That we must rise above our drivenness, sloth, and own misery, through the sweet prayer of the heart and a childlike walk in the presence of God.

The Hundred-and-Forty-Seventh Letter.

That we must rise above our drivenness, sloth, and own misery, through the sweet prayer of the heart and a childlike walk in the presence of God.

Dear brother!

My memory will no longer bring it before me so, what I lately may have said of the sinking into your nature, and of the rising above it: do not rack your brains over it either. In faithful going-on, according to grace's present instruction, all truth is unlocked most clearly, as much of it as is needful for us.

After we, through the Fall, sank away from God, we lie captive in our natural corrupted mind, in impotence and unbelief; out of which Jesus, high-praised to eternity, has redeemed us, and will by His grace raise us up — to become, out of natural men, spiritual and divine men once more. Before it comes with us to that point, and after we have already set foot on the way, much still clings to us from nature and from unbelief, and in many things we go quite lightly according to nature, and not according to the Spirit and faith, to work — even when the things we do are not evil, but seem well and good. According as we, in the natural mind, have liking or disliking toward a spiritual or a natural work, accordingly we do it or leave it; we count the one possible, the other impossible; we follow either a natural drivenness or a shameful sloth — whereas we ought to have an eye to nothing but to please God, and to do all God's will (Eph 6:6) from the heart, without regard to nature, whether it did the thing willingly or unwillingly. And just as, in this respect, many awakened souls do all their things the whole day long only naturally, so one goes to work also in many other matters according to the drive of one's affections: in zeal against evil; in complaisance toward men; in loving and hating, praising and chiding, and so on. Commonly we follow our first thoughts and first impulse; but that is seldom to be trusted, until Jesus has fully become our life. On the whole there is no better means of remaining raised above nature than the sweet prayer of the heart, and the childlike-reverent remembrance of the presence of our God. If we live thus in the Spirit, we shall also walk in the Spirit. (Gal 5.)

Yet more: all unbelieving looking-at-ourselves — at our miseries, our weaknesses and unworthinesses — is all a sinking into our nature; and many well-meaning souls let themselves be held captive lifelong by the spirit of fear. It is indeed grace when we see our misery; we must see and feel it. Our corruption must displease us greatly, because it displeases God; we must inwardly wish to be delivered from it. Only, we are not to stand still, either through a self-loving disturbance or through a fainthearted unbelief and despondency, but to turn our face childlike away from it — onto Jesus, with a quiet trust that He can, will, and shall redeem us from all by free grace, and make us holy and glorious. I say by free grace; for our faith and trust must neither ground and nourish itself, nor let itself be weakened, by a looking-back at ourselves and our condition. That is all a sinking into our nature. We are at all times unworthy and abominable, and never more so than when we take pleasure in ourselves. We ought therefore to be always small, but never fainthearted. Ourselves we ought to give up and surrender, but to look to God alone, choosing Him as the only object of our love and of our trust, in the sweet name of Jesus; and all that we lack, to await with longsuffering but childlike trust from His grace, without willfully removing ourselves from Him. Thus, then, we live always in the Spirit, and through the faith of the Son of God, who has loved us.

I write far more than I meant to, and perhaps confusedly, on account of my weak head. God bless your soul!

Mülheim, the 15th of January 1739.

German

Der hundertsiebenundvierzigste Brief.

Daß wir uns über unsere Triftigkeit, Trägheit und eigenes Elend erheben müssen, durch das süße Herzens-Gebet und kindlichen Wandel in der Gegenwart GOttes.

Lieber Bruder!

Mein Gedächtniß will mir's so nicht mehr vorstellen, was ich jüngst mag gesagt haben von dem Sinken in deine Natur, und von dem Erheben über dieselbe: Brich dir auch den Kopf nicht darüber.

— 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).