State super vias et videte et interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona et ambulate in ea et invenietis refrigerium animabus vestris

31 Aug 2023

Doubt And Temptation

Qui enim haesitat, similis est fluctui maris qui a vento movetur et circumfertur

Qui mordente se conscientia peccati haesitat de perceptione praemiorum coelestium, facile ad impulsum tentationum statum fidei deserit, qua in tranquillitate Deo servire videbatur, et ad libitum hostis invisibilis, quasi ad flatum venti, per diversos vitiorum raptatur errores.

Sanctus Beda, Super Divi Jacobi Epistolam, Caput I

Source: Migne PL 93.12b
He who doubts is like a wave of the sea which is driven and tossed around by the wind... 1

He who is bitten by consciousness of sin so that he doubts that he shall obtain heavenly rewards, he easily forsakes the state of faith by any blow of temptation, which state in peace he seemed to guard for God, and then at the pleasure of the invisible enemy, as a wave by the wind, he is driven through the various errors of the vices.

Saint Bede, Commentary on the Letter of Saint James, Chapter 1

1 James 1.6

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