Volume II, Treatise IV, Chapter XI

That the Devil Is Able to Do but Very Little Against Us

To encourage us in temptations, it will be a very great help, to consider the weakness of our enemy; and how little he is able to do against us, as he cannot make us fall into any sin against our own will. ‘Behold, my brethren,” says St. Bernard, “how weak our enemy is; he cannot overcome but him, who has a mind to be overcome.”—(Serm. Ixxiii. in Cant.) If a man who is going to fight, were sure to overcome if he would, how joyful would he be? Would not he think himself sure of a victory, which depended only upon his own will? With the same confidence and joy we might fight against the devil. For we know very well, that he cannot conquer us, if we ourselves will it not. It is this that St. Jerom very well observes upon the words the evil spirit said to our Saviour, when having carried him up to the pinnacle of the temple, he counselled him to throw himself down headlong. ‘ Cast thyself down” (Matthew 4:6), said the tempter; “and this,” adds the saint, “is the true language of the devil, who desires nothing so much as the fall of all men. He can indeed persuade them to throw themselves down, but he cannot throw them down himself.” The voice of the devil that tempts you, says, throw yourself down into hell. You must answer him; do so yourself; you know the way; 28 for me I will not do it; for he cannot have the power ta make you, if you have not the will to do it.

A certain person, finding that he was continually tempted by the devil to destroy himself, discovered to his confessor the trouble and perplexity he was in. His confessor having convinced him that the motions of the evil spirit, could have no further power over him, than what he himself would give him, advised him, that ag often as he found himself troubled with that temptation, he should answer—I am resolved I will not do what you would have me; and that he should come again to him eight days after. This man did what his confessor bid him, and by this means delivered himself from the temptation which tormented him, and so came to thank him afterwards for the remedy he had prescribed him. And it is of this remedy, that I shall now speak.

The opinion of St. Austin agrees very well with what I have now asserted. He says, that the devil was not bound before the birth of our Saviour, and that till then he freely exercised his tyranny over men; but that Jesus Christ by coming into the world, chained him up, as St. John declares to us in the apocalypse: °° And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand; and he laid hold upon the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed for a little season.” (Apocalypse 20:1) God has therefore chained up the devil, continues the holy doctor, and do you know how he has done it? After such manner that he permits him not to do the evil he might and would do, if he had the liberty of tempting and deceiving men, by all those ways and artifices of which he is capable. But you may say, if he be chained, how comes it to pass that he still does so much mischief? It is true, answers the father, he does much indeed, but it is to those who take no care of themselves; he is chained up like a dog, that is, so tied that he can bite none but those that come near him:

“He is able to bark, he is able to fawn and flatter, but he cannot at all bite any one, except such as will be bitten by him.”—( Lib. xx. de Civit. Deis, c. 8.) So that as, adds the saint, we laugh at a man that permits himself to be bitten by a dog in a ‘chain, so we may also laugh at those who let themselves be overcome by the devil; because he is so fast tied, that he can do no hurt to any, but such as come near him. It is then your own fault, if he does you any hurt in the state you are in; since he cannot hurt you unless you will yourself, so that you may even contemn him as much as you please. It is this the saint teaches us, explaining these words of the psalmist, “the dragon which thou hast formed to serve us for sport:” (Psalms 103:26) have you not seen, says he, how children feel pleasure in looking upon a bear, or any other wild beast that is chained, and how they amuse themselves with it: you may also mock the devil as often as he tempts you; for he is like a dog in a chain, who can only bark and make noise, but cannot bite you unless you will it yourself.

The devils once appeared to St. Anthony under several horrid and frighful shapes, and surrounded him as if they were ready to devour him; but the saint only laughed at them, saying, if you have power to hurt me, the least of you is able to doit, but because you have not, you come in troops to affright me. If God has given you any power over me, behold here I am, devour me; but if he has not, all your endeavours are in vain. We may make the same answer in all our temptations; because since Jesus Christ became man, the devil has no power left; as he one day told St. Anthony, who answered him, though you are the father of lies, yet you have at present spoken truth against your will. For this reason our Saviour bids us confide and take courage. “I,” says he, “have overcome the world:” (John 16:33), and therefore let us say with St. Paul, “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through

our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57)

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