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| On the Misery of Human Life.
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Chapter XXVIII.—On the Misery of
Human Life.
39. When I shall cleave unto Thee with all my
being, then shall I in nothing have pain and labour; and my life
shall be a real life, being wholly full of Thee. But now since he
whom Thou fillest is the one Thou liftest up, I am a burden to
myself, as not being full of Thee. Joys of sorrow contend with
sorrows of joy; and on which side the victory may be I know not.
Woe is me! Lord, have pity on me. My evil sorrows contend with my
good joys; and on which side the victory may be I know not. Woe is
me! Lord, have pity on me. Woe is me! Lo, I hide not my wounds;
Thou art the Physician, I the sick; Thou merciful, I miserable. Is
not the life of man upon earth a temptation?874
| 874 Job vii. 1. The Old Ver. rendering
צָבָא by tentatio, after
the LXX. πειρατήριον. The
Vulg. has militia, which =“warfare” in margin of
A.V. | Who is he that wishes for vexations
and difficulties? Thou commandest them to be endured, not to be
loved. For no man loves what he endures, though he may love to
endure. For notwithstanding he rejoices to endure, he would rather
there were naught for him to endure.875
| 875 “It will not be safe,” says Anthony Farindon
(vol. iv. Christ’s Temptation, serm. 107), “for us to
challenge and provoke a temptation, but to arm and prepare
ourselves against it; to stand upon our guard, and neither to offer
battle nor yet refuse it. Sapiens feret ista, non eliget:
‘It is the part of a wise man not to seek for evil, but to
endure it.’ And to this end it concerneth every man to
exercise τὴν πνευματικὴν
σύνεσιν, ‘his spiritual wisdom,’ that he may discover
Spiritus ductiones et diaboli seductiones, ‘the Spirit’s
leadings and the devil’s seducements.’” See also Augustin’s
Serm. lxxvi. 4, and p. 79, note 9, above. | In adversity, I desire prosperity;
in prosperity, I fear adversity. What middle place, then, is there
between these, where human life is not a temptation? Woe unto the
prosperity of this world, once and again, from fear of misfortune
and a corruption of joy! Woe unto the adversities of this world,
once and again, and for the third time, from the desire of
prosperity; and because adversity itself is a hard thing, and makes
shipwreck of endurance! Is not the life of man upon earth a
temptation, and that without intermission?876
| 876 We have ever to endure temptation, either in the
sense of a testing, as when it is said, “God did tempt
Abraham” (Gen. xxii. 1); or with the additional idea
of yielding to the temptation, and so committing sin, as in
the use of the word in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. vi.
13); for, as Dyke says in
his Michael and the Dragon (Works, i. 203, 204): “No
sooner have we bathed and washed our souls in the waters of
Repentance, but we must presently expect the fiery darts of
Satan’s temptations to be driving at us. What we get and gain
from Satan by Repentance, he seeks to regain and recover by
his Temptations. We must not think to pass quietly out of
Egypt without Pharaoh’s pursuit, nor to travel the wilderness of
this world without the opposition of the Amalekites.” Compare
Augustin, In Ev. Joann. Tract. xliii. 6, and
Serm. lvii. 9. See also p. 79, note 3, above. |
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