Letters · Zweiter Band · Theil IV (1775)

Blessing-wish to a friend on his recovery; and warning against the emissaries of Babel.

Bd II · Th IV · Brief 145 · Der hundertundfünfundvierzigste Brief

Addressee, date, and source

Addressee — To a friend (unnamed). Salutation "N. N."
Date — Undated on the leaf (no dateline or place-line; closes …nebst herzlichem Gruß, 2c.).
Provenance — Translated from the public-domain 1775 first edition (Theil IV, pp. 367–369), in normalized GS 1845 house orthography, collated against the 1798/99 second edition (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). All rendered words come from public-domain prints.

The Hundred and Forty-fifth Letter.

Blessing-wish to a friend on his recovery; and warning against the emissaries of Babel.

N. N.

With much pleasure I learn of the continuation of your amendment, and congratulate you thereon from my whole heart, and with the inmost thanks and blessing-wish from above. Certainly! it seems to me I hear our great High Priest Jesus, accompanied by some gardener-youths, putting in the intercession for your life: Lord, let him alone this year also. Luke 13:8. May the Lord be praised and loved, that he has let himself be entreated! May the whole newly granted life be an active praise- and thank-offering to the Lord, and also dedicated to him alone and to eternity! May Jesus not weary of digging about and dunging your heart: To dig about by clearing away the earth, that the sun of grace may come right to the root; to dung by the continual influence of his fatness of the Spirit, which is promised to those who cleave to him in prayer and faith. Prov. 28:25. Let this then be and remain our sincere and unmoved conclusion: If we live, we will live unto the Lord, that when our little hour is come we may also die unto the Lord in peace. Amen, Jesus!

Much-beloved Sir N., I have hastened the more to congratulate Your Honor on your recovery, because I feared the emissaries of Babel might come before me. Hezekiah had experienced the severity of God in his sickness, and also his goodness in the recovery: at once letters and emissaries from Babel were there to congratulate him; whereby the good man's mind was drawn again fairly into all sorts of trifles, which in his sickness he would surely not have thought worth regarding. Isaiah 39. My own and others' experience have taught me that these emissaries of the king of Babel commonly present themselves after sicknesses overcome, that the reviving sense may only quickly be scattered again into earthly trifles, and the good seed be choked, to the highest harm of the soul.

Dismiss these guests cordially, if such should also present themselves with you. God has set you in view of eternity; there hold, with me, a firm foot, so will eternity become ever sweeter to us: This wishes and asks, with hearty greeting, etc.

❦

German

Der hundertundfünfundvierzigste Brief.

Segens-Wunsch an einen Freund zu seiner Wiedergenesung, und Warnung vor den Gesandten Babels.

N. N. Mit vielem Vergnügen vernehme ich die Continuation ihrer Besserung, und gratulire darzu von ganzem Herzen, und mit innigstem Dank und Segens-Wunsch von Oben.

— 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).

Translator’s notes

What this letter is. An undated short counsel to an unnamed friend (N. N.; formal Sie): joy at the continuation of his amendment; the fig-tree intercession of Luke 13:8 as from the great High Priest with gardener-youths; the newly granted life to be a thank-offering; Jesus digging and dunging the heart (Prov. 28:25); then a private haste to congratulate before Babel's emissaries arrive — Hezekiah's recovery and Isaiah 39 as the pattern; dismiss such guests cordially; God has set him in view of eternity — hold a firm foot.

How to read the German. The panel is the 1775 first-edition wording in the house orthography used for Band II / Th IV (settled 2 Sep 2026). Distinctive KEEP forms (sey / Diß / Gebät / Hiszkias / cordat / Continuation / gratulire / irrdische / 145te / gesetzt) stand as on the leaf. House folds include gantzem Hertzen→ganzem Herzen, Danck→Dank, gantze / neugeschenckte→ganze / neugeschenkte, Kranckheit→Krankheit, bey→bei, vesten→festen, hertzlichem→herzlichem, Lappereyen→Lappereien, verheissen→verheißen, Versalien → digraph. KEEP sey / Diß / Gebät / Hiszkias / cordat.

English choices. you/your for formal Sie; E. E. / Dero → Your Honor / your; Vielgeliebter Herr N. → Much-beloved Sir N.; Lappereien → trifles; cordat → cordially. Divine names ordinary. Modern morphology in ordinary prose (Jarred Rule C, 2 Sep 2026) — no decorative -eth; Scripture citations keep KJV cadence where quoted (Lord, let him alone this year also). No authorial emphasis (§9d).

How the German reads here. Panel KEEP forms (sey / Diß / Gebät / Hiszkias / cordat / irrdische) stand; gantzem Hertzen / Danck / Kranckheit / bey / vesten / hertzlichem / Lappereyen / verheissen / JESU / HERR / GOTT are folded by the house rules (Spec §3; CRITICAL Hertz*-class).

A few words and echoes.

"Continuation ihrer Besserung" — continuation of your amendment.
"HErr laß ihn noch diß Jahr" — Lord, let him alone this year also (Luke 13:8; KEEP diß).
"ihr Herz zu umgraben und zu bedüngen" — to dig about and dung your heart (Luke 13:8 echo).
"Fettigkeit des Geistes" — fatness of the Spirit (Prov. 28:25).
"die Gesandten Babels" — the emissaries of Babel (Isaiah 39).
"allerhand Lappereien" — all sorts of trifles.
"halten Sie, mit mir, festen Fuß" — hold, with me, a firm foot.
"ins Gesicht der Ewigkeit" — in view of eternity.

Cite this letter

Gerhard Tersteegen, Geistliche und erbauliche Briefe, Zweiter Band, IV. Theil, Brief 145 (Solingen, 1773–75); trans. Jarred Fenlason, https://gerhardtersteegen.com/letters/bdii-thiv-145.html.

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