Philip Melancthon,
to the Students in The University of Wittenburg,
on the death of Luther, 1546
On our assembling to hear the Epistle of
Paul to the Romans, at nine o'clock in the forenoon, Dr. Philip Melancthon
publicly recited to us the following address; saying at the same time, that he
was induced to do so by the suggestion of some learned professors, and that we
being in possession of the true state of things, might be prepared to reject
any incorrect statements which he foresaw would be in circulation after
Luther's death.
Most Noble Youths,
We have undertaken as you know, to deliver a critical exposition of the
Epistle to the Romans, wherein is contained the true doctrine of the Son of
God, which our Heavenly Father has in peculiar mercy, laid open to us, at this
time, through our revered Father and Preceptor, Dr. Martin Luther.
But now alas! so deep a shade of sorrow is cast over these writings, which but
augment my grief, that I know not whether I shall be able hereafter to pursue
the study of them in our college. I am anxious however, at the request of my
friends of the University, and that you may have a right understanding of the
circumstances of Luther's death, to communicate to you the following
particulars, in order that you may not even entertain, much less circulate,
reports which, as is so often the case, will probably now be current in
society.
On the 17th of February, our Master and Teacher, a little before supper, was
attacked by his usual complaint to which I remember he had occasionally been
subject. After supper a recurrence of the disorder took place, under the
influence of which lie requested pemission to withdraw into an adjoining room,
where he lay for nearly two hours, until his sufferings increased. Doctor
Jonas sleeping in the same room with him, Doctor Martin called him hastily,
requesting him to rise and give orders that Ambrosius, the servant who
attended on the children, should make his private apartment warm: and having
retired into it, Albert, the illustrious Count of Mansfield, with his
Countess, and many others, entered, the names of whom for brevity's sake, we
omit. At length when he found that the close of his life was approaching,
before four o'clock on the following day, the 18th of February, he commended
himself to God in the following prayer:-
(Following given in German)
"My heavenly Father, eternal and merciful God ! Thou has revealed unto me Thy
dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom I have learned--whom I have proclaimed
to be my Lord--whom I love and whom I honour, as my precious Saviour and
Redeemer,--whom the ungodly persecute, dishonour, and blaspheme; take Thou my
soul unto Thyself.'' Three times he expressed these words.
(Following in Latin)
"Into Thy hands I commit my spirit, Thou hast redeemed me, 0 God of Truth !"
(Following in German)
"And God so loved the world," &C.
Amid these prayers occasionally repeated, be was called to the one eternal
assembly and to everlasting bliss, in which he is now enjoying the presence of
the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, with that of all the Prophets
and Apostles.
Alas, for the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof! Our Elijah is no
more, he who guided and governed the Church in this decrepitude of the world.
Human sagacity could not have discovered the doctrines of the Remission of
Sins, and of Faith in the Son of God; but He has been pleased to reveal them
to us through the medium of this, His servant, whom also we see that God has
taken unto himself.
Let us therefore cherish his memory with that of the peculiar doctrine which
he delivered to us, and let us be the more humbled in our spirits when we
contemplate the great calamities and the mighty revolutions which will
probably follow this event.
I beseech Thee, 0 Son of God! Thou who wast crucified for us, and art now the
risen Emmanuel, that Thou wilt govern, preserve, and defend Thy Church. Amen.
ELEGY ON THE DEATH
OF THE REV. MARTIN LUTHER, D.D.,
FROM THE LATIN OF
PHILIP MELANCTHON.
Since Luther is no more, his cherished name
Shall from our hearts, a deathless tribute claim.
We hailed him minister of Christ, the Lord,
Jesus he preached, with faith, and taught his word.
Luther is dead! and now the church in tears
A mourner clothed in saddest garb appears.
She weeps her loved preceptor now no more,
Honoured and dear, a father's name he bore.
Fallen on the field the mighty chieftain lies,
And Israel's voice proclaims his obsequies.
