Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
For what has God, who demands prayer that comes from spirit and truth, ever refused to it? We read, and we hear, and we believe how great are the proofs of its power. The old-time prayer, indeed, could rescue from fires and from beasts and from starvation, and yet it had not received its form from Christ. But how much more does Christian prayer accomplish! It does not station an angel of the dew in the midst of the flames, nor stop the mouths of lions, nor transfer to the hungry a countryman's lunch; delegated grace turns aside no sensation of suffering — instead, it equips the suffering, the feeling, the grieving to endure, and amplifies grace through fortitude, so that faith may know what it obtains from the Lord by understanding what it suffers for God's name. [2] And in earlier times, too, prayer used to inflict plagues, rout the armies of enemies, and withhold the benefits of rain. But now the prayer of righteousness turns aside the whole wrath of God; it keeps watch on behalf of enemies, it makes supplication on behalf of persecutors. Is it any wonder that it knows how to wring the waters of heaven, when it could also obtain fire? Prayer alone is what conquers God — yet Christ has taught it to work no evil; he has bestowed on it every power that comes from good. And so it knows nothing except to call back the souls of the dead from the very path of death, to reshape the weak, to heal the sick, to purge the demon-possessed, to open the bars of the prison, to loosen the chains of the innocent. The same prayer washes away sins, repels temptations, extinguishes persecutions, consoles the fainthearted, delights the great-hearted, guides travelers, calms the waves, strikes robbers with astonishment, feeds the poor, governs the rich, raises the fallen, holds up the stumbling, sustains those who stand. [3] Prayer is the wall of faith, our weapons and our missiles against the enemy who watches us on every side. And so let us never go forward unarmed. Let us remember the day-station and the night-watch. Under the arms of prayer let us guard our commander's standard; let us await, praying, the angel's trumpet. [4] All the angels pray too; every creature prays; cattle too and the beasts of the field pray, bowing their knees, and as they emerge from their stalls and lairs they turn their faces upward, mouths never quite still, moving their breath after their own manner. The birds as well, lifting off, rise toward the sky and stretch out the shape of a cross with their wings instead of hands, uttering something that resembles a petition. What further, then, remains to say about this task of praying? Christ the Lord himself engaged in it — his be glory and dominion unto ages of ages.