CHAP. tions. him to be entirely silent. But, on leaving Wittemberg for Eisleben, he had failed to take with him the applications used for keeping up the discharge, and, amid the pressure of his present engagements, this relief was neglected; which proved of bad consequence.1 Thus matters proceeded till the seventeenth of February, Luther at all proper times applying himself to business, eating and sleeping well, and being very cheerful in his conversation. On that day, his friends, perceiving more repose to be desirable for him, persuaded him to keep quiet in his study; which he did, frequently walking up and down, in an undress, but conversing with animation. "From time His devo- to time," says Justus Jonas, "he would stop, and looking out at the window, in that attitude (as his custom was,) address fervent prayers to God, so that I and Coelius, who were in the room with him, could not but perceive it: and then he would say, I was born and baptized here at Eisleben; what if I should remain or even die here?" Another of his friends, Razeberg, the elector's physician, has preserved one of the prayers, as it would seem, which he thus offered while walking up and down in his study. It is in the following terms-principally referring to the religious interests of his native country: "O Lord God, heavenly Father, I call upon thee in the name of thy most dearly beloved 1 This was the opinion of his physician, Razeberg, Seck. iii. 65; and Luther appears to have been sensible of its truth; for, writing to Melancthon only four days before his death, though he speaks of hastening to return home in compliance with the elector's request, "rather satiated than satisfied" with the result of his journey, he says: “Tamen cura, ut mihi accurrat nuntius, qui afferat modicum corosive, qua crus meum aperiri solet. Nam pene totum sanatum est vulnus, quod quam periculosum sit nosti." In Strobel. p. 29. Son Jesus Christ, imploring that, according to thy promise, and for the glory of thy name, thou wouldest graciously hear the prayers which I offer up unto thee, beseeching thee that, as thou hast of thy mercy and boundless goodness, discovered to me the great apostacy and blindness of the pope before the day of thy last advent, which is at hand, and is to succeed that diffusion of the light of the gospel which now dawns upon the world; so thou wouldest graciously preserve the church of my beloved country in the acknowledgment of the truth, and the unwavering confession of thy uncorrupted word, without failing, even to the end; that the whole world may know that thou hast sent me for this very purpose. Even so, O most blessed Lord God! Amen and amen!" Though, however, Luther passed the day in his study, he did not choose to sup there, but in the large dining room; observing, that "to be solitary did not help the spirits." During supper, he quoted and made observations on many interesting passages of scripture. The conversation also happening to turn on the question, whether the righteous in a future state of blessedness, would recognise those who had been their friends on earth, he gave his opinion decidedly in the affirmative. In the course of more ordinary conversation, he remarked, "If I can but establish peace among the counts, the rulers of my country, I will then go home, lay myself down in my coffin, and give my body for food to the worms." A. D. 1546. Before supper he had complained of a pain in His Death. the chest, to which he was subject. It was, however, relieved by warm applications. After supper it returned; yet he would not have medical aid called in, but about nine o'clock lay down CHAP. on a couch and fell asleep. He awoke as the clock struck ten, and desired that those about him would retire to rest. When led into his chamber he said, "I go to rest with God; " and repeated the words of the Psalm, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit, &c :" and, stretching out his hand to bid all good night, he added, "Pray for the cause of God." He then went to bed: but about one o'clock he awoke Jonas and another who slept in the room with him, desired that a fire might be made in his study, and exclaimed, "Oh God! how ill I am! I I suffer dreadful oppression in my chest: I shall certainly die at Eisleben!"-He then removed into his study without requiring assistance, and again repeating, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit!" He walked backwards and forwards, and desired to have warm cloths brought him. In the mean time his physicians were sent for, as also count Albert, who presently came with his countess. All Luther's friends and his sons were now collected about him: medicines were given him, and he seemed somewhat relieved; and having lain down on a couch he fell into a perspiration. This gave encouragement to some present: but he said, "It is a cold sweat, the forerunner of death: I shall yield up my spirit." He then began to pray, nearly in these words: "O eternal and merciful God, my heavenly Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and God of all consolation! I thank thee that thou hast revealed to me thy Son, Jesus Christ; in whom I have believed, whom I have preached, whom I have confessed, whom I love and worship as my dear Saviour and Redeemer, whom the pope and the multitude of the ungodly do persecute, revile, and blaspheme. I beseech thee, my Lord A. D. 1546. Jesus Christ, receive my soul! O heavenly Father, though I be snatched out of this life, though I must now lay down this body, yet know I assuredly that I shall dwell with thee for ever, and that none can pluck me out of thy hands!"-He then thrice again repeated the words, "Into thy hands I commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth!" Also those words, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life:" and that verse of the sixty-eighth Psalm, " Our God is the God of whom cometh salvation: God is the Lord by whom we escape death." He then became silent, and his powers began to fail him but, when several present addressed him, "Reverend father, you die in the constant confession of Christ and his doctrine, which you have preached?" he distinctly answered, "Yes," and spoke no more; but, about a quarter of an hour Feb. 18. afterwards, between two and three o'clock in the morning," with his hands clasped together, and without a finger or a feature being disturbed, gently breathed his last." Such is the account which Justus Jonas, under the impulse of present feeling, and without even time for artful colouring, (had he been capable of employing it,) wrote to the elector of Saxony, by the hand of count Albert's secretary, within an hour after Luther's deathexcept that in a few passages some things are supplied from the fuller narrative which was drawn up for insertion in Luther's German works, and authenticated by the above-mentioned signatures of Justus Jonas, superintendant of Halle, and formerly rector of the university of Wittemberg, Michael Coelius, CHAP. VIII. His funeral. pastor of Eisleben, and John Aurifaber, chaplain to the elector of Saxony, all of whom were present with Luther to the last.1 Thus died in peace the man, who, bearing no higher office than than of an Augustinian monk, and afterwards of a protestant professor of divinity, had shaken to its centre one of the most firmly-seated systems of despotism and delusion that the world ever beheld; who had provoked, and for nearly thirty years together defied, the utmost malice of those mighty powers, which a little time before had made the proudest monarchs to tremble on their thrones; while, for the suppression of his principles, diet after diet of the German empire, aided by the representatives of the papal authority, met in vain. His hand had been against every man that was engaged on the side of reigning error, and every such man's hand against him; yet not one of them could touch a hair of his head to his hurt he lived and died unharmed, not only" in the presence of all his brethren," but in despite of all his enemies. So marvellous is the providence of God; so inexhaustible is his store of means for accomplishing "all his pleasure;" and so secure, under all circumstances, is the man over whom the shield of his protection is extended. Count Albert would gladly have retained the body of Luther, and interred it in the country which gave it birth: but he submitted to the wishes of the elector, who directed it to be 1 Dr. Robertson proncances the disease, of which Luther died," a violent inflammation of the stomach :" but it would seem rather to have been a chronic than an acute complaint. Melancthon, on the authority of some of the medical men, calls it, Kapoiwynov, dolorem, seu morsum et rosionem ventriculi, aut potius ejus orificii." Seck. iii. 635. |