Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
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Gaius Marius Victorinus
AD 400
He returns to that capital virtue, the shield of faith. It contains all the other virtues and brings them all to fulfillment. Unless we are armed with this shield we will not have the strength to battle courageously and resist all these deadly powers. But with the protection of faith we repel all these blows and whatever attacks come from the whole host of powers. .
The shield of faith. A lively faith working by charity, which will enable you to conquer your greatest enemies, and to escape their fiery darts, their greatest temptations, and attacks. (Witham)
By “his darts” Paul means both temptations and perverse desires. He calls them fiery because that is the nature of the appetite. Faith is capable of commanding hosts of demons. How much more is faith capable of ordering the passions of the soul? Homily on Ephesians.
Withal taking up the shield of faith.
By faith in this place, he means, not knowledge, (for that he never would have ranged last,) but that gift by which miracles are wrought. And with reason does he term this 'faith' a shield; for as the shield is put before the whole body, as if it were a sort of rampart, just so is this faith; for all things yield to it.
Wherewith you shall be able, says he, to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.
For this shield nothing shall be able to resist; for hearken to what Christ says to His disciples, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove. Matthew 17:20 But how are we to have this faith? When we have rightly performed all those duties.
By the darts of the evil one, he means, both temptations, and vile desires; and fiery, he says, for such is the character of these desires. Yet if faith can command the evil spirits, much more can it also the passio...
