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FOR it is quite clear that they aim these attacks, with which they
assault men, even against each other, for in like manner they do not cease
to promote with unwearied strife the discords and struggles which they have
undertaken for some peoples because of a sort of innate love of wickedness
which they have: and this we read of as being very clearly set forth in the
vision of Daniel the prophet, where the angel Gabriel speaks as follows:
"Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thy heart to
understand, to afflict thyself in the sight of thy God, thy words have been
heard: and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of the
Persians resisted me one and twenty days: and behold Michael one of the
chief princes came to help me, and I remained there by the king of the
Persians. But I am come to teach thee what thinks shall befall thy people
in the latter days." And we can not possibly doubt that this prince of
the kingdom of the Persians was a hostile power, which favoured the nation
of the Persians an enemy of God's people; for in order to hinder the good
which it saw would result from the solution of the question for which the
prophet prayed the Lord, by the archangel, in its jealousy it opposed
itself to prevent the saving comfort of the angel from reaching Daniel too
speedily, and from strengthening the people of God, over which the
archangel Gabriel was: and the latter said that even then, owing to the
fierceness of his assaults, he would not have been able to come to him, had
not Michael the archangel come to help him, and met the prince of the
kingdom of the Persians, and joined battle with him, and intervened, and
defended him from his attack, and so enabled him to come to instruct the
prophet after twenty-one days. And a little later on it says: "And the
angel said: Dost thou know wherefore I am come to thee? And now I will
return to fight against the prince of the Persians. For when I went forth,
there appeared the prince of the Greeks coming. But I will tell thee what
is written down in the Scriptures of truth: and none is my helper in all
these things but Michael your prince." And again: "At that time shall
Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy
people." So then we read that in the same way another was called the
prince of the Greeks, who since he was patron of that nation which was
subject to him seems to have been opposed to the nation of the Persians as
well as to the people of Israel. From which we clearly see that
antagonistic powers raise against each other those quarrels of nations, and
conflicts and dissensions, which they show among themselves at their
instigation, and that they either exult at their victories or are cast down
at their defeats, and thus cannot live in harmony among themselves, while
each of them is always striving with restless jealousy on behalf of those
whom he presides over, against the patron of some other nation.
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