Part 9 (1/2)
The Holy Ghost led Jesus to the waste, that he might there be tempted. Now everyone will wonder how the devil durst approach Jesus to tempt him: but he durst not tempt {169} Jesus, if it had not been allowed him. Jesus came to mankind because he would overcome all our temptations by his temptations, and overcome our eternal death with his temporary death. Now he was so humble that he permitted the devil to tempt him, and he permitted wicked men to slay him. The devil is the head of all unrighteous men, and evil men are his limbs: now G.o.d permitted the head to tempt him, and the limbs to crucify him.
To the devil it was a great doubt, What Christ were? His life was not ordered like the lives of other men. Christ ate not with avidity, nor did he drink with excess, nor did his eyes pa.s.s wandering amid various pleasures. Then the devil meditated what he were; whether he were the Son of G.o.d, who had been promised to mankind. He said then in his thoughts, that he would prove what he were. When Christ was fasting forty days and forty nights together, in all that time the devil did not say to him that he should eat, because he saw that he hungered not. Afterwards, when Christ hungered after so long a time, then verily the devil weened that he was not G.o.d, and said to him, ”Why hungerest thou? If thou art the Son of G.o.d, turn these stones to loaves, and eat.”
Easily might G.o.d, who turned water to wine, and he who wrought all creatures from nothing, easily might he have turned the stones to loaves: but he would do nothing by the devil's direction; but said to him in answer, ”Man liveth not by bread alone, but liveth by the words which go from the mouth of G.o.d.” As man's body lives by bread, so shall his soul live by the words of G.o.d, that is, by G.o.d's doctrine, which, through wise men, he has set in books. If the body has not food, or cannot eat food, then it decays and dies: so likewise the soul, if it has not the holy doctrine, it will be perishable and powerless. By the holy doctrine it will be strong, and stimulated to G.o.d's will.
Then was the devil _once_ overcome by Christ. ”And he then took him and bare him up on the temple, and set him {171} on the summit, and said to him, If thou art the Son of G.o.d, dart down; for it is commanded to angels concerning thee, that they shall raise thee on their hands, that thou may not dash thy foot against a stone.” Here the devil began to expound the holy scriptures, and he lied in his exposition; because he is false, and there is no truth in him; but he is the father of all leasing. It was not written of Christ what he there said, but was written of holy men: they require the support of angels in this life, that the devil may not tempt them so much as he would. So benevolent is G.o.d to mankind, that he has set his angels over us as guardians, that they may not allow the fierce devils to fordo us. They may tempt us, but they cannot compel us to any evil, unless we ourselves do it of our own will, through the evil instigation of the devil. We shall not be perfect unless we be tempted: through temptation we shall thrive, if we ever resist the devil and all his precepts; and if we draw nigh to our Lord with faith, and love, and good works; if we anywhere slide down, arise forthwith, and earnestly mend what shall there be broken.
Christ said to the devil, ”No one shall tempt his Lord.” It would have been a very proud deed if Christ had cast himself down, though he easily might, without injury of his limbs, have cast himself down, who bowed the high arch of heaven; but he would do nothing in pride, because pride is a deadly sin; so he would not cast himself down, because he would shun pride; but said, ”No one shall tempt his Lord.” That man tempts his Lord, who, with foolish confidence and with pride, will do something in the name of G.o.d, or who will foolishly and without need pray to G.o.d for some miracle. Then was the devil, by Christ's patience, overcome _a second time_.
”Then he took him again, and bare him up on a mountain, and showed him all the riches of the world and its glory, and said to him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall at my feet, and adore me.”
Presumptuously spake the devil here, as he before spake, when he was in heaven, when he {173} would share the heavenly kingdom with his Creator, and be equal to G.o.d; but his presumption then cast him down into h.e.l.l; and now also his presumption humbled him, when he, through Christ's pa.s.sion, let mankind out of his power. He said, ”These things will I give thee.” It seemed to him that he possessed all the world; because no man withstood him before Christ came who subdued him.
It is written in holy books, ”Earth and all its fullness, and all the globe and those who dwell on it, all are G.o.d's possessions,” and not the devil's.
Nevertheless, Christ said in his gospel concerning the devil, that he was the prince of the world, and he should be driven out. He is the prince of those men who love this world, and set all their hope in this life, and despise their Creator. All creatures, sun, and moon, and all stars, land, and sea, and cattle, all serve their Creator; because they perform their course after G.o.d's direction. Wicked man alone, when he despises the commandments of G.o.d, and fulfils the devil's will, either through covetousness, or through leasing, or through anger, or through other sins, then is he the devil's thrall, then is he acceptable to the devil, and despises him who created him.
