Of true inwardness.

The Hundred and Forty-first Letter.

Of true inwardness.

Dearly beloved brother in the Lord Jesus!

With much refreshment and union of my mind I have received your letter of the 30th of September, read it and read it again. My spirit rejoices in the good that the Lord works in your soul. I cannot do otherwise than confirm you with my weak testimony in your way, firmly believing that it is of God and leads to God, what you inwardly experience, and whereto you find yourself drawn.

Your state of inward stillness and surrender to the working of God, of which you tell in your letter, is very good and needful. We have lived beforehand as scattered and lost sheep: Jesus, our good Shepherd, will through the hidden drawings of his love again allure and gather us, to and in ourselves, in order afterward also to gather and lead us into him, and into his most inward fellowship. O! how beautiful, but how unknown, is true inwardness! How often do not even the good souls hang here and there, and come not rightly into their inmost! In how many ways do not most cling to their reason or understanding, and to their own activity, and think they are already inward and devout!

True inwardness is a beautiful tree, which in its time becomes fruitful in all divine virtues, which it brings forth without force, without toil, without art, and as from its nature quite gently; and that is no wonder, because true inwardness is nothing else than to abide in Jesus, our divine Vine, (as you, dear brother, well remark in your letter) who through the pure sap, or the life-power of his Holy Spirit, penetrates us the longer the more, wholly changes us, and renews us after his image. O! how lovely are not the virtues which true inwardness brings forth, because they spring not from us, but from God himself! One becomes as of oneself a stranger to all that is visible; one denies oneself with delight and without toil: One learns not only to know one's most hidden peculiarities in this inward light, but one is also the longer the more stripped (or freed) of one's peculiarities, and consequently very innocent, simple, bowed, gentle, peaceful, content and still, both outwardly and inwardly; and the inward drawing of grace does not allow that any contrary movement find place in us. These and more other virtues are of a quite other nature than those in which one beforehand exercised oneself with so much toil and frailty, which I call only self-made outward seeming-virtues, in comparison with these, which are as it were impressed into the inmost, and born from the ground, yes from God himself.

True inwardness is more for the heart than for senses and understanding; therefore he would surely err who would keep himself inward with his thoughts alone, and not at the same time, yes chiefly, strive to turn his heart, love and delight by thorough self-denial away from all unto God: Such an inwardness would, taken at the best, consist only in the imagination, and never bring forth the fruits of which so just now has been said; because our love alone is the band with which we are bound to God, or to something else. One must therefore, even in a state of recollection or inwardness, not be so much disturbed about it, when we cannot at all times remain masters over our senses and scattered thoughts in the head; though we must yet take care not to give occasion thereto by unfaithfulness. We need not reflect so much upon it; yes we must (taken in a good sense) not once will that our head, or sensibility, should recollect itself, because such recollection would also be only sensual, too coarse and too unstable. Our love, our spirit are properly that part which must recollect itself; therefore let us leave the whole outward man, with his workings, alone, and gently, secretly and bare surrender our spirit to the drawings and workings of God, and remain in the true inwardness, which he himself is.

True inwardness is the work of God and not of man; to it may rightly be ascribed what Jesus says John 6: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. We will have learned it well from experience, how little our own efforts and strainings can make us inward; and the light of the Lord teaches it us afterward still better, how that through our own activity we rather hinder his work in us, while we think to help ourselves. An inward soul does enough, when it does nothing. A gentle sinking, a mute assent, an innocent looking-on is already work enough for a soul in which God works, and it would already be too much, when it reflected too exactly upon that which it does. Out of reverence before the divine hand we must lay our hands in the lap, to give him room. Our workings, as ours, are only selfhood; the Lord must bring them forth in us, when they are to be truly good; and however spiritual the same might also be, they do not bring us out of ourselves, which the Lord alone must do: Therefore I wish that the Lord would give you and me grace, to surrender ourselves to him and his working daily more and more, and to forget and lose ourselves the longer the more in him, our Origin, who is yet more inward to us than the inmost of our being, who alone also is worthy to be the object of our All. O! what does not storm upon our mind, to disturb us, to bind us, to deform us and to scatter us. Especially also with someone who must be among other people, and in many outward occupations! Therefore it is certainly a great grace and very needful, not to pour out our mind too much upon our businesses, but to do everything as much as possible with detachment, thoughtfully and without hurry, not forgetting at times to cast a devout little eye upon the Lord's presence in us, that no harmful mediation may come or remain between us and him: In him I greet you heartily;

Your obliged brother in the Lord.

German

Der hundertundeinundvierzigste Brief.

Von der wahren Innigkeit.

Herzlich geliebter Bruder in dem HErrn JEsu! Mit vieler Erquickung und Vereinigung meines Gemüths hab ich deinen Brief vom 30ten Septembr.

— 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).