"I did not eat the fruit of the tree," resumed Luther; "neither did you eat it; but we received the sin which Adam has transmitted to us, and are guilty of it. In like manner, I did not suffer on the cross, nor did you suffer on it; but Christ suffered for us; we are justified by the work of God, and not by our own.... 'I am,' saith the Lord, 'thy righteousness and thy redemption.'... "Let us believe the gospel, let us believe St. Paul, and not the letters and decretals of the popes." Luther, after having preached faith as the means of the sinner's justification, preaches works as the consequence and evidence of salvation. "Since God has saved us," continues he, "let us so order our works that he may take pleasure in them. Art thou rich,--let thy wealth be useful to the poor. Art thou poor,--let thy service be useful to the rich. If thy toil is useful only to thyself, the service which thou pretendest to render to God is mere falsehood."[477] [477] L. Op. (L.) xii, p. 485. There is not a word in the sermon on Luther himself; no allusion to the circumstances in which he is placed; nothing on Worms, on Charles, or the nuncios; he preaches Christ, and Christ only; at this moment, when the world has its eyes upon him, he is not in the least occupied with himself; and herein is the mark of a genuine servant of God. Luther set out from Erfurt, and passed through Gotha, where he again preached. Myconius adds, that at the moment when the people were coming out from the sermon the devil detached from the pediment of the church some stones which had not budged for two centuries. The doctor slept in the convent of the Benedictines, at Rheinhardsbrunn, and thence proceeded to Eisenach, where he felt indisposed. Amsdorff, Jonas, Schurff, and all his friends, were alarmed. He was bled, and the greatest possible attention was paid him. Even the Schulthess of the town, John Oswald, hastened to him with a cordial. Luther, after drinking it, fell asleep, and was thereby so far recovered that he was able to proceed on the following day.[478] [478] Iter faciente occurrebant populi. (Pallavicini, Hist. C. Tr. i, p. 114.) [Sidenote: LUTHER TO SPALATIN.] Wherever he passed the people flocked to see him. His journey was a kind of triumphal procession. Deep interest was felt in beholding the intrepid man who was on the way to offer his head to the emperor and the empire. An immense concourse surrounded him.[479] "Ah!" said some of them to him, "there are so many cardinals and so many bishops at Worms, they will burn you; they will reduce your body to ashes, as was done with that of John Huss." But nothing terrified the monk. "Were they to make a fire," said he, "that would extend from Worms to Wittemberg, and reach even to the sky, I would walk across it in the name of the Lord; I would appear before them; I would walk into the jaws of this Behemoth, and break his teeth, and confess the Lord Jesus Christ."[480]