When he returned, he found the plague raging in Wittenberg. It had carried off his dear friend and brother-in-law, the jurist SEBALD MUeNSTERER, together with his wife. He received their children into his own house; but he himself felt seriously indisposed, and entertained earnest thoughts of death. On the 26th of October, he wrote to his beloved Dietrich in Nuremberg, that he was now standing in one of the climacterical years of human life, the forty-second year, which had proved the year of death to many; that his strength had failed, partly because of the sorrows of the soul, and partly on account of his excessive labors. He continues thus: "Although I might wish to live somewhat longer, on account of my children, and also on account of my books, yet I shall follow God with resignation, whenever it pleases him to call me away from this place. I am very glad that you so kindly offer your assistance to my son (Philip, then 14 years old), and I commend him to you; for he will need the kindness of his friends, when I am gone. His moral character is good, but I cannot praise his temperament; and I also believe that he does not possess sufficient talent to study." Although many fled on account of the plague, he was determined to remain in Wittenberg. "I will bear the present cross, as I have borne many other things; God will put an end to it." At that time, when he was very weak, and suffering much from sleeplessness, he made his will, from which we here present a few extracts, showing his truly Christian disposition. He began by declaring, that after the manner of the fathers, he wished to prepare his will, as a Confession for his friends and children, in order that they might abide by it at all times. "And first of all do I return thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified for us, the Creator of all things, that he has called me to repentance and the knowledge of the Gospel, and beseech him, for the sake of his Son, whom he has given as a sacrifice for us, that he would forgive my sins, accept of, and justify me, hear me, and deliver me from eternal death, as I also confidently trust he will do. For he has commanded us to believe it; and it is a sin to think our sins greater than the death of the Son of God. I prefer him before my sins. But I pray that God would strengthen these beginnings of faith, by the Holy Ghost, for the sake of his Son, our mediator. I am indeed troubled concerning my own sins, and the offences of others; but I consider the death of the Son of God greater, so that Grace is mightier than sin." He then proceeds to confess his belief in the Apostles' and Nicene Creed, and the entire system of doctrine which he had so unequivocally declared in his _Loci Communes_, and the Epistle to the Romans. He warns his children against the Roman Church, which in many articles teaches the most corrupt doctrine. "I therefore beg my children to obey me in this,