and would not leave off until I told him I would write to you and find out. The story was that you had come out with a new doctrine and were contending that faith could be without works. He said that you were publishing this doctrine and crying it up with much diligence and with the use of Greek words. But I, who by the harassing of Satan have been taught to fear even for things that are safe, am writing to you not only because I promised to do so, but also to admonish you to take heed to Satan and your own flesh. For you know that no safeguards avail against the plots of Satan unless we are always guarded from heaven, and that in his plots there is so much poison and danger that from a spark a fire is kindled, or, as Paul puts it,^ a little leaven spoils the whole lump. In so great a matter there must be no jesting and no chances must be taken, however small, for the enemy enters by the smallest cracks and does quite as much harm as if he had come storming in by the open doors. I hope you will take this admonition kindly, for you see in what spirit it is given, and please tell me, if you have time, about the whole case. For what was less to fear than that Oecolampadius and Rhegius and others would fall? And what fears do I not feel even for our intimate friends here ? It is not strange if I fear for you, with whom I should most of all be sorry to disagree. Farewell in the Lord, and greet your Elsa and her grapes. The Lord has taken my Elsa, that she may see no evil. Yours, Martin Luther.
808. LUTHER TO THE LANDGRAVE PHILIP OF HESSE.
Weimar, xxx," 107. German. (WrrxENBERc), October 9, 1528.
This letter is Luther's dedication of the little treatise On War Against the Turks, though the treatise did not appear in print until April, 1529. It was written at the time that all Germany was ex- pecting the great Turkish invasion, which was finally repulsed in October, 1529, and when the danger from the Turks was one of the strongest political safeguards against persecution that the Lutheran princes had. On the whole subject vide Cohrs' excellent introdaction to the treatise in Weimar, xxx,* Biff.
Grace and peace in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour.
^I Corinthians ▼, 6.
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