Of inward prayer in general: wherein it consists, and how it is to be practised.

The Seventy-Second Letter.

Of inward prayer in general: wherein it consists, and how it is to be practised.

May the Lord pour out His Spirit of grace and of prayer richly upon us, for Jesus' sake!

In this grace, much-beloved friend and brother!

However often and greatly I have found myself inclined to answer your welcome letter, it could not come to pass sooner than now — and perhaps was not meant to happen sooner either. And since I do, in any case, think of you much, in love and in bond of fellowship, this delay has given me all the more occasion to offer you up often, in weakness, to the Lord, and to beseech Him that He Himself, through the anointing of His Holy Spirit, might both teach you and grant you that very thing of which I knew beforehand that I could say but little, and that with great feebleness.

I am to write to you of inward prayer, whereof many holy souls, out of divine light and experience, have already written such glorious things. Truly, I do it with shame and diffidence, because I cannot refuse it you. You would not know this blessed exercise of prayer merely in order to know it, but in order to practise it with me, and to devote again to God your precious time — which you have happily wrested out of the hands of vanity — to that God to whom this your time, and you yourself, wholly belong. Ah, that many others too, there in your own place, might become of one mind with you herein, and no longer so bury themselves, and lose both themselves and their costly time in the toilsome shadow-things of this short life! May He who has redeemed the souls with His own blood, and bought them to Himself for a possession, have emphatic mercy upon such — and keep us also faithful unto death, that no man take our crown!

You ask, then, beloved brother, wherein inward prayer properly consists, and how a soul is to practise it? In this letter I will, under God's assistance, set before you briefly the true evangelical ground of this exercise of prayer, and so show the open door to the entrance into the secret prayer-chamber, and withal say, in general, wherein the essence of prayer consists. If God grant it me, I will shortly let another letter follow, to point out, according to my insight, how a soul may, more particularly, practise this heart-prayer both throughout the day and in the time of especial withdrawal.

Inward prayer (as we here speak of it) is a drawing-near of the soul to God in the name of Jesus, and a remaining before His countenance.

To understand and practise this drawing-near aright, it is exceedingly needful that one have and cherish (as an ever-abiding foundation of the whole matter), through grace and exercise, a deep impression of the so inwardly-near presence of our God: how He has turned Himself so near to us, especially in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, in His loving-kindness to man; and how this very drawing-near of God to us is the ground and the working cause of our drawing-near to Him.

God is, in a manner incomprehensible to us, essentially present to us; He fills heaven and earth; in Him we live, and move, and are; no creature is hidden before Him; He is near also to our most secret thoughts, inclinations, desires, and intentions; all our inmost lies bare in His presence. Chiefly is God — who is a Spirit — near to our spirit, and to the very inmost that is in us. This our spirit belongs not to this world and to temporal objects; it is created for God alone, and therefore also capable of holding a true communion with God; it can and shall be the temple and holy dwelling of the eternal Godhead — to behold, love, enjoy, and rest in this blessed-making Being: that is its work; thereunto it is created; thereunto it has the faculties. God, as Spirit, is near to our spirit, and there is properly to be sought and found.

But this adorable and lovable Being is present to us not only as God, but also as our God in Christ Jesus; as God with us; as our Redeemer, Saviour, and true Friend of the soul, who cares for us, who thinks on us in love; who draws us to Himself by His attractions; who is well willing to dwell in us and to abide with us for ever, notwithstanding all our unworthinesses and miseries, if only we open to Him our heart and give it to Him for His own. This is a great evangelical chief- and ground-truth, which one must impress deeply upon oneself and nevermore let be taken away, because the whole ground of our redemption and salvation lies therein. I will briefly declare it to you.

Man, fallen in Adam, lies, according to his inward part, captive in darkness and hell; this he carries about and with him in life, and finds it in dying, if he die outside of Christ: God and His kingdom of love is, so long, far from him and hard shut up. This God lamented in His blessed eternity — He who has revealed His loving-kindness to man in the incarnation, suffering, and death of His Son. When this our dearest Saviour, Jesus Christ, had shed His blood for us, then was the surging love of God at once opened and poured out over mankind, in such wise that God is now, in the name of His Son Jesus, unspeakably near to our heart. The veil is torn through His death — not only (as Paul teaches us) in the temple at Jerusalem, but the way to the still, blessed eternity is opened to us in the spirit: so that God's favour, grace, love, and communion stands wide open, at their inward part, even to the most ungodly sinners, if only they come. Yea, the near Friend of man comes to meet us beforehand; He stands there at the door of the heart, and knocks in every way, waits for us, and desires nothing more than that the sinner turn to Him and live. It is now said: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is come near at hand. And out of Hebrews 10: Having therefore boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near.

