Слово 60. О различных способах брани, какую диавол ведет с шествующими путем тесным, превысшим мира

Our opponent the devil has an ancient custom with those entering this feat to cunningly diversify their struggle - according to the way they are armed 517, and, taking into account the intention of the person, he changes the method of his struggle. Those who are lazy in will and weak in thoughts, he pays special attention to those and from the very beginning strongly attacks them, so that he sets up strong and strong temptations against them, so that at the beginning of the path he can force them to experience all the ways of his wickedness, so that from the first exploit they are overcome by fear, their path seems cruel and difficult to pass, and they say this: “If the beginning of the path is so hard and difficult, then who can withstand the many who are in the middle of it until the very end?” difficulties? And from that time on, they can no longer rebel again or move forward, or even see anything else from the oppressive concern about this. And little by little the devil intensifies his cruel warfare against them in order to put them to flight. It’s better to say that God Himself allows the devil to overcome them and will not help them in anything, because they entered into the Lord’s feat with doubt and coldness. For God says: “Cursed is everyone who does the work of the Lord with negligence,” and whoever forbids his hand “from the blood” (Jer. 48:10); and again: the Lord is “near those who fear Him” (Ps. 84:10). For God commands to go against the devil without fear and coldness, saying: just begin to destroy him, and rush to battle with him, and fight with him courageously, and “I will put your fear” on all your enemies under heaven, says the Lord (Deut. 11:25). For if you do not voluntarily die a sensual death for the goodness of God, then you will inevitably die spiritually - for God. Therefore, if such is your fate, without burden 518 voluntarily accept temporary suffering for God in order to enter into the glory of God. For if you die physically in the Lord’s feat, the Lord Himself will crown you, and God will bestow upon your honorable remains the honor of martyrs. Therefore, as I said above, those who at the very beginning were careless and relaxed and did not dare to give themselves up to death, from now on in all battles turn out to be weak, and not courageous. It’s better to say that God allows them to be persecuted and defeated in battles, because they did not truly seek Him, but, as if by tempting and mocking them, they tried to accomplish the work of God. Therefore, the devil himself recognized them from the beginning and tested them in their thoughts for what they are, that is, fearful and self-loving and most of all sparing their body. And for this reason, as if by a storm, he drives them away, since he does not see in them the spiritual power that is customary to see in saints. For, according to a person’s will to strive for God and the intention to strive for a goal for His sake, God assists, helps, and shows him His providence for him. But the devil cannot approach a person or bring temptations upon him unless the person is remiss and God does not allow (temptations) to befall him. Or if someone allows himself to have shameful thoughts through conceit and exaltation, or thoughts of doubt and double-mindedness, then the devil asks for such as temptation. But he does not ask beginners, simple and inexperienced, from God, like the saints and great ones, to tempt them. For he knows that God will not allow such people to fall into his hands (since God knows that they do not have sufficient strength against the devil’s temptations), unless they have one of the above reasons, and then the power of God’s Providence moves away from them. This is the first method of the devil's warfare. About the second method of devilish warfare But those who, as the devil sees, are courageous, strong, do not count death as anything, go to work with great zeal, give themselves up to every temptation and death, neglect worldly life, the body and all temptations, the devil does not suddenly come out to meet them, and for the most part does not show himself to them, hides, gives way to them, and does not meet them at their first aspiration, and does not enter into battle with them. For he knows that every beginning of battle is hot; and he knows that the ascetic has great zeal, and zealous warriors are not easily defeated. The devil does this, not being afraid of them themselves, but he is afraid of the surrounding them, of his terrifying Divine power. Therefore, while he sees them as such, he does not even dare to touch them - until he sees that they have cooled in their jealousy and those weapons that they had prepared for themselves in their thoughts have been laid aside by changing the Divine words and remembrances that promote and assist them; during their laziness, he pays attention to them, when they deviate somewhat from their first thoughts and begin to invent on their own what serves to overcome them in themselves with the caresses 519 of their wisdom emanating from them, and from themselves their souls dig a ditch of destruction from laziness by the resulting soaring of thoughts, from which coldness reigned in them, that is, in their thoughts and hearts. And the devil, when he refrains from attacking them, does this involuntarily: not because he spares them or is ashamed of them, for he imputes them to nothing. On the contrary, I reason that a certain force surrounds those who strive for God with fiery zeal, set out to exploit with infantile feelings, renounce the world without hesitation, but hope in God, believe in Him and do not know with whom they are fighting. Therefore, God reflects the cruelty of the devil’s wickedness from them, so that they do not approach them, and the enemy is curbed, seeing the Guardian always protecting them. For if they do not reject the reasons for help, that is, prayers, labors and humility, then this Intercessor and Helper never moves