SHORT RULES OF A GOOD LIFE
The Tenth Chapter
Of Temptation
First, I must learn to know when I am tempted, for if I can find my temptation I may reckon it half overcome. For if I have fear of God or care of my soul, I cannot but arm myself earnestly to resist, knowing that temptation proceedeth from an enemy to whom I have resolved by God’s grace never to consent, what misery or trouble soever I endure.
How to know temptations and good motions
It is always a spiritual desolation, original and proceeding from the devil, when it darkeneth and disquieteth the mind, awaketh and stirreth up our passions, when it draweth to external and earthly solaces, leaving in the mind a tediousness and unwillingness to prayer and other works of devotion; also, when it diminisheth our affiance and trust in God and driveth to a kind of despair of God’s mercy or persevering in His service, making it seem an irksome and impossible thing and moving us to forsake it. And when I find myself troubled in this sort, I must assure myself without all doubt that I am tempted by the devil and therefore arm myself to resist him by doing that which those temptations dissuade me from.
On the other side, comfort that is caused by God’s spirit is known by these signs: it incenseth the mind by a quiet and calm motion to the love of God without any inclination to any creature’s love more than for God’s only glory; and it breedeth a kind of inward light and brightness whereby for the time the mind seeth after a most effectual sort the necessity, profit, and true comfort that is in God’s service, and conceiveth a contempt and dislike of worldly delights, and tasteth that which is the greatest felicity in this life, that is, so assured and perfect contentment in being in God’s grace and seeking to please Him that it then judgeth no contentment in the world like or comparable unto it, as in truth there is none. Also, true spiritual comfort bringeth a delight and desire to think of the benefits of God, the joys of heaven, the comfort of meditation and talking with God. Finally, it confirmeth our faith, quickeneth our hope, and increaseth charity, and leaveth the mind with a sweet taste of joy, quiet and free from all cumbers.
Sometimes the devil transformeth himself into an angel of light, and at the first, when he knoweth our good desires and purposes, he seemeth to soothe us in them and to set us forward towards the performance thereof, but in the end he draweth us to his bias and by corrupting our intention, or by perverting the manner, time, or other circumstance of the due execution, maketh the whole action worthless and faulty, though otherwise virtuous in itself. There must be great heed taken in the beginning, middle and end of our thoughts; for when either at the first or at the last it tendeth to apparent sin, or withdraweth from the greater good, or tendeth to courses of less merit or more danger than we are in, or if it disquiet the mind, or bereave it of the wonted calm and love of virtue, it is a sign that the devil was the beginner of it, whose property is to hinder good and withdraw us to evil. When in any suggestion I find the serpent by his sting, that is, the devil by the wicked end he moveth me unto, it is good to untwist and reverse his motion, and to look backward even unto the beginning, and to mark what plausible color he first pretended, that the next time I may the better espy his cunning and subtle dealings and drifts.
How to behave ourselves in time of temptation
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