Ad insidiosum Lucae Osiandri scriptum

For Plato, although he admits that they said some things excellently about Religion, banishes the anointed and crowned ones far away: just so, remove from yourselves in good time your monitors and those orators with their great boast of λογοδιαρροίας flow of words, or eloquence. If in this anyone perhaps thinks me envious of your salvation, or an enemy of peace with the German Churches of God, let him have this answer from me. That I have been and am now as studious and desirous of your salvation as anyone could possibly be, no one who knows me can doubt. All things are common between us, both in peace and in war, and have always been so. My work and labor while present (though I candidly acknowledge how meager my strengths are) was always, as you know, dedicated to you: and my spirit, while absent, remains, Brothers, and will always remain consecrated to you. You are before my eyes day and night. I have known your most grave afflictions for the name of Christ, I have seen your labors; I myself have been present at them, for which I have grieved not as if they were another's, but have wept as if they were my own. I was once part of your flock; later, however, at your request and approval, I presided over one of your flocks as Pastor. I am your brother, brothers, and yours: I am not a stranger: nor will I ever allow, or (with God loving me so) permit that any stranger could rightfully be said and believed to have loved you more than I, your συμπολίτης fellow citizen, συμφυλέτας fellow tribesman, or συγχωέως fellow countryman.