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21. And meanwhile Thou grantedst her another answer, which I
recall; for much I pass over, hastening on to those things which the
more strongly impel me to confess unto Thee, and much I do not
remember. Thou didst grant her then another answer, by a priest of
Thine, a certain bishop, reared in Thy Church and well versed in
Thy books. He, when this woman had entreated that he would vouchsafe
to have some talk with me, refute my errors, unteach me evil things,
and teach me good (for this he was in the habit of doing when he found
people fitted to receive it), refused, very prudently, as I
afterwards came to see. For he answered that I was still
unteachable, being inflated with the.e novelty of that heresy, and
that I had already perplexed divers inexperienced persons with
vexatious questions, as she had informed him. "But leave him alone
for a time," saith he, "only pray God for him; he will of
himself, by reading, discover what that error is, and how great its
impiety." He disclosed to her at the same time how he himself, when
a little one, had, by his misguided mother, been given over to the
Manichaeans, and had not only read, but even written out almost all
their books, and had come to see (without argument or proof from any
one) how much that sect was to be shunned, and had shunned it. Which
when he had said, and she would not be satisfied, but repeated more
earnestly her entreaties, shedding copious tears, that he would see
and discourse with me, he, a little vexed at her importunity,
exclaimed, "Go thy way, and God bless thee, for it is not possible
that the son of these tears should perish." Which answer (as she
often mentioned in her conversations with me) she accepted as though it
were a voice from heaven.
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