From the Diet of Worms to the Augsburg Confession - James Aitken Wylie

experience, and bid him "take care of his own
precious little body, and not commit homicide."
"God," he said, "is served by rest, by nothing more
than rest, and therefore He has willed that the
Sabbath should be so rigidly kept"–thus
anticipating Milton's beautiful lines
"God doth not need
Either man's work, or His own gifts; who best
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His
state
Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest.
They also serve who only stand and wait."
But worse symptoms supervened. In the
unstrung condition of his nervous system,
impressions became realities to him. His
imagination clothed the dangers which he
apprehended in a palpable form and shape, and
they stood before him as visible existences. His
Old Enemy of the Wartburg comes sailing, like
black night, to the Castle of Coburg. The Reformer,
however, was not to be overcome, though the
420