To a friend who was about to enter the married estate: that he and his people should not, at the wedding, make themselves like the world, but let everything proceed in Christian simplicity.

The Twenty-eighth Letter.

To a friend who was about to enter the married estate: that he and his people should not, at the wedding, make themselves like the world, but let everything proceed in Christian simplicity.

In the grace of God, beloved friend and brother!

In the hope and wish that the present may still find you in blessed well-being of soul and body, I have had to give, with these few words, only a single reminder that was forgotten at your last stay here for lack of time. Namely, that I hear that thereabouts, in the keeping of weddings and other arrangements belonging to them, such gross abuses have crept in: I therefore beg you and your friends at N. together, that you would by no means, in this matter, make yourselves like the world.

If this weighty estate is to be entered under blessing, then everything about it must proceed by the measuring-line of faith and conscience, and not by the rule of the world. Avoid, for God's sake, all vain feasting; let everything at the wedding go in Christian simplicity and moderation, so that God's blessing may thus come upon you and your estate. I give you to ponder the words from the Gospel, John 2: Jesus and His disciples were also called to the wedding. This must be able to be said of your wedding too, so that if one day your water-jars should be filled with the water of tribulation in this trouble-bound estate, the Lord Jesus may turn the same into pure wine of a spiritual blessing and comfort — which my soul begs for you from the heart.

So do not turn, in this, to the counsel that flesh and blood might give. Everything, surely, is to be done in the Lord. Not as members of the world, but as those who desire to be counted among the congregation of the godly, and who also hold their counsel worth heeding. Let this little letter, beloved friend, be read at N. too; as I then greet them all together; I have the confidence in them all that they will not take my words amiss, but willingly give them place. It is surely better to give offense to the whole world than to a single godly soul. For the rest, dear friend, I wish that the Lord may quiet your mind, and give you also sufficient strength and faithfulness, that the change of your outward estate may in no way unsettle the inward one. Greet, too, your future helpmeet: I hope to pray for you both, that together you may become and remain rightly-united companions on one way, seeking only what is above, through a thorough renouncing of what is here below; for here we have no abiding city.

With hearty greeting once more, also from brother N., I remain

Your

friend and brother, inclined to you in love.

German

Der 28te Brief.

An einen Freund, der sich in den Ehestand wollte begeben: daß er und die Seinigen bei der Hochzeit sich nicht der Welt gleich stellen, sondern alles in Christlicher Einfalt zugehen lassen sollten.

In der Gnade GOttes geliebter Freund und Bruder!

In Hoffnung und Wunsch, daß dich Gegenwärtiges noch in gesegnetem Wohlstand nach Seel und Leib antreffen werde, habe mit diesem wenigen nur allein eine Erinnerung geben müssen, welche bei eurem letzteren Hierseyn aus Mangel der Zeit vergessen war.

— 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).