Volume II, Treatise IV, Chapter XXII

Of Several Very Profitable Directions for the Time of Temptation

WE have already spoken of several remedies against temptations, but it is impossible to state them all. For in the distempers of the soul, no less than in those of the body, the remedies are infinite, and many things must be left to the prudence and discretion of the physician; so that according to the state and disposition of the sick person, and according to the nature and circumstances of the disease, he may make use of such as he shall judge most proper. The masters of a spiritual life say, therefore, that the great remedy against all sorts of temptations, is, to discover them betimes to the physician; but as I shall speak of this more fully in the third part I shall content myself here to set down some few instructions the saints give us concerning this matter. St. Basil says, that as we do not discover the diseases of our bodies to all sorts of persons, but only to physicians, who ought to take care of them; so temptations which are the diseases of the soul, ought not to be discovered to every one, but only to such spiritual physicians as God has appointed for this end; who are confessors and superiors. This instruction is conformable to the words of St. Paul; “but we who are stronger, ought to support those who are weak and feeble,.” (Romans 15:1) It agrees also very much with one of our rules, which would have us on occasions of this nature to have recourse to the prefect of spiritual things, or the confessor or superior. And lastly, it is of greater importance than many people imagine, for it sometimes happens that we hide temptations from those to whom we ought to discover them, and discover them to those from whom we ought to hide them; and as it may happen, that your brother may be subject to the same temptations as you are, it is to be feared the example would give too great an assurance one to the other, and that this confidence should prove equally prejudicial to both. Wherefore to avoid this inconvenience, and for several other reasons, we ought not to discover our temptations and spiritual diseases, but to spiritual physicians; to whom we may believe they will not prove contagious, and from whom we may expect some help. And this is what the wise man recommends unto us, when he says, “lay not open your heart to all the world.” (Ecclesiasticus 8:22) ‘Though you may have many friends, yet take counsel only of whom you have chosen amongst a thousand.” (Ecclesiasticus 6:6)

Another instruction of great importance for the time of temptation, is, to take care not to relent at that time in your spiritual exercises, nor to quit or retrench any of them. For though the temptation should have no other evil in it than to discourage us in our spiritual duties, yet the devil would believe he had done a great deal, and be very well satisfied. On the contrary, it is in temptations, we must be more fervent in prayer, and augment rather than diminish our devotions; because if we let fall from our hands our spiritual arms wherewith we defend ourselves against him, it will be very easy for him to do with us what he pleases, We must therefore at this time be extremely faithful to God; and it is hereby he knows who are his true servants, according to what he says himself to his apostles; “you are those who have always remained with me in my afflictions.” (Luke 22:28) Moreover it is no wonder that in the calm and sweetness of devotion, we persevere in the practice of spiritual exercises; but to persevere in them, amidst those tempests which excite temptations, and in spite of that dryness and bitterness that God sends us, is praiseworthy; it is this shews we love him, and serve him purely for himself,

_ We must moreover in time of temptation, take great care not to

change anything in our spiritual conduct, nor make any new resolution; that time being very improper for it. While the water is troubled you can see nothing; but if it becomes clear again, you will perceive the dirt which has sunk to the bottom. The trouble and agitation that is caused by temptation, permits you not to see what is most proper for you; “because evils have surrounded me,” says David, “I could not perceive anything;” (Psalms 39:16), so that it is not a time to deliberate upon anything, or to take new measures. Let the temptation pass, and then your mind will be in more peace and tranquillity—then you will be able to know what to do. All masters of a spiritual life take notice of this, as of an essential point; and St. Ignatius recommends it particularly to us, in the rules which he gives for the discerning of spirits. The reason he gives for it, is, that asin the time of spiritual consolations, the Spirit of God inclines us to what is good; so in the time of temptation, the evil spirit urges to what is evil; and therefore it is then very dangerous to follow those new lights and thoughts that occur to us.

