Lament over the bad times. Consolation for Wolf Heinze, because of the loss of his wife.
Printed in Litterarischen Wochenblatt, II, 317; from Börner's collection in Leipzig in Schütze, Vol. I, p. 277; in Strobel-Ranner, p. 322 and in De Wette, Vol. V, p. 590.
Grace and peace! One must pray much at this time, my dear Jonas, but write little. For there is almost nothing good that one could write with such a great raging of evil everywhere. But only good things can be prayed for. The scourge of the plague rages so much among you now, perhaps not far from us; but this rod has always been a rod for the church, as Paul says 1 Cor. 11:1, 30, 32, with which the sloth and negligence of the church has been chastised. Many sleep among you, he says, and many are weak. But this is how we are chastened when we are judged by the Lord, so that we will not be condemned together with the world. The wars are a scourge of wrath, especially the wars at this time, which are not wars, but robberies of the raging Satan by these raging men, so that more evil comes from them, because they defend us within the walls, than from enemies who besiege by heart. I grieve with Wolf Heinze, the very good man, and know his pain. But the time will come when he will thank GOtte, who has snatched his own from him, by such a fatherly, and, as I have said, the real scourge of the church, from these abysses and chasms of the world. But now I rejoice that my exceedingly dear daughter Magdalene has been snatched out of Ur in Chaldea, and I am safe because of her, and she is safe in eternal peace, although I have lost her with great trailer. Be thou confident with thine own in the Lord, who upholdeth thee and them to his glory. I will faithfully admonish your Justus, and also add my John, if it will be bearable for Philip. Farewell and pray for me. I write nothing about the Turks and the papists, whose praise I consider to be the devil's filth. On the last day of September, 1543, yours, Martin Luther.
1) In the issues: 1 Cor. 10.
Letters from the year 1543. No. 3050 to 3053.
No. 3050.
To Anton Lauterbach, pastor in Pirna.
Luther speaks courage to him because of the annoyances he had to experience in his office.
Manuscript in Aurifaber, vol. III, p. 416. From the Ludwig Collection in Halle in Schütze, vol. I, p. 276 and in De Wette, vol. V, p. 591. German in Walch, Bb. XXI, 1509.
To the highly placed man, Mr. M. Anton Lauterbach, your right and faithful bishop of the church at Pirna, his exceedingly dear brother in the Lord.
Grace and peace in the Lord! Be ge-
be undaunted, my dear Anton, and wait for the Lord [Ps. 27:14], and let the wicked boast and triumph, whose glory is put to shame [Phil. 3:19]. For how often have these bulls and puffed-up bladders of water been bristling hitherto, and yet, as the 7th Psalm [v. 15.] has said, they have been pregnant with calamity, and have borne a miscarriage, and as Isaiah, Cap.33,11. has said: With straw ye shall conceive, and stubble shall ye bear. It will happen one day that the heavens will fall and be burned up with the earth, but even then we will not perish or lose God. Your Meissners are not revealed to me only now what kind of people they were. I have always seen that they were those who waited for an opportunity to reveal their hypocrisy, which was not happily hidden. Let us only be careful to be sure of the word and to teach it diligently, but cast all care upon God. He cares for us; cast your care upon the Lord. Terrible things are said about the Turk. But the emperor will not yet accomplish what the papists praise; "he takes too much in one bite. But let us teach, believe, pray, do and suffer what we must, and let the dead bury their dead. What do we care about those who are outside? Be well in the Lord and pray for me. My Lord Käthe greets you reverently with yours. Witten-
berg, the last of September 1543.
Your Martin Luther.
No. 3051.