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De Fuga in Persecutione

II.

[1] Si, quod iniquitas a deo non est, sed a diabolo, persecutio autem ex iniquitate consistit ---- quid enim iniquius quam veri dei antistites, omnis sectatores veritatis, nocentissimorum more tractari? ---- , ideo videtur persecutio a diabolo evenire, a quo iniquitas agitur, ex qua constat persecutio, scire debemus, quatenus nec persecutio potest sine iniquitate diaboli nec probatio fidei sine persecutione propter probationem fidei necessariam, iniquitatem non patrocinium praesentare persecutioni, sed ministerium; praecedere enim dei voluntatem circa fidei probationem, quae est ratio persecutionis, sequi autem diaboli iniquitatem ad instrumentum persecutionis, quae ratio est probationis. [2] Nam et alias in quantum iustitiae iniquitas aemula est, in tantum materia est ad testimonium eius, cuius est aemula, ut sic iustitia iniquitate perficiatur, quomodo virtus in infirmitate perficitur. Nam infirma mundi electa sunt a deo, ut confundantur fortia, et stulta eius, ut confundantur sapientia. Ita et iniquitas adhibetur, ut iustitia probetur confundens iniquitatem. Igitur, quod ministerium non est arbitrii, sed servitii ---- arbitrium enim domini persecutio propter fidei probationem, ministerium autem iniquitas diaboli propter persecutionis instructionem ----, ita eam per diabolum si forte, non a diabolo evenire credimus. [3] Nihil satanae in servos dei vivi licebit, nisi permiserit dominus, ut aut ipsum destruat per fidem electorum in temptatione victricem aut homines eius fuisse traducat, qui defecerint ad illum. Habes exemplum Iob, cui diabolus nullam potuit incutere temptationem, nisi a deo accepisset potestatem, nec in substantiam quidem eius, nisi dominus Ecce, dixisset, omnia, quae sunt ei, in manu tua do, in ipsum autem ne extenderis manum. Denique nec extendit nisi posteaquam et hoc postulanti dominus Ecce, dixisset, trado tibi illum, tantum animam eius custodi. [4] Sic et in apostolos facultatem temptationis postulavit non habens eam scilicet nisi ex permissu, siquidem dominus in evangelio ad Petrum Ecce, inquit, postulavit satanas, uti cerneret vos velut frumentum, verum ego rogavi pro te, ne deficeret fides tua, id est, ne tantum diabolo permitteretur, ut fides periclitaretur. Per quod ostenditur utrumque apud deum esse, et concussionem fidei et protectionem, cum utrumque ab eo petitur, concussio a diabolo, protectio a filio.

[5] Et utique cum filius dei protectionem fidei habet in sua potestate, quam a patre postulat, a quo omnem accipit potestatem in caelis et in terris, quale est, ut concussionem fidei diabolus in manu sua habeat? Sed in legitima oratione, cum dicimus ad patrem: Ne nos inducas in temptationem ---- quae autem maior temptatio quam persecutio? ----, ab eo illam profitemur accidere, a quo veniam eius deprecamur; hoc est enim quod sequitur: Sed erue nos a maligno, id est, ne nos induxeris in temptationem permittendo nos maligno; tunc enim eruimur diaboli manibus, cum illi non tradimur in temptationem.

[6] Nec in porcoram gregem diaboli legio habuit potestatem, nisi eam de deo impetrasset; tantum potestatem abest ut in oves dei habeat. Possum quoque dicere porcorum quoque setas tunc numeratas apud deum fuisse, nedum capillos sanctorum. [7] Habere videtur diabolus propriam iam potestatem si forte in eos, qui ad deum non pertinent, semel 'in stillam situlae et in pulverem areae et in salivam' nationibus deputatis a deo ac per hoc diabolo expositis in vacuam quodammodo possessionem; [8] ceterum in domesticos dei nihil illi licet ex propria potestate, quia, quando liceat, id est ex quibus causis, exempla in scripturis signata demonstrant. Aut enim ex causa probationis conceditur ei ius temptationis provocato vel provocanti ut in superioribus aut ex causa reprobationis traditur ei peccator quasi carnifici in poenam ut Saul ---- Et abscessit, inquit, spiritus domini a Saule et concutiebat eum spiritus nequam a domino et suffocabat eum ---- aut ex causa cohibitionis, ut apostolus refert datum sibi sudem angelum satanae, ut colaphizaretur, ne hanc speciem permitti diabolo in sanctos humiliandos per carnis vexationem, simul ut et virtus, tolerantiae scilicet, in infirmitate perfici possit. [9] Nam et ipse apostolus Phygelum et Hermogenem tradidit satanae, uti emendentur, ne blasphement. Videtis iam et a servis dei facilius diabolum accipere potestatem; tanto abest, ut eam ex proprietate possideat.

