How nothing befalls God's children apart from the will of their heavenly Father. The manifold causes of distractions. The two kinds of thoughts: those of the head and those of the heart.

The Twenty-Fifth Letter.

How nothing befalls God's children apart from the will of their heavenly Father. The manifold causes of distractions. The two kinds of thoughts: those of the head and those of the heart.

In the grace of Jesus, beloved sister!

Your latest letter, received of late, was pleasant to me: for although our fellowship consists chiefly in the spirit, yet it is often refreshing to me to learn, in particular too, how it stands with those whom I know and love; for in this way we are the better and the more able to take part, one in another's sufferings and joys in Christ.

The weakness of your head and body comes certainly from the hand of the Lord, for your good. If not a hair of our head can fall (I think at times) without the will of our Father in heaven, as the true Witness says, how much less is your whole head so weak without His will! To the Father, then, be praise rendered, to whom it pleases thus to visit us: may He but let His strength be made perfect in our weakness! It depends not, after all, on whether we so plainly and so soon perceive the benefit in ourselves, even though the very contrary should seem to appear to us. Never may we be less anxious how we ought to conduct ourselves than precisely when we find ourselves in inward or outward sufferings. An intimate, loving union of faith with the unbounded good pleasure of God is then the whole work. May He Himself teach you and me to practice it without ceasing!

I myself believe what you write, namely, that the distractions of your thoughts, which you suffer, arise much from the ill constitution of your nature and of your blood; even as do your wonted darknesses too; and this very insight can also, in some respects, serve toward the quieting of your mind. Yet otherwise the Lord (as you also note) has His hand in all of it, inasmuch as He is a Lord of nature; and it is most profitable for us when we take all things from His hand, as indeed I do not doubt you will endeavor so to take them all. Nonetheless, inward darknesses and distractions of the thoughts can well have, on our side too, other causes, namely: when we do not guard the windows of our senses enough in hearing, seeing, speaking, etc.; or also, when we let our thoughts go out upon strange pasture the day long, which at times may willingly happen even with the best; but such a thing then comes very unawares. Far more hurtful are the secret attachments to things outside of God; when the heart, through a disordered love and desire, suffers itself to be drawn and held by something created. When a soul perceives such an attachment in itself, and its inner will draws or longs to be thoroughly free of it, then it is a suffering, and does not hurt nearly so much.

Yet one more cause, which often occasions me a thousand oppressions, darknesses, and scattered thoughts, I cannot leave unmentioned: perhaps this sickness overtakes you also. This cause is: when one takes too strongly to oneself the outward things which we either have to do ourselves, or which are otherwise done or spoken by others, or which otherwise befall us; be it now that it is something adverse, or something agreeable, both are hurtful when we take them in too deeply; for thereby are many images impressed into the mind, which cover and becloud all stillness and serenity, and are a seed of a thousandfold distractions, according as they have struck deep roots or not.

God and His will alone ought rightly to go deep to our heart. Now, in order to avoid such things, beloved sister, we must not on the other side multiply and scatter ourselves through our own working, anxious caring, fear, or mourning, whereby we should fall yet deeper into the very thing we wished to avoid: but we must indeed, thoroughly, yet no less peaceably, and with much patience, turn away from all that is impure, and NB. that always with a trusting turning to God in the ground.

That you may rightly understand and practice this latter thing, you must remind yourself, beloved sister, how that we have two kinds of thoughts in us, thoughts of the head and thoughts of the heart. The former kind we have at our occupations; the latter are not needful thereto; the former hover about in the head, and are not always in our power; the latter are deeper in the ground; they are where our treasure is, where our heart is; these must be wholly for God. Now, I should think, it is a fair masterpiece of grace, and a fair and easy means against all distractions, when, especially at the time of prayer, one endeavors to let the thoughts of the head be, and marks them as little as possible, but holds oneself unawares, and turns gently to the inward thoughts of the heart, and with these holds oneself still before God, adores Him, loves, hungers, humbles oneself, and, in a word, exercises oneself as our condition brings with it, without once taking heed of will whither the fluttering thoughts of the head go. Yea, I should think that we might, through divine grace, practice this in some measure even amid our occupations, when our inner will is wholly before God. Perhaps the Lord would also, with the hidden gentle drawings of His love, meet us in the ground betimes upon this way, and hide us at last into the hidden place of His countenance, away from all distractions and dangers.

German

Der fünfundzwanzigste Brief.

Wie GOttes Kindern nichts ohne den Willen ihres himmlischen Vaters begegne. Mancherlei Ursachen der Zerstreuungen. Zweierlei Gedanken des Haupts und des Herzens.

In der Gnade JEsu geliebte Schwester!

Dein letzt erhaltenes Brieflein ist mir angenehm gewesen: denn obgleich unsere Gemeinschaft hauptsächlich im Geist bestehet; so ist es mir doch öfters erquicklich, auch insbesondere einmal zu vernehmen, wie es mit denen stehet, die ich kenne und liebe, weil wir solchergestalt so viel besser und mehr Theil nehmen können einer an des andern Leiden und Freuden in Christo.

— Opening lines of the original German. The complete transcription of all 605 letters appears in the forthcoming Encounter Press critical edition; Brief 1 is shown in full as a sample.

German text: public domain (1773–75 first edition / 1845 Gesammelte Schriften).