If Melanchthon's godly walk and conversation should be instrumental in leading him who is a stranger to salvation in Christ, to seek this; if it should serve to comfort and strengthen others, then may that word of the Scriptures be remembered: "The memory of the just is blessed;" and may every one gratefully rejoice, with the Reformer, in that glorious promise: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."
Ardently desiring that this volume may be useful and profitable unto salvation to very many, we suffer it to go forth upon its way.
St. G. On the first Sunday in Advent, 1846.
L.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
Melanchthon has been called the most amiable, the purest, and most learned of the celebrated men of the sixteenth century. The distinguished Erasmus confesses, that he was a general favorite, that honest and candid men were fond of him, and even his adversaries cannot hate him. And he has succeeded in securing the affections of posterity, and, more than any other one of the valiant champions of the Reformation, is the general favorite of all evangelical Christians, and still seems to stand as the gentle mediator between the two great divisions of the Protestant Church formed at that time, claimed and loved by both.
Yet, notwithstanding all this, we venture to say, that a very large proportion of Protestant readers know no more of the life of this lovely man of God, than that which is interwoven with the life of Luther. His life has not been written for the people even by his own countrymen, and our author presents us with the first attempt of this kind. In our own language we have but one Life of Melanchthon, the one written by Dr. Cox, the first American edition of which, from the second London edition, is now lying before us, bearing the date 1835. Admirable as this work has been acknowledged to be, we believe the work of Ledderhose to be still more calculated for general reading. Our author assures us that it was "his principal aim to present a truthful picture of the faith and the life of the Reformer;" and it is this constant exhibition of his inner life, even in his own words, which is calculated to edify as well as instruct. Besides this, many incidents in his own life, and interesting events and questions after the death of Luther, omitted or briefly mentioned in Dr. Cox's work, will be found here. A number of facts, mentioned by Cox and others, have been added by the translator, and will be found in the notes scattered through the volume. The style is very simple and popular, and this simplicity and frequent quaintness of expression, especially in the numerous extracts from letters and declarations of faith, rendered the work of translation more difficult, especially as it seemed necessary and desirable to retain the homeliness of the German as much as possible.