Volume II, Treatise IV, Chapter VI

That the Just Are Proved, and Purified by Temptations; and that Virtue Thereby Takes the Deeper Root

Ho ty writers say, that God is pleased, we should be the more tempted, thereby to prove our virtue. For as it is in great winds and storm, that we find where a. young tree has taken root; and in war and battles, not in peace and repose, that we see the courage and valour of a soldier; soit is in temptations and suffering, not in time of calm and still devotion, that we perceive the zeal and steadfastness of a true servant of God. Upon these words of the royal prophet, “I am prepared to keep thy commandments, without being disturbed at any thing,” (Psalms 118:60) St. Ambrose says, that as a pilot must be of great ability, to steer a ship well, during a storm, and whilst one wave carries him, as it were, up to the skies, and then falling again, seems ready to swallow him up in the deep; so, we shew ourselves skilful, when we govern ourselves well in time of temptation, so that without being carried away by pride in prosperity, or pusillanimity in adversity, we can always say, with the prophet, I am prepared, without being disturbed at any thing. Now, it is upon this account that God sends us temptations, to prove us, as he did his people, whom he left amongst many enemies “in order,” says the scripture, “that by them he might prove Israel, and know whether they would hearken to the commandments of the Lord, which he commanded their fathers by Moses.”——(Judg. iii. 4.) Does not the apostle also tell us, “that heresies must be, that so those, who have been proved, may be made manifest.”—-(1 Corinthians 11:19) And does not the wise man, speaking of the just, say, “that God had tempted them, and found them worthy of him?” (Wisdom 3:5) Temptations are like strokes of the hammer, which shew the goodness of the metal. They are the touchstones wherewith God proves his friends. For God, as well as men, will have friends proved, and therefore it is, that he puts them to the trial; according to these words, “the furnace proves the potter’s vessels, and affliction the just.” (Ecclesiasticus 27:6) ‘And as silver is tried by the fire, and gold by the furnace, so the Lord tries our hearts by temptation.” (Proverbs 17:3) As when a mass of metal, says St. Jerom, is thoroughly red hot, it cannot be disguished, whether it is gold, silver, or copper; because whatsoever is so penetrated by the fire, seems like fire itself; so, in the ardour of devotion, and the fervour which spiritual consolations raise; we know not what any one is.— All is then fire. But take the metal out, and let it but cool awhile, you will quickly see what it. is—let the spiritual consolations and fervour pass, and let sufferings and temptations come, and then will appear what every one is in himself.—When in a state of tranquillity and peace, a man gives himself to virtue, it is hard to know whether he does it, either purely out of love of virtue, or by reason of the goodness of his temper; whether for the pleasure he finds therein, or, in fine, because he is not then touched with any thing else. But he who perseveres in spite of all the assaults, which temptation makes upon him, shows, indeed, that it is for virtue’s sake, and for the love of God alone that he acts.

Temptation serves further, to make us more pure. “Thou, O Lord, hast proved us,” says the Psalmist, “as silver is tried in the fire.” —(Ps, Ixv. 10,) God purifies his elect by temptation, as the goldsmith does gold and silver by the fire, “and I will make them pass through the fire,” says he by Zachary, “and will refine them as silver is refined, and: I shall try them as gold is tried,” (Zacharias 13:9); and in Isaias, “I will purge away the dross, and take away all the tin.”—(Isa. i. 25.) It is thus temptation works in the just. It consumes whatever rust and impurity vice had left in them; it takes them off from self love, and the love of worldly things; and renders them most pure and agreeable in the sight of God. It is true, says St. Austin, that every body does not derive this benefit and comfort from temptations. Some things grow soft and melt before the fire, as was; and other things, on the contrary, grow hard, asclay. So it is with the just and the wicked; the just are softened by the fire of temptations and sufferings, by humbling themselves under the sense of their meanness; but the wicked, on the contrary, become hardened. Thus it was with the two thieves upon the cross. One made his punishment the means of his’ conversion, and the other made his a motive to blasphemy. This caused the same holy doctor, St. Austin, to say that, “temptation is a fire, in which gold shines, and straw consumes; the just is made perfect, and the sinner miserably perishes,” (Aug. in Psal. Lxii. Exhort.); that it is a “storm from whence one gets ashore, and in which the other is drowned.” The Almighty opened a way across the sea to the children of Israel, but the same waves which separated to save them, united again to swallow up the Egyptians.