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De Fuga in Persecutione

2.

If, because injustice is not from God, but from the devil, and persecution consists of injustice (for what more unjust than that the bishops of the true God, that all the followers of the truth, should be dealt with after the manner of the vilest criminals?), persecution therefore seems to proceed from the devil, by whom the injustice which constitutes persecution is perpetrated, we ought to know, as you have neither persecution without the injustice of the devil, nor the trial of faith without persecution, that the injustice necessary for the trial of faith does not give a warrant for persecution, but supplies an agency; that in reality, in reference to the trial of faith, which is the reason of persecution, the will of God goes first, but that as the instrument of persecution, which is the way of trial, the injustice of the devil follows. For in other respects, too, injustice in proportion to the enmity it displays against righteousness affords occasion for attestations of that to which it is opposed as an enemy, that so righteousness may be perfected in injustice, as strength is perfected in weakness. ¹ For the weak things of the world have been chosen by God to confound the strong, and the foolish things of the world to confound its wisdom. ² Thus even injustice is employed, that righteousness may be approved in putting unrighteousness to shame. Therefore, since the service is not of free-will, but of subjection (for persecution is the appointment of the Lord for the trial of faith, but its ministry is the injustice of the devil, supplied that persecution may be got up), we believe that persecution comes to pass, no question, by the devil's agency, but not by the devil's origination. Satan will not be at liberty to do anything against the servants of the living God unless the Lord grant leave, either that He may overthrow Satan himself by the faith of the elect which proves victorious in the trial, or in the face of the world show that apostatizers to the devil's cause have been in reality His servants. You have the case of Job, whom the devil, unless he had received authority from God, could not have visited with trial, not even, in fact, in his property, unless the Lord had said, "Behold, all that he has I put at your disposal; but do not stretch out your hand against himself." ³ In short, he would not even have stretched it out, unless afterwards, at his request, the Lord had granted him this permission also, saying, "Behold, I deliver him to you; only preserve his life." So he asked in the case of the apostles likewise an opportunity to tempt them, having it only by special allowance, since the Lord in the Gospel says to Peter, "Behold, Satan asked that he might sift you as grain; but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not;" ⁴ that is, that the devil should not have power granted him sufficient to endanger his faith. Whence it is manifest that both things belong to God, the shaking of faith as well as the shielding of it, when both are sought from Him--the shaking by the devil, the shielding by the Son. And certainly, when the Son of God has faith's protection absolutely committed to Him, beseeching it of the Father, from whom He receives all power in heaven and on earth, how entirely out of the question is it that the devil should have the assailing of it in his own power! But in the prayer prescribed to us, when we say to our Father, "Lead us not into temptation" ⁵ (now what greater temptation is there than persecution?), we acknowledge that that comes to pass by His will whom we beseech to exempt us from it. For this is what follows, "But deliver us from the wicked one," that is, do not lead us into temptation by giving us up to the wicked one, for then are we delivered from the power of the devil, when we are not handed over to him to be tempted. Nor would the devil's legion have had power over the herd of swine ⁶ unless they had got it from God; so far are they from having power over the sheep of God. I may say that the bristles of the swine, too, were then counted by God, not to speak of the hairs of holy men. The devil, it must be owned, seems indeed to have power--in this case really his own--over those who do not belong to God, the nations being once for all counted by God as a drop of the bucket, and as the dust of the threshing-floor, and as the spittle of the mouth, and so thrown open to the devil as, in a sense, a free possession. But against those who belong to the household of God he may not do ought as by any right of his own, because the cases marked out in Scripture show when--that is, for what reasons--he may touch them. For either, with a view to their being approved, the power of trial is granted to him, challenged or challenging, as in the instances already referred to, or, to secure an opposite result, the sinner is handed over to him, as though he were an executioner to whom belonged the inflicting of punishment, as in the case of Saul. "And the Spirit of the Lord," says Scripture, "departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled and stifled him;" ⁷ or the design is to humble, as the apostle tells us, that there was given him a stake, the messenger of Satan, to buffet him; ⁸ and even this sort of thing is not permitted in the case of holy men, unless it be that at the same time strength of endurance may be perfected in weakness. For the apostle likewise delivered Phygellus and Hermogenes over to Satan that by chastening they might be taught not to blaspheme. ⁹ You see, then, that the devil receives more suitably power even from the servants of God; so far is he from having it by any right of his own.