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| Chapter I. As he is going to reply to the slanders of his opponents he implores the aid of Divine grace to teach a prayer to be used by those who undertake to dispute with heretics.
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Chapter I.
As he is going to reply to the slanders of his opponents
he implores the aid of Divine grace to teach a prayer to be used by
those who undertake to dispute with heretics.
As it happens to those
who having escaped the perils of the sea, are in terror of the sands
that stretch before the harbour, or the rocks that line the shore, so
it is in my case that,—as I have kept to the last some of the
slanders of the heretics,—although I have reached the limit of
the work which I set myself, yet I am beginning to dread the close,
which I had longed to reach. But, as the Prophet says, “The Lord
is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me,”2594
so we will not fear the pitfalls which
crafty heretics have dug in front of us, nor the paths thickly strewn
with horrid thorns. For as they make our road difficult but do not
close it, there is before us the
trouble of clearing them away, rather
than the fear of not being able to do so. For when, as we are walking
feebly along the right road, they come in our way, and frighten the
walkers rather than hurt them, our work and business has more to do in
clearing them away, than to fear from the difficulty of this: And so,
laying our hands upon that monstrous head of the deadly serpent, and
longing to lay hold of all the limbs that are entangled in the huge
folds and coils of his body, again and again do we pray to Thee, O Lord
Jesus, to whom we have ever prayed, that Thou wouldst give us words by
opening our mouth “to the pulling down of strongholds, destroying
counsels, and every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every understanding unto Thine
obedience:”2595
for he is indeed
free, who has begun to be led captive by Thee. Do Thou then be present
to this work of thine, and to those of Thine who are striving for Thee
above the measure of their strength. Grant us to bruise the gaping
mouths of this new serpent, and its neck that swells with deadly
poison, O Thou who makest the feet of believers to tread unharmed on
serpents and scorpions, and to go upon the adder and basilisk, to tread
under foot the lion and the dragon.2596
| 2596 Cf. S.
Luke x. 19; Ps. xc. (xci.) 13. | And grant
that through the fearless boldness of steadfast innocence, the sucking
child may play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child thrust his
hand into the den of the basilisk.2597
Grant then
to us also that we may thrust our hands unharmed into the den of this
monstrous and most wicked basilisk; and if it has in any holes, i.e.,
in the human heart, a lurking or resting place, or has laid its eggs
there, or left a trace of its slimy course, do Thou remove from them
all the foul and deadly pollution of this most noxious serpent. Take
away the uncleanness their blasphemy has brought on them, and purify
with the fan of Thy sacred cleansing2598
the souls
that are plunged in stinking mud, so that the “dens of
thieves” may become “houses of prayer:”2599
and that in those which are now, as is
written, the dwellings where hedgehogs and monsters,2600
and satyrs, and all kinds of strange
creatures dwell, there the gifts of Thy Holy Spirit, namely the beauty
of faith and holiness may shine forth. And as once Thou didst destroy
idolatry and cast out images, and make shrines of virtue out of the
temples of devils, and let into the dens of serpents and scorpions the
rays of shining light, and make out of the dens of error and shame the
homes of beauty and splendour, so do Thou pour upon all whose eyes the
darkness of heretical obstinacy has blinded, the light of Thy
compassion and truth, that they may at length with clear and unveiled
sight behold the great and life-giving mystery of Thine Incarnation,
and so come to know Thee to have been born as Very man of that sacred
womb of a pure Virgin, and yet to acknowledge that Thou wast always
Very God.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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