St. Cyprian desiring to encourage the faithful to suffer persecutions courageously, says, that as the people of Israel did daily multiply more and more, whilst the Egyptians oppressed them, so the church of God, increases amidst the persecutions of the unfaithful. And asthe ark “was raised according to the swelling of the waters,” (Genesis 7:17), so the true servants of God, raise themselves up to heaven, according to the increase of temptations and sufferings. And as the agitation of the sea, says Gerson, makes it one instant throw up all the filth, it had received by little and little in calm weather, so temptations and sufferings, serve to purify the soul, from all the imperfections it had contracted, during the great peace it enjoyed.

The husbandman prunes the vine, that it may bear the more. And thus it is, say the holy writers, that God, who compares himself to the husbandman in the gospel, prunes his vines; that is, tempts and proves his elect, that they may more abundantly bring forth fruits of justice. ‘“He will prune,” says the scripture, “every branch which bears fruit, that it may bring forth more.” (John 15:2) “The winds,” says the holy Abbot Nilus, “make the trees take stronger root, and temptation makes the soul more and more steadfast in virtue.”—(Nil. Abb. Tom. iii.) And it is in this sense, that the holy interpreters understand these words of the apostle:—“‘ Virtue is made perfect in weakness,’ (2 Corinthians 12:9), as if he had said, that it is better established, grows more firm, and makes its solidity be better known. When any one disputes against the truth which you defend, the more reasons that are urged to oppose it, the more alao you endeavour to bring for the defence thereof. And so it happens, that by your answers to the objections made against you, you become more and more confirmed therein. Itis so in temptations, the more endeavours that the devil uses to turn a servant of God, from the practice of some virtue, the more the servant of God seeks by holy motives, by firm resolutions, and by new acts, to fortify himself therein; and thus that virtue becomes more firm, and takes deeper root in his heart. Wherefore it is very well said, that temptations are to the soul, what the strokes of the hammer are to the anvil; they serve to make it stronger against all trials,

St. Bonaventure says moreover, that those, who finding themselves strongly tempted by some vice, remain faithful in the temptation, are ordinarily rewarded by God in an eminent manner, with the possession of the virtue, most opposite to the vice which they resisted. Thus St. Bennet, as St. Gregory tells us, having with great resolution overcome a violent temptation of the flesh, by rolling himself all naked upon thistles and thorns, received as a reward from God the gift of chastity; without ever feeling after that, any motion against it. We read the same thing of St. Thomas of Aquin. A woman having a mind to entice him to sin, he drove her away with a firebrand; and God crowned this his resistance, by sending two angels, who strongly girt his loins, as a mark that he endowed him with the gift of perpetual chastity. God deals after the same manner with those who vigorously resist temptations against faith. He gives them afterwards pure and clear lights, which so illuminate their minds, and inflame their hearts, that nothing any more troubles them. St. Bonaventure applies to this purpose the words of Isaias; ‘they shall lead them into captivity, whose captives they were, and they shall bring into subjection their oppressors.”——(Isa. xiv. 2.) Wherefore, dear brother, comfort thyself, when thou art tempted, and take courage; it is by this trial, that God is pleased to strengthen in thee, that virtue which temptation sets upon; it is by these rebellions of the flesh, that will he have thee obtain the gift of angelical chastity. Sampson meets 8 lion in his way; attacks him and tears him in pieces; and in a while after returning by the same place, he finds a honeycomb in the body of the dead lion. Fall courageously upon the temptation, and overcome it, and you will then see ) what pleasure you will reap thereby.

By this we may also learn, that to yield to a temptation, is to give new force to it, forthe time to come; for hereby vice increases, and grows more hard to overcome; as St. Austin well observes upon this passage of Jeremias; “Jerusalem has sinned, and is therefore become weak.” (Lamentations 1:8) The same truth the wise man teaches us, in these words, “the sinner shall add sin to sin.” (Ecclesiasticus 3:29) And this remark is of great importance to those who are troubled with temptations; for the devil deceives some, by making them believe, that they shall cause the temptation to cease by yielding to it. This is an error; for on the contrary, it is the way to strengthen it, and to give concupiscence the greater power over you, thereby the more easily to overcome you upon all occasions. It is with that, as it is with one that has a dropsy, who by drinking increases his thirst instead of quenching it: or as it is with a covetous man, who intending still to satisfy his avarice, makes it always the more insatiable, Take it therefore for a certain truth, that when you let yourself be carried away by temptation you add new strength to it, against yourself; and you lose some of your own force, and so grow more easy to be overcome another time. Whereas when with resolution you resist, virtue does so much the more increase and grow strong in you. The way therefore to be rid of temptations, and to act so as not to be more disturbed by them, is not to yield tothem, and never to suffer them to get ground upon us. For thus they so lose their strength, that they are brought in fine to give us no more trouble: and this is what ought greatly encourage us to make resistance..

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