Sechs Bücher vom wahren Christenthum. Paradies-Gärtlein

a Deist, as a brazen judge of His glorious miracles, which far exceed the understanding of all men, even the reborn. The dear disciples of Jesus, in the ninth chapter of Mark, limited the gift of miracles primarily to their own persons, and a naturalistic mind limits them to the ancient times: where is either of these written? The story of the three unhurt men in the fiery furnace is held as a certain miracle, for one knows by virtue of the five senses that fire consumes humans, and that many thousands of witches have been burned and perished on the stake. But that the heat of the fire does not consume a bit of paper, a wretched binding, a poor book: that is supposed to be something natural, or at least mean nothing? This is like loosely dividing the good hymn "Why do you trouble yourself, my heart," singing the ninth verse but holding the tenth to be foolish.

For although it is correct in every way that a loose leaf is more easily consumed by fire than a closed book, it does not therefore become apparent that this convincing sentence is hidden within: that it signifies nothing at all when a bound book, which was nevertheless given over to the power of the fire for six days, remains entirely and completely undamaged. For burning more easily and not burning at all nevertheless remain two different things, especially since in our story all other books were attacked and consumed by the fire, so that even the golden show-pieces, and the medals and rare coins collected during eight years of travel, along with all the beautiful and precious silver pieces, were melted together with the copper mathematical instruments and mixed in the fire. Furthermore, the small idols cast from the difficult-to-melt Corinthian metal, which the late owner had painstakingly collected in Italy and elsewhere, were found melted and destroyed among the burned books, because all of these were stored together in the library. Thus, I cannot see in any rational or Christian way how it could be natural and signify nothing that a paper book was preserved entirely undamaged in the burning, powerful heat of the fire, while all kinds of hard metal could not withstand the power of the fire. This certainly cannot be reconciled or compared with the nature of things, whether one looks at the inherent property of fire, metal, or a book, no matter what crude and Deistic excuses one seeks.

Truly, when I consider all the circumstances already presented and still prevailing in this story, I have sufficient conviction that something more than natural occurred here. Besides those already mentioned, the still-living widow of the late Court Councilor, as well as his son who followed him in the dignity of Archivist (with whom this preserved book is located), testifies that the books collected in Italy, France, and so on, which stood here and there in packs, had hardly been brought from Hamburg to their new place in Schwerin and stood in order for four weeks

before the heat went through the so painstakingly collected supply of books. It is as if the most hidden finger of the wise God, to glorify His work, waited for the arrival of the books. This leaves behind a quiet reflection, because one is scripturally authorized to judge modestly of the sealed ways of the All-Ruler.

All this grows in even more convincing firmness under the above-mentioned circumstances, because the hidden guidance of God wished to miraculously shield this book On True Christianity, protected unhurt from the heat, like a rare bird, not only from the fire but also from the air. The court bookbinder still living here, Mr. Hennig Stein, has recounted in detail on several occasions how he received this most memorably rescued volume to rebind. He took it apart leaf by leaf because of the strong smell of the fire and hung them on the window shutters in his room during calm weather. Quite unexpectedly, a strong wind arose, which seized all the leaves in such a way that they were blown through the open window onto the Schwerin market. He only learned of this after a good while, yet he found all the leaves again, as far as they had been scattered, in the most perfect order, as the evidence shows. It is as if one rare occurrence had to join the other with this book to demonstrate all the more convincingly that the Divine finger watched wisely over the miraculous preservation of this book written in spirit and truth, against and contrary to the ordinary course of the elements, and not just by chance as the naturalists dream concerning the origin of the world. Consequently, the whole matter is by no means to be foolishly dismissed.

Anyone who wishes to judge as a rational person will possess at least enough modesty and understanding in these and similar occurrences to consider it clever and wise to rather postpone his judgment in such strange and supernatural miracle cases, rather than through prejudice and the presumed quality of a scholar to be so forward as to dismiss the matter as confused and ridiculous, because he so imagines it and holds the erroneous sentence: that one becomes a Fort d'Esprit Strong Spirit/Freethinker through doubting and rejecting the truth.

But I make the report too long. Suffice it to say, for pious minds this fundamental truth lies before their eyes like the sun. Stout-hearted theologians, along with other scholars, such as Mr. Goetzius in the Miracles of Luther's Catechism original: "Miraculis Catechismi Lutheri"; Schmidius in the stories that happened with the Bible; Gerhardus in Miracles of the Gospels original: "Miraculis Evangeliorum", Section on the Church, number 286; Saltzmannus in Singularities of Luther original: "Singularibus Lutheri"; Saubertus in Miracles of the Augsburg Confession original: "Miraculis Aug. Confessionis"; Olearius in the Treasury of Evangelical Songs original: "Evangelischen Lieder-Schatz", concerning a memorable occurrence at