Choose a topic from Part 2A:
1. The devil cannot be the direct cause of human sin, for hecannot directly move man's will. God is the only external causethat candirectly move the will, and God never moves the willto sin. The will moves itself to its object. The devil may induceman to sin by persuasion, by presenting attractive objects to humanappetites. Only thus can the devil cause man to sin.
2. The devil exercises his powers of persuasion bystirring a man's imagination and by cooperating with whatevermoves the sensitive appetites. Thus does the devilinwardly instigate a man to sin.
3. In a man who is possessed, the devil may compel acts ofsin, but these are not human acts of the man himself, for he is notfree. For the rest, the devil can in no wise compel a man tosin.
4. In one sense the devil is the cause of every human sin,for he induced the first man to commit the sin that has infectedhuman nature with the tendency to sin. But apart from this, thedevil is not the cause of all human sins. Origen (PeriArchon. iii) says that even if the devil were to cease toexist, man would still be subject to inordinate desires and to theabuse of free will by sin.
"Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.
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Thomas á Kempis
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"God gives us some things, as the beginning of faith, even when we do not pray. Other things, such as perseverance, he has only provided for those who pray."
St Augustine
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"The greatest glory we can give to God is to do his will in everything."
St Alphonsus de Liguori
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