On the divine love and its properties.
Addressee, date, and source
The Forty-ninth Letter.
On the divine love and its properties.
Dear brother!
Just now I receive your letter, to which I scarcely have time to answer. — My second letter to you will presumably also have arrived duly. As regards my bodily weakness, it remains still almost just as when you traveled from here; and it is so changeable that I cannot well say anything about it. So long as I keep still outwardly, it seems to me that nothing much ails me, except that the head is mostly heavy and unfit; but if I try to begin anything, for which even only a little strength is needed, I am soon worn out, and feel palpitations of the heart, as also pains in the limbs, head, and eyes. Small vexations (of which I do get a fair portion) bring about a great alteration in my head and blood — so that I am glad if I can but keep my mind free and still in the peace of God, which in all assaults from without and within is my only retreat, and never wholly withdraws itself from my poor mind either. For the rest, I feel well that in many respects I no longer have the strength and liveliness of nature that I once had. I know not what more to say of it, especially as it is always taken to be higher than I mean, or think, myself to be.
I ask that the two brothers, P. and C., as also the former’s wife, be very heartily greeted on my behalf: may the love of Jesus spread itself ever more, also in their ground, so that they too may always remember me for good in the same! Yea, may this love overflow all that is our own in us; may it penetrate and quicken our ground and all our powers, that we may bring sweet fruits of love, to the glorifying of our mighty Redeemer! Out of this divine love alone must all true life come into us; it is the mother of all pure virtues; nothing counts before God that is not quickened by it. Therefore let us turn in to it, or venture ourselves into this ocean, that all the bitter powers of self-propriety may be sweetened through and soothed, and our spirit may live in God eternally.
Thanks for the news of S. God will give grace and wisdom to conduct myself in it according to His will. I must break off — greeting and embracing you and the brothers there once more, heartily, in the spirit of the love of Jesus; in which I remain
Your, and all of theirs, weak yet sincerely-minded brother.
Mülheim, the 18th of November, 1731.
A little rhyme for Brothers P. and C.
God’s love, it is my magnet-stone; It draws me soft, yet inwardly strong; So that the spirit walks in God’s own Being still; It goes and runs, and yet is never busy; It holds itself but wholly work- and will-less, And sinks, of itself, into God’s own bosom.
German
Der 49te Brief.
Von der göttlichen Liebe und deren Eigenschaften.
Lieber Bruder!
So eben bekomme deinen Brief, worauf kaum Zeit habe, zu antworten. — Mein zweiter Brief an dich wird vermuthlich auch zurecht gekommen seyn.
— 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. A short, tired, tender letter, and a window onto Tersteegen the man. Chronically unwell, he says so plainly: “the head is mostly heavy and unfit,” small annoyances “bring a great alteration in my head and blood,” and his one relief is “to keep my mind free and still in the peace of God,” his “only retreat” in every assault “from without and within.” That frailty makes the turn the more striking: from his sickroom he breaks into praise of divine love, the letter’s stated subject. This love should “overflow all that is our own in us,” “penetrate and quicken our ground and all our powers”; it “is the mother of all pure virtues,” and “out of it alone must all true life come.” His images are oceanic and magnetic, “venture ourselves into this ocean” of love, that the “bitter powers of self-propriety may be sweetened.” He appends a six-line verse for two friends that states the whole in miniature: God’s love is a magnet that draws the soul softly but irresistibly, until the spirit, “wholly work- and will-less,” “sinks of itself into God’s own bosom.” It is his entire mysticism, passive, drawn, God-ward, in a few lines.
A few words and echoes.
- The peace of God… my only retreat. Philippians 4:7 (“the peace of God, which passeth all understanding”) — kept, in Tersteegen, even under bodily distress, as an inward refuge that “never wholly withdraws itself.”
- Sweet fruits of love. Galatians 5:22 (“the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…”) — the “pure virtues” of which love, he says, is “the mother.”
- Venture ourselves into this ocean. Tersteegen’s recurring image of divine mercy/love as a boundless sea into which the soul may plunge and be “sweetened” — the counterpart to the “deep sea of pure mercy” of Brief 45.
- God’s love is my magnet. The verse turns on the old image of the loadstone: grace as a magnet that “draws me softly, yet inwardly strong” — the gentle-but-irresistible drawing of John 6:44 (“no man can come… except the Father draw him”) and Song of Solomon 1:4 (“draw me”).
- Work- and will-less (wirk- und willenlos). The soul’s ideal state in Tersteegen (and the wider Quietist tradition): not idle, but so surrendered that it no longer acts from its own will — and so “sinks of itself” into God.
- P. and C. / S. The usual redacted initials — two brothers of the circle (and the wife of the first), and some matter or person “S.” named in the brother’s letter. Discretion preserved.
trans. Jarred Fenlason · gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdi-thii-049 · all rights reservedEnglish translation © Jarred Fenlason · All rights reserved · gerhardtersteegen.com.