fore his departure from Wittenberg, he begged of Dr. Martin
Luther to write to my father, as the latter, on account of his lawsuit
with Hermann Bruser, had abstained for some years from the Lord's
table.[50] The letter was thus worded:--

'To the honourable and discreet Nicholaus Sastrow, burgher of
Stralsund; my kind and good friend, _Gratia et Pax_.

'Your dear son Magister Johannes has made known to me with touching
lament, my dear friend, how you have abstained from the Sacrament for
so many years, giving a scandalous example to others, and he has begged
me to exhort you to give up such a dangerous practice, as we are not
sure of life for a moment. So his filial, faithful care for you his
father has moved me to write to you, and I give you my brotherly and
Christian exhortation (such as we owe to one another in Christ) to
desist from such a practice, and to consider that the Son of God
suffered far more and forgave his crucifiers. And finally, when your
hour comes, you will have to forgive as does a thief on the gallows. If
your cause before the court lingers on, let it proceed, and wait for
your right. Such things do not prevent us from going to the Sacrament,
else we and also our princes could not attend, as the cause betwixt us
and the Papists still lingers on. Commit your cause to justice, and
meanwhile make your conscience free, and say, "Whoever shall be judged
in the right, let him be considered so, in the mean time I will forgive
those who have done the wrong, and go to the Sacrament." Thus you will
go not unworthily, because you desire justice and are willing to suffer
wrong, however the judge's sentence may fall. Take kindly this
exhortation which your son has so earnestly begged from me. Herewith I
commend you to God. Amen. Wednesday, after Miser., A.D. 1540.

'Martinus Luther.'

"My children will find the original of this letter in its place with
other important documents, and will no less carefully than myself
preserve it as an autograph of that highly enlightened, holy, dear, and
of the whole world praiseworthy man, and will love, and value, and keep
it as a pleasant remembrance for their children and children's
children.

"This letter my brother brought home to my father, and in order that
his parents might see that their money had not been spent in vain, he
brought with him also some of his Latin poems which had been printed.
In the following y