Of seven degrees: how one must look upon God in Christ alone, and not look upon oneself, but forget oneself.

The Nineteenth Letter.

Of seven degrees: how one must look upon God in Christ alone, and not look upon oneself, but forget oneself.

In the grace of Jesus, dearly beloved brother!

I see your kind letter of the 9th of March still lying here, in which you desire a nearer explanation of something I said in my last. I am supposed to have written, namely: to look upon God in Christ alone, and not to look upon oneself, but to forget oneself — that this works every virtue; but that it has also its degrees. These degrees, now, you desire to have made known to you one day; just as though you did not know them as well as I: yet I will say simply what occurs to me of it, though I no longer remember in what manner I then apprehended the matter.

I can say, then, now, that chiefly in a sevenfold manner one can and must look upon God in Christ alone, and forget oneself; and that every time (though with very marked difference) experience teaches how thereby every virtue and everything good is wrought. One does this 1. in a Seeking manner; 2. in a Feeling manner; 3. in a Practising manner; 4. in a Simple manner; 5. in a Beholding manner; 6. in a Resigning manner; 7. in an Essential manner: according as each one's condition and leading is; and each must go to work according to his own state and leading, without troubling himself whether his state be high or low, because the state in which God will have us is for us the most perfect.

1. In the state of penitence — be it at the beginning or afterward — when the soul feels her sin-wounds, the pressure, anguish and unrest in the conscience, on account of some presentiment of the divine righteousness, according to which she sees before her nothing else than darkness, death and damnation: there is no better, nay no other counsel nor way out for the soul than that she look not upon herself, but upon God in Christ alone, if her wound is ever to be healed, and every virtue wrought in her. To look about oneself for some supposed good work; to try to help and quiet oneself by duties, well-meant exercises, one's own promises and resolutions of amendment, &c. — that is only a daubing with untempered mortar. By the works of the law shall no man be justified before God; the law is too holy, and the flesh too weak, so that it cannot be subject to the law of God. The conscience is not quieted by that way, but one falls ever deeper into it; and when one has looked at one's misery long enough, and done one's best, then one finds oneself at last at the end of the seventh chapter to the Romans: O wretched man that I am! &c.

But if the soul gives God right, assents from the heart to her own curse-worthiness, misery and incapacity, and thereupon looks away from herself, only to look upon God in Christ, who of grace receives and heals the sinner — then she is truly helped, though she had mountains of sins upon her, and her heart were filled with seven devils. The soul must only, confessing her wretchedness from the heart, turn her eyes ever away from it and upon God in Christ, who through Christ's blood can and will forgive and blot out all sins; and though her misery and distress should stare her in the face again and again, and it should seem to her as though she could not look upon God in Christ, or as though He would not look upon her — yet she can only go on constantly, in Jesus' name, looking ever away from herself and into Christ, who will nevermore let her be put to shame, but will at last embrace her with everlasting compassion. And thus one forgets oneself, and looks upon God in Christ in a seeking manner, just as a sick and pained child looks upon its mother; or as those who were stung by the venomous serpents in the wilderness looked not upon their wounds, but upon the brazen serpent, and were healed: so whosoever believes on the Son of God shall not perish, but have everlasting life, &c.

2. In the state of refreshings — be it now that the friendly God lets the soul see and taste the riches of His mercy in the forgiveness of all her sins; or that He otherwise imparts to her some sensible gift of grace, cheerfulness, light, delight, comfort, or the like. There the soul has especial need also that she look not upon herself, but forget herself, lest God's benefits be spoiled by self-complacency and self-assumption: rather, the soul shall shut her eyes both before herself and before God's gifts (after she has thanked God for them), so as to want nothing of them for herself, but to divest herself of all that again, in order to look upon God in Christ alone in faith, and to take no pleasure in herself, but in God the Giver and the Fountain of all good gifts, who alone is good and worthy to be loved. This forgetting of oneself and of the good received in oneself; this divesting; this shutting of the eyes before oneself and all that is created, so as to want or see nothing therein for oneself, but to look upon God alone — this seems preposterous to the coarse sense and to selfhood, and reason would think: What does it profit me, then, that I have and receive this and that from God, if I am to forget it again, and to have nothing therein for myself?

