Caput X
The Enemy's Craft in Temptation
The devil discerns each person's temperamental bent and sets snares tailored to their particular vice, dividing the heat of temptation craftily according to their habits.
He lies in wait for each person with the vices that suit them. First he discerns each person's temperamental bent, then sets the snares of temptation closest to that same bent. He wouldn't easily capture anyone if he offered rewards to the lustful or prostitutes to the greedy. If he assailed the gluttonous with the glory of abstinence, or the abstinent with the weakness of gluttony. If he pursued the meek through a love of strife, or tried to capture the irascible through the fear of dread. But so that he may more effectively prevail in his deceit, he reads the cast of a person's soul and probes for the vice by which that person will more quickly consent. Hence it is written: The heat is divided over the earth (Job 38:24). Because clearly in this life of temptation, he craftily inflicts the burning on each person—as if dividing the heat—while hiding snares close to their habits.
The Enemy's Dominion and His Fury Against the Converted
The devil rules securely over those subject to his will, but when anyone turns to God he rouses himself with intensified assault, like Leviathan awakened from sleep in the hearts of the wicked.
But in those who are subject to his will, he indulges with a certain security, ruling over their hearts with unshaken power like a proud king. But if anyone's mind grows warm with longing for the Creator, if they remember the grace of the Redeemer, and blush to be held captive by vices — when the same enemy sees himself despised and the slave he once possessed struggling against him, he at once goads himself on with every skill of temptation, and so that the one he possessed may not be freed from his dominion, he fights with manifold deceit to keep him.1 Hence it is written of those who are converted to the heart: Let them curse him who curses the day, who are ready to rouse Leviathan (Job 3:8).✦2 For to curse that same enemy is to detest the sins he suggests. But whoever does this rouses Leviathan, who, as it has been said, sleeps in the hearts of the wicked as if quiet and lulled to rest. Whoever, therefore, is regarded by divine mercy and desires to do the things that are of God provokes Leviathan to struggle against him, and by his own conversion inflames the enemy's malice.3 Nor does he greatly trouble certain wicked people, seeing that he sees them serving him not only through evils but even through the very good works they perform insincerely; but for those who flee to God he stretches out innumerable snares.
Read the original Latin
Singulis autem hominibus vitiis convenientibus insidiatur. Prius enim conspersionem uniuscujusque perspicit, et tunc tentationis laqueos eidem conspersioni proximos opponit. Neque enim facile captivaret, si aut luxuriosis praemia, aut avaris scorta proponeret. Si aut voraces de abstinentiae gloria, aut abstinentes de gulae imbecillitate pulsaret. Si mites per studium certaminis, aut iracundos capere per pavorem formidinis quaereret. Sed ut efficacius in sua fraude praevaleat, eo vitio quo eum citius consensurum ex qualitate animi ejus novit, explorat. Hinc scriptum est: Dividitur aestus super terram (Job XXXVIII, 24). Quia videlicet in hac vita tentationis ardorem callide singulis ingerens quasi aestum dividit, dum vicinos moribus laqueos abscondit.
In illis autem qui ejus voluntati subjecti sunt, quadam securitate perfruitur, dum cordibus eorum quasi superbus rex inconcussa potestate dominatur. Sed si cujuslibet mens ad desiderium Conditoris incalescit, si Redemptoris gratiae meminit, et teneri captivus a vitiis erubescit: cum idem hostis considerat se despici, et contra se mancipium quod dudum possederat reniti, mox in omni tentationis arte se instigat: ac ne is quem possederat ab ejus dominio liberetur, multiplici fraude decertat. Hinc de his qui convertuntur ad cor scriptum est: Maledicant ei qui maledicunt diei, qui parati sunt suscitare Leviathan (Job III, 8). Eidem quippe hosti maledicere est peccata quae suggerit exsecrari. Sed quisquis hoc fecerit Leviathan suscitat, qui, ut dictum est, in pravorum cordibus, quasi quietus et sopitus dormit. Quicunque igitur divinitus respectus, quae Dei sunt agere desiderat, Leviathan in certamine contra se provocat, ejusque malitiam sua conversione inflammat. Nec magnopere ergo quoslibet pravos inquietat, quippe quos non solum per mala, sed per ipsa quoque bona opera, quae non sinceriter gerunt, sibi servire conspicit; sed ad Deum confugientibus innumeras insidias tendit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Job.3.8 — Let those who curse the day curse it — those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
Notes
- 1 ↩teneri captivus: the image is of a 'tender' or 'soft' person held captive — the shame is in being so easily held. Rendered as 'blush to be held captive' to capture both the tenderness and the shame.
- 2 ↩Scriptural quotation from Job 3:8 (Vulgate numbering). Moses resolution pending.
- 3 ↩divinitus respectus: literally 'looked upon by God/divinely regarded.' Rendered as 'regarded by divine mercy' to capture the sense of God's gracious turning toward the person.
Collationes (Conferences / Collations) companion
Day 11 and onward, delivered every morning
All 140 conferences — and the rest of the Sub Rosa library — in daily portions in the free Chosen Portion iOS app
Odo urged a daily return to sacred reading as the cure for the soul's slow decline; Chosen Portion makes that daily return a scheduled habit on your phone.
- Continue through all three books of the Conferences at 5 minutes a day
- Daily examination-style readings drawn from 78+ historic works
- One morning notification to keep the practice going past day 10