Now in this drawing-near, or coming-near, to God in the name of Jesus, consists the true inward prayer. But I speak here properly not of the first drawing-near of a penitent sinner to God, at his initial conversion, when he turns himself to God in a general way and gives himself over to Him, with the sincere resolution to live henceforth to Him alone who died and is risen again for him; this first blessed step I presuppose as necessary, and speak not properly of it here; but I speak of the ever-continuing continuation of this drawing-near in a soul [already] given over to Him.

For hearts truly drawn by God, and given up to Him, cannot possibly rest content in this — that they have thus once, and in general, given themselves over to God at their first change; and although they ought indeed at all times, and to eternal remembrance, to acknowledge this first conversion — if it has been upright — as a great mercy of God, yet they cannot be quieted therewith, but in time they feel within them a deep-hidden fundamental inclination, whereby they are yet more fully and inwardly drawn away from all things, and drawn and invited to God. Something noble, thorough, and whole is required of them; their heart tells them, on God's behalf, that He will have them wholly and purely for Himself. In some this is found strong and clear; in others weak, dark, and general; and this too according as the mind is scattered or still. Meanwhile, blessed is the soul that discerns this holy call of God within itself, and gives itself over to it as a child, unconditionally!

This afore-mentioned hidden fundamental inclination arises in us precisely thence, because God is now, in the name of Jesus, so inwardly near and so favourable to us. This near Love-God touches our spirit with His love, as the magnet the iron; He draws it to and toward Himself (Song of Songs 1, 4). And thence our spirit comes into such a moving and inclining, that henceforth it can no longer rest with any thing outside of God. If, then, a soul abides herein through recollection, clears out of the way — through self-denial — whatever can hold up the spirit in its course, and follows this fundamental inclination through the full surrender into God's hands: behold, this very inclination becomes as a weight of love, which leads the spirit to God, just as a stream flowing downward flows into the ocean, and just as a stone hovering on high, or any other weight, sinks down upon the earth, which is its centre. This, then, is to practise inward prayer: namely, to abide near this fundamental inclination, and with it — in denial of all other things — to draw near to God in Christ, and to give oneself over to Him.

There, then, our spirit becomes the temple, where the glory of God is near in the Holy of Holies; Jesus' name, the altar; the sacrifice, our heart, our will, and our all; the love of God — which kindles our love-inclinations toward Him through His secret touches — is the eternal Fire, whose flames are truth and sincerity. As much of the world, of corruption, and of self-hood as there is, so many are the moistures in the wood and sacrifice, which is little by little dried out by the flame. This flame is exactly what I first called a loving fundamental inclination; it shows itself in beginning souls, and in those who walk in ways of repentance and of dark suffering, through a deep Ah! and Oh! If the soul is docile, it shows itself through a gentle Abba, Father!, or through some other confiding [utterance], which rises up like a pleasant incense; at last it becomes a deep ground of an abiding peace, whereby heart and thoughts are kept in Christ Jesus. So long as many moistures are yet there, the fire burns fiercely and gives much smoke; afterward it burns purer and gentler, until it becomes an inwardly-still and blissful glow of the Lord.

I express myself somewhat figuratively, and, as it seems, in veiled terms; yet the matter is essential, and withal so simple and near, that for that very reason it must be called dark and hidden among men — because they are too clever, and run so far out of themselves. Ah, could I here rightly pour out my heart in tears, to bewail the blindness of men, who hold their deceptive illusion and their meagre things for something essential, and the essential things of the Spirit for fantasy and error! Yet it is told us beforehand that the natural (psychical) man can perceive nothing of the things that are of the Spirit of God: God have mercy on such!

I close, then, this time with the beautiful words of David, Psalm 65:5, where he thus extols inward prayer: Blessed is the man whom Thou, Lord, choosest, and causest to draw near, that he may dwell in Thy courts! We shall be satisfied with the good of Thy house, with the sanctuary of Thy temple. Amen.

That God would make us ever more partakers of this blessedness — this wishes, together with hearty greeting,

Your bounden friend and brother.

German

Der zweiundsiebzigste Brief.

Von dem inwendigen Gebet insgemein; worin es bestehe, und wie es geübet werde.

Es wolle der HErr seinen Geist der Gnaden und des Gebets reichlich über uns ausgießen, um JEsu willen! In dieser Gnade vielgeliebter Freund und Bruder!

— 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).