To Veit Dietrich - Martin Luther

TO VEIT DIETRICH

Luther requests his friend to prosecute his Biblical work. November 7, 1543.

Grace and peace! Magister Rorer, who has the mastery over me, ordered me to write to you, my dear Dietrich. Perhaps I might have paid no attention to my master’s command, being rather incensed against him, had he not used all his eloquence to convince me that it was necessary to spur you on to continue your labours on my first book of Moses. Perhaps I might have resisted him with a flow of rhetoric, had I not at length been mollified by the dialectic commonplaces: “When a beginning has once been made, it is disgraceful to retreat, in case Moses himself should upbraid us in that well-

known proverb, ‘Rather do not allow the guest into the house than throw him out of the window.’ “ You also could chant such-like phrases from the Greek. I must confess to not being at all pleased with my works. How much is wanting that ought to be found in them? But I comfort myself with St. Paul’s words: “Who is sufficient for these things?” If we refused to open our mouths till we felt qualified to do so, then Christ would never be preached. But it is well for us that out of the mouths of babes He

prepareth strength, and through Moses’ stammering lips, or, as it is in the original, through him who was slow of speech, he demolished the land of Egypt and the Canaanites; and by means of unlearned apostles transformed the face of the globe. So give ample satisfaction to my master, M. Rorer. How can I be gracious to you if you are unjust to him? Pray for me.

I commit you to God. MARTIN LUTHER . (Schutze.)