1. what an angel is.
2. how and what to teach about angels.
3. of good and evil angels.
The angels are our patrons.
5. history, how an angel protected a child.
1. what an angel is.
Doctor Martinus was asked by one, "What is an angel? He said: An angel is a spiritual creature, created by God without a body, for the service of Christianity, especially in the church ministry. Ps. 103, 20. Ebrews 1, 14.
2. how and what to teach about angels.
(Lauterbach, Sept. 29, 1538, p. 137.)
On this day, because it was the feast of Michaelmas, he spoke a lot about the angels, how their knowledge was necessary in the church. Therefore, godly preachers must be eloquent and pious.
preach from this doctrine. For the dialectical passages are the main seat for the proofs, especially the more excellent passages, which are taken from the explanation, division and causes. Therefore, whoever wants to speak of angels in a godly and appropriate manner must first explain what angels are, namely, spirits and incorporeal beings. Second, the division: What kind of spirits? namely, good and evil. Here we must speak of the evil spirits, which were not created by God, but fell through hatred of God. They have exercised this hatred against the Church in Paradise and at all times, and it will last until the end.
Therefore the angels are not such ungodly spirits, but good ones. Thirdly, it must be said of their ministry that they are the ministering spirits of the pious, Ebr. 1. Here the pious are truly given a great comfort and example of humility, that the purest angels serve our business, even the filthiest, in the household, in the government of the world and in religion. There they are our most faithful servants, doing the works of which even a poor, miserable man is ashamed to serve another. Thus we must speak of the angels appropriately on the basis of the dialectical passages. Those who do not take these dialectical passages into account may well say many things that are inappropriate to the matter, but they will build little.
3. Bon good and evil angels.
(Cordatus No. 1050. 1051.)
The angels are very close to us and protect us and the creatures of God according to his command. But they have long hands to defend themselves, so that they can easily drive away the devil when he wants to harm, and they come to us very quickly without effort, since they stand before the face of the Father next to His throne; and the devils are also very close to us, pursuing our salvation and our life at every moment. But they are prevented. The angels are prevented from doing harm, so they do not always do harm, although they always want to do harm.
Many evil spirits are in the forests, in the waters, in swampy and desolate places, so that they do not harm people; others are in dense clouds and excite storms, thunder, lightning, hail, pollute the air. Our philosophers and physicians attribute this to nature, and I do not know to what causes etc. 1)
4. The angels are our patrons. 2)
(The first paragraph Cordatus No. 1660.)
It would not be good for us to know that such a careful and strong guard of angels was for us; for we would be lazy, even well
1) Cf. the Concordia Book, St. Louis edition, p. 329. Müller p. 477.
2) Cf. Cap. 19, § 43, para. 3.
We would despair if we saw that a devil was causing so much trouble for so many angels. That is why the scripture only says: "He has commanded his angels over you", as if he wanted to say: Do not be distressed, do not doubt or despair; for it is certain that you will be protected by angels. But how this happens, you should not worry about it.
In Job, Cap. 4:18, it is written: "Behold, among his servants there is none without change, and in his messengers," or angels, "he finds foolishness," that is, in the wicked.
D. M. Luther once said of the angels: This is my imagination, and I am certain that the angels are already in armor, and are putting on their armor, and are girding themselves with weapons; for the last day is already dawning, and the angels are arming themselves for battle, and want to plunge the Turk with the Pope into the abyss of hell.
5. historia, how an angel protected a child.
(Lauterback, July 7, 1538, p. 96, tells this story as follows:)
Then they said many things about miracles. A little girl had gone to the field to look for the cows, but got lost in the forest and, overwhelmed by a great snowfall, got lost there. She remained lost for three days. Finally she was found by her family under a tree. It was a large perimeter where there had been no snow, and when she was called, she answered: Hiev I am, I am waiting for the cows, as if she had waited only one hour. There God has been the protector. 3)
Doctor Caspar Creuziger heard this story from Luther himself: That not far from Zwickau, in the Voigtland, in a village it had happened that a child, who was able to walk and talk, in winter, not far from the village, had lost itself in a wood and was late, so that it had to stay in the wood at night.
3) Luther's own selection of this history is found in the Hauspostille. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XIII, 2644, § 18. - Compared to these two relations, Luther's and Lauterbach's, the following relation of Aurifaber seems to be spurious.
At that time a great snow had fallen, so that the child had to remain under the snow until the third day. Every day a man came to him and brought him food, and he went away again. On the third day, the man brought him food again, and the child from the
The child was led to the place on the way home. Afterwards, when the child returned home, he told his parents how he had fared. Luther said that the man who waited for the child was an angel.