containing and sustaining all things, provident for all, ruler and King
of all. Without him was there nothing made, nor without his providence
can aught subsist. He is the life of all, the support of all, the
light of all, being wholly sweetness and insatiable desire, the summit
of aspiration. To leave God, then, who is so good, so wise, so mighty,
and to serve impure devils, makers of all sinful lusts, and to assign
worship to deaf and dumb images, that are not, and never shall be, were
not that the extreme of folly and madness? When was there ever heard
utterance or language from their lips? When have they given even the
smallest answer to their bedesmen? When have they walked, or received
any impression of sense? Those of them that stand have never thought
of sitting down; and those that sit have never been seen to rise. From
an holy man have I learned the ugliness, ill savour and insensibility
of these idols, and, moreover, the rottenness and weakness of the
devils that operate in them and by them deceive you; and I loathe their
wickednesses and, hating them with a perfect hatred, have joined myself
to the living and true God, and him will I serve until my latest
breath, that my spirit also may return into his hands. When these
unspeakable blessings came in my path I rejoiced to be freed from the
bondage of evil devils, and to be reclaimed from dire captivity and to
be illumined with the light of the countenance of the Lord. But my
soul was distressed and divided asunder, that thou, my lord and father,
didst not share in my blessings. Yet I feared the stubbornness of thy
mind, and kept my grief to myself, not wishing to anger thee; but,
without ceasing, I prayed God to draw thee to himself, and call thee
back from the long exile that thou hast imposed upon thyself, a
runagate alas! from righteousness, and a servant of all sin and
wickedness. But sith thou thyself, O my father, hast brought mine
affairs to light, hear the sum of my resolve: I will not be false to my
covenant with Christ; no, I swear it by him that bought me out of
slavery with his own precious blood; even if I must needs die a
thousand deaths for his sake, die I will. Knowing then how matters now
stand with me, prithee, no longer trouble thyself in endeavouring to
persuade me to change my good confession. For as it were a thankless
and never ending task for thee to try to grasp the heavens with thy
hand, or to dry up the waters of the se