PNEUMATOLOGY io5 



express it more correctly, of the spiritaal soul from the 

 merely intellectual and animal soul. If a person dies a 

 natural death (i.e., from old age), his passions having 

 died out during his life, his selfish will having become 

 weak and his mind like that of a child, putting its con- 

 fidence in his father, his spirit and soul will, at the time 

 of his death, become free from material bonds and be 

 attracted to the body of Christ.^ 



"Such a soul is herself the flesh and blood of Christ, and 

 Christ is her Master. She does not enter into communi- 

 cation with mortals, because she has no desire for anything 

 earthly. She does not ' think ' or speculate about terres- 

 trial things, or worry herself about her relatives or friends. 

 She lives in a state of pure feeling, bliss, and enjoyment." * 



Such is the fate of those who die a natural death in 

 God ; but the conditions of those who die prematurely 

 without being regenerated, either by their own hands or 

 in consequence of some accident, differ greatly ; because, 

 although their souls have become forcibly separated from 

 their bodies, the spirit does not therefore necessarily leave 

 the soul, but remains with it until another separation 

 takes place. They remain in such cases human beings 

 like any others ; only with this difference, that they do 

 not possess a physical body, and they remain in such a 

 state until the time arrives when, according to the law of 

 Nature and their own predestination (Karma), their phy- 

 sical death should have taken place. At that time the 



^ Boehme says : " When the soul has passed through death, it is then 

 in the essence of God. It remains with the works which it has produced 

 here, and in this state it will behold the majesty of God and see the angels 

 face to face. In the unfathomable world where the soul is, there is no end 

 or object which that soul would have to attain. Where the carrion is, 

 there will the eagles assemble." (All that the soul desires will come to it.) 

 — Forty QuesttOTis, xxi. 3. 



2 Boehme says : " The majority of souls depart from their terrestrial 

 forms without the body of Christ (divine love), but being connected there- 

 with only by a small thread." Such souls, having but little spirituality, 

 will not exist in such glorious bliss as those whose spirituality has been 

 unfolded upon the earth and who loved God above all. 



