Chapter LXI
For Which Causes God Admits Temptations To His Friends
By the love which the saints show unto God in return for what they bear for the sake of His name in that they undergo trials without leaving the excellency which God loves, their heart acquires freedom to look towards Him without a veil and to ask from Him with confidence. Great is the power of prayer in freedom of speech. Therefore He allows that His saints are tried by all afflictions, on the way towards Him, in order that they may acquire freedom of speech and may experience His help and His care for them in that He is found to be their saviour in danger; and in order that His friends may acquire wisdom through temptations so that they are not dull and destitute of training. So through temptation they acquire knowledge concerning everything, and are not laughed at lightly by the demons. For if He would train them by good things only they would lack training in other things and they would be as blind men in trials_ And if someone should say: He guides them without training and without selfknowledge [the conclusion would be] that He wished them to be like oxen and asses who possess 428 no freedom whatever. There is even no taste in the good, when a man has not first been tried by temptations of evil and afterwards finds it and when he does not use it as his own, in knowledge and freedom. How sweet that knowledge is which has been acquired through training and the experience of labours, and how much strength it imparts to him that has found it after many personal experiences, is known to those who are acquainted with the help afforded by it. They learn the weakness of nature and the help afforded by divine power when He first withdraws power from them while they are in temptations. Then they perceive the weakness of nature and the strength of temptations and the wickedness of the Fiend, [perceiving] of which nature their Fiend is, with which nature they are clad, and how they are guarded by divine power; and how, though they run and are uplifted,
287
when the divine power withdraws itself from them, they become weak before all passions. Through all this they acquire humbleness, and press close to God, expecting His help and persevering in prayer. How could they have acquired all this, if they had not experienced myriads of evils, without God's caring for their being surrounded by them? 'And lest I should be exalted through the abundance of revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan' 1). Man acquires also a confirmed faith by temptations, through experiencing divine help, when it is granted several times. And furthermore he is without fear and acquires courage by temptation, on account of the training he acquires. 429 Temptation is useful to every man. The virtuous are tempted in order that their riches may increase; the lax, in order that they may be preserved from injuries; the sleepy, in order that they may be armed with alertness; those that are afar off that they may come nearer to God; the housemates, that they may approach with freedom of speech. A son that is not trained, cannot profit by the riches that are given to him from his father's house. Therefore God tempts and vexes fi r st, then He shows His gift. Glory to that Lord who by strong drugs brings us the delight of health. There is no one, to whom the time of exercise is not hard; and there is no one, to whom the time during which he is obliged to drink the potion of temptations, is not bitter. But without this, a sound constitution cannot be obtained. Even to endure is not of our own. How should a clay vessel endure the vehemence of the waters, if the divine fire had not hardened it? If we daign to ask in humbleness fervently and perseveringly, we shall receive everything.
1) 2 Cor. 1 2, 7
288