No One Can Force Evil on Another

Keeping these distinctions clear and fixed, then, and knowing that there is nothing good except virtue alone, and nothing bad except sin alone and separation from God, let us now consider carefully whether God ever allows evil to be forced on his saints, either by himself or by someone else. You will certainly find that this never happens. For no one else can ever force the evil of sin on anyone who does not consent and who resists, but only on one who lets it into himself through sloth and the corrupt desire of his heart. In fact, the devil, having used up all his wicked devices, tried to force this evil of sin on the blessed Job. He not only stripped him of all his worldly goods, but after that terrible and utterly unexpected calamity of bereavement through the death of his seven children, he heaped on him dreadful wounds and unbearable tortures from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. Yet he tried in vain to fasten on him the stain of sin, because Job remained steadfast through it all and never brought himself to consent to blasphemy. [a]