CHAPTER XLVII
THE SAFETY OF THOSE WHO ARE DEVOTED TO GOD
(The Angels as Guardians.)
Now nothing in the world appeared so exposed and subject to divers dangers than the band of the godly, at which the devil and the world looked angrily, menacing to strike and smite them. Yet I saw that they were well sheltered; for I saw that their whole community was encompassed by a wall of fire. When I came nearer I saw that this wall moved, for it was nothing else but a procession of thousands and thousands of angels who walked around them; no foe, therefore, could approach them. Each one of them also had an angel who had been given to him by God and ordained to be his guardian, that he might guard him and preserve him, and protect him against all dangers and snares, pits, ambushes, traps, and temptations. They are, no doubt (I understood and saw this), the friends of the men who are their fellow-servants, and watch them that they may uphold the duties for which they were created by God; thus they serve men readily, guard them against the devil, evil folk, and unhappy accidents; and carrying them, if
