Sechs Bücher vom wahren Christenthum. Paradies-Gärtlein

friends in the Evangelical Church. I do not intend to delay here with a lengthy account of the bitter opposition that arose against these books partly during Arndt’s lifetime and partly continued after his death, nor with a description of the persons who sinned in this way. (*) They mostly already stand before their Judge, to whom they will have to give an account in this matter.

(*) Information on this can be found in the preface which Dr. Lange placed before the Berlin edition, Section II, page 33, and in Dr. Walch’s Introduction to the Religious Disputes of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Part 3, page 191 etc. Add the letter of the blessed Johann Ernst Gerhard, theologian of Giessen, to a friend concerning the detractors to whom the blessed Johann Arndt was exposed along with his books on True Christianity, Giessen 1705 original: "epistola ad amicum de obtrectationibus, quibus beatus IOH. ARNDIVS, cum libris suis de vero Christianismo expositus fuit".
(**) In this regard, it especially deserves to be read in the blessed Dr. Diecmann’s preface to his German writings, page 217 etc., along with the Arndtian Apologies or protective letters for the Christian defense of the honor of the spiritual theologian, Mr. Joh. Arndt etc. This writing was already published under the title of a Thorough Report of Johann Arndt’s True Christianity in 1625 in Lüneburg, reprinted in Rostock in 1688, and reissued in 1706 by M. C. Günther with a new appendix. The newly revived accusations, made recently in a small manuscript circulating: Highly Necessary Remarks on Arndt’s Books of True Christianity, were briefly, modestly, and thoroughly rejected by Dr. Hasprung of Wittenberg in a printed German work: Arndtian Defenses original: "Vindiciae Arndianae". He showed throughout that people either attributed something to Arndt that is not found in his books, or they twisted the meaning of his words, or they censured without cause what was in itself correct and innocent. Against those who wish to declare themselves neither friends nor enemies of Arndt, and allow his True Christianity to be read only with many cautions that strike down all confidence, the blessed Arndt has been defended by Dr. Lange in the third section of his preface to the Berlin edition, pages 48, 57.

§. 20. Among Arndt’s friends, the blessed DR. JO. GERHARD may rightly stand at the top. He honored Arndt as his father and used to call him so in letters. As he publicly writes in the preface to Arndt’s Gospel Postils: "Since I have now for sixteen years honored and held him as my spiritual father, seeing as he initially advised me toward theological study and gave me

The space of a preface also does not permit the rejection of those accusations made against these books in old and new times, which others before me have already done thoroughly. (**) I cannot, however, refrain from noting this to the praise of God’s goodness: that God raised up for this honest man not only many honest friends but also many defenders of his innocence.

instruction." Just as he also thought of him with praise and high esteem in the preface of his beautiful book The School of Piety original: "Schola pietatis", and elsewhere in his Theological Topics original: "locis theologicis". He often called him a distinguished, spiritual theologian and recognized rich gifts of the Spirit in him, which God had granted him above many others. Next to Gerhard, the blessed ANTON BUSCHERUS, former pastor in Stade, is also to be counted among Arndt’s friends, as is the upright JOH. VALENTINUS ANDREÆ, a theologian from Württemberg who was very

concerned about the damage to Joseph This is a biblical metaphor for the suffering of the church.. Also to be counted are DANIEL DILGERUS, the godly pastor at St. Catherine's in Danzig, JOH. CNOPIUS, a pious preacher in Reval, and many others. Yet God raised up good friends and patrons for him not only among theologians, but also among politicians and high-ranking heads of state. The pious Duke of Liegnitz, GEORG RUDOLPH, assured him of his special love in a handwritten letter in 1620. A nobleman, GEORG CHRISTOPH VON SCHELLENBERG, did the same in 1619. The already mentioned JOH. CNOPIUS reports in a letter to Arndt in 1617 that the noble lady, ANNA VON BANNER, wife of the Royal Governor—a lady highly praised for her noble lineage, which she could trace back to the Swedish kings, and for her godliness and virtue—along with her husband, the Royal Governor, Baron GABRIEL VON OXENSTIRN, took particular delight and joy in his writings. They asked Arndt to include them among the number of his good

() As Hulsemannus reports in the Calixtinian Worm of Conscience* original: "Calixtin. Gewissens-Wurm", page 1291.
(**) In the Collections for the Building of the Kingdom of God, in the 7th contribution, page 737.

