34. Wherefore there is no need to set much value on these things, nor for the sake of them to practise a life of discipline and labour; but that living well we may please God. And we neither ought to pray to know the future, nor to ask for it as the reward of our discipline; but our prayer should be that the Lord may be our fellow-helper for victory over the devil. And if even once we have a desire to know the future, let us be pure in mind, for I believe that if a soul is perfectly pure and in its natural state, it is able [1060] , being clear-sighted, to see more and further than the demons -- for it has the Lord who reveals to it -- like the soul of Elisha, which saw what was done [1061] by Gehazi, and beheld the hosts [1062] standing on its side.' |