We moreover in the time of temptation, should take great care to have recourse to the remedies I have set down, and not remain idle; and this is what the following examples will give us a better sight of. It is related in the lives of the fathers, that an hermit being extremely tormented with the spirit of impurity, went to find out one of the most ancient fathers of the desert, to beseech him to obtain of God, that he would deliver him from so troublesome a temptation. The holy old man having promised him his prayers, and not having ceased to address God upon this subject, the hermit returned again to him a little while after, telling him the temptation had not left him; and conjuring him still to redouble his prayers. He did so—he wept, he sighed and groaned; yet the hermit, came still daily to him, to tell him he found no help at all from all his prayers; at last he came so often, that the holy man not knowing what to do, or to what to attribute the cause of his temptation, was much afflicted and astonished at it, and complained thereof to God. One night as his mind was full of this thought, God let him see by revelation the hermit sitting carelessly upon a chair, and the impure spirit representing before him divers figures of women, which he looked upon with attention and pleasure. He perceived also that the angel of our Lord, seemed to be in great indignation against him; because that instead of prostrating himself upon the earth, and having recourse to God by means of prayer, he remained lazily-in his seat, and permitted himself miserably to be flattered with these sorts of imaginations; whereby he easily understood what it was that hindered God from hearing his prayers, and that it was the negligence of the hermit, and the weak endeavours he used to resist the temptation, that was the cause thereof. Wherefore the first time that he came again to him: Brother, says he, it is your negligence, and the satisfaction with which you entertain those bad thoughts, that is the cause why God does not hear me; let what prayers soever be offered, you shall never be delivered from this spirit of impurity, if you use no endeavours yourself to free you from it; and if by fasting, by prayer, by tears, and by sighs, you put not yourself into a condition to obtain of God the grace to resist it. As in corporal diseases the most proper remedies, given even in due time, become unprofitable to the sick person, if he on his part does not abstain from all things that may do him hurt: so in spiritual diseases the prayers and good works we offer to God for _ our neighbour, give him no help at all, if he does not help himself; and if by prayer and mortification he does not endeavour to draw the mercy of God upon himself. These words so touched the hermit, that from that time forward, he resolved to follow the holy old man’s counsel; and in effect he put it afterwards so well in practice, that by his prayers and austerities, he deserved that God should have pity on him, and should deliver him from the temptation that had so long afflicted him. It is in this manner we must act in the temptations that afflict us, omitting nothing that may be able to overcome them, and doing whatsoever depends on us, for this end: for it is only at this price, that God will grant us the victory over them.

But since in the manner of resisting temptations, there may be a greater or less resistance; it is good to take notice here, that we must not content ourselves simply to resist, but must resist with all our might.

We read in the Chronicles of St. Francis, that one day God desiring to discover to brother John of Auvern, the different manners that religious resist temptations, and chiefly those of impurity; he set before him an innumerable multitude of devils who were solely occupied in shooting arrows against his servants. Some, presently, with violence cast them back again, upon the same devils that shot them, who then fled away with great outcries. The arrows of others were blunted and lost their points, upon the persons against whom they were shot, and so fell at their feet, without doing them any hurt; others entered as far as the top of the iron; and the arrows of others, pierced quite through. According to this vision, the best made of resisting, and what we ought to adopt, is, to wound the devil, and drive him away with the same weapons with which he attacks us. Now, we shall also derive, if we apply ourselves to this, profit from those temptations he makes use of to destroy us—if, for example, when he suggests a proud thought, we humble ourselves and debase ourselves so much the more before God and our brethren; or if in a temptation of impurity, we take occasion to have a greater horror of this vice, a greater love for chastity, a greater watch over ourselves, greater zeal, greater fervour, and greater care to have recourse to God in our necessities. St. Austin, upon this passage of the psalmist, “the dragon which thou hast performed to play or make sport with,” (Psalms 103:27), says, it is thus that the servants of God play and make sport with the devil; because it is then he finds himself taken in the same nets with which he pretended to take them, according to these words of the Scripture; “they are taken in the same snares they had set for others.” (Psalms 9:16) “They are surprised in the ambush they had laid; they are themselves entangled in their own nets.” (Psalms 34:8) “Let his malice return upon him, and his iniquity descend upon his own head.” (Psalms 7:17)

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