”Christ then said to the devil, Go thou behind, Satan! It is written, Man shall adore his Lord, and serve him alone.” Quidam dic.u.n.t non dixisse Salvatorem, ”Satane, vade retro,” sed tantum ”Vade”: sed tamen in rectioribus et vetustioribus exemplaribus habetur, ”Vade retro Satanas,”
sicut interpretatio ipsius nominis declarat; nam diabolus _Deorsum ruens_ interpretatur. Apostolo igitur Petro dicitur a Christo, ”Vade retro me,” id est, _Sequere me_. Diabolo non dicitur, _Vade retro me_, sed ”Vade retro,”
sicut jam diximus, et sic scripsit beatus Hieronymus, in una epistola. He said to the devil, ”Go thou behind.” The name of devil is interpreted, _Falling down_. He fell down, and he went behind from the beginning of his enterprize, when he was cut off from heavenly bliss; he went behind again through Christ's advent; {175} he shall go behind on doomsday, when he shall be shut up in h.e.l.l in eternal fire, he and all his a.s.sociates; and they never afterwards may burst out.
It is written in the old law that no man shall wors.h.i.+p any idol, nor anything, save G.o.d alone; because no creature is worthy of that honour, save him alone who is the Creator of all things: him only should we wors.h.i.+p; he alone is true Lord and true G.o.d. We pray for their intercessions to holy men, that they may mediate for us with their Lord and our Lord; still we do not wors.h.i.+p them as we do G.o.d, nor would they permit it; as the angel said to John the apostle, when he would fall at his feet: he said, ”Do thou it not, that thou bowest to me. I am G.o.d's servant, as thou and thy brethren: wors.h.i.+p G.o.d alone.”
”Then the devil left Christ, and angels came to him, and ministered to him.” He was tempted as a man, and after the temptation holy angels came to him, and ministered to him as to their Creator. Unless the devil had seen that Christ was a man, he would not have tempted him; and unless he had been true G.o.d, the angels would not have ministered to him. Great was our Saviour's meekness and his patience in this deed. He might with one word have sunk the devil into the deep abyss; but he manifested not his might, but answered the devil with the holy scriptures, and gave us an example by his patience, that, as often as we suffer anything from perverse men, we should turn our mind to G.o.d's precepts rather than to any vengeance.
In three ways is temptation of the devil: that is in instigation, in pleasure, in consent. The devil instigates us to evil, but we should shun it, and take no pleasure in the instigation: but if our mind takes pleasure, then should we at least withstand, so that there be no consent to evil work. Instigation to evil is of the devil; but a man's mind is often {177} bent to pleasure, sometimes also it lapses into consent; seeing that we are born of sinful flesh. Not in this wise was Jesus tempted; because he was born of a virgin without sin, and that there was nothing perverse in him. He might have been tempted by instigation, but no pleasure touched his mind. There was also no consent, because there was no pleasure; therefore was the devil's temptation all without, and nothing within. Uncertain came the devil to Christ, and uncertain he went away; seeing that Jesus manifested not his power to him, but overcame him patiently by the holy scriptures.
The old devil tempted our father Adam in three ways: that is with greediness, with vain-glory, and with covetousness; and then he was overcome, because he consented to the devil in all those three temptations.
Through greediness he was overcome, when, by the devil's instruction, he ate the forbidden apple. Through vain-glory he was overcome, when he believed the devil's words, when he said, ”Ye shall be as great as angels, if ye eat of that tree.” And they then believed his leasing, and would in their vain-glory be better than they had been created: then became they worse. With covetousness he was overcome, when the devil said to him, ”And ye shall have the power to distinguish good from evil.” Covetousness is not alone in money, but is also in the desire of great dignity.
With the same three things with which the devil overcame the first-created man, Christ overcame and prostrated him. Through greediness the devil tempted Christ, when he said, ”Say to these stones that they be turned to loaves, and eat.” Through vain-glory he tempted him, when he would instigate him to dart down from the temple's summit. Through covetousness he tempted him, when, with leasing, he promised him the wealth of all the world, if he would fall at his feet. But the devil was overcome by Christ by the {179} same means with which he had of yore overcome Adam; so that he departed from our hearts made captive by the entrance at which he had entered and made us captives.
