The author's desire to be unknown. Contempt furthers our access to God. On the partisanships among the devout.

The Ninety-sixth Letter.

The author's desire to be unknown. Contempt furthers our access to God. On the partisanships among the devout.

Beloved brother in the Lord!

Your two letters I have duly received. The first, from N., was long on the way; meanwhile I thank you heartily for all brotherly help according to spirit and body. ——— Outward and inward rest refresh me the most, yet I must not seek the outward rest with inward unrest, but must often, in my circumstances, so give myself over in faith, that it may not, even in intention, come to this: whoever loves his life shall lose it. I have always sought, and still seek, to be silent, unknown, forgotten, and still, and yet must often, to my humbling, go into the opposite, however frail my doing may be. I dare not reflect much. This one thing I know: that I must overcome myself and make a sacrifice, as often as I am to act outwardly, however gladly I do it in the will of God. I am then to be mortified in it. Another, who is inclined to activity — as you, my dear brother (if I mistake not) — he too must use caution, and give and leave the rein into the hand of divine Wisdom, that he may know where he is to press on and where to hold back.

What the dear brother reports, that he gets so many rough adversaries who leave not a shadow of outward honour — that is indeed already a good hedge and safeguard against running out. Let everything of one's own but rot away! Let the whole world die to us, and all creatures let us go! We shall become only so much the fitter and freer thereby, to hear the Lord, to follow the Lord, and to enjoy Him in the blessed wilderness of the inner solitude. Ah, that our whole being might remain turned to Him alone! When one is in esteem with others, or has, knows, or can do something else, in the natural or the spiritual, then one so unbelievably easily carries something of the rubbish along into the approach to God: but it is not the right ware. We should come naked, and give and leave ourselves, so blind and bare, work-less and will-less, to Love and to her hand, that she may form, order, and use us according to her mind and pleasure. The more one exercises oneself in this school, the more one experiences the blessed unmercifulnesses of the divine love — how it annihilates, destroys, and rejects all that is not its own work; how it draws and takes everything to itself, that it may at last again reign alone as King, work and live in us and through us. Well for the soul that refuses Love nothing, but gives everything over into her power — then, ever more, all our works will be done in God.

What the dear brother reports of the grosser or subtler partisanships, alliances, etc., truly comes only from this ground. One forms oneself now this way, now that; if one finds at last an image, a book, a person that suits us well, then one pours oneself wholly into this model, and would, in the self-loving heat, have all others in it too. To be sure, not every distinction is partisanship, nor is it to be blamed without exception. Wisdom, which in her essence is one, is very manifold in her outflowings and leadings: the fault lies chiefly in this, that one does not remain enough within her, and does not yield oneself to her free governance, and does not merely direct others thither. Were this so done, then indeed manifoldness enough would be seen, since the one would be led and shaped so, the other otherwise, in Christ Jesus, each according to his kind, capacity, and circumstances, how and where Wisdom would have him in the body of Christ; and in such a way too that he would have more nourishment and harmony with this or that book or person, etc., than with another. Yea, Wisdom often governs it so, that some — living at one time or in one place, or awakened through one instrument — receive together, in their love, leading, character, etc., a special harmony and bond beyond others: but such causes no partisanship or separation from others, but serves only for the revelation and glorification of the manifold wisdom of God. Ah, that one would only remain within such bounds — then the spiritual Israel too, as it lies encamped in its tribes and families around the ark of the covenant, might give a lovely prospect. ———

With the Lives, I shall have to pause at least for a while, on account of persistent weakness, especially of the head and the eyes. Almost weekly I get a flux and a little fever, so that I am then wholly unfit for some days.

The publisher of the Lives has no correspondence; I must so leave it to Providence. That such shining examples of holy souls become little known among the Protestants has many causes. Our freedom, which we have, to believe, to read, to speak, to do what we will, is misused into a thousand delays and distractions: we are spectators, not actors — that is, onlookers, not doers. Whoever brings it high comes to the point at which such souls begin — namely, to the denial of one's own will and reason: yet I would not thereby speak the word for any error or coercion of conscience. I desire to embrace the dear brother, and all sincerely-minded, in the love of Jesus, and to take part in all your intercession and grace-morsels, and remain meanwhile, through grace,

The dear brother's

Mülheim, 28 February 1736. — devoted [servant].

German

Der 96te Brief.

Des Autors Verlangen, um unbekannt zu seyn. Die Verachtung befördert uns den Zugang zu GOtt. Von denen Partheylichkeiten unter den Frommen.

Geliebter Bruder in dem HErrn!

Des geliebten Bruders beide Briefe habe richtig erhalten. Der erstere aus N. war lang unterwegs; danke inzwischen herzlich für alle brüderliche Handreichung nach Geist und Leib.

— 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).