15. But let us come to the lessons before
us. You see that permission is given to the devil, that the good
may be tested. The evil one envies all progress in good, he
tempts us in divers way. He tried holy Job in his possessions, in
his children, in pain of body. The stronger is tried in his own
person, the weaker in that of another. And he was desirous of
carrying off my riches which I possess in you, and wished to dissipate
this patrimony of your tranquillity. And he strove to deprive me
of yourselves also, my good children, for whom I daily renew the
Sacrifice, you he endeavoured to involve in the ruin as it were of a
public disturbance. I have then already been assailed by two
kinds of temptation. And perhaps because the Lord our God knows
me to be too weak, He has not yet given him power over my body.
Though myself may desire it, though I offer myself, He deems me yet it
may be unequal to this conflict, and exercises me with divers
labours. And Job did not begin with that conflict but finished
with it.