§. 21. No less, however, has divine providence also raised up many defenders of Arndt and his innocence. To these can be counted partly individual persons and partly entire collegiate bodies. Among the individual persons, some have mentioned him honorably in their writings with only a few words and given a good testimony of him. That the blessed DR. GERHARD passed up no

friends. And in another letter from 1620, CNOPIUS reports that Count de la Garde, who succeeded Baron von Oxenstirn in the governorship, did not carry HOMER with him on his travels, like Alexander the Great original: "Alexander M.", but rather Arndt’s books on True Christianity as companions, and held them along with their author in great value. What grace and high esteem the blessed Dukes of Braunschweig and Lüneburg had for the blessed man can also be seen from the fact that two of them honored his funeral procession with their presence (above §. 11), and that all the Lords Dukes of Lüneburg had VARENIUS compose and publish a defense of Arndt’s honor for the protection and benefit of the blessed man’s writings. (*) How highly the blessed Queen of Sweden, ULRICA ELEONORA, a born Royal Danish Princess, valued Arndt’s True Christianity, and how emphatically she defended it against a theologian from Greifswald, DR. RANGO, can be found recounted elsewhere. (**)

opportunity to give Arndt a testimony of pure teaching (although he himself was slandered for it), (*) has already been noted in §. 20. The famous Giessen theologian, DR. BALTHASAR MENZERUS, testifies in a letter dated January 28, 1621, of his joy over the newly demonstrated innocence and purity of Arndt’s teaching; but he also complains that he himself was likewise being attacked unjustly. (**) The upright Wittenberg theologian, WOLFGANGUS FRANZIUS, also contributed much to the rescue of his innocence. How emphatically the Rostock theologian AFFELMANNUS (in a letter to Varenius), the Wittenberg theologian DR. MICH. WALTHER, and the philologist ERASM. SCHMIDIUS (in notes on Matthew 5:3), the Strasbourg theologian JOH. SCHMIDIUS (in the 28th sermon on Christian Wisdom), and the Leipzig theologian DR. CARPZOV (in the first part of the Funeral Sermons, page 1037) have testified to Arndt's innocence—along with the blessed TARNOVIUS, QUISTORIUS, AVEMANNUS, CLASSIUS, HULSEMANNUS, QUENSTEDIUS, BECHMANNUS, SIBERUS, BAIERUS, and SPENERUS—would be far too extensive to cite here. I cannot, however, refrain from mentioning the blessed DR. HEINRICH MÜLLER, who wrote to the blessed DILHER in Nuremberg in 1665: "Who is and what is the name JOHANN ARNDT? A man with God’s grace. His gifts were very rich, and therefore he was also shamefully crowned with the disgrace and slander of the world. What have the gnat-strainers those who obsess over small details and camel-swallowers those who overlook large sins not sought for splinters in his True Christianity because of various unusual ways of speaking? Yet they will not recognize or cast off their own great beams of ambition, greed, self-love, lust, and the like. Arndt will surely remain Arndt. Let the sparrows and ravens cry as long as they want. What does the eagle care for it? They will not be able to out-shout him." Others

have, in special assessments, writings, and defenses original: "Vindiciis", rescued the honor of the blessed man and rejected the unfair accusations and charges against him. To this belongs JOH. SAUBERTUS in the Impartial Judgment on How One Should Regard Johann Arndt’s Books of True Christianity (1625), and GEORG TREU in Arndtian Biblical Practice. DANIEL DILGERUS, a preacher in Danzig, published in 1620: Mr. Johann Arndt’s Correct and Well-Founded Teaching in the Four Books of True Christianity. In the following year, 1621, MELCH. BRELERUS, who is said to have been a physician, let fly a defensive dissertation for Arndt's doctrine original: "dissertationem apologeticam pro doctrina Arndii" under the title: The Mystery of Pseudo-Evangelical Iniquity original: "Mysterium iniquitatis pseudo-evangelicae". However, he neither kept Arndt’s pure teaching in all points, nor did he follow in his footsteps of meekness and gentleness. In the year 1624, prompted by a harsh censure that LUCAS OSIANDER of Tübingen had issued against Arndt’s True Christianity, two thorough and modest apologists appeared at the same time: namely HENRICUS VARENIUS, preacher in Hitzacker, and PAULUS EGARDUS, preacher in Nortorf in Holstein. Both published a Rescue of Johann Arndt and his Four Books of True Christianity. These were joined by the excellent and deeply learned theologian DORSCHEUS, who wrote Latin defenses original: "Vindicias" in his own hand in his copy at the passages attacked by OSIANDER. These were added by the blessed DR. PRITIUS to the Latin edition he edited.