Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/529

 the God of Jacob protect theel May he send thee help from his holy place and guard thee from Zion; may he give unto thee according to thy heart, and strengthen all thy council; may he fulfil all thy petitions and hear thee from his holy heaven in the might of his right hand.* What else ought I to pray for you, my dearest Luther, my venerable father? Be strong and courageous.* You see what is staked on you, what a crisis this is. You must never doubt me as long as you are constant; I will cling to you to my last breath. Many dogs surround you, and the council of the malignant besieges you ; they have opened their mouths against you like raging and roaring lions;* they exult and rejoice over you, seeking you.* But the Lord is careful for you* and will repay the proud. He will arise with you against the malignant and stand with you against those who work iniquity ; he will repay the impious their iniquity and will destroy them in their evil.* Thus it will be, Luther, for God, the just and strong judge, can no longer connive at such wickedness.^ Fight strenuously for Christ ; yield not to evil, but go the more boldly against it.' Bear affliction as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,' and use zealously the gift^^of God which is in you, persuaded that he is able to guard that which you have committed unto him against that day. Meanwhile, I, too, will strive for the same thing, but my plans differ from one another, for they arc human ; you are more perfect and act only from holy motives. Would that I could see with what eyes they look" at you ; what faces they turn to you; how they knit their eyebrows, I imagine all that is most dreadful, nor do I think that I am wrong, for I expect that the Lord will purge the vineyard of Sabaoth,^* which the boar of the wood doth ravage and the wild beast feedeth on." This I write briefly in great anxiety for you. May Christ save you !

Ulrich von Huttkn.

X^f. Psalm XX. 2-7. sjoBhua, L 7.

sPsalm xxiL i7» 14. <Psalm xl. 17.

&Psalm xl. 18. <Paalm xdr. 2, 16, s$.

''Psalm vii. 12. ^VirfU: Aeneid, tL 95.

117. e., the men in the Diet before which Lather made his first appearance ta this day. Smith, xii£E.
 * 3 Timothy, ii. 3. 1O3 Timothy. L u.

IS John, XT. 2; Isaiah, ▼. 7. i^Psalm Ixxx. 13.

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