Volume II, Treatise IV, Chapter XV

A Good Means of Overcoming Temptations Is to Diffide in Ourselves, and

to place all our confidence in God; and why God particularly protects those, who confide in his help alone.

One of the best means to overcome temptations, is to diffide in ourselves, and to place all our confidence in God; and as the Scripture takes notice in several places, it is this which chiefly moves him, to assist us in our temptations and sufferings. ‘I will deliver him; because he has hoped in me.” (Psalms 90:14) ‘Thou savest, O Lord, those that hope in thee;” (Psalms 14:7) “the Lord is a protector of those that hope in him.” (Psalms 17:31) The prophet alleges no other reason to God, than this, to oblige him to have mercy on him, “have mercy on me, O God; have mercy on me, because my soul puts its confidence in thee, and I will hope under the shadow of thy wings.”’ (Psalms 56:1) It was the same reason that Zarias made use of, in the fiery furnace, when he begged of God, to accept the sacrifice of his life; ‘ because,” says he, “those that confide in thee, cannot suffer confusion.” (Daniel 3:40) The wise man in like manner assures us that, “‘no one was ever confounded who trusted in God.” (Ecclesiasticus 2:11) And lastly the holy scripture is so full of declarations of this kind, that it is unnecessary to delay longer, in proving so clear and known a truth. |

But now let us see why this entire diffidence in ourselves, and confidence in God, is a means so proper to merit his help in our necessities. We have already touched on the reason, in several — places; and God ‘himself has given it us, when he said by the mouth of David, ‘ because he has hoped in me, I will deliver him. I will protect him; because he has known my name,” (Psalms 90:14), that is to say, according to St. Bernard, “I will protect him, and I will deliver him on condition, that acknowledging his deliverance to come from me, he attributes it not to himself, but gives all the glory of it to my name.”—(Serm. xvii. sup. Ps. Qui. habitat.) The reason therefore why God, so particularly protects those that hope in him, is, because they attribute nothing to themselves, and give the glory of all to God. So that as they are regardless of their own honour, and attentive only to that of God, he takes their cause in hand, does his own work, and makes it his own business, as a thing that purely regards his own honour and glory. He acts not so towards those who confide in their own lights and rely upon their own strength, but since they attribute all: to themselves, and thus usurp a glory which belongs to God alone, he leaves them to their blindness aud weakness, and permits them not to succeed in any thing. For according to the prophet, “he loves not him who confides in the strength of his horse, or in the swiftness of his legs. But the Lord loves those who fear him and hope in his mercy.” (Psalms 146:10) It is these, he is pleased to protect, and abundantly to favour with his graces.

St. Austin says, that God sometimes defers the succours of his grace, and permits, that for a long time there should remain in us an inclination to certain vices, without our being able to compass an entire victory over them. ‘And this not to damn, but to humble us—that we may more esteem his grace; and fear also, that if we should find a facility in all things, we should believe that to belong to us, which is his; which error is dangerous to religion, and very contrary to piety.” (Lib. ii. de peccatis, c. 19.) Without doubt, if things became so very easy, we should set less value on them, and believe, we were indebted to none but ourselves for them. St. Gregory explaining these words of Job, “behold there is no help to myself in me;” (Job 6:13), says that, “it often happens that some virtue which we possess, becomes a very dangerous instrument of our destruction; and that we should have been better without it. Because it happens to fill us with pride, by inspiring a vain confidence in ourselves, and by means of this pride it kills the soul, whilst it seems to give it new strength; and hereby casts it into a precipice, after it has separated it by presumption, from that interior confidence it ought to have had in God.” —( Lib. vii. Mor. c. 9.) It is this our abuse of God’s graces, which is the cause that he often refuses to give them unto us, permitting in a thousand occasions, that we should know by experience, how little ability we have of ourselves to do any thing that is good; suffering us to remain a long time in this state, to teach us humility, and not at all to confide in, or attribute any thing to ourselves, but to render the glory of all to God alone. When we shall be in such a holy disposition of mind as this is, then we may assure ourselves of his divine assistance, and sing with the mother of Samuel, “the bow of the strong is broken, and the weak are armed with strength.” (1 Kings 2:4)

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