It is a fatal error into which scrupulous souls are not infrequently led, to think that the long continuance of the suggestion, or even of the delight with which our lower nature responds, constitutes consent. The devils have a mysterious power, allowed them by God, of holding a temptation before the soul continuously or repeatedly, and we are often as powerless to put it away as we are to refuse to see an object which is actually reflected on the retina of the eye.
How many times have loving hearts that would choose death a thousand times rather than dishonour our Lord become sick with terror when in the midst of such prolonged temptation there comes a dread whisper within, "You have consented, though you knew it not." It is the voice of the tempter, and the ruse is a favourite one in his warfare against the soul, for he knows that for us to think we have sinned is almost as fatal in its effects on the morale of the soul as to have actually yielded consent.
So when the lying whisper comes, let us cry out against him, charge him with his lie; and then turning swiftly to our Lord, renew our allegiance to Him with such strong, passionate acts of love, that the evil spirit, filled with despair, will take his flight, departing from us "for a season."
[[1]] S. Greg. Mag., Regulae Pastoralis, III, xxx. See also the opening paragraph of Dr. Pusey's sermon on "Victory over Besetting Sin," Parochial Sermons, Vol. II.
[[2]] Imitation, I, xiii.
[[3]] 1 Cor. x, 13.
[[4]] "Our trial, by God's appointment and mercy, lies mostly in some few things. We bring trials upon ourselves which God did not intend for us. We increase manifoldly our own trials by every consent to sin."—Pusey, Parochial Sermons, Vol. II, p. 121.
[[5]] "Past sin involves present trial, not present sin. When a man has once turned to God his past sin will not be imputed to him either in itself, or in its effects. One who has given way would by God's just appointment, visiting for sin, have trials. He need not, if he wills not by God's grace, have sin." Ibid., p. 335.
[[6]] Ibid., p. 334.
[[7]] Ibid., p. 338.