Weary at length of his retirement, Luther again appeared publicly at Wittemberg, upon the sixth of March, 1522; and made open war upon the pope and his prelates.

The same year, 1522, he wrote a letter to the assembly of the states of Bohemia; in which he assured them that he was laboring to establish their doctrine in Germany, and exhorted them not to return to the communion of the church of Rome; and he also published a translation of the New Testament in the German tongue, which was afterward corrected by himself and Melancthon. That translation having been printed several times, and being in everybody's hands, Ferdinand archduke of Austria, the emperor's brother, issued a very severe edict, to hinder the further publication of it; and forbade all the subjects of his imperial majesty to have any copies of it, or of Luther's other books. Other princes followed his example; upon which Luther wrote a treatise, "Of the Secular Power," in which he accused them of tyranny and impiety.

In the year 1523, Luther wrote against vows of virginity; and soon after Catharine Bora and eight other nuus eloped from the convent at Nimptschen, and were conducted to Wittemberg.

In October, 1524, Luther flung off the monastic habit; which was a very proper preparative to his marriage with Catharine Bora. His conduct in marrying was severely censured; but Luther boldly defended his act.

Luther was thus employed in defence of the Christian religion till his death, which happened in the year 1546. That year, accompanied by Melancthon, he paid a visit to his own country, which he had not seen for many years. Soon after he was called thither again by the earls of Mansfeldt, to compose some differences which had arisen about their boundaries. Preaching his last sermon therefore at Wittemberg, upon the seventeenth of January, he started on the twenty-third; and at Hall in Saxony lodged with Justus Jonas, with whom he stayed three days. When he entered the territories of the earls of Mansfeldt, he was received in a very honorable manner; but was at the same time very ill. He died upon the eighteenth of February, in the sixty-third year of his age. A little before he expired, he admonished those that were about him to pray to God for the propagation of the gospel; "because the council of Trent and the pope would devise strange things against it."

72

LIFE OF NICHOLAS BURTON.

Thus lived, "died in faith," and triumphed, one of the most honored servants of Christ, and one of the most exalted benefactors of the human family whose names are recorded in the annals of the church and the world.

tody by one of the inquisitorial officers.

On his examination the president demanded if he had, by words or writing, said or insinuated anything disrespectful to the Roman catholic persuasion.

To this Burton replied in the negative, saying that "he was sensible, in whatever country we were, respect ought to be paid to the religion of that country; that such knowledge to him was essential, who, as a merchant, was obliged to visit various countries, and conform to the religious and civil ceremonies of all."

This defence, however, availed, him nothing: they proceeded to torture him, in order to gain information. Failing in this, they condemned him for invincible obstinacy, and at the next auto-dafe he was burnt. When the flames first touched him, he bore the torments with such exemplary patience, and appeared with so smiling a countenance, that one of the priests, enraged at his serenity, said, with great malice and absurdity: "The reason, why he does not seem to feel, is to me very evident: the devil has already got his soul, and his body is, of course, deprived of the usual sensations."

"Jesus, who dies a world to save,
Revives, and rises from the grave,
By his almighty power;

An old gentleman, travelling through one of the counties north of James river, came in company with a stranger, whose broken speech soon proved to him that he was a foreigner. The old gentleman being a professor of Christianity, of course was desirous to know whether or not the people of the stranger's country were religious. The stranger having answered the question, felt at liberty to ask one for his own gratification, which was, "Are there any baptists here?" The old gentleman having answered in the affirmative, required of the stranger his reason in asking that question. His reply was: "I was brought up a Roman catholic, and from my infancy taught to believe that the priests could actually pray off sins. I was a poor man, and labored hard all the week, and Sunday I paid to the priest all I made to pray off my sins. A few weeks ago, passing through Richmond, I called at a meetinghouse, and heard a baptist man preach. He told me that salvation was of the Lord; that He that forgiveth sins was above; that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only priest that can forgive sins, and that none but he can make intercession for man. He opened my eyes; I now see that the priests have no power to forgive sins; I shall pay them no more money to pray off my sins. I want to hear a baptist preach, for I love them baptists. They tell me that Jesus don't charge anything to pray off sins, that his gifts are without money or price, and that all he asks of the sinner is his heart."