But reason and the senses are blind as to the kingdom of God. Experience teaches that the more we divest ourselves of all good, and will not possess it in selfhood, the nobler we have it; and when we divest ourselves again also of the noble thing we have, so as to want to look upon nothing but God, then our good and our blessedness grows once more: for the more sincere self-disdain and going-forth out of selfhood, the more virtue, peace and thorough blessedness a soul has. But because, alas! many look upon the good they receive from God, and hold it fast, in selfhood, they do not get the better thing; nay, even the good is spoiled and lost. And thus the soul who finds herself in these circumstances must, in a feeling manner, forget herself and not look upon herself, but upon God alone in Christ — which works everything good. And though the Beloved, in these pleasant days, hangs one ornament after another upon the bride, and then says: Behold, thou art fair, my love; &c. — yet she will not look upon herself, but answers: Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, &c. Song of Sol. 1, 15 and 16.

3. In the way of sanctification the soul must at first, in a practising manner, look upon God in Christ alone, but not look upon herself — rather forget herself much. Many well-meaning hearts, who have felt a little of the grace of God in Christ, get a hearty longing and earnestness to live to the honour of God, and to follow after sanctification; but it is a pity that so manifoldly one goes about the matter wrongly: one seeks out one's enemies, as it were; one examines and searches one's doing and living; one sets oneself against evil with all straining, and applies oneself to the virtues, and puts oneself into as pious a shape as ever one can. But there comes of it either a self-made outward show and hypocrite-being, without ground and root; or one torments oneself with faint-heartedness and unbelief; or one gives up heart altogether, because one finds so many infirmities, and sees no counsel for making oneself as holy as one well knows one ought to be: for so the soul goes to work within herself, and without God. The easiest and most direct way to sanctification is to look upon God in Christ, and to forget oneself, together with one's miseries, very much. Let us run the race that is set before us, says Paul, Heb. 12. But in what manner? Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. This is just the fair exercise of that occupation with God, and with His loving presence, whereof it stands in the 16th Psalm: I have set the Lord always before me.

This childlike faith-view, remembrance and occupation of the heart with the present God of love, and with His divine perfections, is a right stratagem of war in the inward conflict, where the soul engages directly with no enemy at all, but does as a child does that sees a dog, and without fighting with it only runs to its mother, and hides itself trustingly in her lap. Through this looking upon God, and this occupation of the heart with God and His divine perfections, the soul is wonderfully enlightened, strengthened, pacified, and as it were sanctified in her sleep — and that in an unfeigned and thorough manner; because the impression of God's presence, majesty, all-sufficiency and perfection penetrates her by degrees, weans her from everything, and makes everything little and slight in her eyes and in her heart which this God is not.

4. If now the soul is faithful and constant in this her exercise, God blesses her labour; comes before her therein, and meets her with His drawing in her heart's ground, and with a secret impression of His inward nearness, love, all-sufficiency and divine perfections. It will indeed no longer suit her at all that she should contemplate this God and His perfections with the activity of her understanding, piece by piece and with distinction, and be able to stay there: yet, when she keeps herself simply by her heart, she finds there a general and secret impression of God's nearness, majesty, love and all-sufficiency, which indeed, as was said, seems altogether secret and as it were indistinct, but which goes paired with a hidden power, whereby the soul is very greatly drawn off and turned away from everything created and perishable, so as to be united with this her God, and to keep herself near to Him. Here now, the soul has nothing to do but that she follow this inward drawing and this ground-inclination simply, and cleave to God with this inclination, seek to remain gathered in with Him, and with gentle, simple glances of faith look only upon Him, and not upon herself. So, by this very simple in-gathering, the soul is best preserved from all evil, the thorough virtues are laid in her, and she is made capable of essential union with God, and of the reception of countless goods. But if the soul will not go to work here so simply, but will look herself over and act according to her own opinion, then she can only very much hinder and confuse herself; for the former outward, sensible, intelligible contemplations and exercises will give the mind no nourishment nor pleasure any more; neither can she get on well with them; she stands, in her sensible part, rather dry, weak, and at times easily distracted; and the more she will help herself by straining the sensible and intelligible activities, the worse it becomes. Only when, in simple stillness, forgetting everything, she abides by her heart — or better said, by God — then she becomes in some measure aware of the aforesaid drawing, inclination and impression, wherein she is well; and even so far that she has a secret presentiment therewith that she has nothing further needful to do or to desire.

