32. Here, therefore, the prayer is not, that we should not be tempted, but that we should not be brought into temptation: as if, were it necessary that any one should be examined by fire, he should pray, not that he should not be touched by the fire, but that he should not be consumed. For “the furnace proveth the potter’s vessels, and the trial of tribulation righteous men.”315 Joseph therefore was tempted with the allurement of debauchery, but he was not brought into temptation.316 Susanna was tempted, but she was not led or brought into temptation;317 and many others of both sexes: but Job most of all, in regard to whose admirable stedfastness in the Lord his God, those heretical enemies of the Old Testament, when they wish to mock at it with sacrilegious mouth, brandish this above other weapons, that Satan begged that he should be tempted.318 For they put the question to unskilful men by no means able to understand such things, how Satan could speak with God: not under- standing (for they cannot, inasmuch as they are blinded by superstition and controversy) that God does not occupy space by the mass of His corporeity; and thus exist in one place, and not in another, or at least have one part here, and another elsewhere: but that He is everywhere present in His majesty, not divided by parts, but everywhere complete. But if they take a fleshly view of what is said, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my foot- stool,”319—to which passage our Lord also bears testimony, when He says, “Swear not at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool,”320—what wonder if the devil, being placed on earth, stood before the feet of God, and spoke something in His presence? For when will they be able to understand that there is no soul, however wicked, which can yet reason in any way, in whose conscience God does not speak? For who but God has written the law of nature in the hearts of men?—that law concerning which the apostle says: “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing them witness,321 and their thoughts322 the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another, in the day when the Lord323 shall judge the secrets of men.”324 And therefore, as in the case of every rational 315 Ecclus. xxvii. 5. 316 Gen. xxxix. 7–12. 317 Hist. of Sus. i. 19–22. 318 Job i. 11. 319 Isa. lxvi. 1. 320 Matt. v. 34, 35. 321 Contestante; Vulgate, testimonium reddente. 322 Cogitationum accusantium; Vulgate, cogitationibus accusantibus. 323 Dominus; Vulgate, Deus. 324 Rom. ii. 14–16. 109 Chapter IX