We have heard in this gospel that our Lord fasted forty days and forty nights together. When he had fasted so long he manifested the great power of his G.o.dhead, by which he might, in all this present life, without earthly food, have lived, if he had been willing. Afterwards, when he was hungry, he manifested that he was a true man, and therefore required food.
Moses the leader fasted also forty days and forty nights, that he might receive G.o.d's law; but he fasted not through his own power, but through G.o.d's. The prophet Elijah also fasted as long through G.o.d's power, and was afterwards, without death, taken from this life.
Now this fast is appointed to be held by all Christian men in the course of every year; but we must also on each day eat our food with abstemiousness, of those meats which are permitted. Why is this fast computed for forty days? In every year there are reckoned three hundred and sixty-five days; now, if we t.i.the these yearly days, then will there be six and thirty t.i.thing-days, and from this day to the holy Easter-day are two and forty days: take then the six Sundays from that number, then there will be six and thirty days of the year's t.i.thing-days reckoned for our abstinence.
As G.o.d's law enjoins us that we should of all the things which accrue to us from our yearly tillage give the t.i.the to G.o.d, so should we likewise on these t.i.thing-days t.i.the our body with abstinence to the praise of G.o.d. We should prepare ourselves in all things as G.o.d's servants, according to the apostle's teaching, with great patience, and with holy vigils, with fasts, and with chast.i.ty of mind and body; for it is less perilous for a Christian man to eat flesh, than at this holy tide to have intercourse with woman.
Set aside all {181} quarrels and every dispute, and hold this tide with peace and with true love; for no fast will be acceptable to G.o.d without peace. And do as G.o.d taught, break thy loaf, and give the second portion to an hungry man, and lead into thy house the poor, and miserable strangers, and comfort them with thy possessions. When thou seest one naked, clothe him, and despise not thy own flesh. The man who fasts without alms does as though he spares his food, and afterwards eats that which he had previously forgone in his abstinence; but G.o.d contemns such fasting. But if thou wilt fast to G.o.d's contentment, then help poor men with the portion which thou withdrawest from thyself, and also with more, if it be thy pleasure. Avoid idle discourse and foolish pleasures, and bewail your sins; for Christ said, ”Woe to you who now laugh, ye shall mourn and weep.” Again he said, ”Blessed are they who now weep, for they shall be comforted.”
We live diversely for twelve months: now we shall at this time repair our heedlessness, and live to G.o.d, we who at other times have lived for ourselves. And whatsoever good we do, let us do it without pride and vain praise. The man who does any good for pride, to his own praise, will have no reward with G.o.d, but will have his punishment. But let us do as G.o.d hath taught, that our good works may be so known to men that they may see our goodness, and glorify and praise our Heavenly Father, G.o.d Almighty, who requites an hundredfold whatsoever we do to poor men for love of him who liveth and reigneth ever without end to eternity. Amen.
DOMINICA IN MEDIA QUADRAGESIMA.
Abiit Iesus trans mare Galileae: et reliqua.
”Se Haelend ferde ofer a Galileiscan s?, e is gehaten Tyberiadis, and him filigde micel menigu, foron e hi {182} beheoldon a tacna e he worhte ofer a untruman men. a astah se Haelend up on ane dune, and aer s?t mid his leorning-cnihtum, and waes a swie gehende seo halige Eastertid. a beseah se Haelend up, and geseah aet aer waes mycel mennisc toweard, and cwae to anum his leorning-cnihta, se waes gehaten Philippus, Mid hwam mage we bicgan hlaf isum folce? is he cwae to fandunge aes leorning-cnihtes: he sylf wiste hwaet he don wolde. a andwyrde Philippus, eah her waeron gebohte twa hund peningwur hlafes, ne mihte furon hyra aelc anne bitan of am gelaeccan. a cwae an his leorning-cnihta, se hatte Andreas, Petres broor, Her byr an cnapa fif berene hlafas, and twegen fixas, ac to hwan maeg aet to swa micclum werode? a cwae se Haelend, Do aet aet folc sitte. And aer waes micel g?rs on aere stowe myrige on to sittenne. And hi a ealle saeton, swa swa mihte beon fif usend wera. a genam se Haelend a fif hlafas, and bletsode, and tobraec, and todaelde betwux am sittendum: swa gelice eac a fixas todaelde; and hi ealle genoh haefdon. aa hi ealle fulle waeron, a cwae se Haelend to his leorning-cnihtum, Gaderia a lafe, and hi ne losion.
And hi a gegaderodon a bricas, and gefyldon twelf wilian mid aere lafe.