Paracelsus: In the same way that God maintains our bodies to grant us a long life because we love him.
God is so faithful to us and to all those who live in accordance with his will that, rather than desisting from this relation, he commanded the devil to do all those things to reveal to us [God’s] authority and omnipotence and | 310 | preserve those who love him, so that no harm should befall them from the enemy but rather only good.
Therefore you should be aware when it comes to this: we should entertain no
doubts but only love God with all our hearts.
If the devil brings us gold and silver, helps us, provides us medicine, [or] springs us from jail, you should anticipate3 that this is God’s will.
But there is still another matter about which I would inform you.
I mean the fact that there are so many highly beneficent things that befall bad and wicked people, which clearly occurs through the agency of the devil and without the command of God, even though these things are ordained and allowed by him.
How does it happen that the devil is properly allowed to do such things in response to our lascivious and depraved desires, [why is it that through the devil] many a serious disease is healed [and] help is obtained in great need, whether it involves prison or some other such contingency?
How can this happen, even though the person in question has nothing good in him and nothing but evil comes out of him? How can such a thing happen?
[It is because] God intends that the [word of] Scripture is to be upheld and that to each should befall something good from his enemies.
In the same way that God maintains our bodies to grant us a long life because we love him, Moreover, its presence as an ingredient of theriac was sufficient to assure he also permits the devil to preserve likewise those who are leading a lascivious and evil life.
[The devil] miraculously makes them well by means of words, names, [and] benedictions, etc.
This is why on the Day of Judgment both sides, those who love God and those who adhere to the devil, will affirm that [they] have received good from their enemies, from those in the elements and those in the abyss of Hell.
For the Scriptures must be acknowledged as true for an evil person as well as a good one.
[It must be acknowledged] that God harbors no envy to hard anyone, but instead manifests his mercy until the Day of Judgment.
Just as he leaves summer and winter each to its own, he lets all other things have their way.
He proves this clearly by the medicine that purges and mends not only those who believe but those who do not, the faithful [and] the superstitious, those who love and those who hate, all [are treated] the same.
For this reason, these matters do not lend themselves to unbelief or superstition, as long as God is understood in his mercy.
Do not the Scriptures speak of the movement1 of celestial powers, of how they
| 311 | are to move in their proper times?
What are the celestial powers as they are to be understood in the present context?
They are precisely that which is thought to help us invisibly and supernaturally.
Did not our greatest enemy come down from the heavens?
For this reason he is celestial and not terrestrial.
But we human beings are not celestial but rather terrestrial.
For we have not come from above, but rather from the earth.
Unless we are born a second time, we will go on moving with the celestial powers.
What are the kinds of assistance that I am describing here other than celestial powers?
Who is it that gives and distributes them if not God?
To the good in order to fulfill the promise, to the evil in order to fulfill what is ordained by judgment (verhengnuß).2
Who should find occasion for superstition in this, given that it always flows from this source?
Who should be vexed by it?
No one need be annoyed by it but he who was already noxious.
But whoever reacts and opines naively, thinking that his naiveté should indeed by annoyed by this—he should let himself be instructed and study the Scriptures to see what God asks of him, in order that he and eliminates the following break, which may in fact have been a typesetting fluke.
All subsequent paragraphs to the end of the work are introduced by ordinal headings up to “Zum 21” (349); V begins with “17.” (335), with the intervening numbers omitted should know and recognize everything in its reasons.
For simply on account of that naiveté God will not abandon his work,1 neither with
respect to his promise nor with respect to his judgment of the devil.
For this much we should all know in sum: whatever happens to us in such a way from the invisible things does not happen to us without cause, but rather in order to provide us an indication that we should seek after the intelligible cause and origin of things, and [seek] to understand that we should not ascribe these to the devil.2
For God is he without whom the devil could effect nothing. Behold a judge (Richter)
in his place (Statt) <and> the servants (Schergen) who are obedient to him and who carry out what he orders: who could confuse the servant with the judge? No one.3
For the same reason, no one can attribute such things to him [i.e., God]; for the will is that of the judge.
It is the same in this case too.
All things are to be sought from God, for it is from him that they all issue forth.
Whatever happens by the leave of God should be sought in him as such.
In all things we must first search out the divine will, [in order to understand] how the divine mercy or anger is a judgment upon us.
For the sum of all these things is that we should have help, whether we are evil or good.
Medicine merely bears this out this.
What helps is not the physician: God alone is to be praised.
The physician deserves only gratitude for the art and not for the help, for this does not come from him.
Indeed, nothing of it is his except the art. | 312 |
This must be said so that we should not suppose that the one we see is he who gives the help, or that we should thank the physician instead of God.
To thank the grass and the hay, the medicine box and the apothecary: that would be superstition, that would be idolatry.
If we chose to proceed in that manner, it would come to such a pass that we would look to the devil and not to God.
That would be altogether wrong and unfitting.
In our hearts we should remember therefore that God created medicine and placed it beneath our eyes.
We should contemplate it. Why is this so?
The reason is because, if good should befall us through the characters, which I am about to write of, then you should let it be for you as if it were grass and hay.
And even if it should be as devils, still, let it be for you as if it were medicine boxes
in the apothecary.
And define the principle of the matter thus: [it is a matter of] salvation from our enemies, and from the hands of all those who hate us; and you should think as follows: God created me and God has saved me; everything good that befalls me, be it from enemies or from friends, God is to be praised and thanked for it.
Thus should all things be taken into their First Source.
For just have a look at an arrogant physician.
If you thank God for assistance and not him, he is furious.
For your thanks for his art is not enough for him.
But what does his arrogance matter to you? God will not strip you of medication on that account.
By the same token, if something comes to pass for you through the spirits, or through [some other] invisible help of that kind, thank God for it.
If he does not want do this any longer, I mean, that particular spirit, then let him go his way.
If Tom takes off, then Dick takes his place: do not abandon God for that reason.
In all the invisible things, our judgment is blind.
Hence, whatever serves the purpose of our long life, we should accept it in God.
For he desires to be manifest to us in many sorts of works, and to be honored by us, no matter how it reaches us. ~Paracelsus, Essential Writings, Page 893-899
