Chapter IX.
30. The sixth petition is, “And bring309
| 309 Inferas…inducas, as the Vulgate.
|
us not into
temptation.” Some manuscripts have the word “lead,”
310
| 310 Inferas…inducas, as the Vulgate.
|
which is, I
judge, equivalent in meaning: for both translations have arisen from the one
Greek word which is used. But many parties in prayer express themselves thus, “
Suffer us not to be led into
temptation;” that is to say, explaining in what sense the word “lead” is used. For
God does not Himself lead, but
suffers that man to be led into
temptation whom He has deprived of His assistance, in accordance with a most hidden arrangement, and with his
deserts. Often,
also, for manifest reasons, He judges him worthy of being so deprived, and allowed to be led into
temptation. But it is one thing to be led into
temptation, another to be tempted. For without
temptation no one can be
proved, whether to himself, as it is written, “He that hath not been tempted, what manner of things doth he know?”
311
or to another, as the
apostle says, “And your
temptation in my
flesh ye
despised not:”
312
for from this circumstance he learnt that they were
stedfast, because they were not turned aside from
charity by those tribulations which had happened to the
apostle according to the
flesh. For even before all
temptations we are known to
God, who knows all things before they happen.
31. When, therefore, it is said, “The Lord your God tempteth (proveth) you, that He may know if ye love Him,”313
the words “that He may know” are employed for what is the real
state of the case, that He may make you know: just as we speak of a
joyful day, because it makes us
joyful; of a
sluggish frost, because it makes us
sluggish; and of
innumerable things of the same sort, which are found either in ordinary
speech, or in the
discourse of
learned men, or in the Holy Scriptures. And the
heretics who are opposed to the Old Testament, not understanding this,
think that the
brand of ignorance, as it were, is to be placed upon Him of whom it is said, “The
Lord your
God tempteth you:” as if in the
Gospel it were not written of the
Lord, “And this He said to tempt (
prove) him, for He Himself knew what He would do.”
314
For if He knew the
heart of him whom He was tempting, what is it that He wished to see by tempting him? But in reality, that was done in order that he who was tempted might become known to himself, and that he might
condemn his own
despair, on the multitudes being filled with the
Lord’s
bread, while he had thought they had not enough to eat.
32. Here, therefore, the prayer is not, that we should not be tempted, but that we should not be brought into temptation: as if, were it necessary that any one should be examined by fire, he should pray, not that he should not be touched by the fire, but that he should not be consumed. For “the furnace proveth the potter’s vessels, and the trial of tribulation righteous men.”315
Joseph therefore was tempted with the allurement of debauchery, but he was not brought into
temptation.
316
Susanna was tempted, but she was not led or brought into
temptation;
317
and many others of both sexes: but Job most of all, in regard to whose admirable
stedfastness in the
Lord his
God, those
heretical enemies of the Old Testament, when they wish to
mock at it with sacrilegious mouth, brandish this above other
weapons, that
Satan begged that he should be tempted.
318
For they put the
question to unskilful men by no means able to understand such things, how
Satan could speak with
God: not understanding (for they cannot, inasmuch as they are
blinded by
superstition and
controversy) that
God does not occupy space by the mass of His corporeity; and thus exist in one place, and not in another, or at least have one part here, and another elsewhere: but that He is everywhere present in His
majesty, not divided by parts, but everywhere complete.
But if they take a fleshly view of what is said, “The
heaven is my
throne, and the
earth is my
footstool,”
319
—to which passage our
Lord also bears
testimony, when He says, “
Swear not at all: neither by
heaven, for it is
God’s
throne; nor by the
earth, for it is His
footstool,”
320
—what wonder if the
devil, being placed on
earth, stood before the
feet of
God, and spoke something in His presence? For when will they be able to understand that there is no
soul, however
wicked, which can yet reason in any way, in whose conscience
God does not speak? For who but
God has written the
law of
nature in the
hearts of men?—that
law concerning which the
apostle says: “For when the Gentiles, which have not the
law, do by
nature the things contained in the
law, these, having not the
law, are a
law unto themselves: which show the
work of the
law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing them witness,
321
| 321 Contestante; Vulgate, testimonium reddente.
|
and their thoughts
322
| 322 Cogitationum accusantium; Vulgate, cogitationibus accusantibus.
|
the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another, in the day when the
Lord323
| 323 Dominus; Vulgate, Deus.
|
shall
judge the
secrets of men.”
