All evil spirits constitute the third enemy of
man's salvation. Moved by hatred and envy they do all in their power to bring
man to perdition. Not content with using the influence of the world to turn him
from the path of virtue, they exert their influence on him personally to attain
their end. Though they cannot influence man's mind and heart directly, they can
inflict great harm on them through his senses and his passions.
The devil may act on man's external senses, (1)
by an illusory sensation and make a corresponding impression on the imagination
and memory; (2) by a corporeal apparition, as he appeared to the Saviour in the
desert. He may act directly on man's internal senses (1) by inciting the
instinct to carnal desires; (2) by effacing virtuous impressions from the
imagination and memory; (3) and impressing vicious images in their stead ; (4)
by fixing such vicious impressions deeply upon the internal senses. In this way
the devil distracts the mind of a child of God, harasses his will, and inclines
his heart to sin, counteracts the past effects of grace and virtue, blinds man
to the blessings of the present, and tempts him to sin.
Ordinarily the devil is too shrewd to tempt man
directly to embrace error or to act maliciously. In fact he accomplishes his
end more securely by using the evil impressions of the imagination and memory
and the bad example and friendship of the world to instill perverse principles
in the human mind and selfish motives in the human heart, and thereby puts man at
variance with God. In this way the devil does not shock man, but easily leads
him to hold, that, as his influence cannot be easily detected, it has been much
overrated, especially in modern times.
No comments:
Post a Comment