約伯倫理 第 659 章

Verse 10. — His snare is hidden in the ground, and his trap upon the path. 15. How great is the devil's cunning in deceiving. The qualities of character akin to certain vices. — The snare is hidden in the ground when guilt is concealed beneath earthly advantages. For the lying-in-wait enemy shows to the human mind, in earthly gain, what it may crave, and hides the snare of sin, that he may bind its soul, so that it may indeed see what it is able to covet, and yet by no means see in what snare of guilt it sets its foot. But the trap (decipula) is so called from deceiving (decipiendo). And then the trap is set upon the path by the ancient enemy, when in the action of this world which the mind craves, the snare of sin is prepared;

which forsooth would not easily deceive, if it could be seen. For the trap is so set that, while the bait is displayed, the trap itself may by no means be seen by the passer-by. As it were a bait in the snare is gain with guilt, and the prosperity of this world with iniquity. While, therefore, gain is craved by the coveter, the trap which is not seen as it were seizes the foot of the mind. Often, therefore, there are set before the mind, with guilt, honours, riches, health, and temporal life; and the weak mind, while it sees these as it were a bait, and does not see the trap, through the bait which, seeing, it craves, is bound fast in the guilt which is not seen. For there exist qualities of character which are near to certain vices.

For harsh characters are wont to be joined either to cruelty or to pride; but soft characters, and somewhat more cheerful than is fitting, are sometimes joined to luxury and dissoluteness. The enemy of the human race therefore observes to what vice the character of each one is near, and sets before the face those things which he knows the mind is more easily inclined toward, so that to soft and cheerful characters he often sets forth luxury, sometimes vainglory; but to harsh minds, anger, pride, or cruelty. There, therefore, he places the trap where he beholds the path of the mind to be, because he inserts the peril of deception there where he finds the way of a kindred thought to be.

And because the perverse man fears to suffer even everything that he does, and reckons that to be done to himself by all which he himself prepares for all against whom he is able, it rightly follows: