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Shorter Rules

St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925

Rule 75: Whether It is Fitting to Say that Satan is the Author of Every Sin, in Thought,…

In general I think that Satan cannot by himself be the cause of sin in any man; but using, now physical emotions, now forbidden lusts, he tries by their means to lead away those who are not watchful to conduct that befits lusts. He uses physical desires as he tried to do in the case of our Lord when he perceived Him an hungred and said: If thou art the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”¹ He uses forbidden lusts, as he did in the case of Judas: he perceived him to be suffering from avarice and using this lust he drove the avaricious man to the crime of treachery by the thirty pieces of silver. But the Lord shows clearly that evil things spring from ourselves as well: “For out of the heart”’ He says come forth evil thoughts.”² And this happens to those who through carelessness leave uncultivated the natural seeds of good, as is said in the Proverbs: *“The foolish man is like a field, and the man devoid of understanding like a vineyard. If thou leavest him alone he will become deserted and all run to grass and become derelict.”³ But in the soul deserted and derelict as a result of such neglect comes of necessity the springing up of thorns and thistles and it experiences what is written: ‘I expected that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.”⁴ Of which soul had been said above: ‘“And I planted a Sorech vine,”⁵ which means elect. A similar result you may find in Jeremiah, when speaking on behalf of God he says: “I planted a fruit-bearing vine, all true. How didst thou turn into bitterness, a stranger vine?⁶

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