The Pearl, Hymn 7: Satan Sows Disputing

I saw the disputers, the children of strife, as if in a race, trying to taste fire, to see the air, to handle the light. They were troubled at the gleaming, and struggled to make divisions. The Son, who is too subtle for the mind, they sought to feel; and the Holy Spirit, who cannot be explored, they thought to explore with their questionings. The Father, who has never at any time been searched out, they have explained and disputed about. The sound form of our faith is from Abraham, and our repentance is from Nineveh and the house of Rahab; ours are the hopes of the prophets, and ours the hopes of the apostles. [a]

And envy is from Satan. The evil custom of the evil calf is from the Egyptians. The hateful sight of the hateful image with four faces is from the Hittites. Accursed disputing, that hidden moth, is from the Greeks. The bitter enemy read and saw orthodox teachings, and overturned them. He saw hateful things, and sowed them. He saw hope, and turned it upside down and cut it off. Look, the disputing he planted has yielded a fruit bitter to the tooth. [b]

Satan saw that the Truth was strangling him. He joined himself to the weeds, hid his frauds, spread his snares for the faith, and cast at the priests the darts of the love of being first. They made contests for the throne, to see who would get it first. One brooded over it in secret and kept it close; another fought for it openly; another crept up to it with a bribe; another schemed with fraud to obtain it. The paths differed, but the goal was one, and they were all alike. The young man, who could not even think of it because it was not yet his time, and the gray-haired man, who shaped dreams for a time beyond his own: all of them the wicked one persuaded and subdued by his craftiness. Old men, young men, and even boys aim at rank! [e]

Satan put aside his former books and put on others. The People, who had grown old, the moth and the worm devoured and ate, and left and abandoned; and the moth came into the new garment of the new peoples. He saw that the crucifiers had been rejected and cast out as strangers. Of those of the household he made people who pry; worshipers became disputers. From that garment the moth bred, and wound it up and laid it away. The worm bred in the storehouse of wheat, and sat and looked on; and look, the pure wheat was mildewed, and the garments of glory were devoured! He made a mockery of us, and we of ourselves, because we were befuddled! He showed weeds, and the bramble shot up in the pure vineyard! He infected the flock, and the leprosy broke out, and the sheep became his hired servants! He began with the People, and came to the Gentiles, so that he might finish.

Instead of the reed that the former people made the Son hold, others have dared to write with their reed in their tracts that he is only a son of man. The wicked one trades reed for reed against our Redeemer. And instead of the coat of many colors in which they clothed him, he has craftily dyed titles. He clothed him with a variety of names, either that of a creature or that of a thing made, when he was the Maker. And as he once plaited for him, through silent men, speechless thorns that cry out, so now he has plaited thorns of the mind through the voice, as hymns, and hidden the spikes among melodies so that they might not be noticed. [g]

Satan saw that he was found out in his former frauds: that the spitting had been exposed, and the vinegar, and the thorns, the nails and the wood, the garments, the reed and the spear, which struck him and were hated and openly known. So he changed his frauds. Instead of the blow with the hand, by which our Lord was overcome, he brought in distractions; instead of the spitting, quibbling came in; instead of the garments, secret divisions; and instead of the reed, strife came in to strike us on the face. Haughtiness called for its sister, rage, and envy answered and came, with wrath, pride and fraud. They have taken counsel against our Redeemer as on that day when they took counsel at his suffering. And instead of the cross, strife has become a hidden wood; instead of the nails, questionings have come in; and instead of hell, apostasy. Satan would renew the pattern of both again. Instead of the sponge that was tainted with vinegar and wormwood, he gave prying, which is wholly tainted with death. The gall they gave him our Lord put away from himself; but the subtle questioning the rebellious one has given is sweet to fools. [j]

And at that time there were judges against them; look, the judges now are, as it were, against us, and their commands stand in place of a written charge. Priests who consecrate crowns set snares for kings. Instead of the priesthood praying for those who reign, that wars may cease among men, they teach wars of overthrow, which set kings fighting with those around them. O Lord, make the priests and the kings peaceful, so that in one church the priests may pray for their kings, and the kings spare those around them; and may the peace that is within you become ours, Lord, you who are within all things and outside them! [k]