Chapter IX.

30. The sixth petition is, “And bring307    Inferas…inducas, as the Vulgate. us not into temptation.” Some manuscripts have the word “lead,”308    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?”309    Ecclus. xxxiv. 9, 11. or to another, as the apostle says, “And your temptation in my flesh ye despised not:”310    Gal. iv. 13, 14. The English version renders “my temptation,” but “your temptation” is the reading of the oldest mss. 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,”311    Deut. xiii. 3. 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.”312    John vi. 6. 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.”313    Ecclus. xxvii. 5. Joseph therefore was tempted with the allurement of debauchery, but he was not brought into temptation.314    Gen. xxxix. 7–12. Susanna was tempted, but she was not led or brought into temptation;315    Hist. of Sus. i. 19–22. 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.316    Job i. 11. 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,”317    Isa. lxvi. 1.—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,”318    Matt. v. 34, 35.—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,319    Contestante; Vulgate, testimonium reddente. and their thoughts320    Cogitationum accusantium; Vulgate, cogitationibus accusantibus. the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another, in the day when the Lord321    Dominus; Vulgate, Deus. shall judge the secrets of men.”322    Rom. ii. 14–16. 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 323    Anima expostulatur; Vulgate, animam repetunt. of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?”324    Luke xii. 20. 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;” 325    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.”326    Luke xxii. 31, 32. 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 suffer327    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 bear328    Tolerare; Vulgate, sustinere. it.”329    1 Cor. x. 13. 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.330    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.”331    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.”332    Rom. viii. 24. 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.

CAPUT IX.---30. Sexta petitio est, Et ne nos inferas in tentationem. Nonnulli codices habent, inducas, quod tantumdem valere arbitror: nam ex uno graeco quod dictum est, εἰσενέγκης, utrumque translatum est. Multi autem precando ita dicunt, Ne nos patiaris induci in tentationem; exponentes videlicet quomodo dictum sit, inducas. Non enim per seipsum inducit Deus, sed induci patitur eum quem suo auxilio deseruerit, ordine occultissimo ac meritis. Causis etiam saepe manifestis dignum judicat ille quem deserat, et in tentationem induci sinat. Aliud est autem induci in tentationem, aliud tentari. Nam sine tentatione probatus esse nullus potest, sive sibi ipsi, sicut scriptum est, Qui non est tentatus, qualia scit (Eccli. XXXIV, 9, 11)? sive alii, sicut Apostolus ait, Et tentationem vestram in carne mea non sprevistis (Galat. IV, 13, 14): hinc enim eos firmos ipse cognovit, quod eis tribulationibus, quae Apostolo secundum carnem acciderant, non sunt a charitate deflexi. Nam Deo noti sumus et ante omnes tentationes, qui scit omnia antequam fiant.

31. Quod itaque scriptum est, Tentat vos Dominus Deus vester, ut sciat si diligitis eum (Deut. XIII, 3); illa locutione positum est, ut sciat, pro eo quod est, ut scire vos faciat: sicut diem laetum dicimus, quod laetos faciat: frigus pigrum, quod pigros facit; et innumerabilia hujusmodi, quae sive in consuetudine loquendi, sive in sermone doctorum, sive in Scripturis sanctis reperiuntur. Quod non intelligentes haeretici qui Veteri Testamento adversantur, velut ignorantiae vitio notandum putant eum de quo dictum est, Tentat vos Dominus Deus vester: quasi in Evangelio de Domino scriptum non sit, Hoc autem dicebat tentans eum 1283 nam ipse sciebat quid esset facturus (Joan. VI, 6). Si enim noverat cor ejus quem tentabat, quid est quod voluit videre tentando? Sed profecto illud factum est, ut ipse sibi notus fieret qui tentabatur, suamque desperationem condemnaret, saturatis turbis de pane Domini, qui eas non habere quod ederent existimaverat.

