To Friedrich Myconius, pastor at Gotha. 9 Jan. 1541.
To the respectable Mr. Friedrich Myconius, the bishop of the church at Gotha as well as of the Thuringian churches, his beloved brother, grace and peace in Christ.
I have received your letter, dear Mr. Friedrich, in which you indicate that you are mortally ill or, as you rightly and Christianly interpret it, sick to life. Although it is a particular great joy to me that you are so confident and undaunted against death, which according to the Scriptures is not death but a sweet sleep of all the blessed, Matth. 9, 24, yes, that you have a longing and desire to depart and be with Christ, Phil. 1, 23.Just as we believers should always be so minded, not only on the bed of death, but also when we are fresh and healthy and in every hour, in all places, in all cases, as befits Christians who have been made alive together with Christ, raised together with him and seated together with him in the heavenly realm, 1 Cor. 6, 31, who will also judge the angels, 2 Cor. 5, so that nothing is left but the removal of the veil and the cessation of the dark word,
1 Cor. 13, 13.: Although, I say, it is a special joy for me to hear this from you, I pray and implore to the Lord Jesus, who is our life, salvation and health, that he does not also inflict this misfortune on me, that I should experience and see that you or some of our people should precede me, penetrate and tear through the curtain to rest, and leave me behind you here in this false evil world, in the midst of the devils, so that after your departure I would have to endure even longer more torment and torture, which I have endured and suffered more than enough now for some twenty years and would therefore be well worth - would also have deserved it for the sake of the world only very well - that I should precede you all and pass away in the Lord.
So I desire and ask that the dear God would let me become ill in your place and call me to lay down this hut of mine, which is now useless, worn out and exhausted; I see it well that I am no longer useful to anyone. Therefore I ask and admonish you with earnestness that you and all of us ask the dear God to keep you alive longer.
to the service of his church and to the mockery and displeasure of the devil. For you see, Christ, our life, also sees what kind of persons and gifts his church needs from time to time.
From Worms we have finally received letters in full, since we had been waiting for five whole weeks and there was almost no hope left, of which Georg Rörer sends a part to you. On our side, praise God, everything is being done manfully and wisely; On the other hand, on the adversary's side, everything is done childishly, foolishly, clumsily, with crude and nasty tricks and lies, so that one can see that Satan, because the dawn is breaking, shuns the light of pure doctrine and cannot stand it, and, where it does not help, pretends cunning and deceit through his ventriloquists, and yet everything goes the way of cancer, as must necessarily happen if one wants to advocate and adorn public blasphemous lies against publicly recognized truth, which is impossible. But what do we want to doubt? the glory, power,
Victory, salvation and honor belong to the Lamb who was slain and raised again, and together with him also to us who believe that he was slain and raised again; there is no doubt about that. We hope that our people will soon return home from Worms.
Farewell, my dear Frederick, the Lord will not let me hear as long as I live that you have died, but make it so that you survive me. I ask this with earnestness, and I want it to be granted and to be so, and my will shall be done in this, amen. *) For this my will seeks the glory of God's name, not my glory nor pleasure; this is certainly true.
Be well again in the Lord; we pray for you from the bottom of our hearts. Greetings from my Käthe and all others who are not a little moved and saddened by your illness. Sunday after Epiphany, 1541.
Your Martin Luther.