Then let us bathe In tears the muse's lay
And publish forth our sorrows to the day
It thus becomes us well-to weep and mourn
Whilst, orphans in our grief, we dress affection's urn.
A FUNERAL ORATION
ON THE REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER,
PRONOUNCED AT Wittenberg,
by Philip Melancthon
Although amid this universal
grief, my voice is impeded by sorrow and by tears, yet since in so large an
assembly, we are called upon for some expression of our feelings; let it not
be after the manner of the heathen, a declamation in praise of the departed
one, but rather a commemoration in the audience of those now present of the
wonderful pilotage of the church in all her perils; that we may call to mind
on what account it behooves us to mourn, what purposes we should ourselves
most diligently pursue, and in what manner we should order our lives. For
although irreligious men conceive that the interests of this world are borne
along in a giddy tide of confusion and uncertainty, yet, reassured as we are
by the many indubitable testimonies of God, we make a wide distinction between
the church and the profane multitude, and we believe that she is indeed
governed and upheld by the power of God: we clearly discern his polity_we
acknowledge the true helmsmen, and we watch their course,_we choose also for
ourselves, befitting leaders and teachers whom we devotedly follow and revere.
On these so weighty matters, it is necessary both to think and to speak, as
often as mention is made of that revered man Dr. Martin Luther, our beloved
father and teacher; and whilst he has been the object of most cruel hatred to
many, let us who know that he was a divinely inspired minister of the gospel,
regard his memory with love and esteem, and let us gather such testimonies as
prove that his teaching was by no means a blind dissemination of seditious
opinions, as the Epicureans give out, but a demonstration of the will and of
the true worship of God, an unfolding of the sacred records and a declaration
of the word of God, that is of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In orations such as the present, much is usually said of the individual
excellencies of those whom we wish to commend; passing however, in silence
over this part of my theme, it is my design to dwell principally on that main
point, the call to gospel ministry; and here we may unite in opinion with all
just thinkers, that if Luther has illustrated a wholesome and necessary
doctrine in the church, we ought to return thanks unto God, that He has been
pleased to raise him up to this work, whilst his personal labours, his faith,
his constancy, and his other virtues are to be commended, and his memory to be
held most dear by all good men. Let this therefore be the beginning, of our
oration.
The Son of God, as Paul says, sits on the right hand of the Eternal Father,
and gives gifts unto men; these gifts are the voice of the Gospel and of the
Holy Spirit, with which, as He imparts them, He inspires Prophets, Apostles,
Pastors and Teachers, and selects them from this our assembly, that is to say,
from those who are yet in the rudiments of divine knowledge, who read, who
hear, and who love the prophetic and apostolic writings; nor does he often
call to this warfare those who are in the exercise of established power, but
it even pleases him to wage war on these very men through leaders chosen from
other ranks. It is cheering and instructive to take a retrospect of the church
throughout all past ages, and to contemplate the goodness of God who has sent
out from its bosom gifted ministers in so unbroken a series, that as the first
of these have passed away, others have pressed closely in their footsteps.
The line of the first fathers is well worthy of our consideration. Adam,
Seth, Enoch, Methusalem, Noe, Sem, and Abraham, who was raised up to be a
fellow-helper of Sem and his associate in the all-important work of spreading
true religion; and although at this time Sem was still dwelling in the
neighbourhood of Sodom, the people had lost the recollection both of his
precepts and those of Noe, and were altogether abandoned to the worship of
idols. To Abraham succeeded law and Jacob; next Joseph_who kindled the light
of truth throughout all Egypt, at that time the most flourishing kingdom in
the world. After these, we read of Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and David; then
Elisha, of whose ministry the prophet Isaiah was a partaker; then Esdras,
Onias, and in succession the Maccabees, Simeon, Zacharias, and John the
Baptist: and lastly, Christ and His Apostles. It is delightful to behold this
unbroken chain, which is a clear testimony to the presence of God in his
church.
