Joy in Providence and the Nature of Trials

By another meaning, it is signified that I suffered for nothing, because no cause was provided for me to suffer for the sake of the name of Christ and for no other thing. And again: 'He shall not take the reproach of evil men' (Psalm 34:18). 'He shall not take,' since it is up to us to acquire. But if, even though we have not acquired it, some surround us with reproaches, 'vainly they reproach our soul.' Do you not say that Jezebel and those who breathed with her vainly reproached Naboth, to hide from him for nothing the corruption of their trap? Furthermore: the 'trap of them'; he says 'traps' not in which they are being trapped, but in which they wish to trap. The drama prepared against Susanna by the elders was a trap of theirs, not in the way that they themselves are being trapped, but in the way they intended to trap her and subject her to punishment and shame.

Let a trap come upon them, which they do not know. This he says: those who are powerful against some, devising machines and attacking them, vainly are never placed before their eyes, that they are able to ensnare those whom they themselves prepared; for example, 'he who digs a pit' (Psalm 7:15) for his neighbor, 'he shall fall into it.' They do not quite consider that they themselves fall into the pit, since they did not dig it. Therefore he did not know that the trap was coming upon them, which they were preparing for another in order to surround him and catch him. 'Which they do not know,' therefore, which they did not have before their eyes, since they were not even preparing it.

And the hunt, which they hid, let him catch them, in order that they might hide from others and without warning hunt those. 'Let him catch them.' 'They dug a pit before my face and fell into it' (Psalm 35:8). And in the trap they shall fall in it. In this one which they prepared for others, they shall fall. Upon the fall of others they themselves have fallen in such devices as some make, and they come against themselves. It happens in some entanglement of providence. The discourse concerning providence has a great entanglement, even if it is ignored by many, lest I say by all. And my soul loves...

She will rejoice in the Lord. Moses says, 'Do to him the way he has done evil to his neighbor' (Exodus 22:25). Having these things happen, she will rejoice, knowing that she has suffered nothing.

Is she rejoicing over them? No, but marveling at the providence and rejoicing that she was not overtaken. For example, the soul of Susanna rejoiced, not because the elders were judged, but because she was released from the indictment. And it happened according to what was destined.

And indeed, when the saints are in tribulation, they pray, praying only this: 'Let us not be taken by the tribulation' (Matthew 6:13), not rather against those surrounding them with tribulation; for they receive it as a contest, not as a punishment. And he who receives it as a contest is not so against the opponents, as to wish them no longer to exist. 'Bring us not into temptation'; for he has not said, 'Strike those who tempt us.'

I once asked, how did the marriage of the saints come to be without pleasure—not that 'the marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled' (Hebrews 13:4)—and I was told that the saints only understand the marital duties when there is also the occasion of coition. After coition, they do not touch. Therefore, it was said that their intention was not pleasure, which they intended to preserve, but to serve procreation. And pleasure is also necessarily joined, but they do not come together for its sake.

And the same happens regarding food: one is being fed not for the sake of anything else than to satisfy the appetite, in order to be satiated. But if it happens that the things being eaten are pleasant, he does not choose them for that reason because they are pleasant. And especially regarding medical aids, this happens: often the aid is pleasant, but it was not brought for the sake of pleasure. Indeed, even if it is tasteless, it approaches, because it does so for the sake of health and what is beneficial. And if, then, those who inflict trials cause the righteous to suffer the same things, he rejoices that it has not seized him. Therefore, let the 'if' and 'what they have suffered' fall away. But I marvel whether it is perfect according to the holy.