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

We are compelled to ask, when we see the
courageous man shut up in the Coburg, and the
timid and trembling one sent into the field, was this
the best arrangement? Was the right man in the
right place? The arrangement we would have made
would have been exactly the reverse. We would
have sent the strong man to fight the battle, and
withdrawn the weak and feeble one into the retreat
of the Coburg, there to commune and to pray. But
in this, as in other instances, we are taught that
God's ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts
as our thoughts. The actual arrangement was the
best. It was the strong man that was needed to pray;
it was the weak one that was fitted to receive and
act upon the answer. It is only the prayer of faith
that prevails, and it is only to a great faith that great
blessings are given. Melanchthon, therefore, would
have been out of place in the Coburg, but his
weakness in the field illustrated the power of his
Master, and showed who was doing the work.
Besides, the lengths he was willing to go to meet
the Papists–and he went much further than Luther
would have done–only the more manifestly put
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