I have seen variations on a quote by Martin Luther that is cited often:

"Four things [sometimes said to be three things] make a divine [or a minister]: prayer, reading, temptation, and meditation."

Does anyone know the citation to Luther's quote and the exact original wording (or English translation thereof)?

Thanks!

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"On land, at sea, at home, abroad, / I smoke my pipe and worship God." -- J.S. Bach

I do not believe this link will completely satisfy your question Andrew, but perhaps it will be of some value as we ponder your question.
Reference

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Briant Holley
Grace Reformed Baptist Church
Husband to Barbara, Father of Alexis, Justin, and Lacey
Silver Creek, MS

I am getting closer.
"Moreover, I want to point out to you a correct way of studying theology, for I have had practice in that. If you keep to it, you will become so learned that you yourself could (if it were necessary) write books just as good as those of the fathers and councils, even as I (in God) dare to presume and boast, without arrogance and lying, that in the matter of writing books I do not stand much behind some of the fathers. Of my life I can by no means make the same boast. This is the way taught by holy King David (and doubtlessly used also by all the patriarchs and prophets) in the one hundred nineteenth Psalm. There you will find three rules, amply presented throughout the whole Psalm. They are Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio." Link

Thanks very much for looking into this.

Try Luther search engine here, or here (Luther is found in English, too). If you want to locate it (and I would imagine Luther repeated himself a lot!!!) you should by his works on CD in English or here; also in German, not to mention Latin.

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Independent Reformed Baptist Church (NE England, nr. Durham)

Danke schön!

It's not Luther, but from a sermon by Thomas Fuller, quoting who he calls "Master Perkins". Try the link below.

The Collected Sermons of Thomas ... - Google Book Search

Blessings!

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Charles Plauger
Member/Grace Reformed Church
Oakland, MD

Thanks. Notwithstanding Fuller's attribution of this quote to Perkins, I have found numerous citations to Luther from a wide range of respected theologians and historians, including George Whitfield, William Cunningham, Thomas Watson, John Flavel, Charles Bridges, Richard Gilpin, Benjamin Brook, and others.

I think the saying attributed to Luther may be derived from the preface to his commentary on Galatians where Luther says:

I have also found in Erasmus Middleton's Life of Luther (Evangelical Biography, Vol. 1, p. 233) the following statement:

You're farther ahead than I, it appears. I skimmed the index of Luther's Table Talk, Vol. 54, and didn't find anything. It seemed to me at first like something he might have said in the context of those sorts of settings.

Blessings!

Your German greeting reminded me of Luther's 'Anfechtung', which may be rendered 'temptation', but its connotation extends beyond that. Perhaps one ought to render it as 'assault'. I think Luther's point was that exegesis is deficient apart from one's experience, which, incidentally is a very Calvinistic thing to say, cf. Calvin's Preface to the Psalter. We must know the doctrines of grace and the grace of the doctrines. Our theology is always experimental - sometimes 'better felt than tell't'.