heart. Although that bright light has shone into the whole world, and illuminates all human beings who have ever been and still daily illuminates them, the world, in its stubborn nature, refuses to see it rightly, much less to know it.

Why, then, are so many diverse, erroneous and harmful opinions heard concerning it? The following point should be carefully considered here and rightly observed and remembered: God did not give the human being two eyes and ears in the highest part of the body by chance or in vain. By this he signified that a person must learn and take heed of two kinds of seeing and hearing within himself, an inward and an outward kind. With the inward he should judge spiritual things and assign the spiritual to the spiritual, while also giving the outward its own share. This distinction must be diligently observed and maintained in the Word of the Spirit and also in the letter. I have wished to intimate and briefly touch upon it, as a reminder, for the sake of simple readers, in order to bring and guide them to a better and speedier knowledge of the true three-in-one stone, upon which so much depends.

Just as the matter of the earthly philosophers’ stone is regarded by the common multitude as base and worthless, indeed looked upon and treated as a rejected thing, so too Christ, the Father’s eternal Word, the noble spirit and light, the tried, heavenly, three-in-one stone, is despised, treated as nothing and disregarded by the greater part of humanity in this world. Thus, to speak the truth, there is now scarcely anything considered more worthless and of less account than God’s saving Word.

It is therefore called foolishness, especially by the wise of this world, in 1 Corinthians 2. Indeed, it is not merely held in low esteem and despised, but also condemned and banished as heresy. It ought to be painful and grievous for a godly heart even to hear of this, let alone to see or experience it. Yet through all this the true believers must be tried and proved, and the testimonies quoted above must be properly fulfilled. John also bears witness to these in his first chapter, saying: “It”—understand the Word—“was in the world, and the world did not know it.” Likewise: “He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.” Further, just as the bodily, earthly water-stone of the wise, whose power and virtue cannot be fathomed, has received many and various names from the philosophers in addition to the name of its matter, so too that one divinity and light, whose power and omnipotence are likewise beyond investigation, has many and various titles and names in holy divine Scripture. We shall briefly recount the foremost of them.