Let 598 OTHER CONTEMPORARY LETTERS IW
598. LUTHER TO THE CHRISTL\NS OF RIGA, REVAL AND
DORPAT. Weimar, xii, 147. German. (Wittsnbebg, August 1523.)
In October, 1522, John Lohmuller, secretary of the city of Riga, wrote to Luther (Enders, iv, 10) telling him of the progress of the Reforma- tion in that city, and asking him to dedicate some book to the evan- gelical Christians there. This is apparently the letter to which Luther refers in his letter to Spalatin of January 22, 1523 (supra, no. 570). After long delay, Luther replied with the following letter, which, like that to the Christians of Holland (supra, no. 596}, is an "open letter," and was sent to Riga in print. The reference to the martyrs of Brus- sels fixes August as the earliest date for its writing. Literature in Weimar, xii, 146.
Grace and peace in Christ. I have learned from letters and by word of mouth,* dear sirs and brethren, how God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, has begun to work wonders among you also and has visited your hearts with the gracious light of His truth, and has so highly blessed you that you receive it as a true Word of God, which indeed it is. The most of us here will neither listen to it nor endure it, but the richer and the greater the grace God offers us here the more madly do the princes, the bishops and all the big scales of Behemoth strive against it, slander it, condemn it and persecute it. They have gone so far as to put many people in prison, and recently they have burned two," in order that in our days new martyrs might be sent to heaven with Christ. Therefore I joyfully call you blessed, because, at the end of the world, like the heathen in Acts xiv, you receive with all gladness the saving Word, which our Jews in this Jerusalem, nay, this Babylon, not only despise, but will not permit others to hear. "The wrath of God," says St. Paul," "is come upon them to the uttermost"; but you are ruled by grace.
Therefore, my beloved, be thankful for God's grace and know the time of your visitation, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. And, first of all, be careful not to become Galatians, who made such a glorious beginning and became
- C/. supra, no. 570.
- The martyrs of Brussels. Supra, no. 596.
- I Thessaloniani ii, 16.
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