Page:The letters of Martin Luther.djvu/276

 Now their folly is manifest. But it is God who is befooling them. My Staupitz was wont to say, “When God wishes to torture any one He first shuts their eyes.” I am sure their eyes are shut, for I regard them as devils incarnate.

No more senseless demand has ever been made than that everything should remain as it was and their ideas be accepted, while ours are cast aside, especially as they themselves admit that we are right in many respects. For this is tantamount to expecting that our Apology, which even they praised, should be disavowed by us before the whole world. Truly this manifest vengeance of God on His enemies affords me no little consolation.

May the Lord Jesus guide you through His Holy Spirit. God grant this.

From the wilderness. MARTIN LUTHER. (Schutze.)

CCXXXVI
TO PHILIP MELANCHTHON

Luther’s ill-health and Satan’s assaults enabled him to sympathize with others in their dark hours.

July 31, 1530.

My dear brother, grace and peace in our Lord!

Although I have nothing to say, I did not wish the man who brought the game to return without letters.

I believe you have all wrestled manfully with the devil this week, and I presume this is why Weller’s and Schosser’s messenger has not returned from you. In spirit I am very near you. But I am sure this much-maligned Christ is even nearer. Therefore I cry earnestly to Him to stand by you. God grant you may not desert our cause. For I know the adversaries try to draw away the timid and desponding.

Do not be anxious about me, for it is no organic disease from which I suffer, so I scoff at Satan’s angel who buffets me so severely. If I cannot read and write I can still meditate and pray; also sleep, play, and sing. Only do not worry unduly, Philip, over a cause which is not in