32. Non ergo hic oratur, ut non tentemur, sed ut non inferamur in tentationem: tanquam si quispiam cui necesse est igne examinari, non oret ut igne non contingatur, sed ut non exuratur. Vasa enim figuli probat fornax, et homines justos tentatio tribulationis (Eccli. XXVII, 6). Joseph ergo tentatus est illecebra stupri, sed non est illatus in tentationem (Gen. XXXIX, 7-12): Susanna tentata est, nec ipsa inducta vel illata in tentationem (Dan. XIII, 19-24); multique alii utriusque sexus: sed Job maxime, cujus admirabilem stabilitatem in Deo Domino suo, cum illi haeretici hostes Veteris Testamenti ore sacrilego irridere voluerint, illud prae caeteris ventilant, quod satanas petierit eum tentandum (Job I, 11). Quaerunt enim ab imperitis hominibus talia intelligere nequaquam valentibus, quomodo satanas cum Deo loqui potuerit: non intuentes (non enim possunt, cum superstitione et contentione caecati sint) Deum non loci spatium mole corporis occupare; et sic alibi esse, alibi non esse, vel certe hic habere partem aliam, et alibi aliam: sed majestate ubique praesto esse, non per partes divisum, sed ubique perfectum. Quod si carnaliter intuentur quod dictum est, Coelum mihi thronus est, et terra scabellum pedum meorum (Isai. LXVI, 1); cui loco et Dominus attestatur dicens, Non juretis, neque per coelum, quia thronus Dei est; neque per terram, quia scabellum est pedum ejus (Matth. V, 34-35): quid mirum si in terra diabolus constitutus, ante pedes Dei stetit, et coram illo aliquid locutus est? Nam quando illi valent intelligere, nullam esse animam, quamvis perversam, quae tamen ullo modo ratiocinari potest, in cujus conscientia non loquatur Deus? Quis enim scripsit in cordibus hominum naturalem legem, nisi Deus? De qua lege Apostolus ait: Cum enim Gentes, quae Legem non habent, naturaliter quae legis sunt faciunt, hi Legem non habentes ipsi sibi sunt lex, qui ostendunt opus legis scriptum in cordibus suis, contestante conscientia ipsorum, et inter se invicem cogitationum accusantium, aut etiam excusantium, in die qua judicabit Dominus occulta hominum (Rom. II, 14-16). Quapropter si omnis anima rationalis etiam cupiditate caecata, tamen cum cogitat et ratiocinatur, quidquid in ea ratiocinatione verum est, non ei tribuendum est, sed ipsi lumini veritatis, a quo vel tenuiter pro sui capacitate illustratur, ut verum aliquid in ratiocinando sentiat; quid mirum si diaboli anima prava cupiditate perversa, quidquid tamen verum de justo viro cogitavit, cum eum tentare vellet, ipsius Dei voce, id est, ipsius veritatis voce audisse perhibetur? Quidquid autem falsum, illi cupiditati tribuitur, qua diaboli nomen accepit. Quanquam etiam per creaturam corporalem atque visibilem Deus plerumque locutus est 1284 seu bonis seu malis, tanquam omnium Dominus et rector, et pro cujusque rei meritis ordinator: sicut per Angelos, qui hominum quoque aspectibus apparuerunt; et per Prophetas dicentes, Haec dicit Dominus. Quid ergo mirum, si quanquam non in ipsa cogitatione, per aliquam certe creaturam tali operi accommodatam Deus locutus cum diabolo dicitur?

33. Nec dignitatis esse arbitrentur, et quasi justitia meritum, quod cum illo Deus locutus est: quoniam locutus est cum anima angelica, quanquam stulta et cupida, tanquam si loqueretur cum anima humana stulta et cupida. Aut ipsi dicant quomodo locutus est cum illo divite, cujus cupiditatem stultissimam arguere voluit, dicens: Stulte, hac nocte anima tua expostulatur a te; haec quae praeparasti, cujus erunt (Luc. XII, 20)? Certe hoc ipse Dominus in Evangelio dicit, cui haeretici isti, velint, nolint, colla submittunt. Si autem hoc moventur, quod tentandum justum satanas petit a Deo; non ego expono quare sit factum, sed ipsos cogo exponere quare sit dictum in Evangelio ab ipso Domino discipulis, Ecce satanas petiit vos vexare quomodo triticum: et Petro ait, Ego autem postulavi ne deficiat fides tua (Id. XXII, 31, 32). Cum autem hoc exponunt mihi, simul illud quod a me quaerunt exponunt sibi. Si vero non valuerint hoc exponere, non audeant id quod in Evangelio sine offensione legunt , in aliquo libro cum temeritate culpare.

34. Fiunt igitur tentationes per satanam non potestate ejus, sed permissu Domini, ad homines aut pro suis peccatis puniendos, aut pro Domini misericordia probandos et exercendos. Et interest plurimum in qualem quisque tentationem incidat. Non enim in talem incidit Judas, qui vendidit Dominum, in qualem incidit Petras, cum territus Dominum negavit. Sunt etiam tentationes humanae, credo, cum bono quisque animo, secundum humanam tamen fragilitatem, in aliquo consilio labitur, aut irritatur in fratrem studio corrigendi, paulo tamen amplius quam christiana tranquillitas postulat: de quibus Apostolus dicit, Tentatio vos non apprehendat, nisi humana; cum idem dicat, Fidelis Deus, qui vos non sinat tentari supra quam potestis ferre; sed faciet cum tentatione etiam proventum, ut possitis tolerare (I Cor. X, 13). In qua sententia satis ostendit non id nobis orandum esse ut non tentemur, sed ne in tentationem inducamur. Inducimur enim, si tales acciderint quas ferre non possumus. Sed cum tentationes periculosae in quas inferri atque induci perniciosum est, aut prosperis rebus temporalibus, aut adversis oriantur, nemo frangitur adversarum molestia, qui prosperarum delectatione non capitur.

35. Ultima et septima petitio est, Sed libera nos a malo. Orandum est enim ut non solum non inducamur in malum, quo caremus, quod sexto loco petitur; sed ab illo etiam liberemur, quo jam inducti sumus. Quod cum factum fuerit, nihil remanebit formidolosum, nec omnino metuenda erit ulla tentatio. Quod tamen in hac vita quamdiu istam mortalitatem circumferimus, 1285 in quam serpentina persuasione inducti sumus, non sperandum est posse fieri; sed tamen aliquando futurum sperandum est, et haec est spes quae non videtur: de qua cum loqueretur Apostolus, ait, Spes autem quae videtur, non est spes (Rom. VIII, 24). Sed tamen sapientia, quae in hac quoque vita concessa est, fidelibus servis Dei non est desperanda. Ea est autem, ut id quod Domino revelante fugiendum esse intellexerimus, cautissima vigilantia fugiamus; et id quod Domino revelante appetendum esse intellexerimus, flagrantissima charitate appetamus. Ita enim reliquo mortalitatis hujus onere ipsa morte deposito, ex omni hominis parte opportuno tempore perficietur beatitudo, quae in hac vita inchoata est, et cui capessendae atque obtinendae aliquando nunc omnis conatus impenditur.