Meanwhile it falls hard upon the soul at first, from inexperience and from the very simplicity of such an exercise, to content herself with it, and not to turn back to herself and look upon herself so often — whereas she ought only to remain still with Mary at the Saviour's feet, because this one thing only is needful for her, and brings more welfare than other people's troubling themselves about many things. But I write too diffusely; I will therefore put it briefly.

5. The soul looks upon God alone, and not upon herself, in a beholding manner, when it pleases God to reveal Himself to her more essentially within (John 14, 21.) and to make Himself present, when the eye of the soul is opened, and is directed by a pleasant power of God upon this present all-contenting Good, to look upon Him alone and unturningly and to cleave to Him — which is called the state of contemplation. The soul has here not much need that it be said to her that she should not look upon herself, because by the anointing that is so near she is already sufficiently instructed therein, and by the alluring, or drawing-to-itself, power of the present God she is easily drawn to Him. How much good this unturning God-ward looking works in such a state, Paul says, among others, 2 Cor. 3, 18.: Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

6. One must, in a resigning and dying manner, look upon God in Christ alone, but not look upon oneself — rather forget oneself — in those critical and weighty states of the inward sufferings, denudations and purifications. Exceedingly needful, then, is this truth to the soul; nay, the heavier and higher the purifications are, the more needful is this reminder to her. In those high ways of annihilation and purification the soul can find neither light, nor comfort, nor grace, nor God, since rather everything seems contrary to her; she sees, nay she experiences her poverty, her darkness, her weakness, her unspeakably deep misery most bitterly. All her former graces and communications are as lost, and, as she supposes, lost through her own fault. All her exercises, endeavours, elevations, recollections, &c., or however she was otherwise wont to help herself, to preserve herself, or to unite herself with God, avail her nothing any more, &c. What is to be done? Nothing. What is to be suffered? Much; but without hope of deliverance, as it seems. What, then, remains over for the poor mind? And what is to be counselled it? Nothing remains over for it but its great misery and pure nothingness; and this only is to be counselled it: that with inward truth it assent to this its misery and nothingness, and as such a poor nothing resign itself to God in Christ upon pure grace, without seeking anything further in itself, expecting anything of itself, or hoping anything for itself; but justify God, and let Him deal with it in time and eternity. This God must work and man suffer; but when God works it, then one goes forth out of oneself; one forsakes oneself; one dies away to oneself, and learns what it is to look, in a resigning and dying manner, upon God in Christ alone, but not to look upon oneself — rather to forget oneself very much — whereby here not only is everything good wrought, but one is filled with the essential Good.

7. This very thing comes to pass in an essential manner in the state of divine unity and transformation, whereof Jesus speaks, John 17., and of which other saints, both in the Holy Scripture and elsewhere, have testified much, but of which I can say nothing from experience. May the Lord give us grace to experience what pleases Him! See, brother, this is what I can answer to your question, in haste, being always hindered. You will know how to take your profit from it all, and to separate my intermixed faults from that which is divine truth.

For the rest, I do not think much of it when minds know so much about the degrees in Christianity; since self-love so gladly wants to set itself at the top, and to form itself into something whereinto God does not yet lead it: yet neither will I have this letter so understood, as though the one step must always follow upon the other just so. There is indeed something in it, but not with all souls, nor so orderly and distinctly: not to say that the unequal constitutions and the unequal conduct of souls cause marked variations in the leadings; and that God has not the same purposes with all.

Let us abide childlike with God in the present, and resign ourselves wholly to Him according to the full measure of His grace in us: but in all fidelity, and in all trials, expect nothing from ourselves, and everything from His unending goodness. Amen, may He do it! Remember me, as

Your weak brother.

Mülheim, 2 June 1741.

German

Der neunzehnte Brief.

Von siebenerlei Stuffen: wie man GOtt in Christo allein ansehen, und sich selbst nicht ansehen, sondern vergessen müsse.

In der Gnade JEsu herzlich geliebter Bruder!

Ich sehe da noch deinen Angenehmen vom 9ten Mart. liegen, worin du auf etwas, das ich in meinem Vorigen gesagt, nähere Bedeutung begehrest.

— 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).