CHAPTER IV.

Of Curiosity in Various Ways.

I. Curiosity is made a snare of by the enemy of souls, and to some persons he gives a great craving to behold some miracle, or to have revelations. Then, either in sleep or when awake, he shows to such 42certain deceitful appearances, to allure them to falsehood under the guise of truth, or to lift them up to pride. The devout soul ought therefore to flee such desires and detest them above all things. What others have experienced in these matters ought to be enough for us.

2. Sometimes the enemy pushes a man on to look into the sins of another, either to show them up and take away his good name, or that he may lose all love for him, and despise him, or that all wholesome counsel from his mouth may be rejected, or that all he does may be attributed to some bad intention. If the sins we observe are in our superior, he gives them as a reason why we should not be bound to obey him. If they are in a subject, they are esteemed a valid reason for most cruel treatment, and that such an one should be corrected without any mercy. Or again, the enemy tempts us to think that because 43we do not the like sins, we are therefore much better, and so he leads us perhaps into that pride which makes us really much worse. For this pride is a sin far more grievous than all the defects which, with such diligence and curiosity, we explore and consider in our neighbour.

We ought, then, to turn away our eyes from the looking on our neighbour’s faults, and employ them in beholding our own. If we have the duty of examining or searching into the sins of others, it should be done with great compassion; for if we pity people for diseases of the body, how much more ought we to grieve for their diseases of the soul.

We ought also to pray God for them, considering that our own sins are still more grievous, or at least, had it not been for God’s mercy, we should have been entangled in more heinous crimes. He who 44does not implore the divine mercy on the sins of others, as well as on his own, seems really guilty of hating his neighbour.

3. By curiosity, in searching into the wealth of our neighbour, the enemy of souls leads some into envy, trouble of mind, and melancholy. For by the sight of the pomp of riches, of carriages and horses, servants, fine clothing, &c., the mind becomes inflamed with covetousness, and a restless desire to be possessed of the same earthly glory.

4. A prying mind that would search too subtilly lays itself open to the most foolish and hurtful suspicions. The devil has a great hold of some souls by making them continually surmise that this or that thing was done for the very purpose of vexing them, or to make a mock of them, or to do them some injury. By these silly suspicions and misunderstandings temptations arise 45between husband and wife, between brother and sister, between friend and friend. To suspect easily is a most fatal evil, for such suspicions, after having worked incredible mischief, are almost always discovered to be utterly groundless. They ought therefore never to be listened to. But if it is found impossible to get rid of them, it is a good plan that the one suspecting should ask of the other some satisfaction or explanation of the thing that causes the suspicion, so that there may be an opportunity of giving a reason that may dissipate all these doubtings.

But the devil takes good care often that the person he tempts shall keep the temptation quite a secret in his own heart. By this secrecy he prevents all hope of the clearing up of the circumstances that cause it, and he adds to it safely, as no opportunity of excuse or explanation is given.

However, sometimes he uses the very opposite method, and gets the person to blurt out his suspicions in a hot, rash manner, and most unseasonably. By this means a fierce tempest of anger is excited, which ends perhaps in the most malignant hatred. For the person feeling injured by the suspicion says to himself, “So this is the opinion that this man entertains of me, to suspect me so vilely without all reason. What have I done to merit it? Can he have a friend’s feelings towards me who can so suspect?” The devil then makes his gains both ways, by silence and by speaking.

5. Some are tempted by the devil with a vehement longing to be present at the festival of a wedding, or other worldly vanities, and he so arranges that at the time, although they witness things and hear things not proper or modest, yet they feel in no way tempted 47against chastity. This makes them very bold on this point, thinking they have reached a high degree of purity. Then by their presumption they give way to a proud elation, or they are emboldened to venture themselves more, and fall into immodest sins, or into very unclean thoughts. This does not always happen in the place, but perhaps afterwards, when they are alone, and when all they have seen and heard returns and fills their memory. It is safest, then, never to risk oneself needlessly, but to avoid the danger, and to put no trust in one’s virtue.

6. The devil sometimes pushes a man to search into his predestination, to inquire whether God has destined him to glory, or foreknown that he will perish everlastingly. Then, if he thinks himself predestined to glory, he runs a danger of being lifted up by a presumptuous confidence; and if he think 48 the contrary, he goes headlong into a reckless despair. A man, then, ought not to form a judgment either way, but he should hope in the mercy of God, with a great fear of the strictness of His justice.

7. Sometimes a man is tempted to question within himself whether he would rather die, or would choose instead to be damned for ever; or again, whether he would be willing to commit a mortal sin rather than die. Now, if he choose rather to be damned, or to commit a mortal sin, rather than to die, he does by such a choice sin grievously, for we may not offend God to escape any misfortune whatsoever. But if he affirm that he would choose the other part, first, it may be a lie on his part, or self-deceit; then again, he may fall into a boastful arrogance, on account of the seeming firmness of his virtue. Such manner of questions, then, ought to be avoided. If they arise 49in the mind, we should reject them without giving any answer to them. Instead of answering, we should say to God, “Thou knowest my frailty, O Lord; I confess that even a small pain would make me fall from Thee, were it not fpr the help of Thy grace. I cast myself therefore into Thy hands, beseeching of Thee never to let me be so tempted as to consent to transgress Thy commandments.”

By this means we may safely pass over this perilous and malicious snare of the devil, that is, by acknowledging with lowly mind our own proper frailty, but putting all hope and trust in God, and by refusing to form any judgment on the matter. We know how S. Peter, when he had declared that he would rather die than deny our Lord, afterwards broke his promise, and forsook Him. Very many others act in the same way, thinking before they are tempted that 50they would be willing to suffer anything rather than sin, as though they could avoid sin by their own power only, without the help of God’s grace.

