Josiah also, beloved of God, when as yet he
could scarcely speak articulately, convicts those
who were possessed of a wicked spirit as being
false in their speech, and deceivers of the people.
He also reveals the deceit of the demons, and
openly exposes those that are no gods ; yea,
while yet an infant he slays their priests, and
overturns their altars, and defiles the place where
sacrifices were offered with dead bodies, and
throws down the temples, and cuts down the
groves, and breaks in pieces the pillars, and
breaks open the tombs of the ungodly, that not
a relic of the wicked might any longer exist.^
To such an extent did he display zeal in the
cause of godliness, and prove himself a punisher
of the ungodly, while he as yet faltered in speech
like a child. David, too, who was at once a
prophet and a king, and the root of our Saviour
according to the flesh, while yet a youth is
anointed by Samuel to be king.^ For he himself