away from them. Look and write this down in your heart, because voluptuousness and love for peace are the reasons for permission. And if someone remains in unflagging abstinence from this, then God’s assistance never leaves him, and the enemy is not allowed to fight him. If it happens that it is allowed to fight with him in order to admonish him, then holy power accompanies and supports him, and he is not afraid of demonic temptations, because his thought is bold and neglects temptations for the sake of this power. For this Divine power itself teaches people, just as someone teaches some small child to swim; and when he begins to drown, he carries him out of the water, because the child floats above the hands of the teacher; and when he begins to feel timid, lest he drown, the one who carries him in his arms calls out to him with encouragement: “Don’t be afraid, I’m carrying you.” And just as a mother teaches her little son to walk, she moves away from him and calls him to her, and when, going to his mother, he begins to tremble and, due to the weakness and youth of his legs and limbs, to fall, his mother comes running and carries him in her arms; so the grace of God bears and teaches people who, purely and in simplicity, have given themselves into the hands of their Creator, have renounced the world with all their hearts and follow the Lord. And you, a person who sets out after God, at every time of your heroic deed, always remember the beginning, and the first zeal at the beginning of the path, and those fiery thoughts with which you left your home for the first time and entered into battle. So test yourself every day, so that the ardor of your soul does not cool down in the jealousy that flared up in you at the beginning, and so that you do not lose one of the weapons that you were equipped with at the beginning of your feat. And constantly raise your voice among the military camp, encourage and encourage the children of the right hand of the country, that is, your thoughts, to courage, and show others, that is, the enemy side, that you are sober. And therefore, if at first you see the aspiration of the tempter frightening you, do not weaken: it may be useful to you, because the One who saves you does not allow anyone to approach you for nothing if he does not arrange something for your benefit. But do not show negligence 521 at the beginning, so that, having shown negligence here, you will not fall when you go forward, and you will no longer be unable to resist the sorrows that come upon you, I mean sorrows due to hunger, weakness, terrible dreams and other things. Do not pervert the intentions of 522 your Hero, because He will give you help against the enemy, so that the enemy does not find you as he expects. But constantly call on God, weep before His grace, lament and work until He sends you a helper. For if one day you see the One who saves you near you, you will no longer be defeated by your enemy who resists you. Up to this point, two methods of fighting the devil have been described. About the third method of enemy warfare with the strong and courageous Therefore, when the devil, after all this, rises up against someone, he no longer has the strength to fight him, or better yet, to fight against those who strengthen him and help him; With this assistance, a person rises above the enemy, borrows strength and patience from the promoter 523, so that the gross and material body defeats the incorporeal and spiritual. When the enemy sees all this power that a person has received from God, he sees that a person’s external feelings are not overcome by visible things and audible voices, and his thoughts do not relax from his caresses and seductions, then this deceiver wants to find some way to alienate the Angel helping him from the person; better to say, this deceiver wants to blind the mind of the person who is being helped, so that he turns out to be helpless, and to arouse in him thoughts of pride, so that he thinks to himself that all his strength depends on his own strength and that he himself acquired this wealth for himself, and with his strength saved himself from the enemy and the murderer. And sometimes he argues that he defeated the enemy by accident; and sometimes - that I defeated the enemy due to the powerlessness (I am silent about other images and thoughts of blasphemy, at the mere memory of which the soul falls into fear); sometimes the enemy, under the guise of revelations from God, unleashes his charm on the environment, and in dreams shows something to a person, and also during his wakefulness he is transformed into a bright Angel, and does everything to be able to little by little convince a person - at least be a little of the same mind with him, so that the person is delivered into his hands. If a prudent person firmly holds his thoughts, or better yet, keeps in mind what is helping him, and directs the eye of his heart to heaven so as not to see those whispering this in him, then the enemy again tries to invent other ways. About the fourth counter-enemy battle So, he had this one thing left 524, because nature has an affinity with this; and therefore with this 525 he primarily hopes to cause the death of man. What is this trick? In the following: to attack a person through his natural needs. The mind of an ascetic is often blinded by the vision and approach of sensual things and is easily defeated in the struggle when it comes close to them, and much more so when they are before a person’s eyes. For the fierce devil uses this method with knowledge and experience, that is, he learned this experimentally from many strong and powerful ascetics who fell from this, and he does it cunningly. Although he cannot force a person to commit 526 in practice, due to the firmness of his silence and due to the remoteness of his home from reasons and causes for sin, he nevertheless intensifies to arouse the mind of ascetics to daydreaming and tries to form in them false dreams under the guise of truth; so that they come to lust for the dreamed thing, it creates