8. Another temptation of a somewhat similar kind is this. When a person remembers some wickedness he did in his past life, by which nevertheless he enjoys some present good; as, for instance, by fornication or by adultery he has a child whom he loves intensely. Then comes the question to his mind, Would you rather have not sinned, and be deprived of this child, or have this child, consenting to the sin for it? Now, as in the former temptation, so here, whichever way he answers he runs the risk of being caught in a snare. The remedy, then, is not to answer the question. However, a man may grieve for the sin, and that by the sin he had a child, without grieving absolutely because. he has a child.

9. There comes sometimes the question before the mind as to whether we be worse than other men, or than this or that man. From this source arise many sins, such as falsehood, pride, rash judgment. One so tempted should therefore reply, “Whatsoever proceeds from me, from my own fund, is sin; if there be in me any good it is of the grace of God, and God can equally give to any other what He gives to me. Now, when I have nothing of my own but sin, what use is there for me to compare myself with others, since I am of myself most wicked?”

10. The enemy places often before the eyes of the soul the graces and gifts that are in her, to puff her up, and make her despise others. Now, a person so tempted ought to consider that if he does not use the gifts of God well he incurs greater perils, and will receive a more intolerable damnation. Or he may 52remember that there is no one, however wicked, who might not perhaps use the graces he has better than himself, so that he may not judge any one, Jew or Gentile, to De worse than himself, and all may be better.

11. A temptation not uncommon to repentant souls is to examine whether their contrition is such as God will accept of, and they argue that for some temporal misfortune they grieve and weep far more than for having offended God by sin. They consider, then, that their contrition is evidently not sufficient But we should know that it is not necessary that we should feel so great a sensible sorrow for sin as perhaps we do for some earthly loss or misfortune. It is enough that the sin displeases us, and that we will never to offend God by the like sin any more. We are not obliged to wish rather to die, or to be damned, or to be stripped of all 53our goods, than to sin, or than to sin in this or that manner.

Again, we are not obliged to have a sorrow answering to the divine immensity, which we have offended, for that were impossible. For the Godhead is infinite, but our sorrow at the very utmost can only be finite. The above-named sorrow, then, is enough.

It is true indeed that that sorrow is the best which is greatest in both soul and body, if only discretion is used in the sorrow of the body. For by bodily sorrow the health may give way, or the reason be injured.

Many temptations are avoided by the above mode of dealing, which are wont to arise when a person fears that he is never sorry enough, or that he has not done what he is bound to. He has done what he is bound to for salvation; but what we are bound to in consideration of the exalted nature of the Godhead, 54this we cannot do. We cannot repay Him the benefits He bestows. But our indulgent Father does not expect this of us. By His wondrous kindness it suffices to make us His friends, if only in certain number, and at certain times, we do the things He has commanded us under pain of eternal damnation.

Now all these precepts are contained in two, to love God above all things, and to love our neighbour as ourself. But if it be asked, what is signified by loving God above all things, I answer, plainly and simply, It is so to love Him as to love nothing else in such a way as to make you lose thereby the love of God. To love our neighbour as ourself is to wish eternal salvation for him, and grace in this present life, and also to do for him whatever in justice and reason we would wish him to do for us in the like case. For it is evident that one who is a judge ought not to 55will to set a robber free from gaol, though perhaps were he himself in prison he would wish, contrary to reason, to be set free. An answer may in like manner be given to various other temptations of this kind.

12. A penitent will sometimes inquire of himself whether he has now a firm purpose not to sin again. Then the devil proposes doubts to him, especially telling how frail he is, that he still falls often, and perhaps even daily. The penitent however ought to consider that it is perfectly true that he cannot through his own strength hope to escape sin. He ought not to say that he will never sin again, for to say so would be presumption; nor ought he to judge that he will sin, for this would be already to transgress. It is enough, then, to make a firm purpose, with the help of God, to avoid sin, and to use diligence to do so, and by one’s present 56will to give no consent to sin for the future.

13. When a person is going to communion the thought of his unworthiness comes sometimes into his mind, and a doubt whether he ought to approach; a doubt, too, perhaps, whether he has rightly confessed his sins, for he feels as if he had not made a real good confession. But such an one ought to consider that he never can by his own strength make himself worthy to approach the sacrament of the altar, no, not if he laboured to prepare himself for a hundred years. For this is required a divine gift, and God can give that at once just as easily as in a hundred years.

Again, he ought to consider that in this life no one can tell, with an infallible certitude, whether he be in a state of grace or not, whether he be truly penitent or not, whether he has made a good confession or not, unless God were 57to let him know by a special revelation. Therefore he who will not go to communion unless he has this certainty deceives himself, and seems guilty of a kind of pride.

There is, however, a moral certainty, which in our purpose is required, and which suffices. And this we have, when, in our recollection and examen of conscience, we find we have done that, which both our own discretion and the good counsel of others suggested, and have for some time been wont commonly so to do. But if our own judgment should not accuse us of mortal sin, then there is no new peril in going to holy communion, even though, as it may often happen, some slight doubts may come into our mind. These doubts we ought to repel, and we ought to force ourselves to act contrary to them. I call that a slight doubt, when a person judges of a thing, rather that it is just and 58good, than that it is evil; yet some reasons or thoughts occur to the mind, leading to some hesitation, but still the first judgment appears far the most certain. Now if both sides seem equally probable, we ought to stop till we get more ground for decision one side or other, either by the help of our own reason, or by consultation with others, or by a divine inspiration obtained through prayer. For unless in this mode a person obtain security in himself, he will always judge that he has made a bad confession, and will never feel easy or at peace, and this can never be good.