On the 31st May, the Elector sent his answer in writing to Charles's ministers. "It is not true," it bore, "that the Edict of Worms was approved of by the six Electors. How could the Elector, my brother, and myself, by approving it, have opposed the everlasting word of Almighty God? Accordingly, succeeding diets have declared this edict impossible to be executed. As for the relations of friendship that I have formed, their only aim is to protect me against acts of violence. Let my accusers lay before the eyes of his majesty the alliances they have made; I am ready to produce mine, and the Emperor shall decide between us.--Finally, As to the demand to suspend our preachings, nothing is proclaimed in them but the glorious truth of God, and never was it so necessary to us. We cannot therefore do without it!"[379] [379] Quo carere non possit.--(Seck. p. 156; Muller, Hist. Prot. p. 506.) This reply must necessarily hasten the arrival of Charles; and it was urgent they should be prepared to receive him. To explain what they believe, and then be silent, was the whole plan of the Protestant campaign. A confession was therefore necessary. One man, of small stature, frail, timid, and in great alarm, was commissioned to prepare this instrument of war. Philip Melancthon worked at it night and day: he weighed every expression, softened it down, changed it, and then frequently returned to his first idea. He was wasting away his strength; his friends trembled lest he should die over his task; and Luther enjoined him, as early as the 12th of May, under pain of anathema, to take measures for the preservation of "his little body," and not "to commit suicide for the love of God."[380] "God is as usefully served by repose," added he, "and indeed man never serves him better than by keeping himself tranquil. It is for this reason God willed that the Sabbath should be so strictly observed."[381] [380] Ut sub anathemate cogam te in regulas servandi corpusculi tui.--(L. Epp. iv. p. 16.) [381] Ideo enim Sabbatum voluit tam rigide præ cæteris servari.--(Ibid.) [Sidenote: PREPARATION OF THE CONFESSION.] Notwithstanding these solicitations, Melancthon's application augmented, and he set about an exposition of the christian faith, at once mild, moderate, and as little removed as possible from the doctrine of the Latin Church. At Coburg he had already put his hand to the task, and traced out in the first part the doctrines of the faith, according to the articles of Schwabach; and in the second, the abuses of the Church, according to the articles of Torgau, making altogether quite a new work. At Augsburg he gave a more correct and elegant form to this confession.[382] [382] More rhetorically. Feci aliquande ρητορικὡτερον quam Coburgæ scripseram.--(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 40.)