Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/241

17* Thus the holy Scriptures are woven and prepared like a physical net, one knot tied to another, until the whole great net is made; similarly there are tied one to another the different truths of the holy Scripture, so that they can enclose a multitude of believers (and every single believer with all his spiritual and physical gifts in order that, surrounded by the net, he might be drawn out of the ocean of this world) And this net is capable of pulling out everyone from the sea of deep and gross sins.

Now we can understand that this net began to break not so much for the multitude of things caught – like Peter's net – but, just as in a physical sea a great number of other repellent things get caught in the net, so also a number of lost souls, heretics and offenders, enter the net of faith (sometimes outwardly being of the faith but later – in times of temptation – reverting to abominations and heresies). Such (people) tear the net, and the more evildoers enter the net, the more the latter is torn and ripped. The faith in God and the words of God perish between them; for they profess God and our Lord Jesus Christ with their lips only, holiness remaining an outward thing with them. And the devil goes slyly about with these erring people, seeking how to help them to enter the net falsely. And then they tear it (the devil always doing it in such a way as  In the original, these words are added: "if one lets himself be dragged by the net."