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| Man Was to Be Rescued from the Power of the Devil, Not by Power, But by Righteousness.
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Chapter
13.—Man Was to Be Rescued from the Power of the Devil, Not by
Power, But by Righteousness.
17. But the devil was to be
overcome, not by the power of God, but by His righteousness. For
what is more powerful than the Omnipotent? Or what creature is
there of which the power can be compared to the power of the
Creator? But since the devil, by the fault of his own perversity,
was made a lover of power, and a forsaker and assailant of
righteousness,—for thus also men imitate him so much the more in
proportion as they set their hearts on power, to the neglect or
even hatred of righteousness, and as they either rejoice in the
attainment of power, or are inflamed by the lust of it,—it
pleased God, that in order to the rescuing of man from the grasp of
the devil, the devil should be conquered, not by power, but by
righteousness; and that so also men, imitating Christ, should seek
to conquer the devil by righteousness, not by power. Not that power
is to be shunned as as though it were something evil; but the order
must be preserved, whereby righteousness is before it. For how
great can be the power of mortals? Therefore let mortals cleave to
righteousness; power will be given to immortals. And compared to
this, the power, how great soever, of those men who are called
powerful on earth, is found to be ridiculous weakness, and a
pitfall is dug there for the sinner, where the wicked seem to be
most powerful. And the righteous man says in his song, “Blessed
is the man whom Thou chasteneth, O Lord, and teachest him out of
Thy law: that Thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity,
until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast
off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance, until
righteousness return unto judgment, and all who follow it are
upright in heart.”818
At this present time, then, in
which the might of the people of God is delayed, “the Lord will
not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His
inheritance,” how bitter and unworthy things soever it may suffer
in its humility and weakness; “until the righteousness,” which
the weakness of the pious now possesses, “shall return to
judgment,” that is, shall receive the power of judging; which is
preserved in the end for the righteous when power in its due order
shall have followed after righteousness going before. For power
joined to righteousness, or righteousness added to power,
constitutes a judicial authority. But righteousness belongs to a
good will; whence it was said by the angels when Christ was born:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good
will.”819
But power
ought to follow righteousness, not to go before it; and accordingly
it is placed in “second,” that is, prosperous fortune; and this
is called “second,”820
from “following.” For whereas
two things make a man blessed, as we have argued above, to will
well, and to be able to do what one wills, people ought not to be
so perverse, as has been noted in the same discussion, as that a
man should choose from the two things which make him blessed, the
being able to do what he wills, and should neglect to will what he
ought; whereas he ought first to have a good will, but great power
afterwards. Further, a good will must be purged from vices, by
which if a man is overcome, he is in such wise overcome as that he
wills evil; and then how will his will be still good? It is to be
wished, then, that power may now be given, but power against vices,
to conquer which men do not wish to be powerful, while they wish to
be so in order to conquer men; and why is this, unless that, being
in truth conquered, they feignedly conquer, and are conquerors not
in truth, but in opinion? Let a man will to be prudent, will to be
strong, will to be temperate, will to be just; and that he may be
able to have these things truly, let him certainly desire power,
and seek to be powerful in himself, and (strange though it be)
against himself for himself. But all the other things which he
wills rightly, and yet is not able to have, as, for instance,
immortality and true and full felicity, let him not cease to long
for, and let him patiently expect.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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