And now to make an end: mark here who gave this precept of love--Christ
our Savior Himself. When and at what time? At His departing, when He
should suffer death. Therefore these words ought the more to be
regarded, seeing He Himself spake them at His last departing from us.
May God of His mercy give us grace so to walk here in this world,
charitably and friendly one with another, that we may attain the joy
which God hath prepared for all those that love Him. Amen.
MELANCHTHON
THE SAFETY OF THE VIRTUOUS
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Philip Melanchthon (Schwarzerd) was born at Bretten, in Baden, in 1497.
His name is noteworthy as first a fellow laborer and eventually a
controversial antagonist of Luther. At the Diet of Augsburg, in 1530, he
was the leading representative of the Reformation. He formulated the
twenty-eight articles of the evangelical faith known as the "Augsburg
Confession." The Lutherans of extreme Calvinistic views were alienated
by Melanchthon's subsequent modifications of this confession, and by his
treatises in ethics. He and his followers were bitterly assailed, but
his irenic spirit did not forsake him.
Pages:
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169