Sechs Bücher vom wahren Christenthum. Paradies-Gärtlein

A small decorative headpiece ornament sits at the top of the page.

They remain unshaken, nor are they confounded by any
waves or winds, which the wrath of God stirs up.
I wanted you only to read this,
now go about your business,
and as often
as you see either heaven or earth,
or the ocean, or fire,
have conspired for your destruction,
believe
that God is powerful here and everywhere.
original: "Inconcuſſa manent, nec confunduntur ab ulli / Fluctibus aut ventis, quos citat ita Dei, / Hoc tantum ut legeres volebam, / Abi in rem tuam, / Et quoties, / Vel coelum, vel terram, / Vel oceanum, vel ignem, / In perniciem tuam conjuraſſe vides, / Crede / Deum hic et ubique Potentem."
JOHANN SCHULTZ.
I desire to be dissolved, I want to live with you, O Christ!
original: "Diſſolvi cupio, tecum volo vivere Chriſte!"
In the year 1697.

In such a manner it lies uncovered and clear before the eyes of all the world how the elements must be far too small and much too insignificant when the Creator wishes to dissolve the ordained course of nature and perform a praiseworthy miracle. Therefore, it may well be called nothing other than perverse and thoughtless when one places the Almighty above the elements and grants Him alone the dissolution of their ordinary course, yet still wishes to maintain that it happened naturally, or was at least a trivial matter, when the Holy Scripture or another spiritual book remains unhurt in fire, since consuming and burning remains the primary property of fire undeniably for eternity.

Certainly, in my humble opinion, it is by no means the characteristic of a truly learned man to reject what the simple and unstudied generally believe, for everything rests upon a rational and Christian investigation, because this sort of people also do not believe mere untruths.

The spirit-filled books of the blessed Mr. Johann Arndt would certainly have remained in blameless high esteem among truly pious people even if the wisdom of God had not been pleased to glorify itself in the preservation of the same from fire. But now that the impartial miraculous occurrences of these precious books lie clearly in the light of day, I do not find, neither in Scripture nor in reason, a single significant ground which should hinder or stop the even higher respect for the miraculous, supernatural preservation of these books and the clearly lying finger of God. For from the stories of the Paradies-Gärtlein Little Garden of Paradise it lies clearly and convincingly revealed, if one considers them thoughtfully, that it was located in such regions and places where the great power of the fire had proper nourishment. And in the present newer occurrence, the book On True Christianity original: "vom wahren Christenthum" had to remain entirely and completely undamaged despite the power of the flames of the house covered in straw and burned, alongside so many other hundreds of burned books. Thus I do not see, when one respects an old heirloom more than usual if it has passed through two or three families, why a godly book which the wise hand of God preserved unhurt in the fire when everything else of this kind was consumed should not also be held in such regard?

Indeed, I know well that those scholars who consider this and similar occurrences in their writings to be nothing almost all boldly base and stiffen themselves upon the judgment of Johannes Georgius Betulius, which begins and continues in obvious weakness and untruth, in his Epistle to a friend, Jenaenum Philaethum original: "Epiſtola ad Ienaenum Phila ethum amicum", which allegedly intends to show that the miraculous preservation in fire also happened to loose and forbidden books and simultaneously contained nothing significant.

However, when I look up the aforementioned author, he does indeed call this story with Johann Arndt's books a "childish thing" on the fifty-seventh leaf, which learned people would not respect because it happened just as well to godless books, but he remains indebted to us for the proposed proof and has not been so kind as to append several credible examples.

Even if all this had the alleged correctness, of which one does not have such valid and impartial reports as of the Arndtian books, one would first have to prove that these other books were located in such highly dangerous places as the Arndtian writings were according to history. It may happen that two things experience the same outcome, yet it can be a grace in one case and a shame in the other. For one may well maintain that it is quite a different matter when the Holy Scripture, the pure Word of God, is miraculously preserved in fire than if such a thing happens to a forbidden book. Although all these circumstances are not necessary at all, because the sham-remedy copied by many and decorated here and there remains standing on its lack of foundation. Therefore it gains the almost well-founded appearance that this stated ground of proof was prepared and devised by a naturalistic mind in order to loosely mock the miraculous hand of God or to cry it out as small and worthless.

Meanwhile, this much is certain here, that such people who ride over the Admiranda Dei Wonderful Works of God in such a way, in my minor estimation, show boldly enough that they can indeed mix things up but cannot sufficiently and correctly distinguish them. We have God's clear word, therefore we need no miracles: the teachings for salvation are clear: we do not need to wait for signs. But for that reason, the hands of the Lord are not bound from displaying His glory in our days through a miraculous occurrence, for who wishes to search in the unfathomable depth of the riches of the hidden wisdom of God: whether that which moved Him in the miracles of old cannot move Him today? Thus it comes out this way when one simply wishes to bind the hands of the Lord and boldly deny such special grace from God to all other times, just as if the eternal wisdom had flatly appointed and ordained a corrupt, unholy creature,