Their Real Grievance Is That He Is Free

Who, then, does not see their craftiness? Is it not quite clear to everyone that they do not reproach me with cowardice out of regard for virtue? They are thirsty for blood, and they use these base devices of theirs as nets, thinking to catch by them those they seek to destroy. Their actions show that this is their character, for those actions have convicted them of having natures more savage than wild beasts and more cruel than the Babylonians. The proof against them is clear enough from all this. Yet since they still cover themselves with soft words, after the manner of “their father the devil,” and pretend to charge me with cowardice, though they are themselves more cowardly than hares, let us consider what the sacred Scriptures say about cases like this. For in this way they will be shown to fight against the Scriptures no less than against me, when they belittle the virtues of the saints. [a]

For if they reproach people for hiding from those who seek to destroy them, and accuse those who flee from their persecutors, what will they do when they see Jacob fleeing from his brother Esau, and Moses withdrawing into Midian for fear of Pharaoh? What excuse will they make for David, after all this idle talk, for fleeing from his house because of Saul when Saul sent men to kill him, for hiding himself in the cave, and for disguising his appearance until he got away from Abimelech and escaped his designs against him? What will they say, these men who are ready to say anything, when they see the great Elijah, after calling on God and raising the dead, hiding for fear of Ahab and fleeing from the threats of Jezebel? At that time too the sons of the prophets, when they were being hunted, hid themselves with the help of Obadiah and lay concealed in caves. [b]