To the Illustrious, High-born Prince and Lord, John Duke of
Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen, my gracious
Lord and Patron.


Illustrious, High-born Prince, gracious Lord! My humble duty and
my feeble prayer for your Grace always remembered!

For a long time, gracious Prince and Lord, I have wished to show
my humble respect and duty toward your princely Grace, by the
exhibition of some such spirtual wares as are at my disposal; but
I have always considered my powers too feeble to undertake
anything worthy of being offered to your princely Grace.

Since, however, my most gracious Lord Frederick, Duke of Saxony,
Elector and Vicar of the Holy Roman Empire, your Grace's brother,
has not despised, but graciously accepted my slight book,
dedicated to his electoral Grace, and now published -- though
such was not my intention, I have taken courage from his gracious
example and ventured to think that the princely spirit, like the
princely blood, may be the same in both of you, especially in
gracious kindness and good will. I have hoped that yout princely
Grace likewise would not despise this my humble offering which
I have felt more need of publishing than an other of my sermons
or tracts. For the greatest of all questions has been raised, the
question of Good Works; in which is practised immeasurably more
trickery and deception than in anything else, and in which the
simpleminded man is so easily misled that our Lord Christ has