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AND that we ought not to be puffed up by victories over them he
likewise charges us; saying, "Lest after thou hast eaten and art filled,
hast built goodly houses and dwelt in them, and shalt have herds of oxen
and flocks of sheep, and plenty of gold and of silver, and of all things,
thy heart be lifted up and thou remember not the Lord thy God, who brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; and was thy
leader in the great and terrible wilderness." Solomon also says in
Proverbs: "When thine enemy shall fall be not glad, and in his ruin be not
lifted up, lest the Lord see and it displease Him, and He turn away His
wrath from him," i.e., lest He see thy pride of heart, and cease from
attacking him, and thou begin to be forsaken by Him and so once more to be
troubled by that passion which by God's grace thou hadst previously
overcome. For the prophet would not have prayed in these words, "Deliver
not up to beasts, O Lord, the soul that confesseth to Thee," unless he
had known that because of their pride of heart some were given over again
to those faults which they had overcome, in order that they might be
humbled. Wherefore it is well for us both to be certified by actual
experience, and also to be instructed by countless passages of Scripture,
that we cannot possibly overcome such mighty foes in our own strength, and
unless supported by the aid of God alone; and that we ought always to refer
the Whole Of our victory each day to God Himself, as the Lord Himself also
gives us instruction by Moses on this very point: "Say not in thine heart
when the Lord thy God shall have destroyed them in thy sight: For my
righteousness hath the Lord brought me in to possess this land, whereas
these nations are destroyed for their wickedness. For it is not for thy
righteousness, and the uprightness of thine heart, that thou shalt go in to
possess their lands: but because they have done wickedly they are destroyed
at thy coming in." I ask what could be said clearer in opposition to
that impious notion and impertinence of ours, in which we want to ascribe
everything that we do to our own free will and our own exertions? "Say
not," he tells us, "in thine heart, when the Lord thy God shall have
destroyed them in thy sight: For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me
in to possess this land." To those who have their eyes opened and their
ears ready to hearken does not this plainly say: When your struggle with
carnal faults has gone well for you, and you see that you are free from the
filth of them, and from the fashions of this world, do not be puffed up by
the success of the conflict and victory and ascribe it to your own power
and wisdom, nor fancy that you have gained the victory over spiritual
wickedness and carnal sins through your own exertions and energy, and free
will? For there is no doubt that in all this you could not possibly have
succeeded, unless you had been fortified and protected by the help of the
Lord.
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