." (E. 200; St. L. 1769.)

Satan causes his captives to believe themselves free and happy. Luther:
"The Scriptures set before us a man who is not only bound, wretched,
captive, sick, dead, but who (through the operation of Satan, his
prince) adds this plague of blindness to his other plagues, that he
believes himself to be free, happy, unfettered, strong, healthy, alive.
For Satan knows that, if man were to realize his own misery, he would
not be able to retain any one in his kingdom, because God could not but
at once pity and help him who recognizes his misery and cries for
relief. For throughout all Scripture He is extolled and greatly praised
for being nigh unto the contrite in heart, as also Christ testifies,
Isaiah 61, 1. 2, that He has been sent to preach the Gospel to the poor
and to heal the broken-hearted. Accordingly, it is Satan's business to
keep his grip on men, lest they recognize their misery, but rather take
it for granted that they are able to do everything that is said." (E.
213; St. L. 1785.)

240. The Gospel to be Our Only Guide.

According to _De Servo Arbitrio_ God's majesty and His mysterious
judgments and ways must not be searched, nor should speculations
concerning them be made the guide of our faith and life. Luther says:
"Of God or of the will of God proclaimed and revealed, and offered to
us, and which we meditate upon, we must treat in a different way than of
God in so far as He is not proclaimed, not revealed, and not offered to
us, and is not the object of our meditations. For in so far as God hides
Himself, and desires not to be known of us, we have nothing to do with
Him. Here the saying truly applies, 'What is above us does not concern
us.'" (E. 221, St. L. 1794.) "We say, as we have done before, that one
must not discuss the secret will of [divine] majesty, and that man's
temerity, which, due to continual perverseness, disregards necessary
matters and always attacks and encounters this [secret will], should be
called away and withdrawn from occupying itself with scrutinizing those
secrets of divine majesty which it is impossible to approach; for it
dwells 'in the light which no man can approach unto,' as Paul testifies,
1 Tim. 6, 16." (E. 227; St. L. 1801.) This statement, that God's majesty
must not be investigated, says Luther, "is not our invention, but an
injunction confirmed by Holy Scripture. For Paul says Rom. 9, 19-21:
'Why doth God yet find fault? For who hath resisted His w