約伯倫理 第 1368 章

44. Satan tempts religious minds in one way, worldly minds in another. — This Leviathan tempts the religious minds of men in one way, but those given over to this world in another; for to the depraved he openly presents the evils which they desire, but upon these others, lying secretly in ambush, he plays under an appearance of holiness. To the former, as to his familiar friends, he insinuates himself the more openly as wicked; but to the latter, as to strangers, he cloaks himself under the pretext of a certain seeming honesty, that he may introduce under cover the evils which he cannot bring upon them openly, veiled beneath the semblance of good action. Whence his members also, when they cannot harm by open wickedness, often assume the guise of good action; and they indeed show themselves depraved in deed, but they lie under a holy appearance.

For if the wicked were openly evil, they could not be received by the good at all; but they take on something of the appearance of the good, that while good men receive in them the semblance which they love, they may take also the mingled poison which they shun. Whence Paul the Apostle, beholding certain men serving the appetite of the belly under the veil of preaching, says: For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). What wonder therefore if his ministers be transformed as ministers of righteousness? This transformation Joshua feared, when, seeing an angel, he inquired of what part he was, saying: Art thou one of ours, or of our adversaries? (Joshua 5:13), so that indeed, if he were of an adverse power, by the very fact of knowing him suspect he might recoil from the illusion.

Because therefore this Leviathan, in that which he devises as a work of iniquity, is often clothed with the appearance of holiness; and because, except by divine grace, the garments of his dissimulation cannot be uncovered, well is it said: Who shall reveal the face of his garment? Understand: none but I, who inspire into the minds of My servants the grace of most subtle discernment, that with his malice unveiled they may behold his bare face, which he keeps hidden, covered under the guise of holiness. And because sometimes he strives to corrupt the minds of the faithful by his showing forth, sometimes by suggestion (for he acts now by deed, now by persuasion), rightly it is subjoined: