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| Chapter XIV. How God makes trial of the strength of man's will by means of his temptations.
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Chapter XIV.
How God makes trial of the strength of man’s will
by means of his temptations.
And this too we read that the
Divine righteousness provided for in the case of Job His well tried
athlete, when the devil had challenged him to single combat. For if he
had advanced against his foe, not with his own strength, but solely
with the protection of God’s grace; and, supported only by Divine
aid without any virtue of patience on his own part, had borne that
manifold weight of temptations and losses, contrived with all the
cruelty of his foe, how would the devil have repeated with some justice
that slanderous speech which
he had previously uttered: “Doth Job serve God for nought? Hast
Thou not hedged him in, and all his substance round about? but take
away thine hand,” i.e., allow him to fight with me in his own
strength, “and he will curse Thee to Thy face.”1835
But as after the struggle the
slanderous foe dare not give vent to any such murmur as this, he
admired that he was vanquished by his strength and not by that of God;
although too we must not hold that the grace of God was altogether
wanting to him, which gave to the tempter a power of tempting in
proportion to that which it knew that he had of resisting, without
protecting him from his attacks in such a way as to leave no room for
human virtue, but only providing for this; viz., that the most fierce
foe should not drive him out of his mind and overwhelm him when
weakened, with unequal thoughts and in an unfair contest. But that the
Lord is sometimes wont to tempt our faith that it may be made stronger
and more glorious, we are taught by the example of the centurion in the
gospel, in whose case though the Lord knew that He would cure his
servant by the power of His word, yet He chose to offer His bodily
presence, saying: “I will come and heal him:” but when the
centurion overcame this offer of His by the ardour of still more
fervent faith, and said: “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou
shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only and my servant
shall be healed,” the Lord marvelled at him and praised him, and
put him before all those of the people of Israel who had believed,
saying: “Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith
in Israel.”1836
For there
would have been no ground for praise or merit, if Christ had only
preferred in him what He Himself had given. And this searching trial of
faith we read that the Divine righteousness brought about also in the
case of the grandest of the patriarchs; where it is said: “And it
came to pass after these things that God did tempt
Abraham.”1837
For the
Divine righteousness wished to try not that faith with which the Lord
had inspired him, but that which when called and enlightened by the
Lord he could show forth by his own free will. Wherefore the firmness
of his faith was not without reason proved, and when the grace of God,
which had for a while left him to prove him, came to his aid, it was
said: “Lay not thine hand on the lad, and do nothing unto him:
for now I know that thou fearest the Lord, and for my sake hast not
spared thy beloved son.”1838
And that
this kind of temptation can befall us, for the sake of proving us, is
sufficiently clearly foretold by the giver of the Law in Deuteronomy:
“If there rise in the midst of you a prophet or one that saith he
hath seen a dream, and foretell a sign and wonder; and that come to
pass which he spoke, and he say to thee: Let us go and serve strange
gods which ye know not, thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet
or dreamer; for the Lord your God surely trieth thee, whether thou
lovest Him with all thine heart, and keepest His Commandments, or
no.”1839
What then
follows? When God has permitted that prophet or dreamer to arise, must
we hold that He will protect those whose faith He is purposing to try,
in such a way as to leave no place for their own free will, where they
can fight with the tempter with their own strength? And why is it
necessary for them even to be tried if He knows them to be so weak and
feeble as not to be able by their own power to resist the tempter? But
certainly the Divine righteousness would not have permitted them to be
tempted, unless it knew that there was within them an equal power of
resistance, by which they could by an equitable judgment be found in
either result either guilty or worthy of praise. To the same effect
also is this which the Apostle says: “Therefore let him that
thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation
taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the
temptation make also a way of escape that ye may be able to bear
it.”1840
For when he says
“Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall” he sets free
will on its guard, as he certainly knew that, after grace had been
received, it could either stand by its exertions or fall through
carelessness. But when he adds: “there hath no temptation taken
you but what is common to man” he chides their weakness and the
frailty of their heart that is not yet strengthened, as they could not
yet resist the attacks of the hosts of spiritual wickedness, against
which he knew that he and those who were perfect daily fought; of which
also he says to the Ephesians: “For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly
places.”1841
But when he
subjoins: “But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able,” he certainly is not hoping that
the Lord will not suffer them to be tempted, but that they may not be
tempted above what they are able to bear. For the one shows the power
of man’s will,
the other denotes the grace of the Lord
who moderates the violence of temptations. In all these phrases then
there is proof that Divine grace ever stirs up the will of man, not so
as to protect and defend it in all things in such a way as to cause it
not to fight by its own efforts against its spiritual adversaries, the
victor over whom may set it down to God’s grace, and the
vanquished to his own weakness, and thus learn that his hope is always
not in his own courage but in the Divine assistance, and that he must
ever fly to his Protector. And to prove this not by our own conjecture
but by still clearer passages of Holy Scripture let us consider what we
read in Joshuah the son of Nun: “The Lord,” it says,
“left these nations and would not destroy them, that by them He
might try Israel, whether they would keep the commandments of the Lord
their God, and that they might learn to fight with their
enemies.”1842
And if we may
illustrate the incomparable mercy of our Creator from something
earthly, not as being equal in kindness, but as an illustration of
mercy: if a tender and anxious nurse carries an infant in her bosom for
a long time in order sometime to teach it to walk, and first allows it
to crawl, then supports it that by the aid of her right hand it may
lean on its alternate steps, presently leaves it for a little and if
she sees it tottering at all, catches hold of it, and grabs at it when
falling, when down picks it up, and either shields it from a fall, or
allows it to fall lightly, and sets it up again after a tumble, but
when she has brought it up to boyhood or the strength of youth or early
manhood, lays upon it some burdens or labours by which it may be not
overwhelmed but exercised, and allows it to vie with those of its own
age; how much more does the heavenly Father of all know whom to carry
in the bosom of His grace, whom to train to virtue in His sight by the
exercise of free will, and yet He helps him in his efforts, hears him
when he calls, leaves him not when he seeks Him, and sometimes snatches
him from peril even without his knowing it.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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