tickles in them and urges them to dwell on shameful thoughts, agree to them, become guilty of them, so that through this their helper retreats from them. For the enemy knows that a person’s victory, and his defeat, and his treasure, and his protection, and everything for the ascetic lies in his thought and is accomplished in a short moment, if only the thought would move from its place, and from that height descend to the earth, and with the will to show its consent for one moment, as happened with many of the saints during the dreamy presentation of female beauty. If they approached the world one or two miles, or a day's journey, then the enemy often resorted to actually bringing women to them. And since he cannot catch those who are far from the world in this net, in his dreams he shows them female beauty, showing it to them either in elegant dresses and in a seductive form, or obscenely - in the form of a naked woman. By this and similar things, some were actually defeated by the enemy, while others, due to the carelessness of their thoughts, were desecrated by dreams and through this they fell into the depths of despair, strayed into the world, and their souls lost heavenly hope. Others were stronger than them and, enlightened by grace, defeated the enemy and his dreams, trampled on carnal pleasures and turned out to be skilled in the love of God. Often the enemy also made them dreamily see gold, precious things and golden treasures, and sometimes he actually showed it to them in the hope that, perhaps, with such various dreams he would be able to stop one of them in its course and trap one of them in one of his nets and among his own. But You, Lord, who know our weakness, do not lead us into such temptations, from which even the stronger and more skilled barely emerge victorious after such a struggle! And all this is allowed to the tempter the devil in order to wage war with the saints through temptations, so that through such temptations the love of God may be tested in them; are they really God-loving, and abide in the love of God, and truly love God; and when they approach these things, do they try, out of love for God, to neglect them and humiliate them; those deceived by them, do they not yield to victory over themselves? And in this way they are tempted, so that through this they become known not only to God, but also to the devil himself, because it is desirable for him to tempt and tempt everyone, if possible, and to ask God for temptation, as he asked the righteous Job. And when there is a small allowance from God, the tempter the devil approaches uncontrollably; but according to the strength of those tempted by him, and not according to his own desire, the lawless devil attacks them. And through this, those who are true and firm in the love of God are tested: do they neglect all this, and is it considered nothing in their eyes in comparison with the love of God? Do they always humble themselves, give glory to the One who assists them in everything and the Author of their victory, and surrender themselves into His hands during the feat, saying to God: “You are strong, Lord; This is your feat, you fight and win in it for us.” Then they are tempted like gold in a furnace. Likewise, false lovers of God are explored and recognized in such temptations, and they, having given place to their enemy and become guilty, fall away from God like rubbish, for the carelessness of their minds or for their pride, because they were not worthy to receive the power that acted in the saints. The force assisting us cannot be overcome. For the Lord is Almighty and stronger than all others, and at all times he is victorious in his mortal body, when he goes together with the ascetics to battle. If they are defeated, then it is clear that they are defeated without Him. And these are those who, by their own will, through their own foolishness, have exposed themselves from God, because they have not been granted the power to help the victors, and even feel deprived of that ordinary, their own strength that they had during their strong battles. How do they feel it? They see that their fall seems pleasant and sweet in their eyes and that it is difficult for them to withstand the cruelty of the fight against their enemy, which they previously resolutely overcame with jealousy by the desire for natural movement, accompanied at that time by ardor and speed. And now they do not find this in their souls. And those who are careless and weak at the beginning of the feat, not only from these and similar struggles, but also from the noise of tree leaves, come into fear and confusion, and overcome by little need, hunger in case of lack, and a little weakness, renounce the feat and return back. True and skillful ascetics are not satisfied with grains and vegetables and, even eating dry roots, do not agree to taste anything before the appointed hour, but lie in bodily exhaustion and distress on the bare ground; their eyes barely look due to the excessive exhaustion of the body, and if due to this need they are close to being separated from the body, they do not yield victory over themselves 527 and do not abandon strong will, because they wish and desire to force themselves better out of love for God and prefer to work for the sake of virtue rather than have a temporary life and any peace in it. And when temptations come upon them, they rejoice all the more because they are perfected by them. Even in the midst of the difficult labors that befall them, they do not waver in the love of Christ, but until the end of this life they ardently desire to withstand difficulties with courage and do not retreat, because through this they are perfected. To our God be glory forever and ever! Amen. In Greek text: “his armor” (i.e., the devil). Rev. Paisius, apparently, had the reading “their weapons,” which is what we have accepted here. Here the preferred reading is one that is consistent with ancient glory. translation. That is, from the Guardian Angel. The last method of temptation. You might be interested in: