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| That his healings were done by Christ alone, through prayer. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
83. Such are the words of Antony, and we ought not
to doubt whether such marvels were wrought by the hand of a man. For it
is the promise of the Saviour, when He saith, ‘If ye have faith
as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, remove hence
and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you1135 .’ And again, ‘Verily, verily, I
say unto you, if ye shall ask the father in My name He will give it
you. Ask and ye shall receive1136 .’ And He
himself it is who saith to His disciples and to all who believe on Him,
‘Heal the sick, cast out demons; freely ye have received, freely
give1137 .’
84. Antony, at any rate, healed not by
commanding, but by prayer and speaking the name of Christ. So that it
was clear to all that it was not he himself who worked, but the Lord
who showed mercy by his means and healed the sufferers. But
Antony’s part was only prayer and discipline, for the sake of
which he stayed in the mountain, rejoicing in the contemplation of
divine things, but grieving when troubled by much people, and dragged
to the outer mountain. For all judges used to ask him to come down,
because it was impossible for them to enter on account of their
following of litigants. But nevertheless they asked him to come that
they might but see him. When therefore he avoided it and refused to go
to them, they remained firm, and sent to him all the more the prisoners
under charge of soldiers, that on account of these he might come down.
Being forced by necessity, and seeing them lamenting, he came into the
outer mountain, and again his labour was not unprofitable. For his
coming was advantageous and serviceable to many; and he was of profit
to the judges, counselling them to prefer justice to all things; to
fear God, and to know, ‘that with what judgment they judged, they
should be judged1138 .’ But he
loved more than all things his sojourn in the mountain.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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