[26] "From the commencement of the religious war in Germany to the
Peace of Westphalia scarce anything great or memorable occurred in the
European political world with which the Reformation was not
essentially connected. Every event in the history of the world in this
interval, if not directly occasioned, was nearly affected, by this
religious revolution, and every state, great or small, remotely or
immediately felt its influence."--Schiller's _Thirty Years' War_, vol.
i. p. 1.
[27] "Luther was as wonderful as he was great. His personal experience
in divine things was as deep as his mind was mighty, large, and
unbounded. Though called by the Most High, and continued by his
appointment, in the midst of papal darkness, idolatry, and error, with
no companions but the saints of the Bible, nor any other light but the
lamp of the Word to guide his feet, his heaven-taught soul was
ministerially furnished with as rich pasture for the sheep of Christ,
as awful ammunition for the terror and destruction of the enemies by
which he and they were perpetually surrounded. The sphere of his
mighty ministry was not bounded by his defence of the truth against
the great and powerful. No! He was as rich a pastor, as terrible a
warrior. He fed the sheep in the fattest pastures, while he destroyed
the wolves on every side. Nor will those pastures be dried up or lost
until time, nations, and the churches of God shall be no more."--Dr.
Cole's _Pref. to Luther on Genesis_.