324
And therefore, as in the case of every rational
soul, which thinks and reasons, even though
blinded by passion, we attribute whatever in its reasoning is true, not to itself but to the very
light of
truth by which, however faintly, it is according to its capacity illuminated, so as to perceive some measure of
truth by its reasoning; what wonder if the depraved spirit of the
devil, perverted though it be by
lust, should be represented as having heard from the voice of
God
Himself,
i.e. from the voice of the very
Truth, whatever true thought it has
entertained about a
righteous man whom it was proposing to tempt? But whatever is false is to be attributed to that
lust from which he has received the name of
devil. Although it is also the case that
God has often spoken by means of a corporeal and visible creature whether to good or bad, as being
Lord and
Governor of all, and Disposer according to the merits of every
deed: as, for instance, by means of
angels, who appeared also under the aspect of men; and by means of the
prophets, saying, Thus saith the
Lord. What wonder then, if, though not in mere thought, at least by means of some creature fitted for such a
work,
God is said to have spoken with the
devil?
33. And let them not imagine it unworthy of His dignity, and as it were of His righteousness, that God spoke with him: inasmuch as He spoke with an angelic spirit, although one foolish and lustful, just as if He were speaking with a foolish and lustful human spirit. Or let such parties themselves tell us how He spoke with that rich man, whose most foolish covetousness He wished to censure, saying: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required
325
| 325 Anima expostulatur; Vulgate, animam repetunt.
|
of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast
provided?”
326
Certainly the
Lord Himself says so in the
Gospel, to which those
heretics, whether they will or no, bend their necks. But if they are puzzled by this circumstance, that
Satan asks from
God that a
righteous man should be tempted; I do not explain how it happened, but I compel them to explain why it is said in the
Gospel by the
Lord Himself to the
disciples, “Behold,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as
wheat;”
327
| 327 Petit vos vexare quomodo triticum; Vulgate, expetivit vos ut cribraret sicut triticum.
|
and He says to Peter, “But I have
prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not.”
328
And when they explain this to me, they explain to themselves at the same time that which they
question me about. But if they should not be able to explain this, let them not
dare with rashness to
blame in any book what they read in the
Gospel without
offence.
34. Temptations, therefore, take place by means of Satan not by his power, but by the Lord’s permission, either for the purpose of punishing men for their sins, or of proving and exercising them in accordance with the Lord’s compassion. And there is a very great difference in the nature of the temptations into which each one may fall. For Judas, who sold his Lord, did not fall into one of the same nature as Peter fell into, when, under the influence of terror,
he denied his Lord. There are also temptations common to man, I believe, when every one, though well disposed, yet yielding to human frailty, falls into error in some plan, or is irritated against a brother, in the earnest endeavour to bring him round to what is right, yet a little more than Christian calmness demands: concerning which temptations the apostle says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man;” while he says at the same time, “But God is faithful, who
will not suffer329
| 329 Sinat; Vulgate, patietur.
|
you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to
escape, that ye may be able to bear
330
| 330 Tolerare; Vulgate, sustinere.
|
it.”
331
And in that sentence he makes it sufficiently evident that we are not to
pray that we may not be tempted, but that we may not be led into
temptation. For we are led into
temptation, if such
temptations have happened to us as we are not able to bear. But when
dangerous temptations, into which it is ruinous for us to be brought and led, arise either from prosperous or adverse temporal circumstances, no one is broken down by the irksomeness of
adversity, who is not led captive
by the
delight of prosperity.
332
| 332 Trench, giving the essence of Augustin’s discussion, says, “God does tempt quite as truly as the devil tempts; all the difference lies in the end and aim with which they severally do it,—the one tempting to deceive, the other to approve: Satan, to their ruin; God, to their everlasting gain.”
|
35. The seventh and last petition is, “But deliver us from evil.”333
| 333 Alford and other modern commentators agree with Augustin in explaining ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ “of evil;” Bengel, Meyer, Schaff, and others (see Revised Version) make the form masculine,—“the Evil One.”
|
For we are to
pray not only that we may not be led into the
evil from which we are free, which is asked in the sixth place; but that we may also be
delivered from that into which we have been already led. And when this has been done, nothing will remain
terrible, nor will any
temptation at all have to be
feared. And yet in this
life, so long as we carry about our present mortality, into which we were led by the persuasion of the
serpent, it is not to be hoped that this can
be the case; but yet we are to
hope that at some future time it will take place: and this is the
hope which is not seen, of which the
apostle, when speaking, said, “But
hope which is seen is not
hope.”
334
But yet the
wisdom which is granted in this
life also, is not to be despaired of by the
faithful servants of
God. And it is this, that we should with the most wary vigilance
shun what we have understood, from the
Lord’s revealing it, is to be
shunned; and that we should with the most ardent
love seek after what we have understood, from the Lord’s revealing it, is to be sought after. For thus, after the remaining burden of this mortality has been laid down in the act of
dying, there shall be perfected in every part of man at the fit time, the blessedness which has been begun in this life, and which we have from time to time strained every nerve to lay hold of and secure.
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