Letters · Erster Band · Theil II (1773)

To enter into the possession of God, our heart must want to possess nothing beside God — not even its own self.

Bd I · Th II · Brief 14 · Der vierzehnte Brief

Addressee — An eine ungenannte Schwester — "Vielgeliebte Schwester!", a woman, addressed with intimate du; a reader of Bernières troubled about "the possession of God" and her own "unfeelingness." Not identified (1773-only).
Date — Undated in the print (no dateline; subscription "Dein Mitpilger"). No year attested.
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1773 first edition (Theil II, pp. 39–41), in normalized GS 1845 orthography, collated against the 1845 Gesammelte Schriften (Bd 8) and Hartman's 1819 reprint. All public-domain.

The Fourteenth Letter.

To enter into the possession of God, our heart must want to possess nothing beside God — not even its own self.

Dearly beloved sister!

Your little letter I have duly received; but I cannot always answer as I would; yet I have offered up your soul to God in weakness, because it is worth much to me.

You wrote at that time of what you had read in Bernières; whether your soul, too, might enter into a possession of God — and you complained withal of the sufferings you have from your imagination, and that in everything, even in prayer, you are so unfeeling.

Now I say to that, dear sister, that this is no fancy, but in truth it is so: you shall possess God. This is the gracious purpose of the eternal Love over you; for this Jesus has shed His blood; and to this end He meets you inwardly with His stirrings of grace, His chastenings and enticings, that you may let Him in and blessedly possess Him. Revelation 3:20.

Ah! this eternal Good loves you, and all poor sinners, so ardently; it grieves Him that we live so outside of Him, in torment and in want; for whoever does not possess God is a wretched creature. How must that not shame you — that God, the All-sufficient, loves you so inwardly and esteems you so highly! Therefore love Him again most ardently, and give Him room in your heart, that He alone may possess it, and that you may so then possess Him too: for know that one cannot possess God, unless one also lets oneself be wholly possessed by Him. If we give Him our poor heart for His whole property, for ever, then He gives Himself, too, wholly to us again for our property.

If you will now truly possess God, then part your heart and desire, with joy, from everything, and give it into God's hand; suffer it by no means that any single thing possess your heart beside God; this all-sufficient Being will and must have it alone; therefore He calls His holy law into the heart with a great zeal of love: I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Also you must not possess yourself, nor want to live, in any part, by your own will and liking: Jesus must be Lord and Master; Him you must ask to lead you; you must watch His eyes, as it were.

Now I have said how God must possess your inward part — your heart, your love, your will — that you may one day possess Him too. Meanwhile the fancies may still well possess your imagination; let that be, if only you take no pleasure in it, and then have no disquiet over it either. Guard yourself from taking in, willingly, too many needless images into your understanding and senses through the day. Think always on what Jesus says: What is that to thee? follow thou me — with your heart and your love-inclinations. Stay near to Jesus. If He but have the heart, then the thoughts too follow at last. Only walk simply. Love Jesus, and for His sake count yourself but the unworthiest in the whole house. The more against your nature, reason, and will, the more gloriously it goes. If you have no God whom you feel, then have a God in whom you believe — that He may bless your soul, and keep you faithfully unto death, is the wish of

Your fellow-pilgrim.

❦

German

Der vierzehnte Brief.

In den Besitz GOttes einzugehen muß unser Herz nichts neben GOtt wollen besitzen, auch sich selber nicht.

Vielgeliebte Schwester!

Dein Brieflein habe wohl erhalten; ich kann aber nicht allezeit antworten, wie ich will; doch habe ich deine Seele GOtt in Schwachheit aufgeopfert, weil mir dieselbe werth ist.

— 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).

Translator’s notes

What this letter is. An intimate letter to a beloved "sister" who had been reading the French mystic Bernières on "the possession of God," and had written back full of doubt: was such a thing meant for her, when she felt so "unfeeling, even in prayer"? Tersteegen answers with warmth and firmness — not by lowering the hope, but by lifting it: "this is no fancy… you shall possess God." The whole letter turns on that word possess, and on its startling reciprocity.

Its argument. She feared it was "imagination." He insists it is "the gracious purpose of the eternal Love over you, for which Jesus has shed His blood." But to possess God is not to acquire something; it is to be possessed: "one cannot possess God, unless one also lets oneself be wholly possessed by Him." The exchange is total — "if we give Him our poor heart for His whole property, for ever, then He gives Himself wholly to us again." Hence the one condition, which is also the First Commandment: "suffer no single thing to possess your heart beside God," for "this all-sufficient Being will and must have it alone" — "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me." Not even self may be kept back: "Jesus must be Lord and Master." Finally he meets her real complaint — her unfeelingness. The remedy is not to manufacture feeling but to shift the ground from feeling to faith: let the "fancies" come and go, "if only you take no pleasure in them"; follow Christ "with the heart," not the imagination — "what is that to thee? follow thou me"; and, most memorably, "if you have no God whom you feel, then have a God in whom you believe." He signs not as a director but as one on the same road: "your fellow-pilgrim."

A few words and echoes.

Bernières. Jean de Bernières-Louvigny (1602–1659), a French lay mystic of Caen, whose Le Chrétien intérieur ("The Interior Christian") was widely read in Pietist and Quietist circles and much loved by Tersteegen's readers. Its theme is precisely la possession de Dieu — the soul's being possessed by God — which is why the sister's reading of "Bernières" raised her whole question. (The 1773 print reads "Vernieres," a B→V misreading which the 1845 edition corrects.)
"You shall possess God… He gives Himself wholly to us again." The mutual possession of the Song of Songs — "my beloved is mine, and I am his" (Song of Solomon 2:16; 6:3) — and Psalm 73:25, "whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."
"He meets you inwardly… that you may let Him in." Revelation 3:20, which Tersteegen cites — "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man… open the door, I will come in to him."
"I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:2–3 — the First Commandment, read not as prohibition but as love's jealousy: the "all-sufficient Being" asking to have the heart undivided.
"What is that to thee? follow thou me." John 21:22 — Christ's word to Peter, turning the soul from comparison and from its own feelings back to simple following (the same word Tersteegen uses in Brief 4).
"If you have no God whom you feel, then have a God in whom you believe." The letter's gift to every soul in spiritual dryness: faith does not depend on feeling — indeed "walks by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Erster Band, II. Theil, Brief 14 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-014.html.

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