We have set forth in the preceding chapters four temptations which are wont to trouble the dying grievously; and against these temptations two kinds of remedy may be applied. One is for those who are in possession of their reason and can hear and understand what is said to them; the other is general, for all, and is at once the most useful and the most safe.
As regards the first: if the temptation attacks the Catholic faith, it is in no wise expedient, as we said above, to dispute with the Devil; but the sick who are tempted must be admonished in a general way that, if the temptation concerns the nature of God — who must be believed to be one in essence and three in person — they should reflect how many things we do not know about created things, not only spiritual but also corporeal. For a great part of mankind cannot easily believe that each of the stars of the firmament is greater than the whole orb of the earth; and yet mathematicians easily demonstrate that this very thing is most true. But if this fact, which concerns a corporeal thing, is not understood by the many, who nevertheless put faith in learned men, why should they not believe concerning the nature of God what God Himself has revealed through the Apostles and the Prophets, and confirmed by very many and very great signs and miracles?
But if the temptation concerns those things which we believe God has done, and daily does — as is, above all, the changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, while the accidents of bread and wine remain — then we must adduce examples of the innumerable things which we believe God has done, though we can render no account of them. Who can comprehend that the whole world could be made out of nothing by the mere nod of God? And yet many believe this, who cannot be brought to believe the mystery of the Eucharist. Who likewise would believe that the bodies of all the dead — reduced to ashes or to dust, or devoured by beasts, or turned into grass — will rise again in a moment at the command of the Lord? And yet all Catholics believe this without difficulty, and confess it in the Creed; and Job himself believed this very thing some thousands of years ago, for he says: I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and I shall be clothed again with my skin (Job 19). From these, therefore, and other wondrous works of God of the same kind, which surpass our comprehension, the other things which the Catholic Church proposes to us to be believed can easily be believed — since the Church is, as the Apostle testifies, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 3). These and similar things may be set before those who are tempted concerning the faith.
But for those who suffer temptations concerning hope, we must set before them the plainly infinite greatness of the mercy of God, which far surpasses the number and the mass of all sins. For so speaks the Holy Spirit through David in the Psalm: The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works. Likewise we must set before them the propitiation of the Mediator, of whom St. John says: He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world (1 John 2). We must set before them also the power of penance, which, if it proceeds from a truly contrite heart, will never meet with refusal from God; for most truly did the Prophet write: A contrite and humbled heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise (Ps. 51). We must set before them likewise the example of the prodigal son, who had scarcely uttered those words, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee (Luke 15), when straightway the father's heart was moved, and he ran to embrace his son, and ordered him to be clothed with a precious robe, and a ring to be put upon his finger, and a solemn feast to be prepared; because his son had been lost, and was found.
Finally, we must set before them the example of St. Paul, who, while he was still persecuting the Church, was overtaken by the grace of God and changed from a persecutor into a preacher; which he himself writes was done so that all sinners might be converted by his example, and that no one, however wicked, should despair of the mercy of God. A faithful saying, he says, and worthy of all acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first; but for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all patience, for the instruction of those who shall believe in Him unto life eternal. (1 Tim. 1:15–16.)
But those who are tempted by the devil with that most grievous temptation against the charity of God, and are incited to hatred of God and love of the Devil, must be taught in the first place that the Devil is a liar, as the Lord says: "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, because he is a liar and the father thereof." (John 8:44.) Here the words "and the father thereof" signify that the Devil is the father of the lie, as St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom teach. (Tract. 44 on John; Hom. 42 on John.) For the Devil was the first of all to begin lying, when he said to Eve, and through her to Adam: "You shall not die the death." For God had told Adam not to eat of the forbidden tree if he wished never to die; the Devil, on the contrary, said that they should eat, because they would not die. Therefore no trust is to be placed in the Devil, since he is a liar and the father of the lie. Furthermore, the Devil has already been sentenced to eternal fire together with all who shall follow him; for so will the Lord say on the day of judgment: "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the Devil and his angels." (Matt. 25:41.) They err, therefore, all who subject themselves to the Devil, hoping that after death they will reign with the Devil in hell and possess the greatest riches and pleasures. Finally, experience proves that all the Devil's promises are deceitful: for among all who have been able to come to our knowledge, no one has yet been found who received the vast treasures promised him by the Devil, nor any who, condemned by lawful authority to prison, or to the galleys, or even to death itself, could be snatched away by the Devil. If these three things were seriously pondered by covetous men, perhaps few or none would dare to forsake the true God — truly almighty, most wise, and most good — for the most lying, most beggarly, and most wretched Devil.
Of the fourth temptation there is nothing we need say, since it has already been shown abundantly enough that this temptation is not so much harmful as salutary for the dying. If anyone, however, wishes a remedy from Scripture in order to bear it more easily, let him read — or have read to him, while that horrible vision lasts — the twenty-sixth Psalm, which begins: "The Lord is my light and my salvation."