Prayer, Reading, Temptation, Meditation -- Luther

[VirginiaHuguenot]

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!

 

[Ezekiel3626]

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

 

[Ezekiel3626]

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

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Thanks very much for looking into this.

 

[Dieter Schneider]

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!

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.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

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!

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.

Danke schön!

 

[moral necessity]

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!

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!

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

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!

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!

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:

“Wherefore I do admonish you, especially such as shall become teachers and guiders of consciences, and also every one apart, that ye exercise yourselves continually by study, by reading, by meditation of the word, and by prayer, that in time of temptation ye may be able to instruct and comfort both your own consciences and others, and to bring them from the law to grace, from active and working righteousness, to the passive and received righteousness: and to conclude, “from Moses to Christ”.

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

Luther frequently said, "That a preacher should take care not to bring three little sly dogs into his profession; viz. PRIDE, COVETOUSNESS, and ENVY." To which he added to preachers, "When you observe the people hear most attentively; be assured, they will return the more readily. Three things make a divine, meditation, prayer, and temptation. And three things are to be remembered by a minister; turn over and over the Bible; pray devoutly; and be never above learning. They are the best preachers for the common people, who speak in the meanest, lowest, humblest, and most simple style."

 

[moral necessity]

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!

 

[Dieter Schneider]

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!

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.

Danke schön!

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'.