Peter makes faithful use of the present passage for his readers'
comfort: Ye must expect, in the world, says he, to suffer many and
severe things, both in temptations of soul and body, against the
first and the second table of the law, Satan lying in wait for you
with his deceitful and murderous arts.
68. Weak Christians suffer beyond measure because they are plagued
and beset so constantly by the devil. Their afflictions so sorely
oppress them that they conclude that no one suffers so severely as do
they. Especially does this seem the case in the great spiritual
temptations which come to those endowed with peculiar gifts and who
are called to positions of prominence in the Church. So Paul often
laments his great temptations, which the common people do not
understand and cannot endure. God, moreover, is careful to lay on
each one just the cross he is able to carry. Still these sufferings
are such that even the great and strong must languish and wither
beneath them were it not for the comfort God bestows. These troubles
grip the heart, and consume the very marrow, as the Psalms often
lament.
69. Some of those living in cloisters, and other pious, tender
consciences, have learned by experience how hard such burdens are to
bear, especially in the darkness of the papacy, where they receive
but little genuine comfort. There are, also, some inexperienced and
forward spirits who have seen but have not understood these things,
and who yet desire to be regarded as people of large experience.
When, however, the test comes, they are found wanting. It is related
of one of this class, who heard others bemoaning their temptations,
that he prayed God to let temptation visit him also; whereupon God
permitted him to be tempted with carnal lust. But when he found he
could not bear it, he again prayed God, asking that the burden of his
brother, whom he regarded inferior to himself, be given him. But when
this request was granted, he prayed yet more earnestly that God would
give him back his former burden.
70. Amid such temptations Peter comforts suffering Christians by
telling them that they are not the first, nor the only ones, to be
thus assailed. They are not to feel as if it were a wonderful, rare,
unheard of cross which they bear, or that they bear it alone. They
are to know that their brethren, the Christians of all times, and
scattered through all the world, must, because they are in the world,
suffer the same things at the hand of Satan and his minions. It
assuages and comforts beyond measure for the sufferer to know that he
does not suffer alone, but with a great multitude.
71. It is true that in external temptations this comfort is easily
grasped, because of the knowledge of others' experiences. But when
Satan assails thee alone with his poisonous darts--for example, when
he tempts thee to doubt God's grace, as if thou alone hadst been cast
off; or when he suggests horrible blasphemies, hatred of God,
condemnation of his government, and so tortures and fills with
anguish thy heart that thou art led to think that no man on earth is
more fearfully assailed than thyself--then there is need to make use
of this comfort which Peter offers thee and all Christians. In other
words, Peter would say: "My friend, let not the devil and thy
sufferings terrify thee or lead thee to despair. Thou shouldst know
this for a certainty, that thou sufferest not alone. No matter how
shamefully he attacks thee, he has done and is doing the same to
others."
The devil seeks, not only our own destruction, but also that of all
Christendom. It is ever his purpose to tear out of men's hearts, in
the midst of their sufferings, God's Word and faith. He would rob
them of their comfort in Christ, and depict God in the most horrible
and hostile light, that the heart may have not one kind thought
regarding him. And he can do this; not only with lofty, refined,
subtle thoughts, but also by gross suggestions from without, before
which a man must fear and shudder. I, myself, saw and heard a girl
who complained of a temptation of this nature; namely, that while she
stood in the church and saw the sacrament elevated, the thought
occurred to her: Lo, what a big knave the priest is elevating. And
she was suddenly so frightened at the terrible thought that she sank
to the floor.
72. Such terror and anxiety proceed from the fact that one imagines
that no one else has ever experienced such dreadful assaults. He
thinks he has a special, strange, and unusual affliction. Although it
is true that men's temptations differ and come from different sources
and one may imagine his own a peculiar kind, yet the sufferings and
temptations of all Christians are alike in this, that the devil tries
to drive them all from the fear and confidence of God into unbelief,
contempt, hatred, and blasphemy against God. Therefore, the apostles
are accustomed to call Christians' sufferings a fellowship in pain
and tribulations. They point all men who suffer to the agonies of
Christ our Lord, as the head and exemplar. Peter says in his first
epistle, ch. 1, 11: "The Spirit of Christ ... testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them."
And Paul says, "I fill up on my part that which is lacking of the
afflictions of Christ in my flesh," Col 1, 24.
73. If one would speak of specially severe sufferings, surely no
human heart can comprehend, much less tell, how great and heavy were
the anxiety and sorrow of our first parents on account of their
miserable fall. And what sorrow must Adam have witnessed during the
nine hundred years of his life in the experiences of his first son
Cain, and his children! No man has ever borne such a burden as lay on
both parents for nearly a hundred years after Abel's death, until
their third son was born. Truly, these nine hundred years were a
period of sorrow and misery.
Perhaps, on the last day, we shall discuss with this our father the
solitary suffering of that time, of which we know nothing. And we
shall willingly confess that in sorrow's school he stands far above
us and we have been only insignificant pupils. It must have been most
severe and dangerous for him, since he had no example before him of
similar suffering with which to comfort himself.
74. Likewise, if thou couldst rightly understand what the other holy
patriarchs, the prophets and apostles--especially Paul and Peter--and
later all the beloved martyrs and saints, have endured thou wouldst
be forced to say that all thy temptation and suffering are nothing in
comparison. But above all these must we reckon the experiences of the
Lord Christ, whose heart was so pierced by Satan's fiery darts and
bitter thrusts that the bloody drops of sweat were pressed out of his
body. He has gone before and surpassed us on the way of sorrow. We,
with all our suffering, can only follow his footsteps.