After the Apostles followed a band, which although somewhat weaker, was
nevertheless honoured with the blessing of God. Polycarp, Irenaeus, Gregory
the Niocaesarien, Basilius, Augustinus, Prosper, Maximus, Hugo, Bernardus,
Taulerus, and others; and although this later age has become more corrupt, yet
God has always preserved a remnant of the faithful, whilst it is evident that
the light of the gospel has now been peculiarly manifested through the
preaching of Luther.
He is therefore to be numbered with that blessed company, the excellent of the
earth, whom God has sent forth for the gathering together and the building up
of his church, and whom we truly recognize as ornaments of the human race.
Solon, Themistocles, Scipio, Augustus, and others were indeed great men, who
founded, states, or ruled over vast empires; yet do they rank far below our
spiritual leaders, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Paul and Luther.
It is also well that we should regard the grand disputations which have
existed in the church, and in connection with this subject let us look at
those themes of deep and high import which have been brought to light by
Luther, and which evince that the tenor of his life was worthy of our highest
approbation. It is true that many exclaim "the church is in confusion,"
saying that inextricable controversies are engendered in it; to these I
answer,_such is the mode of divine Government, for when the Holy Spirit
convicts the world, dissentions arise through the pertinacity of the wicked;
and the guilt is on those who refuse to listen to the Son of God, and of whom
our Heavenly Father says, "Hear Him."
That Luther illustrated the essential truths of the Gospel is manifest, as the
deepest shades had previously veiled its doctrines, in dispersing these he
clearly proved to us the nature of sincere repentance, he showed us in whom we
must seek refuge, and what is the sure consolation of the mind that trembles
under a sense of the wrath of God. He elucidated the doctrine of Paul which
says, that man is justified by faith; he showed the difference between the Law
and the Gospel, between Spiritual righteousness and the Moral law; he pointed
out the nature of true prayer, and he called back the church universal from
that heathen madness which teaches that God, is to be invoked even when the
mind, oppressed with metaphysical doubts, is flying far from Him: he enforced
on us the conviction that prayer is to be made in faith, and in a good
conscience, and he led us to the one Mediator, the Son of God sitting at the
right hand of the Eternal Father, and interceding for us; not to those images
and departed mortals, to whom the ungodly world, with awful infatuation, is
wont to perform its devotions. He also pointed out other sacred duties which
are acceptable to God, whilst he was himself careful to adorn and to preserve
inviolate the institutions of civil life as no preceding writers had done; he
also drew a line of distinction between works necessary to be performed, and
the puerile observances of human ceremonies, including there rights and
established laws which impede the offering of the heart to God. In order that
this heavenly teaching might be transmitted unimpaired to posterity, lie
translated the prophetic and apostolic writings into German, which work he
executed with such perspicuity, that this version alone imparts more light to
the mind of the reader, than the perusal of many commentaries would do. To
this he added various expositions which, as Erasmus was accustomed to say,
were far superior to any others then extant; and as it is related of the
builders of Jerusalem, that they wrought with one hand and held the sword in
the other, so was he at the same time contending with the enemies of truth,
and composing expositions fraught with divine philosophy; whilst by his pious
counsels he strengthened the minds of many.
Since the mystery of godliness lies far beyond the reach of human vision, as
for instance, the doctrines of Faith, and of the Remission of Sins, we are
constrained to acknowledge that Luther was taught of God; and how many of us
have witnessed there wrestlings in which be was himself instructed, and by
which we must be convinced that through faith alone we also can be heard and
accepted of God. Therefore shall His people to all eternity celebrate the
blessings which He has conferred on the church by this His servant: first they
will offer up thanksgivings to God, then they will acknowledge that they owe
much to the labours of this our friend and brother; although the irreligious
who deride the church in general, say that these good deeds are but idle
pastime or intoxicating madness.
Let it not be said that endless disputations have been raised, or that the
apple of discord has been thrown by the church, as some falsely assert; nor
have the enigmas of the Sphynx been propounded by her, for to men of sense and
