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BUT the blessed David recognizes that sometimes this departure of which
we have spoken, and (as it were) desertion by God may be to some extent to
our advantage, so that he was unwilling to pray, not that he might not be
absolutely forsaken by God in anything (for he was aware that this would
have been disadvantageous both to himself and to human nature in its course
towards perfection) but he rather entreated that it might be in measure and
degree, saying "Forsake me not utterly" as if to say in other words: I
know that thou dost forsake thy saints to their advantage, in order to
prove them, for in no other way could they be tempted by the devil, unless
they were for a little forsaken by Thee. And therefore I ask not that Thou
shouldest never forsake me, for it would not be well for me not to feel my
weakness and say "It is good for me that Thou hast brought me low" nor
to have no opportunity of fighting. And this I certainly should not have,
if the Divine protection shielded me incessantly and unbrokenly. For the
devil will not dare to attack me while supported by Thy defence, as he
brings both against me and Thee this objection and complaint, which he ever
slanderously brings against Thy champions, "Does Job serve God for nought?
Hast not Thou made a fence for him and his house and all his substance
round about?" But I rather entreat that Thou forsake me not utterly--
what the Greeks call he'ws spho'dra, i.e., too much. For, first, as it is
advantageous to me for Thee to forsake me a little, that the steadfastness
of my love may be tried, so it is dangerous if Thou suffer me to be
forsaken excessively in proportion to my faults and what I deserve, since
no power of man, if in temptation it is forsaken for too long a time by
Thine aid, can endure by its own steadfastness, and not forthwith give in
to the power of the enemy's side, unless Thou Thyself, as Thou knowest the
strength of man, and moderatest his struggles, "Suffer us not to be tempted
above that we are able, but makest with the temptation a way of escape that
we may be able to bear it." And something of this sort we read in the
book of Judges was mystically designed in the matter of the extermination
of the spiritual nations which were opposed to Israel: "These are the
nations, which the Lord left that by them He might instruct Israel, that
they might learn to fight with their enemies," and again shortly after:
"And the Lord left them that He might try Israel by them, whether they
would hear the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their
fathers by the hand of Moses, or not," And this conflict God reserved
for Israel, not from envy of their peace, or from a wish to hurt them, but
because He knew that it would be good for them that while they were always
oppressed by the attacks of those nations they might not cease to feel
themselves in need of the aid of the Lord, and for this reason might ever
continue to meditate on Him and invoke His aid, and not grow careless
through lazy ease, and lose the habit of resisting, and the practice of
virtue. For again and again, men whom adversity could not overcome, have
been east down by freedom from care and by prosperity.
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